SPRING SELLER UPDATE has arrived

[b86fiero]

I just read the important news over on 

ecommercebytes

Many changes - new store tiers - stricter return policies - lots more.

Your thoughts??

[domestic_platypus]

My takeaway... a few vague assurances to sellers of better support and lower fees, some confusingly already offset by data showing some store costs will not change or may actually increase as well as vague mentions of after-sale buyer requests and metrics. 

Aside from that, the headline is essentially "eBay Ignores Years of Seller Feedback... Continues Trying To Turn Itself Into Outdated Version of Amazon"

[lgustaf]

I'm a shoe and apparel seller. Does this mean that I will have to pay for return shipping on an item that simply doesn't fit? If so, I will just let my TRS Status expire. Any discount I get in commissions will be more than eaten up by coming out of pocket in shipping on returns.   

[njrtsr]

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To me Markdown manager or vacation settings is worth a LOT more then $5 a month.... but some people do not want to pay for a store..... I was kind of hoping for a new level between Premium and Anchor.... jumping from 1000 listings to 10,000 is tough....

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You don't need the full 10000 for an Anchor store to work; I only have 6000 to 7000 items and it's cheaper for me to have the anchor. And believe it or not, I actually get decent CS with the anchor store hotline.

[tweetystwades]

I don't even know what to do first, shaking, confused and alone 

Do we have to change all of our existing listings to comply with the catalog?  

Some things are still not clear. 

[dirk12955]

Add my voice to the chorus crying out for a store level between Premium and Anchor.

1,000 per month not enough and 10,000 is way too many.

[almlg]

Nope, not going to offer free returns. I sell NWT clothing and I have close to a 10% rate of return - all for fit, didn't like, color didn't work, etc. I am not eating up anymore stuff. If you want free returns - foot the darn bill for it.

[oceanviewengineer2015]

Certainly on shoes. That'll add up PDQ.

[missjen831]

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@lgustafwrote:

I'm a shoe and apparel seller. Does this mean that I will have to pay for return shipping on an item that simply doesn't fit? If so, I will just let my TRS Status expire. Any discount I get in commissions will be more than eaten up by coming out of pocket in shipping on returns.   

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No. 30 day free returns is only a requirement for TRS-plus. 

[sandmansales]

We'll protect you

You can expect eBay to protect your reputation and standards and to monitor buyer behavior after the sale.

[tweetystwades]

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@almlgwrote:
Nope, not going to offer free returns. I sell NWT clothing and I have close to a 10% rate of return - all for fit, didn't like, color didn't work, etc. I am not eating up anymore stuff. If you want free returns - foot the darn bill for it.

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I sell clothing as well, and mine is 5%.  It appears you have a lot more sales than I do. 

Free returns would ruin me, but the way things are going now buyers are lying to get the free return anyway.  Saying not as described, or it had a bad smell. Yeah, that smell is called "new"!  I'm at their mercy and refund, to avoid bad FB or defect. Buyers have all caught on to this.  

[percgrabbe-0]

EBAY is going to do whatever they feel like is an improvement for their bottom line not ours. 

Sales are slow here at best anyway these days if not non-existent. 

Its not going to matter anymore in the scheme of ecommerce for myself or others if sales slack. You cant get any less than zero.  

[dallas_sjc]

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@partial*eclipse wrote:

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@d-k_treasureswrote: ... Some categories have 14 day free returns to qualify for TRS+, but on the same page, 14 day free returns isn't listed as being an option. How ebay is that?

eBay isn't known for their copywriting and proofreading skills, but they'll get it straightened out eventually. Perhaps you should bring that up in the new discussion board.  There's also this price in British sterling in the section on the new labels system.

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Hi partial*eclipse,

Thanks for spotting that.  The new label printing page was first rolled out on the UK site.  We took that screenshot from the new page live on site.  It's definitely not perfect, but we wanted to provide a view into what the the page looks like.

No need to worry - the new label printing page on the US site has the correct currency.

Thanks,

Dallas

[Edit]  Actually, looking more closely at this, I'm not entirely sure what went wrong here.  There is both USD and GBP in the screenshot.  We'll review this to make sure there isn't an issue in the experience on site.

[shoptalkid]

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@yuzuhawrote:

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@partial*eclipsewrote:

The new "Starter Store" costs $7.95 per month for a month-to-month subscription and $4.95 per month for an annual subscription, for which you get 100 free fixed price listings.  Currently, non-stores get 50 free insertions per month and extras will be cents, so those 50 additional insertions would cost $17.50. So on listing fees alone, you'd save if you list more than about 70  items per month. Plus probably you'd get access to seller benefits like vacation settings and Markdown Manager.

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I think the Starter Store is great-- it's a good compromise between the 50 free listings and a Basic Store, which is way too many listings for a lot of people who may just be trying to unload things from around the house.  It's long overdue, in my opinion.

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I'd much rather have the starter store too since I usually have less than 50 listings per month.  As long as I can still run promos with the starter store,  $7.95 a month works for me. 

No more restocking fess though means I'll probably switch to no returns.    Out of 3000+ transactions in the past 12 months,  4 remorse return requests were opened and only 1 of those actually bothered to send it back.    

[*eponymous*]

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@almlgwrote:
Nope, not going to offer free returns. I sell NWT clothing and I have close to a 10% rate of return - all for fit, didn't like, color didn't work, etc. I am not eating up anymore stuff. If you want free returns - foot the darn bill for it.

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10% is one-third of the retail return % for clothing & aceessories.

There's no reason for your return rate to go up for SNADs due to "free returns".  Buyers already know to claim SNAD to get the seller to pay return shipping - and also to refund original shipping.

How do you get fvf credits when you don't refund original shipping on remorse refunds?

[timzbiz]

No more 14 days returns. 30 day returns will be the minimum. More silly ebay policy changes. Let us run our own business!