Episode 108 || 2020 Fall Seller Update Questions and eBay Seller Capital Program

[podcast_team]

This week we welcome Justin Johnson, Manager of Global Seller Update who will share the top line seller questions from last week’s Fall Seller Update. And Devin Payne, Head of Seller Financing and Add Ons here at eBay, and Lee Chau, Executive Vice President and Head of Product at LendingPoint, announce the new eBay Seller Capital program. Griff talks with this week’s 25 Years of eBay Story sellers Quorvardis and Carlo Lawrence of QCConsigns. Finally, Brian and Griff answer your questions.

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Episode 108 Links
2020 Fall Seller Update Page
eBay Seller Capital Program
eBay Seller Capital Program
QCconsign’s eBay Store
QCconsigns Facebook Page
QCconsigns on Instagram
QCconsigns on YouTube
eBay Business Policies Page on Help and Contact
Your Business Policies Dashboard

Recurring Links:
eBay for Business Podcast
eBay for Business Podcast Discussion Group
eBay for Business Facebook
The eBay Community
eBay Seller News Announcements
eBay Local Seller Events
eBay Seller Center
Community Chat with eBay Staff
eBay Help
eBay for Business Podcast Listener Survey
Seller Hub
eBay Events

Hosts:
Griff, Brian Burke

Guests:
Justin Johnson (eBay Staff), Devin Payne, (eBay Staff), Lee Chau (EVP LendingPoint) and Quorvardis and Carlo Lawrence (eBay Seller)

Transcript:

This week on the eBay For Business Podcast:

"This is a big year for eBay, as far as moving to Managed Payments. And with that, we knew that we wanted to find a seller financing partner for our sellers to have access to capital in unique and interesting ways. And so we went through a very rigorous process to find a partner, to help us to build a seller financing business."

" We have changed how we ship. So we still use USPS, but we now will choose priority one to three days, even if we're not using a priority USPS box. And we will go on ahead and pay the little extra on the shipping that maybe the buyer didn't pay, just so that that item gets to them. We've also started ticking the box to require signatures for everything. "

I'm Brian Burke.

I'm Griff, and this is the eBay For Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and inspiration you're going to need to start, run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace.

And this is episode 108. Hello Griff and welcome back. How was your staycation?

It was uneventful yet peaceful two weeks. It was great.

Did you do anything?

Yeah, in fact, I did. I fixed my fence outside. I did some fence mending.

Manual labor?

Yeah. I cleaned up my yard, bought a new umbrella and put that up and I cooked a lot. So yeah, it was fun.

That's actually kind of a productive staycation.

Yeah, it was, it was very productive and very peaceful at the same time.

So that's cool. The only thing that was kind of a downer, it was very hot in San Jose over the last couple of weeks with records.

Yeah. I think we got most of the work done when it wasn't so hot and then I waited till late in the day to do the painting of the fence. It actually went by pretty easily and well enough about us. Oh, by the way, Brian, I saw an email today about some exciting news about bulk edit.

You did? Yeah. Why didn't I get that email? I don't know. Maybe you need to get on a DL. Anyway you know how a bulk edit, you can only edit 500 listings at a time?

Yes. Well now you can add up to 2000 listings at a time with bulk edit. So that's great for larger sellers or sellers that have higher volumes of listings, then they don't have to do four times re lists. They can do it once.

And it's not like for you and I, I mean, I doubt I'll ever have 2000 listings up there, but lots of sellers have tens, 3,000 thousand 500,000 listings. So this is a help. Well, I bet those beautiful people out there in the dark are waiting patiently for us to tell them what's in store for this episode.

This week, we have our next seller story to share. It's a partnership of two sellers, Quorvardis and Carlo, and they run a business on eBay called QCConsigns. They have an interesting business model on eBay.

And next we'll have Devin Payne. He's back on the podcast with a special guest this time. A guy named Lee Chau from Lending Point. And I'm going to them about the new eBay Seller Capital Program.

And Manager of Global Seller Update, Justin Johnson will give us the Fall Seller Update update.

Oh good. an Update update sounds redundant.

Not really. Justin has a list of the top questions sellers have asked regarding the seller update that was released last Wednesday. And I hear he will have some clarifying answers to those questions.

Ah, ha! I get it now. And finally, you and I, Brian has some questions of our own to answer. Specifically questions sent by sellers to podcast@ebay.com and we'll get to those at the end of the episode.

And we'll also be explaining how a seller can set up their returns to allow for replacements as buyers selected option.

Oh, I cannot wait. It's another jam packed show. Well, let's get started with an update on the recent update, double updates, updates squared.

UpDate update. Sounds like a news program.

Recently, the 2020 eBay Fall Seller UpDate was released. In fact, that was just last week. There are always lots of questions that sellers have about each release. I thought it might be a good idea to bring someone on, to talk about the most popular questions that were asked and we can hopefully address them. So join me in welcoming Justin Johnson. He's the Manager of Global Seller Update here at eBay. Welcome Justin.

Thanks Griff. It's great to be here. What was the most popular topic that you had to address for questions? The most popular topic is probably the Time Away Tool. A lot of the questions are stemming from when is this going to be available as opposed to functionality of the tool. It's coming out toward the end of September. And it will be available for all sellers, not just those with the store subscription. And this is the update for the vacation settings on the U S side. So this tool will actually allow sellers to go in and hide their listings, similar to the vacation settings, actually put in a message that they're away for a certain period of time, that doesn't require anything to update handling time or estimated delivery dates, anything along those lines, that's already baked into the tool. The tool will be a welcome change for a lot of sellers. And there's a lot of excitement around it.

