New Store Pages?

[valueaddedresource]

Has anyone else played around with the updated Stores pages and Newsletters? It looks like they may be starting to roll out some of the new stores experience on the seller side, though so far most of it seems to be cosmetic updates like we've seen eBay doing across other areas of the site.

I understand eBay is trying to make things more "uniform" across devices but it's really frustrating when using a desktop and you still have to scroll like crazy because everything is in one small box in the middle. 

Here's what it looks like trying to create and preview a newsletter on a 1920 x 1080 monitor:

I do like that you can preview what the store will look like both in desktop and mobile views

You can also choose Featured Items to display at the top above other results - but it looks like eBay is adding in messaging that shows buyers when an item is "trending" at a lower price, which could lead buyers to leave your store or try to negotiate a lower price even if you don't have Best Offer on the listing.

I haven't dug into it too deeply yet, but at first glance it looked to me like that "trending price" might not include shipping, so it's possible this could particularly be a problem for sellers who offer "free shipping" if the trending price they are being compared to is other sellers' item price only, not including shipping (either separately or baked in).

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Yes

 I posted about the store changes last night, but, as usual, my post is already on the second page here LOL. I agree (or hope) that this is only the beginning of the changes, because so far, this isn't really a whole lot. But it's WAY overdue, ebay should have done this stuff literally YEARS ago....but, better late than never. 

As to the "trending price" thing, that's been around for a while, no clear reason why it shows up on one item and not another, but I don't think it's actually tied to the use of "featured" in stores. My stuff is mostly vintage and used stuff, and ebay rarely applies it to that kind of stuff. I've seen examples where the item's price was lower than the trending price, so I suppose it can work both ways. I know it's the sort of thing that outrages some people, but I can live with it. I've never viewed my store as MY store, immune to ebay's add-ons (any more than I view my listing as MY listing.

I think on any marketplace site there's always a certain tension between an individual seller's desire to make the sale, and the site's desire to make a sale, whether it's my item or someone else's item. So, yes, I might lose a sale because the trending price is lower than my price, and the buyer buys from another seller. Oooh, ebay is terrible, right? But, what if I'm the other seller? Ooooh, nice sale, right? So, as I say, I can live with it. 

I didn't really notice a problem with the size on my PC screen, will have to go back and look at that again when I get a chance.

The newsletter change is good, but I again have to hope that it is only a start. And now that they've changed the store category tool, I will finally try revamping my categories for the 4th Quarter.

It would be nice if they would get an Announcement out about these changes, and I imagine they will, eventually. 

As I asked in my previous post, what changes would others like to see?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Also, if you already have a store billboard and logo, ebay does not provide the size info up front until you try to replace it with another (incorrectly sized) image.

So.....here's the info:

Billboard: 1200 x 270 pixels, must be smaller than 12 MB

Logo: 300 x 300 pixels, must be smaller than 12 MB

The store "about" section can now have 1000 characters, I think that's a significant addition, but I'm not sure. I don't know if this is still true, but I know years ago the advice was to include a list of the main types of things you sell, because presumably search engines do look at this.

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Yes

 I posted about the store changes last night, but, as usual, my post is already on the second page here LOL. I agree (or hope) that this is only the beginning of the changes, because so far, this isn't really a whole lot. But it's WAY overdue, ebay should have done this stuff literally YEARS ago....but, better late than never. 

As to the "trending price" thing, that's been around for a while, no clear reason why it shows up on one item and not another, but I don't think it's actually tied to the use of "featured" in stores. My stuff is mostly vintage and used stuff, and ebay rarely applies it to that kind of stuff. I've seen examples where the item's price was lower than the trending price, so I suppose it can work both ways. I know it's the sort of thing that outrages some people, but I can live with it. I've never viewed my store as MY store, immune to ebay's add-ons (any more than I view my listing as MY listing.

I think on any marketplace site there's always a certain tension between an individual seller's desire to make the sale, and the site's desire to make a sale, whether it's my item or someone else's item. So, yes, I might lose a sale because the trending price is lower than my price, and the buyer buys from another seller. Oooh, ebay is terrible, right? But, what if I'm the other seller? Ooooh, nice sale, right? So, as I say, I can live with it. 

I didn't really notice a problem with the size on my PC screen, will have to go back and look at that again when I get a chance.

The newsletter change is good, but I again have to hope that it is only a start. And now that they've changed the store category tool, I will finally try revamping my categories for the 4th Quarter.

It would be nice if they would get an Announcement out about these changes, and I imagine they will, eventually. 

As I asked in my previous post, what changes would others like to see?

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques  sorry I didn't see your previous post. ☹️

The trending price thing may not be a big issue for some sellers for the reasons you mentioned. I mostly pointed it out as just something to be aware of when picking items for those featured slots - those who would prefer not to have that front and center may want to monitor it and change out the featured items accordingly for other items.

My biggest concern with the trending prices is that it's not entirely clear where that information is derived from or whether it accurately reflects a comparison of total price including shipping or not.  Regardless of how sellers feel about it, if eBay is showing "trending prices" without shipping for example, that could lead to a frustrating buyer experience as well.

The page sizing issue was really only the newsletter pages for me.   The actual store editing pages were fine on desktop, but when it came to designing/previewing newsletters it was hard to get a good "feel" for how the newsletter would look because the preview box was very short and required a lot of scrolling - you couldn't even see one full item displayed.

I think it would be better if that was part of the main page that just scrolled as you scroll the main page, instead of it being a separate self contained "box", if that makes sense, but that's just my own personal preference. 😊

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Well, the other thing about trending price is, it isn't clear what triggers it...so a seller who chooses an item for "featured" my not see "trending price" until a week later, when it is added to that listing....while I agree, some sellers might be concerned about this, I'd hate to spend time worrying about it. Agree, we don't know what it actually represents , free shipping? or not? ....but unless ebay decides to add that info, not much we can do about it.

[katzrul15]

Ah, another change!  Wondered when store views were wonky yesterday! 

Thanks for posting!  Will check it out.

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Well, the other thing about trending price is, it isn't clear what triggers it...so a seller who chooses an item for "featured" my not see "trending price" until a week later, when it is added to that listing....while I agree, some sellers might be concerned about this, I'd hate to spend time worrying about it. Agree, we don't know what it actually represents , free shipping? or not? ....but unless ebay decides to add that info, not much we can do about it.

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques  for what it's worth, on the particular account I was using to test out the new features, it does not show "trending price" for any items in the regular store view.

Even the ones that showed it when set as "featured item" did not show it for those same items in the regular list view - confirmed in both mobile and desktop while not signed in to that account and using private browser.

That was why I thought it was something specific to just the featured item function, but that could just be a random coincidence.

[vgfgbvf_0]

I suppose on any market website there is usually a certain tension among an individual vendor's preference to make the sale, and the web page's desire to make a sale, whether or not it is my object or someone else's object.

[vgfgbvf_0]

I think on any marketplace internet site there is often a certain anxiety among an person vendor's desire to make the sale, and the internet page's choice to make a sale, whether or no longer it's far my item or someone else's object.