Comments on the new Listing Form

[a_c_green]

I've just walked through the new listing form to see how it compares to the current one, and added comments below in the order that I encountered some of the new methods introduced. What caught my eye were not technical glitches, but some strange and non-intuitive design changes that don't appear to address any problem that could be present in the current form, but do introduce a new level of busywork in some areas:

• The Delete icon in the upper right corner of the uploaded images doesn't look like a trash can, but a bucket. (It has a handle on it?) A simple traditional "X" would suffice.
   
• It's not necessary to bury options beneath a sub-menu in the Pricing group (upper left corner menu of the Pricing popup), especially for options such as Starting Date & Time which have nothing to do with pricing.
   
• In the Returns option of the Preferences popup, the two values under Domestic returns and International returns read "Free for buyer, you pay" or "Buyer" (with no further explanation). This appears to be worded in the context of the THIRD sub-menu (!) down this rabbit hole, a pop-up under the title of "Return shipping paid by" in which the single word "Buyer" can complete the sentence. In all the upper menus leading down to this point, it just floats as a word by itself with no clear explanation. "Buyer pays return cost" would be much clearer.
   
• The final confirmation popup for the successfully submitted listing reads "Your listing is now live." For a listing with a scheduled future starting time, that is simply wrong. If it is scheduled to start in the future, the message should acknowledge that: "Your listing is now scheduled."
  

In conclusion, this whole new listing form seems like a solution in search of a problem. More to the point, it wastes even more whitespace than the previous one: I could fire a cannon through the middle of it without hitting anything.

The excess whitespace only serves to underscore the point that popup menus are not needed here, nor is it necessarily easy or logical to find some particular setting, especially for something optional such as a Starting Date and Time that would have no default setting to display or click on (in case you want to change its current value). There is simply no excuse for making the user drill down through three popups just to set that one option.

The most efficient way to allow sellers to upload their listings in the shortest possible time is to figure out how to keep things on all one level, so we can complete the job with a minimum of keyclicks. If you cannot code that, seek help or input from others; don't just dump it into Production like that. The current listing form can manage to keep things visible and somewhat organized. It's unclear how this new design is supposed to be better.

[apantiq]

agree with OP. I have tried this unified listing tool many times over the past 6 months + since it was announced as the greatest thing since sliced bread and each time I have returned to what is now being called "classic" tool. (classic sounds like we will be forced into new tool in near future). While new tool might be an improvement for casual mobile users as it is now it is awful for serious users on desk top or lap top computers, the many levels and multiple clicks required greatly reduce listing speed and the possibility of overlooking not selecting variables / features. The only things eBay has gotten right in the new lister is 1 speed of uploading pictures and 2 ability to upload a video.

[fyrkrakyr]

My issues are in trying to edit any photos I have uploaded. I have to resize the window twice just to get the buttons to show up at the bottom. Not good. 

[kenilworthkollector]

I just looked at it for the first time today, because I have been having issues on some automatic and manual relists dropping some of the information.   Sure enough when editing an item with the new tool, it appears to have lost VERY important information like package size, shipping options & return options!  This same information  is what I have seen get lost when I try editing or relisting an item using the mobile app.

I do not use the mobile app anymore for listing, relisting, or editing because of this very reason, also the fact that the app makes random changes to the package size, shipping & return options, that I catch when looking at the draft on a computer.

I don't see an estimated cost for listing the item anywhere like the classic tool, maybe I am missing it?

And as agreed the clicks too numerous to get to all the info.

"Turns out, less is more when creating the perfect listing" & "Keep it simple. Buyers are more trusting of minimalist formatting."  ebay, in reference to wanting to see the full description options.   I think that applies here as well.

[nepera-park-boy]

I have stopped listing as it consumes to much time. Looking for other ways of selling. It has to be the worst change of eBay history, what were they thinking!!!

[1richdoug]

all good points; another area of concern, is the shipping . its not clear if seller ships only domestic. in the return area, says doesnt accept returns internationally; if , other countries buy, they all can request refunds.  a simple box stating -doesnt ship internationally is needed. its just a bad overall change, taking 3 x s the time to list one item.

[bitbeat]

as of tonight, when trying to work with 'ended listings', I can't get past 'sell similar' without the page freezing with a pop-up that touts the "NEW LISTING TOOL".

and I can't do a bulk relist, either.  I had to do a 'relist' when I wanted to do a 'sell similar', and I had to do them one by one.

I am really PO'ed.

[eburtonlab]

as of tonight, when trying to work with 'ended listings', I can't get past 'sell similar' without the page freezing with a pop-up that touts the "NEW LISTING TOOL".

What browser and operating system are you using?

In the past, some mac users have had issues with eBay popup messages that could not be dismissed in Chrome or Safari. It may be possible to open the same page in Firefox or using a Windows PC (or a mobile browser in desktop mode) to dismiss that pop-up, at which point you may be able to return to your original browser to continue.

[chapeau-noir]

OK, I was finally served the new listing form and tried it (again - I had tried it in beta and then about a month ago). Previous tries (particularly the beta) put me on the struggle bus. 

I wanted to tail onto this, because I wonder if things are subtly changing on the new listing form - I recall the shipping page morphing like this.  I'll just put my own experience here in case it helps anyone - this is for a very basic listing.

I listed a women's top - OK, I just sell pre-owned one-off items, clothing, DVDs and some tech, and my listing style is very simple, so this will skip any multi-variation, scheduling etc. that people may be having problems with, and hope this summary helps people who wonder about just plain simple listing, particularly if you use templates.