Before this new tool was released, or if I'm using the old vacation settings and I didn't want to hide my listings while I was away, I'd have to go in and edit all those listings, at least edit the handling time, in order for me to be in compliance with what I promised for buyers, you say that isn't necessary.

That's right. You won't have to edit handling time, put in the time that you're going to be away and the tool will actually handle that and update the estimated delivery days for buyers if you choose to have your listing still show.

What if I choose to hide my listings? Is that option still available?

That option, I don't think if you hide your listings, they're just going to be off the site for the period of time that you specify. They won't be found by buyers. The great news with this new tool though, is that it will actually hide the listings or put the time away message on the listings, much faster than it has in the past with vacation settings.

Can buyers still contact me while I'm away?

Yeah, they can still contact you, but there is an out of office message that you can turn on within your settings. If you, as a seller are going to be a way and not answering email then I encourage you to turn on that setting as well.

The question is, when is this going to be available?

Well, I believe the ramp is going to be September 21st, right around there. And it's going to start rolling out to sellers. And it will take probably a week or two to roll out to all sellers. This is well overdue. So congratulations on that one. Exciting

What was one of the other popular questions that were asked last week?

So one of the other topics that we are just rolling out, It is rolled out in the U S and it is rolling out in some of the international locales right now, and it's going to hit all eBay sites is the, how we display email addresses to sellers and to buyers. So we're now going to move towards only seeing alias email addresses. So your transaction partner will just have an alias email address as a person, their registered email address on the platform. And this is meant to really help prevent spam, phishing attacks, different things like that. I know some sellers are concerned that they won't have access to that email address, but you still can send an email to the alias email address and it will get to that buyers to their registered email address on eBay.

This sounds pretty cool as a buyer, I'd really appreciate it. I don't see as a seller, any really big impact, but I assume that all the regular messaging that buyers and sellers share, especially things like tracking updates, they're still going to be available to buyers?

It will, Yeah. And even if you have a third party that is used for shipping, the alias email will still be just the same. There should be no interruption in business whatsoever. There are some sellers that I think are concerned about customized products and things along those lines and communicating back and forth. You can still actually send the buyer an email. They can send you an email back to the alias email address that you have as a seller. You can attach files, I think up to 10 megabyte in size. So there can be proofs, PDFs, a bunch of different file formats that you can attach.

How long is that alias email address available to the seller?

So I believe for one year it's available that alias email.

I haven't been paying attention. The sentiment for this particular update is pretty positive or neutral to positive.

The sentiment overall is pretty positive. I think the change in email address I think maybe frightened some sellers a little bit, which is understandable because it is a change, however, it's, it shouldn't impact anything that you do on the eBay.

And that's why you're here Justin, is to allay those fears. Thank you.

Hopefully. What is another popular question that popped up. Signature confirmation. There's a little change that today on eBay, if you have an item on eBay, U S that sells for $750 or more, you're recommended to get signature confirmation, to protect yourself if the buyer files an INR claim or an item not received claim. We're going to move that from the item level to the order level. So in the future, starting in, I think mid to late October, if a buyer comes and purchases three items from me, and it totals up to $750 or more, I'll be encouraged and recommended to get that signature confirmation so that I'm protected.

For all three items in your example.

Correct. Yeah, that's exactly right. And one of the big questions I think that's come up for sellers on this is, during the current pandemic and the current climate, a lot of carriers are not actually signing for, or getting physical signatures. That's okay. Because as long as you get the signature confirmation and you purchase that signature confirmation, it doesn't matter if they actually get a signature or not, you're going to be protected on eBay.

So all the seller has to do is just add that to the order or to the listing and they're covered.

They do Yeah. And there is a cost to it. So it's not for free by any means, but that cost could really save a lot of time and effort dealing with an item not received claim.

Yeah, It seems to me, this is like inexpensive insurance.

It is. It is.

What else is a very popular question that came up last week?

Managed Payments continues to expand and not just in the U S but globally. And I think by the end of 2020, the idea is that eBay will have most business sellers. And by the end of 2021 have also moved on to Managed Payments. There's a love, hate relationship with Managed Payments with eBay community right now. A lot of sellers love that they have that money into their bank account directly within a couple of days or a few days after receiving payment. But some sellers feel that it's taken some of the PayPal efficiencies that were there and then migrated to eBay. So there are some sellers that aren't happy with it. We recognize that. However, some of the things that we're doing to try and improve the experience there is bringing it in line with where the experience is for returns, especially for sellers that are not currently on Managed Payments. So you have the ability to automate certain returns. So you have returned preferences that you can use. That's probably going to be brought into Managed Payments starting, I believe this week, September 14th, I think is when it rolls out.

So I have noticed this in the past. Whenever we talk about automatically accepted, there's always this fear among sellers saying, wait, don't I have a choice. Is auto accept, just going to be for all returns through Managed Payments?

It will be automatically accepted for all returns, except for a couple of things. So if there's a remorse return outside of the seller specified return window, it's not going to be automatic. And then if the buyer files the return reason as it arrived damaged or missing parts or pieces, we want the buyer and seller to be able to communicate. Hopefully the seller can help the buyer out and resolve things without having to go through a return.

Well we have covered a lot. Are there any other questions that came up that are really top of mind?

One other topic that is fairly new is the authenticity guarantee for watches. And so this is in the watches category, similar to what we rolled out, I think a year or two ago in high end handbag. As a seller, if you have a watch that is buy it now price over $2,000 or the auction starts over $2,000, it will actually have a badge on it and say, there's an authenticity guarantee. And so when the buyer purchases, the item seller gets an address to send it to the authenticator who will go through and review it. This authenticator has been in business for, I want to say over 30 years has extreme knowledge of vintage, as well as modern high-end watches. They will check out the watch and make sure that it was as described in the listing and then forward it on to the buyer. If there's an issue with the watch, when the buyer receives it, the return goes back through the authenticator. So they make sure that it's the same condition in which it was sent to the buyer and then they'll help process the return when they send the watch back to the seller.

