eBay

valueaddedresource · ‎11-03-2020

I wanted to start a topic here as a reminder and way to keep tabs on this issue that was brought up by @my-cottage-books-and-antiques in the weekly chat on October 21st. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Community-Chat-October-21-1-00-pm-PT-Gener...

The eBay for Business Podcast transcript from October 20th seems to indicate the TRS Quarterly Promoted Listings Credit is going away at the end of 2020. eBay Head of North America Advertising Scott Kelliher said:

Many of us were alarmed when we saw this section of the Fall Seller Update that seemed to also indicate that Promoted Listings Credits were going away.

When we asked for clarification, we were told that was a "mistake" and should be disregarded.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Listing-Promoting-Items/Promoted-Listings-Credit-Removal-2020-Fall-Sel...

It has been two weeks now since this was brought up in the chat and we still don't have a clear, direct, definitive answer as to whether or not the TRS Promoted Listings Quarterly Credits are being discontinued after Q4. It also leaves open the question as to whether he was speaking only of the TRS credit, or if the additional quarterly credits for Anchor & Enterprise level store subscribers are also "going to end."

tyler@ebay brian@ebay brittanie@ebay @podcast_team - What exactly did Mr. Kelliher mean and why are sellers being left in the dark here?

If it is eBay's intention to discontinue this benefit, that needs to be communicated to sellers clearly, directly and in a timely manner through official communications channels.

Changes like this are far too important to be the kind of thing you would only find out if you listened to the podcast or happened to be in the weekly chat when it was brought up.

We need answers now, as it may affect sellers' Promoted Listings strategies and decision making for Q4 and beyond.

If the additional credits for Anchor & Enterprise store subscribers are also ending, that needs to be made clear ASAP as well. That credit may be a factor sellers take into consideration when assessing the "value" of those store subscriptions and whether or not the benefits are worth the cost. If that credit is taken away, that would be a material change in the terms of those store subscriptions.

mcdougle4248 · ‎12-16-2020

@valueaddedresource wrote:
@mcdougle4248 you could be the hero we all need. 🤣

I'd volunteer as tribute, but the big boss is flying in for the company holiday luncheon tomorrow, so I probably won't have time to wait on hold for hours.

Enjoy your luncheon tomorrow with the big boss!

coffeebean832 · ‎01-06-2021

@valueaddedresource wrote:
@mcdougle4248 or some brave soul is going to have to sacrifice themselves for the good of us all and run the gauntlet that is required to speak to a "payments trained teammate". 🙄

MP support used to be excellent. Then they invited the masses to MP so they had to expand the support team. Now MP support is less than desirable- and that's being kind.

So far the only ad fee credits I'm seeing on the Expenses section of Payments is for returns and cancellations- so this change hasn't rolled out yet to my account.

And while we're on the topic of the Expenses section- does is really annoy anybody else that there is no way to filter out the $0.00 insertion fees? Drives me absolutely crazy that I can't quickly see my actual fees. On the old page the free insertions were filtered out in a separate Promotion section. Argh!!! I'm shaking my fist at you, eBay!!

I've submitted FB on that multiple times through the comments link. I encourage all of you to do the same. Maybe if enough of us complain they'll change it.

I realized how funny that is after I typed it.

valueaddedresource · ‎01-06-2021

@coffeebean832 Yes!! Right there with you. Honestly, the Expenses section under Payments may be on the top of my list for *least* helpful eBay page ever created. 🤣

In addition to the confusion caused by having it show both expenses that are taken out at time of sale and those that are still invoiced monthly, the page design itself renders it of practically no use to me.

You can't sort it, the filter options at the top are limited in their usefulness (you can filter by "charge" but not type of charge so you can't see ad fees separated out from final value fees or filter OUT all of those $0.00 insertions), and the worst sin of all in my opinion is it isn't even downloadable so that you could drop it into Excel to sort/filter to your hearts content and get what you really need out of it.

coffeebean832 · ‎01-06-2021

It's too bad they implemented the changes after the payments CS team changed so drastically. This is exactly the kind of thing us early adopters of MP were able to get changed for the better before the program rolled out to the masses.

Submit FB through the comments on that page- do it every week. We need to keep bringing it to their attention.

mcdougle4248 · ‎01-06-2021

@coffeebean832 wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
@mcdougle4248 or some brave soul is going to have to sacrifice themselves for the good of us all and run the gauntlet that is required to speak to a "payments trained teammate". 🙄
MP support used to be excellent. Then they invited the masses to MP so they had to expand the support team. Now MP support is less than desirable- and that's being kind.

So far the only ad fee credits I'm seeing on the Expenses section of Payments is for returns and cancellations- so this change hasn't rolled out yet to my account.

And while we're on the topic of the Expenses section- does is really annoy anybody else that there is no way to filter out the $0.00 insertion fees? Drives me absolutely crazy that I can't quickly see my actual fees. On the old page the free insertions were filtered out in a separate Promotion section. Argh!!! I'm shaking my fist at you, eBay!!

I've submitted FB on that multiple times through the comments link. I encourage all of you to do the same. Maybe if enough of us complain they'll change it.

I realized how funny that is after I typed it.

