eBay

tink012 · ‎07-24-2018

Someone pointed me to one of the eBay executive's seller store (actually this seller only has a free account, not a store). To my surprise, the seller does not accept returns. If eBay thinks customer experience is benefited by the ability to return items, wouldn't you expect the employees (especially executives) to fall in line with the rest of us?

I have tried to do everything eBay has encouraged, increased my return window, cut my handling time to one day, etc etc. I feel I have to constantly monitor my listings & the rules, & be nimble to jump through hoops and make change after change to my business practices.

eBay considers my sales on my other account not good enough (two for one?!!! Normal price per research, not inflated!!?) for a banner placed where it might be seen. eBay threatens to increase my fees if too many buyers return things (hm, that exec may have the right idea here); eBay messes up GTC listings (and you can't run sales for the first two weeks if you use 30 day instead of GTC); massive numbers of glitches with the many changes are apologized for but no gesture of goodwill such as a rebate/fee reduction etc is given; and no acknowledgement that vintage & many used/unique item listings are just NOT GOING TO WORK with a product catalog. And recently eBay asked for help on this product catalog for no pay - and the news says a bunch of eBay employees were let go.

I read that eBay execs call us "noise"??? Is this true?

It is very hard to maintain a positive attitude. I used to really like working on eBay but now feel so worried and confused. I really, really liked shopping on eBay but now find other sites better.

Really hard to maintain a positive attitude.

hioctane62 · ‎07-24-2018

He is going ALL OUT on advertising and says he is working to reduce fees for sellers to stay competitive.

I'll believe that when I see it. Everything we've seen so far this year indicates higher fees. Sounds like fluff for Wall St. to me. Ebay's idea of a fee reduction would probably be something along the lines of a 2% reduction in FVF, at the same time they are causing sellers to go into the additional 4% fees for too many SNAD's (which can be as little as ONE SNAD for many sellers.) And I can't even imagine how many SNAD's have been caused directly by ebay's catalog errors.

Typical ebay spin, raise fees in many areas, then lower them just a little in one area, and tell the press "Look what we did for sellers!"

zamo-zuan · ‎07-24-2018

@vintagecraze50 wrote:
I know, it's not good that this is happenening but I like to view this from a long term perspective. We choose to be here because even with all the changes we have still seen some growth. With competition the way it is now all these internet platforms are going to have to figure out ways to help sellers become more profitable. It will eventually become where can I sell my stuff at better rates/best exposure. The future looks like these sites may need to assist in some way to continue to help sellers. There will probably be more incentives.

With all the changes, we are having by far the worse year we have had in in 4-5 years. Definitely not growth.

We were 40-50% below our average that we held for that many years, for the majority of this year. Things are slowly getting better now, but we're still 20% below average for this time of year. We have had to let half of staff go as we're not making enough money. We have fewer full time employees than we have had since 2012.

And we're still not in the new catalog, which is scary, as they claim they will be switching over completely eventually. What happens if they don't figure out the issue of getting us added by then>?

hioctane62 · ‎07-24-2018

If I'm reading the correct Bloomberg article, it's quoting remarks he made to the crowd today at ebay open, although I didn't see anything in this article about lower fees, so not sure it's even the right one.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-24/ebay-ceo-rallies-merchants-with-big-goals-holiday...

sharingtheland · ‎07-24-2018

Revamping this site has been a HUGE task for Mr Wenig. It was a tough job when he first stepped in and it is getting tougher and tougher as things progress on the internet.

I'll agree that trying to stay competitive and grow in retail ecommerce is a huge job, but some have managed to do it.

Wenig has been here since 2011, when he started as President of Marketplaces. He became CEO in 2015. What great enhancements have been made to this selling platform since 2011 ?

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

vintagecraze50 · ‎07-25-2018

Between our buying and selling accounts here we bring Ebay over 200,000 a year in sales and purchases. I do not know if they consider that loose change, and I am sure many small sellers here bring them at least that much per year. If many of these people get really disappointed /frustruated then 200,000 x 20,000 is going to be a lot of loss. It wold make sense that they do whatever they can to help them in the future. Or, they are going to have to get more LARGE RETAIL ACCOUNTS .

tunicaslot · ‎07-25-2018

@thatsallfolks wrote:
@tink012 wrote:
Someone pointed me to one of the eBay executive's seller store (actually this seller only has a free account, not a store). To my surprise, the seller does not accept returns. If eBay thinks customer experience is benefited by the ability to return items, wouldn't you expect the employees (especially executives) to fall in line with the rest of us?
No, I think it's a good example of CHOICE for sellers who still don't get the fact that you don't have to offer returns or free returns. Why should they force their employees to do that when they're NOT forcing othe sellers?

I also thought that it was kind of hypocritical that our past community leaders would try to tell us the advantages of this and that program and yet - neither of them used the programs. Now if what they are selling is what it's all cracked up to be - than why wouldn't they have implemented it. Both pretty much sold what I did. When questions were raised about possible scenerios - it was we have you covered - but they talked the talk but didn't walk the walk.

Ebay shouldn't force anything on their employees who also sell here - but maybe they should make sure to have employees promote the program - who employ and use the feature so that they have first hand knowledge of the benefits and downfalls.

goodluckselling · ‎07-25-2018

@abfabvintage wrote:
@luckythewinner
Hey, Friend. Yet I think, but I am stupid, really, but I read it that whatever return policy you choose, it affects where you sit in search and visibility. But remember luckylose, I am not that smart and kowtow to your advice, really. I am here to learn.