We had Tirath Kamdar on a couple episodes ago and he outlined this to us. And I remember thinking, well, when this is launched, there's going to be a lot of seller questions.

I think there will. One of the things we've seen is questions about, is this gonna roll out to other categories and I don't know for sure yet. But I think the idea is that we want to try to authenticate those high end items.

I suppose people are saying, yeah, great service. How much is it going to cost me?

Nothing. Watches that are over $2,000 it is included.

You mentioned auction. So if I start the auction under 2000, but it goes over 2000, it's not part of the program.

If the Auction price does go over $2,000. It is. If the auction price starts at $2000 or over it's automatically included. Might be able to get some clarification in the FAQs on their page, on the Authenticity Guarantee page.

Well, this is great information. By the way, in case I forget, congratulations on a really smooth Seller Update. I know it's not easy. I've been involved in one in the past. And even in the best of times, it is, it's like herding cats. Cause there's different teams working on all these different projects and there's deadlines and they all have to be ready and locked down and ready to announce and then ready to release. So I know it's not an easy job. Congratulations on really a very, very expert pull off on this one.

Thank you. I really appreciate it. It's been a, it's been a fun ride over the last several months to work on this, not just with teams in the U S but teams globally and doing it in a remote environment has been challenging, but also very rewarding at the same time.

Most sellers understand the process that eBay uses for Seller Updates. But in case there's a seller, who's not familiar with it, where can they go to learn more about the most recent Seller Update? They can go to ebay.com/sellerupdate, and that will get right to the most recent Seller Update. Or if you go to the Seller Center on eBay and do a search for Seller Updates, you'll find plenty of information about the most recent as well as some of the past updates.

One of my favorite things on this podcast is when one of our teams or employees has a URL and it's memorable and it's not, you know, it's not like two pages long. We'll still put this URL as we put all links into our transcript for people who want to go back and reference them, but it couldn't be easier. ebay.com/sellerupdate. Justin, I want to thank you so much for stopping by and talking to us.

Thanks, Griff. I really appreciate the opportunity and I hope sellers enjoy this update.

And we'll talk to you again when we have our next update.

Sounds good.

Justin Johnson is the Manager for the Global Seller Update process here at eBay. And again, if you want to know more about the most recent Seller Update, as Justin just said, it's www.ebay.com/sellerupdate. And we will put that URL in our transcript. 2020 has definitely been a year to remember, but amid all the distressing news about 2020, there are some real bright spots. And here at eBay, we're always happy to announce those bright spots for our seller community. I'm joined by Devin Payne, Head of Seller Financing, and ad-ons here at eBay and also Lee Chau, Executive Vice President and Head of Product at Lending Point. They are here to talk to us about a brand new program called eBay Seller Capital, welcome gentlemen.

Thanks Griff. It's good to be here.

Thanks Griff, thanks a lot.

I want to ask first right off, what is eBay Seller Capital powered by LendingPoint?

Yeah, Griff. So as you know, this is a big year for eBay, as far as moving to Managed Payments. And with that, we knew that we wanted to find a seller financing partner for our sellers to have access to capital in unique and interesting ways. And so we went through a very rigorous process as Lee can attest, to find a partner, to help us to build a seller financing business.

And Lee, You are the partner?

Yeah, so definitely when we first started connecting with eBay and Devin, we jumped at an opportunity from a lender perspective to really help provide financing to sellers. So eBay has partnered with LendingPoint together to bring these capital and financing needs to sellers on eBay with predictable, transparent, monthly installment loans.

Lee, who is LendingPoint?

So LendingPoint we are FinTech, with roots in helping people and small businesses with financing needs that are typically not being well served by banks. And we've provided close to 2 billion thousand loans to people in small businesses already.

We should mention FinTech means financial tech, right?

Yes, yes. We are not like a big bank, we started off a small company and just really focused on doing one thing really well, which is helping people in small businesses with financing.

And Griff, as you know, we, you know, we were focused on a partner that would be nimble and meet the needs of our vast seller base. So we want a partner who could have opportunities for side hustlers for large strategic sellers and everything in between. And we feel like lending point is the one that's going to do that for our seller base. And they're going to be different products that are coming that are always transparent and flexible. And that's why we love working with LendingPoint.

I would also add that, you know, as a, as a FinTech, right? If you will, a finance startup, we're doing, what's expected of us, which is really focused on self-serve customer service, automation, being digital. But at the same time, LendingPoint, we haven't forgotten the roots of about the human touch, especially when it comes to money. We understand that small business customers, they want the human touch at times and we provide that as well too. So we're not a digital only company, right? We also have a Customer Service Representative waiting to ask you questions on the phone based in Atlanta and ready to help you as well too. That's what LendingPoint really is. We're really focused on democratizing credit and really helping people in small business with financial needs, especially in these trying times. You mentioned the year 2020, especially during these Covid times.

I know that lots of sellers have sometimes because they are a side hustle are small businesses that are smaller than small. It's not always easy to find a source of capital. So what's the best parts of this program Lee?

I would say we're fast as a finance company focused on technology FinTech, we do provide same day approvals and then depending on your bank, deposits could be available as soon as next business day. We also provide very flexible terms and we provide loans up to 48 months. And the advantage of going up to 48 months is that it's lower monthly payments. And we understand a lot of these sellers right now, especially during these times, they're worried about their personal credit and then separate business is separated from their seller transactions. So we also provide a worry free process where we do not impact personal credit to apply nor to receive the loan as well too.