This version is formatted similar to most listing forms I use on other sites now with photos first, then title, etc.

Improvements:  The photos are a simple drag and drop (as usual) rather than the strange side sliding mess they had before.  The IS's take a little getting used to, mostly the data entry, but there is a way to enter them on one panel rather than one at a time. 

I use templates exclusively, and there's a problem calling those up because they don't show you the whole list in a drop-down (I have almost 50 templates), you have to fetch them from where you manage your templates, then hit a drop-down, then choose list.  If someone has a better way, I'd be happy to hear it, but so far that seems to be a hole in the design. Another hole is if one has a seller-created IS (I use one for garment measurements), it may or may not show up (once it did, once it didn't, two different templates), you click into it to try to change it, and it disappears, and has to be recreated all over again - I guess they never had an 'edit' feature for those, just a 'we disappeared it' feature.

Once my template appears, it doesn't show the HTML screen, it doesn't have a finger-shaking admonition about being mobile friend, when you click into the text it's not mashed together in one blob - AHA!!!  The text comes up properly with whatever HTML I've written (it isn't much - my listings are pretty vanilla).  So they finally got that right.

The shipping area seems awkward, but I may just not be used to it - it's more 'fetch' instead of drop-down.  I also noticed the rather ridiculous "buyer" for who pays return shipping, similar to @a_c_green - I think I know how that came about - they simply moved over the single word entry from the old form, but now it looks oddly disconnected.

If you use promotions, the campaign is a bit weird - click into it and up pops a pre-entered percentage in about 50-point in bright blue lol, change that and it will show you cost, you have to click 'done.'

It has definitely improved, but still has some design flaws (the templates thing, the funky promotions pop-up, the IS problems).

I didn't worry about the 'recommended' item specifics, because in all the times I've explored this issue, few are relevant to what I sell, I just used the ones that came up with the template.

Time spent - this time a bit slower than the old listing form, but most of this is simply becoming more used to it. There are some time sucks but they're minor and are mostly just design flaws.

I can't think of anything else at the moment, it's a little late for me to be listing but I had the stuff sitting around and figured I'd fiddle with it.

[paulibeverlyhills]

you seem knowledgeable about the new form. I hate it but no choice, it's not my decision to make. HOWEVER, here's what's upsetting me. I like to use color in my listings-now only allowing navy, taupe, black & similar dark colors. All my fave colors like blue turquoise & magenta have disappeared. OR is it my computer? 2nd- I like comic sans font and it is not allowing me to choose that-it is listed as a choice, but when I click on it, no activity. IS IT ME? IS IT MY COMPUTER? AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG? Please comment as I have no peers to ask about this and don't want to call customer service. thank you for you reply. So far not too happy with the new form--I tried to remove black dots to the left of my descriptions and that is no longer a tool that is there either. I don't understand when the old system was fine, why these specific changes were made. Do you? I've been selling here for almost 2 decades so going with the flow, but sad about the lack of colors & the font. I haven't started to list new items with photos yet, and now am nervous that it will be a challenge, not easy. 

[danpatrob43]

I agree that this new listing program is a joke.  I hate hate hate it.  I'm not able to set a time to start for some reason.  The postage charges are confusing.  I called for help - but the person who called back barely spoke English and was also clueless about the new program.  Ebay has become a waste of time for me.  

[mtarctophil]

I thought I didn't have a choice of using the classic listing form rather than the new listing form which is far more time consuming and also confusing.  I spoke to an agent yesterday and he said I could not go back to the old form.  Well, tonight I called again because in the classic listing the 30% extra price needed for a buy it now did not fill in like the classic form.  I do know how to multiply but it is time consuming to stop and figure it out when it used to fill in automatically.  Also the shipping setup in the new form was even hard for me to figure out Flat Shipping ???  Well, finally got through that but a listing took me a good 10 minutes longer.  Also when I put a photo in and tried to increase the brightness, etc I had 2 wait for that even to kick in where on the classic form it was immediate.  I expressed my discontent of the new form to the agent I spoke to tonight and she said I could change back to the old form.  Insist that an agent help you do that.  I would try to go back thru the process, but now that I have the classic view back I don't want to louse it up.  I

hope ebay has noticed that I and others have listed fewer things since the new listing tool was iso time consuming.  Maybe it is easier for people with a smartphone, but I don't have one and am using a desktop.  I wonder what "genius"  thought up the new changes.  

[barbsfinn]

I know it is just awful, hate it. I have been selling for 21 years on eBay and this is the worst, especially when it comes to shipping. this may be the cruncher for me and move to a different selling platform.

[selsa84]

I tried it for a few days and found it took 3 times as long to list something and then when you add in the dreaded item specifics it would take 5 times as long. I was able to switch back thank goodness. If i am forced into this i will most definitely be done with ebay. The amount of things they have changed just in the last few months has really hurt sales.  When they say it's an "improvement" i know it's not and worse than before.  We sell elsewhere and sales are 10-12 times better than ebay right now. Every update things get worse

[trainsmagsbooksand]

I hate to ask, but ... is "you pay" (shipping) the equivalent of the old listing tool "free shipping" radio dialog box? I've sold on eBay since the early 2000s and am helping a friend setup a new account, and it seems like they've wiped the slate clean with this new tool. The terminology at times is focused so differently I over-think what they really mean. Thanks!