Sellers with free shipping and free returns and all the other recommended suggestions will see more search opportunities, but I do not it is in the way you are suggesting?

Because of these attributes like free shipping or free returns eBay has special marketing for sellers who have these policies.

We see it in the email marketing eBay does
we see it in left side bar tabs inside a search result.
we see it in cross promotion boxes inside our listing pages
We see it in special promotions tabs at the top of the eBay pages
eBay home page, etc

Lots of ways for eBay to reward sellers who are willing to set up these kinds of policies, and yes I am sure best match formula also gives some weight to this as well. If buyers like listings that have these policies then they are willing to buy from that listing which shows as a good buyer engagement listing. So yes eBay would be smart to make sure those listings are shown frequently.

Good Luck Selling!

goodluckselling · ‎07-25-2018

@vintagecraze50 wrote:
I know, it's not good that this is happenening but I like to view this from a long term perspective. We choose to be here because even with all the changes we have still seen some growth. With competition the way it is now all these internet platforms are going to have to figure out ways to help sellers become more profitable. It will eventually become where can I sell my stuff at better rates/best exposure. The future looks like these sites may need to assist in some way to continue to help sellers. There will probably be more incentives.

I agree and a very behind the scenes theory that eBay employs is that by continuing to develop and implement new ecommerce tools it makes all the other marketplaces have to use there spendable cash trying to keep up with new features in order to keep its buyer and seller base committed to there venues.

At some point the costs to develop all these ideas is overwhelming for the smaller marketplaces that they just can not afford to do many things which keeps bringing buyers and sellers back to eBay because of new features and tools available to them here.

Good Luck Selling!

luckythewinner · ‎07-25-2018

@vintagecraze50 wrote:
Maybe the executive does not need to make as much money on here as the rest of us and we may choose free returns to attract more business. To each his own, and to their own reason, strategy for selling.

Exactly. And IMHO, "each" includes eBay executives.

luckythewinner · ‎07-25-2018

@abfabvintage wrote:
@luckythewinner
Hey, Friend. Yet I think, but I am stupid, really, but I read it that whatever return policy you choose, it affects where you sit in search and visibility. But remember luckylose, I am not that smart and kowtow to your advice, really. I am here to learn.

I never said it did not affect visibility. But if the executive in question chooses to prioritize no returns over placement, that is his option.

For instance, when selling Bob Seger's "Noah" as a vinyl LP, a seller probably would not care one bit about placement because there are never more than a couple copies listed here and demand is quite strong.

sharingtheland · ‎07-25-2018

I agree and a very behind the scenes theory that eBay employs is that by continuing to develop and implement new ecommerce tools it makes all the other marketplaces have to use there spendable cash trying to keep up with new features in order to keep its buyer and seller base committed to there venues.

At some point the costs to develop all these ideas is overwhelming for the smaller marketplaces that they just can not afford to do many things which keeps bringing buyers and sellers back to eBay because of new features and tools available to them here.

Many kudos, goodluck, on one of your best spin attempts ever.

Ebay is spending mountains of money trying to keep up with other ecommerce sites. Please give us some examples of new features developed by ebay tools (pun intended); all I see are deer-in-the-headlights attempts made here to keep up with other successful venues.

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

zamo-zuan · ‎07-25-2018

@goodluckselling wrote:
@abfabvintage wrote:
@luckythewinner
Hey, Friend. Yet I think, but I am stupid, really, but I read it that whatever return policy you choose, it affects where you sit in search and visibility. But remember luckylose, I am not that smart and kowtow to your advice, really. I am here to learn.
Sellers with free shipping and free returns and all the other recommended suggestions will see more search opportunities, but I do not it is in the way you are suggesting?

Because of these attributes like free shipping or free returns eBay has special marketing for sellers who have these policies.
We see it in the email marketing eBay does
we see it in left side bar tabs inside a search result.
we see it in cross promotion boxes inside our listing pages
We see it in special promotions tabs at the top of the eBay pages
eBay home page, etc
Lots of ways for eBay to reward sellers who are willing to set up these kinds of policies, and yes I am sure best match formula also gives some weight to this as well. If buyers like listings that have these policies then they are willing to buy from that listing which shows as a good buyer engagement listing. So yes eBay would be smart to make sure those listings are shown frequently.

Good Luck Selling!

Sadly, these methods don't exactly help a lot of categories.

For example, us in auto parts... it's traditionally a field where people don't buy until they need an item. Sellers don't browse eBay and say "OMG Engine mounts are on sale this week, better pick them up ASAP so I'm ready!".

Most of our customers just use the search. So we're stuck with best match. Which makes any issues with best match, hit us very hard.

Free shipping & returns are a whole different ball game, with their own problems. A nice addition, but in this industry, it's problematic as well. It can be difficult to ensure you are getting the exact parts you need for your vehicle, and when buyers see "free returns" this allows them to be more careless when placing an order. EBay buyers who get auto parts on here, they are well aware there's no verification methods that sellers can use.

It would be great if eBay simply required buyers to submit their VIN# when requesting customer service. Or even when ordering - it's a very solid way to make sure we can give you the perfect items for your vehicle. And it would give a 100% indicator of who was at fault when issues arise. But I'm sure that won't happen.

Categories really deserve, or need, separate rules. It's one of the key aspects of eCommerce. Web designers with a focus on eCommerce know that each product line must have a site designed around their individual needs. But when auto parts, are being treated like collectibles, that are being treated like clothing? It's accidents waiting to happen.