And I'll tell you what I liked the most Griff is that there are no fees. There's no origination, no early pay back, no annual fee, no late fee. The only thing that you're going to pay is that one simple APR that you see in the application process and there's nothing hidden, everything's up front. And that is something that LendingPoint made sure that they could provide to eBay sellers. So it very simple and very straightforward. And then in the future, we're also looking at building other products that will be more based directly to your eBay sales and potentially other like line of credit type products as well.

Does this loan with eBay seller capital through LendingPoint, is this going to impact the credit scores of people who apply?

LendingPoint uses a soft credit inquiry process. What that means is it's industry speak for basically we have a look at your credit profile, but it does not impact your personal credit score. And it's not visible to third parties on credit reports. So no, it does not impact your credit score for you to check out what options you have, what offers you will have, and also to receive the money as well too. There's no impact.

Lee, who's eligible for this?

We're looking for sellers that have been selling on eBay platform for at least 12 months. And the process is very easy, right? It's an easy digital application process where you could be approved instantaneously. And we are looking to provide more products down the road with larger loans, especially helping those strategic sellers on eBay with loan potential as large as $500,000 with white glove cost as well too. Again, we remember the importance of the human touch. So we have the best of both worlds. The white glove service, as well as provided a digital seamless experience.

Lee, can a seller refinance, an existing loan or a credit card they have? Sometimes that works to a borrower's advantage.

Yes, most definitely. It really helps save a lot of money. Once the seller receives a loan from our side, simply pay off the loan they already have, and then just manage one easy payment on the eBay center program.

We know that about 50% of our sellers Griff are using credit cards to fund their business. You look in your own wallet, you have them, they're easy. Everyone knows how they work, but they're not always best from a fee standpoint and for your business. So we truly believe that this is a really great alternative to that. As far as being straightforward upfront, you're not paying interest on interest, a lot of good benefits to going through a partner FinTech like LendingPoint.

Now, Lee, you mentioned that you were looking at being able to finance a loan of up to 500,000 in the future for strategic sellers. But what about right now? So I'm a small seller and I'm interested in the eBay Seller Capital Program. How big a loan can someone like me who sells on eBay get?

So right now we are offering loans up to $25,000 at the moment. We're just at the starting point. And we do look to increase that significantly in the future.

Well, let's talk about that. So when we're comparing eBay Seller Capital to the different financing options that are in the marketplace, how does eBay Seller Capital differ?

So in the space of financing for businesses, there's probably really three sources that business's go to credit cards of course, bank loans and other non bank loans.

Do you mean like your rich uncle?

(laughter) It could be a rich uncle. It could be other places out there that are focused really on just small business loans. So how we differentiate, we work closely with the eBay team. We came up with the product. We believe it provides the best value proposition to the sellers and rewards them for being part of the eBay platform. Most solutions today, out there the ones that I've mentioned before, will impact your personal credit. Again, our program does not impact personal credit to apply or receive a loan. So that's the number one thing. Secondly, the repayment process. We offer installment loans up to 48 months with up to four years to repay. And what that means to the seller is that it's lower, more affordable payment of $25,000 over four years is much more affordable than trying to pay back $25,000 over 12 months. And by the way, you know, the sellers, if they feel like business is growing faster than expected, which is great, they can pay off the loan whenever they want with no prepayment fees. Devin mentioned before, another great advantage of the program is there's no fees and that includes no prepayment fees. You borrow $25,000 a year later, business is growing and you want to close the loan. That's not a problem. You can pay it off and there's no fee, no penalty for doing so. And going forward, we also are looking for ways to actually add additional loan types to it. Right now, installment loans. We're looking at lines of credit. Also loans tied directly to eBay sales. We know that that's a big interest to eBay sellers. I'd also add, pro-rated interest is another area of focus for us. Our cyber loans has a transparent fixed interest rate. Unlike credit cards, credit cards charge interest on interest. Whereas installment loans with our product are transparent, fixed interest rates. We do not charge interest on interest. That pretty much summarizes our main value proposition to eBay sellers.

I suppose, Lee, that most sellers who were going to use these loans have specific needs for them. What do most eBay sellers, what do we hope they use these loans for?

We've been talking to a lot of sellers. I think the number one certain response for that would be for inventory. We've heard several sellers say at a point in time, they'll get a phone call from a distributor trying to offload some inventory, but literally they may have 15 minutes to make a decision before they move on to another seller. So they need to have confidence that money is available for them. Of course, growing the business provides economic opportunity on the platform. I've heard sellers saying they want to hire more employees, manage through seasonality or just have capital improvements. So it really spans the scope of, of just really helping sellers grow their business.

I suppose then if are looking for this loan or you want this ability, you can apply for this, but you don't necessarily have to take the funds until you need them?

We have sellers ask, You know, I see that I am pre approved right now, what if I come back two, three months from now? Yes, Come back. The application again is a very simple process. It literally takes just a minute to apply.

Devin, can sellers get a loan if they're on Managed Payments?

Yeah. So the great thing about this is whether you're migrated to Managed Payments or you haven't yet you can get a loan. It's not tied to whether you're on Managed Payments or not, you can qualify. Our future plans do include some very unique to eBay products where you will need to be on Managed Payments, but we'll always have options for those who haven't migrated yet.

All right. So you piqued my interest. How do I apply?