I do not use the expenses section at all. For my needs it is useless. Although, I must admit I have been checking it whenever I see an item has been sold with PL just to see if the PL fee has been deducted from my funds.

According to MP customer service the PL fee will be deducted from MP funds, just like FVF, beginning "soon". Supposedly, there will be two phases to the launch and we will receive notification prior to the launch on our account. I am skeptical regarding notification 🙄

valueaddedresource · ‎01-06-2021

@coffeebean832 wrote:
It's too bad they implemented the changes after the payments CS team changed so drastically. This is exactly the kind of thing us early adopters of MP were able to get changed for the better before the program rolled out to the masses.

Submit FB through the comments on that page- do it every week. We need to keep bringing it to their attention.

@coffeebean832 - I'll definitely continue to leave FB on that page.

I've also left FB telling them exactly what I think of the new Listing Improvements reports they are rolling out. 🤣 There's some obviously incorrect data in that one that honestly makes me question the entire report and renders it pretty much worthless to me. If they can't get some of the most obvious parts correct, I have zero faith in it and won't waste my time making their "suggested improvements".

coffeebean832 · ‎01-07-2021

The listing insights on "underperforming listings" are a joke. The only thing they suggest to change is price- even when you're the lowest price compared to the column "Trending online price**(includes shipping)" and even when you've sold 30 in the last 90 days which is 70% of the number sold on all of eBay in those 90 days.

I ignore that stuff because the algorithms aren't detailed enough to provide relevant data. They compare single quantities to lots, they compare different models, colors, etc- things that can have a major impact on price. They also don't take into account that it's an item where people often buy multiples and you offer an order discount on multiples which brings your slightly higher price below that of competitors that don't offer multi-item discounts.

Bottom line- that's one area where I refuse to waste time providing any feedback.

valueaddedresource · ‎01-07-2021

@coffeebean832 sadly the Listing Improvement reports Harry Temkin demoed in the December Seller Check In video are not much better than the "underperforming listings" insights you are talking about.

I'm going to do a separate post about it, but basically it says we have 0% MPN filled in when 100% of our listings have Manufacturer Part Number (it's a required IS), it also shows single digit percentages for Promoted Listings usage when 100% of our listings are currently in active PL campaigns, and a few other details that are just way off.

The report definitely shows more detailed data than previously available to us and I had high hopes for it, but as it stands right now I just don't trust any of the data to be accurate which means it is useless even if it is more detailed. 🙄

The only reason I'm bothering to waste time providing feedback on it is they are currently in the rollout phase and not everyone has access to it yet, so maybe giving them feedback early on can get some things fixed before everyone gets it? I know, that's probably being overly optimistic but I'll do my part.

valueaddedresource · ‎01-20-2021

For @coffeebean832 and anyone else following along on this one:

payments_team@ebay stated in another thread that members currently being registered in Managed Payments are being "opted in to this new experience" (PL ad fees being netted at time of sale & quarterly credit applied to MP balance).

Existing MP sellers will continue as we are now until it is "rolled out fully". No timeline has been announced but they still say there will be notice given.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/Quarter-earned-credits-for-ad-fees/m-p/31537005/highlight/tru...

I pointed out that having different policies for different groups of sellers without explicitly stating that somewhere on the FAQ or policy page is not the best idea, but I'm sure that will probably fall on deaf ears.

coffeebean832 · ‎01-20-2021

@valueaddedresource- I registered a second account with MP a couple of weeks ago- after the first sale it showed a negative balance because of the ad fee being immediately charged. It's too soon to confirm credits are being applied to the balance instead of the monthly invoice, but I expect they will be based on what you said above.

My primary account that's been with MP for close to 2 years hasn't yet changed in the way ad fees/credits are processed.

valueaddedresource · ‎01-20-2021

Thanks for confirming that @coffeebean832 !

valueaddedresource · ‎01-21-2021

I had a recent conversation with an eBay advertising executive on a slightly related topic where he told me that some of the attribution for Promoted listings isn't real time and may be revised post-sale.

It didn't occur to me until I saw this post but that could present some real issues with ad fees coming out of MP instead of the monthly invoice.

That seller says they had an odd delay in showing the ad fee on the MP transaction, which makes me wonder if that could possibly be this attribution issue and it was revised post-sale to reflect the ad fee later. If so....gosh that could make a real mess out of bookkeeping, which is already messy enough in MP.

The 30 day invoice billing cycle would give time for eBay to "catch up" on attribution and sellers may not have even noticed it, but sellers who are now "opted in to the new experience" may have a little visibility into whether the attribution is real time or revised post-sale.

I'm not entirely sure eBay intended to give us that kind of visibility, but it will be interesting to what happens. 🤣

sensualfriendz · ‎01-21-2021

Ditto squared!

sensualfriendz · ‎01-21-2021

seems to me if the ad fees are expenses, you would list the fees under advertising on Schedule C rather than an eBay fee.

coffeebean832 · ‎01-22-2021

@valueaddedresource- Personally, I preferred ad fees staying on the invoice. It's too messy integrating it into the sale because the current reporting stinks. Credits, in particular, will make factoring it directly into payouts much messier since they're on a delay- credited the month after the sale.