Right now, the best thing to do is go to pages.ebay.com/sellercapital. If you were just to Google eBay Seller Capital, you would also find that landing page, but that's the point where you'll start, you'll see all the value propositions that we talked about today. And then that will take you directly to LendingPoints site to finish the application. Also in Seller Hub on the overview tab, under selling tools, there will be a link there as well. So that's, we know our sellers spend most of their time there. So in order to give them a spot where they can find financing when they need it, as Lee said, there are times where things are going and going, then you get a call and you need financing. So we know that at any given point in the year, you could need it. So there's always a link there in Seller Hub on the Overview tab where you can find it.

Well, I want to thank you, both Devin and Lee for taking time to tell us about this new program. It's very exciting.

Thanks for having us Griff.

Yes, thanks Griff for having us.

Devin Payne is Head of Seller Finance and add ons here at eBay and Lee Chau is Executive Vice President and Head of Product at a company called LendingPoint, which is working with eBay to provide you with this new program called eBay Seller Capital. Now you can learn more about this new program at the link, www.ebay.com/sellercapital. I'll also put that link as we do for every link in the episode transcript, which is available@ebay.com/podcast.

A few months ago, we asked our seller community to submit their stories to us and out of the thousands that were sent in our Seller Team selected a top 25 each week here on the podcast. We feature one of these 25 sellers. This week. Sellers are Quorvardis and Carlo Lawrence. Their user ID on eBay is QCConsigns. Welcome Quorvardis and welcome Carlo.

Hello.

Hi.

Now I hear that Quorvardis, you prefer to be called Q.

That is correct.

All right, so I will call you Q. Carlo do you prefer to be called C?

No. But you can call me anything but not late for work. I'm reporting to the CEO next to me.

I will not call you. That is up to Q to call you into work. So first off, where is your business located?

Our business is located presently in Charlotte, North Carolina.

And you've been selling on eBay for how long?

We've been selling on eBay now for seven and a half years now. Carlo, what do you sell ?

We sell anything from a light bulb to diamond rings. We have such a range. We are what we consider a lifestyle brand.

Now your ID is QCConsigns. Does that mean that you take consignments?

That is exactly what that mean. We are first a consignment company, so we actually will take in preloved items from anybody such as individuals, just like yourself.

How do you arrange for that? How do you market your business so that you get people to take their items to you?

All of our marketing is done on social media, so we pretty much make sure our product is shown out there in the resell market, through Facebook, Instagram, places like that. And then there is that old fashioned, just word of mouth. Recommendations from others who have either consigned with us, or heard about us from someone or some way or another.

Carlo, do you run this business out of your house?

We have a warehouse where we store probably 95% of our inventory and usually stuff that is very valuable in terms of jewelry stays here with us.

For safety sake?

Correct.

When somebody has something to bring to you for consignment, they've seen you on social media, they've contacted you. Where do they meet you to hand off the items?

Well, that's a really good question. There's actually two parts to it. If you don't live in Charlotte, North Carolina, you have to mail your items into us. And the really cool thing that we have is if you are a first time, consigner with us, and this is your first consignment box that we're taking in, we'll actually give you back up to $50 off the shipping cost to ship your item to us. So that's one. So that's a really awesome deal. And then the other, if you do live in Charlotte, we have what we call a concierge service. I shouldn't even say Charlotte, I should say all of North and South Carolina, we have a concierge service. And that's where presently my husband who's the rat will go out and pick your items up from the desired location that you've asked us to.

So you go to the person, they don't come to you?

Yes, exactly.

Do you give this concierge service to everyone or is it just to special clients?

It's actually given to everyone. So no matter how small or how large the pickup is, we will give it to you. The only stipulation is that you have to live within North Carolina or South Carolina.

Right. You're not going to fly to California to pick up a load of things for me necessarily, but I can ship them to you.

That's actually not true. So we do have high value customers that we do fly out to. Like presently we're planning a trip right now where we're to be heading out to a really sunny state and we're going to be working with several high value clients out there and picking up items. So we'll be driving there and driving all of the merchandise back. My husband just recently was in New York, delivering a very expensive item to a high value buyer. And so, you know, we do make accommodations like that. And that definitely is for our high value clients. When we say high value, that's anywhere from 10 to 15 to $20,000 client.

It makes sense that at that level of value, you would make these special efforts like actually driving to a customer.

Yes, and also right now Covid plays a great part in that. Everything is seamless in terms of contact and, you know, mask wearing gloves and meeting outside the client's home instead of inside just to protect everyone.

If you are driving to New York at this time during a pandemic, what are some of the steps that you have to take to keep yourself safe while you're in transit from your business location to New York city?

Well, I would continue to do the same things I'm doing at home. Wearing my mask, washing my hands constantly. If I have to stop to get gas I am going to make sure I sanitize before I get in my car, again. As far as food, just try to take items that I don't have to purchase, you know, limit my going into any establishment and that's the best we can do.

I think part of it too, is just tied to making sure that the turnaround is very quick. For his New York trip, he actually flew out with the item and he went literally directly to deliver that item. And within 24 hours or less than 24 hours, he was back on a plane.

Carlo, what was that like being on a plane?

It was actually a little bit nerve wracking at first because you know, you hear they're going to have a separate space in between you. Fortunately, I went First Class due to some miles benefits we had and the person next to me wore a mask. And that was a requirement to American airlines. They offered beverages, I said, no, but other than that, you know you can hear a sniffle around you every once in a while. It was kind of strange. It's like, where are you gonna go? Hey, stop, let's get off.

I have to tell you, I think the most nerve wracking thing was for us as a family to make the decision to do it during this time. And then what do you do afterwards? So the whole thing, self quarantining for two weeks, well, we don't have a business that would allow us to self quarantine for an entire two weeks. So that was always difficult. It's like, okay, what happens with him once he comes back? And it was a little comical when he came back because he went to give me a hug and I really wasn't sure I wanted to hug him or not. But All as well. We're all very safe and healthy. And I think he did a great job at being as safe as he could be.

The other problem that we're seeing and it's getting worse right now is actually delivery. If you're using USPS, for example, it's, it's much slower than it's been in the past. When you sell an item and it has to ship through USPS, Do you mitigate that with either communication or resetting expectations for shipping delivery estimate?

So what we try to do is we try, we have changed how we ship. So we still use USPS, but we now will choose priority one to three days even if we're not using a priority USPS box. And we will go on ahead and pay the little extra on the shipping that maybe the buyer didn't pay, just so that that item gets to them. We've also started ticking the box to require signatures for everything. So in the past, we only did that for items that were a hundred dollars or more, anything that's $50 or more we've been putting insurance on. We've taken those extra steps. We've also loaded an app on our phone that has helped us track it besides eBay's tracking. So we can literally see on a map with this app where the item is. We just had a really interesting issue happen. Something left our warehouse on July 2nd. The buyer just got it two days ago, they live in an area on the East coast and it should not have taken that long. It got stuck in Greensboro for days on end because we had that app and we had eBay's tracker, we were able to contact the buyer first. And I think that's the key is the logistics around making sure you know it before they know it. And every few days we stayed in contact with the buyer. Carlo opened a case with USPS so we showed that information to the buyer. So the buyer knew that we were constantly working on tracking the package. Now we don't do this often, but one of the things we will do, depending on what the item is, we will sometimes offer shipping paid back to the buyer as a refund for inconvenience. But we don't offer that upfront unless it's an extended period of time like this, where you're 15, 20 days. So that's what we have been doing to kind of combat some of that. And I have to tell you, we got an amazing, amazing review from that buyer once they did get their item.

What is this app, If you don't mind? I think our sellers would be curious to know.

Yeah, it's called Shop.

Shop?

Yeah, it's called shop and it's awesome. And it links to your PayPal account. It links to USPS so anything that we run through USPS or PayPal, and it links to all of your emails that your transactions go through. It's amazing, an amazing app. And it's not just USBS, is UPS as well as FedEx.

A lot of sellers, for example, use eBay to print their labels. Will it connect that way as well? Cause as we're moving into Managed Payments, some folks are opting in to have their labels paid from pending payments, for example. And does it still work with, with those?

Yes. Yes it does.

Oh good.

So we presently today will print our labels both through eBay and through PayPal. So we've tested both ways and it worked. The other thing we've done to change is we offer clean-out service. So a part of our consignment service is to allow us to help our clients clean out their closets, clean out their cabinets and really understand what they should consign with us? What should they give away and what should they discard? Because sometimes it can be an overwhelming and daunting task, but they know they want to make a little extra money and they want to do more than just throw their items away. We no longer can do that because that requires us going into the home. So since Covid, one of the things we've had to change with that is we now do it virtually. We'll do it through FaceTime or we'll do it through Zoom. And we are, we get to literally enter the client's closets and their home and it's contactless. And it's amazing.

Do you ever see something that would be considered inappropriate and just pretend it's not there?

We have, yes. Yes we have. Um, and it's comical and usually the seller, the consigner will see it before we do. And, you know, we try to just make a joke out of it and make it very light and keep it moving.

My motto is , see no evil, hear no evil. (laughter).

Exactly. I was just thinking, would I let you into my closets? I think we're safe. I think we're safe. A lot of folks in the past who have run or considered starting a business on eBay that is consignment based, have a common question when they're setting it up. And that question is about contracts. So you're taking items from consigners and there is a trust involved here, but also I'm assuming that you have a contractual arrangement with your consigner. What does that look like?

Well, it's an eight page contract. Believe it or not.

I can believe it. It is. It's an eight page contract. And outside of all, the legalities of things in that contract is a very detailed itemized list of the individual's items. Along with that is a price range or resell price range of lowest to highest of what we can sell that item for because the resell market fluctuates just like the retail market does. We will also make sure that we put in the time and action when certain transactions are to happen. We let them know that the contract is for one year. We also let them know in the contract that they have the option to extend the contract. They have the option to keep the contract open, which means we won't create a new contract, but it's open. And it's an at will contract, which means they can close it or we can close it at any time returning their items to them. It also lets them know what type of insurances they have. What are we responsible for at what time of receiving or accepting their items. So we let them know that once that item is in our possession, it is insured by us and we are in full, complete responsibility of their item until that item is sold.

Carlos, Is there a minimum of what you'll accept an item based on value? So if I have a $5 value item, are you going to say no?

Yes. Unfortunately we would say no. Technically, if you look at the numbers across the board, anything less than $50 is not really beneficial to a business model for us to use. That doesn't mean we don't have items that fall into the category less than that. Sometimes they will consign with us ten items and two of them fall short, we will bring it on sometimes but for the most part, 90 percent of the time we are going to tell you no.

As a part of a package, if there's a really juicy item in there, that's high value.

It is a little bit of give and take.

So we do an estate consignment as well. We have presently right now, I think one just closed. So we have three estate consignment contracts. What that means is that the person is deceased and their estate has decided to consign with us, or maybe the person is selling a home. And pretty much the majority of the small items in that home is being consigned. And so those are times when you kind of get those below $50 items. But when you look at the contract and the contract is probably worth $15,000, you're not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and say, no, I'm not going to take this $10 item.

Sometimes you have to be sensitive to the situation. Death, divorce or loss of job.

I mean, that's been a big one. That's what's caused our company to actually survive during Covid. Is the fact that so many people lost their jobs and were looking for an additional source of income. You know, that was one of those moments in time, for months, where we took pretty much anything anyone was selling just to help them out.

What is your pricing structure? What is it that you charge your consigners?

What we have is we have a commission base and that commission is split based on the sale of the item. So it's a 60/40 split. They get 60% of the sale. We get 40% of the sale.

Actually in talking to people that's a reasonable commission. I've heard of people that it's 60/40 the other way.

Yeah. So actually there are, they will rename nameless. Um, and they're, they're very popular and they were actually people we actually used to help build our model. There are also consignment consulting companies that are based on the sell price of your item, change their commission. That also will happen too. We don't fluctuate in that way. It's just a straight 60/40, even if the item is $10.

I think if you've ever sold on eBay, you realize pretty quickly that anything less than that, you're just kind of treading water because it is a lot of work, what you do.

Yes, exactly. It is a great deal of work. We have to take into consideration the logistics of running the operation as well. Not just what we're doing for the product, with marketing and other things like that.

Do you collect as well? Do you have your own personal collections or is everything game?

What do you mean by that?

Well, I've been in the antique business for years, for example, and I know most antique sellers also have their own little collections of things that they've come across where they've either they've kept them for themselves. Do you have that? Do you have that sort of collection?

As a matter of fact, very early in the start of our company, we made a decision, a pact between us that we would not shop our own supply. We would not shop our own inventory and really, and truly my husband put that in place for me.

Please don't edit that.

No, we'll leave it in.

No, no, we don't have a side collection, but I will say this. We do consign some of our own items. So there is roughly about anywhere at any given time, about 1%, half to 1% of the items are ours.

Did you start out on eBay with this business model or was it a different business model where you were finding things to sell and then selling them?

We started out with a slightly different business model. We started the company because it was a need, we had to clean out our own closets because we had downsized so greatly our living space that we just needed to do something with it and my husband was threatening to throw it all out. And so at which point I thought, well, I buy stuff on eBay. I think I'd be smart enough to sell it. And the process was so easy. That's how we got started. So really we started out selling on eBay our stuff. And then once other people heard about what we were doing, they asked us to do it for them. And that's how the consignment business was born for us.

A seller is listening. And they're curious about the business model and they're looking to maybe start a local consignment business model where they sell product on eBay for consigners, what would be your first bit of advice to them besides don't compete with me.

It's funny. We're getting ready to do a four part series on that to help other people build consignment businesses. So I will share the one thing. And that is be patient with the process. Resell is just like retail and it's a soft market and it's finicky. And because there's so many of us out there so many platforms to put your merchandise out there, the resell market is extremely saturated. So it's feast or famine at times, and you could sell and sell and sell every day. There could be numbers of orders waiting for you to ship out. And then you could have those weeks or days where there's nothing. So I think you have to be patient with the process and making sure that you understand you're in it for the long haul, and don't be discouraged by those dry spells because they will happen. Sustainability is tied to your ability to stick with it.

Where would one go to see this series that you're doing on starting a consignment business? It's actually on most social media outlets. YouTube is the main one. So we do have a YouTube channel and it's called GCConsigns, but we also share those videos out on Instagram and Facebook. Those pages also our main QCConsigns as well. So we're really easy to find, but we do have how to videos on there. We have our wind down Fridays on there.

We'll put the links to all of your channels and our podcast transcripts, so that if you're listening to this, just go to the episode. Number one 108, look for that episode in the link, ebay.com/podcast. Look for episode 108 and in the transcript, we'll have all these links. I'm going to assume that given the level of business you're doing that you're both pretty booked. Is there a plan to grow or are you happy where you are now?

We are growing actually and we do have plans to continue growing. And yes, there are two main entities in the business Carlo and I, but we actually contract out to individuals to do other things for us. So whether it's production, whether it's photography, whether it's listings, we do contract out. So that's how we get our extension of support. As far as growing the business, our goal is really new customer acquisitions, whether it be on the consignment side or the buyer side. And so how we plan to do that, we are actually in pre production right now for our first social media commercial. So we're excited about that. We have our Survive The Summer Giveaway that's coming up and we are going to give away five, $100 visa gift cards to individuals that follow us like us and share our posts on all the social media sites that we're on. So the goal really is about brand recognition for us. It's about as much as we can getting our brand name out there and becoming a household name in the resell market. And then lastly, we're working with copywriters and a website team to help us build our blog. That's going to be a part of a mailer, which is something we've never done before. We've never touched the consumer via email. So that would be a monthly issue that goes out. So we have a lot planned.

Lots of plans.

Lots of plans. A lot of things in the works, but really it's just about new customer acquisitions and brand recognition for us.

What is the most expensive item that you had the pleasure of handling through your business?

Um, there's a top two. The most expensive item was a Cartier watch for $28,000.

Yikes.

The second, most expensive was a six carat diamond ring for $26,000. And they were fairly back to back within the same timeframe of one another. And it was in our earlier days.

But it could always happen again.

Oh it definitely can.

So if you're looking to consign your watch or your very valuable piece of jewelry, then this is the place to go. QCConsigns. Again, I'm going to put all the links, both to your eBay store, to social media and to your YouTube channel in our transcripts so that people can learn from you. And if they need to, they can contact you to perhaps sell their items for them. I want to thank you both for taking the time out of your busy day to help us here on the podcast. Very interesting story and continued success.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We've been talking to Quorvardis and Carlo Lawrence. They have a consignment business on eBay under the user ID. QCConsigns.

You have questions? We have answers.

What's our first question Griff?

Well, Brian, we have two emails to read. I'll read the first one and then you can give the answer. How about that ?

Sounds good.

This was sent into podcast@ebay.com. "Hello, I'm a fairly new seller. I'm just getting to the point I have several bins and I want to use the custom skew custom label to keep track of the location of the items. The problem is I can't find the custom label after a sale. Where do I go to see it? Thanks. Love your show, Greg."

So you can find the custom label information in the Orders view. That's located in the item details column. You can also see it in the active view, but you may have to customize that view to see it. There's a Customize This Table link in the upper right hand corner of the active view page in Seller Hub. Click it, check the box for the custom label and then save. The column will now appear in the active view page.

Hey Brian, do you have to have the column for custom label added in the active view for it to show up in the order detail section on the orders page?

You do not. If the field for custom label was filled in with any text, it will appear automatically in the order details section of a transaction row in the orders page on Seller Hub.

Well there you go! Greg, I hope that answered your question. If it didn't email us back and we'll try to clarify it.

Definitely. Good question, Greg.

Now, Brian, you read the second question.

Okay. So a little bit longer one. "Hello, and thank you for the weekly podcast. You always do an excellent job of bringing to attention, new ideas and keep us up to date with key eBay changes. I would like you to address the sale of new items on eBay. I know eBay is very well known for selling used collectibles, antiques, et cetera, but I believe something that is often overlooked is the importance and percentage of sellers who are retailing, new items on eBay to either supplement their business, or in many cases is their sole business. Do you have any suggestions on what can be done on brand new good till cancelled listings to compete with other large online retailers like Amazon and Walmart, more specifically referring to the listings going stagnant. Harry was on last week saying to make sure that all of the items, specifics and titles were filled out correctly and not to end the listings, but eBay has suggested to us before to end the listings. Once they become stagnant. Justin Thornley."

Well, it's funny that you would say that Justin, that eBay focuses on collectibles and antiques at the expense of new items. Most collectible and antique sellers would say the opposite. That we focus too much on new items at the expense of collectibles and antiques. And just to add a little color to that is 80% of the items sold on eBay are actually new items and 20% of the items sold on eBay are used. And so that's why we normally hear the reverse of what you stated, but we're a marketplace and we love both of you.

The truth is when it comes to what eBay focuses on. We focus on all types of inventory, including both of those, whether it's used antiques and collectibles or it's new. They all get the same exposure. There's not one that's favored over the other. Now the most common reasons Justin for stagnant listings are that the items are not in high demand and or the items are not competitively priced compared to both similar inventory on eBay and off eBay. And that includes sites that like you mentioned, Amazon and Walmart shoppers are pretty smart. They will shop on Google shopping to find the best price. And if your items are not priced competitively to other retailers and other marketplaces, then nine out of 10 times, they're going to go and buy the cheaper item. So it's really important. Those two points, especially the second one. You want to make sure that there's a demand for your items. Cause they may be long tail depending on what they are. And you want to make sure that they're competitively priced. Oh, and by the way you mentioned Harry being on the show and talking about perfecting the listings. And this was on a recent podcast episode. And what he said goes for all categories of items on eBay.

The most likely culprit is uncompetitive pricing. Research, similar items on and off eBay to make sure your item is priced competitively. Then use the same research to make sure your titles are formatted properly. Keywords only, no editorial words or punctuation. Sometimes you'll see someone say excellent condition or something like that. You know, keep that stuff out of the title.

Yeah. Another thing that can happen with that stuff in the title is Google Shopping can reject your listing, which means that you're not even in the game when it comes to people that are using Google Shopping to determine where they're going to buy the item.

That is another really good point.

Yeah. And finally, to echo what Brian was talking about and Harry, you know, those items specifics, you've gotta really make sure you have as many of those filled out as you can.

And despite what you've heard, you should not end a stagnant listing. You should edit it as needed, but don't end it. Especially if traffic metrics show it has views and Watchers. If you end a listing with views and Watchers and re list that listing, you will lose all those views and Watchers instead edit the listing to improve it. And the example that I often use is like a grocery store. Oftentimes, you know, they might reprice something or they might change it where it's positioned on the shelf, but they don't take it off the shelf and move it into the back room and then decide what to do with it. It stays out there for people to purchase.

You don't want to start all over again. So I don't know who is giving that advice, but we got to find out.

That is one of those ones that's been out there for a long time, I think it's more than one person and I, I wish they'd all stop.

Yeah. I wish they'd stop too. Anyway, one last question, Brian, this week, although it wasn't really sent into podcast@ebay.com. Do you remember recently you sent me a text suggesting we talk on the podcast about a particular issue with regards to returns and replacements?`

I remember, but that was weeks ago because you've been on vacation for a couple of weeks. So I'm gonna have to rack my brain a little bit.

Well, I'm definitely delighted that you did recommend, we talk about this because I believe there's still a lot of confusion about business policies in general. And the solution for adding an option for replacements is pretty easy to explain. I think I remember that what you said in the text was I was a seller trying to figure out how to add that as an option for a listing that had already closed. And you can't because you actually have to have a business policy in place that includes that option for replacements. And you can create a new business policy in returns, and then add that option with business policies. Sellers can use the feature or the tool to create customized policies, giving them identifying names so they can tell which ones are which, and then they can select these policies during the listing process for both shipping and returns, or they can add them to existing listings, either as edits, single or bulk. And this cuts down on data entry during the listing process. I love these. I mean, it makes a big difference in being able to list quick or quicker. Brian, why don't you show them where to go so that they can figure out where to create a business policy and view all their existing business policies?

I'll be happy to. And also, I remembered exactly where I heard this from. This was from a seller who provides custom made goods and he did not want the item sent back to him because it just incurs an extra cost for him. So he wants someone to be able to say, Hey, I'll send you an exchange or a replacement and he didn't have it set up and wanted to know how to set it up. My hope is he is listening and we'll be able to put this into play for his business.

Let's hope he's listening.

To be able to do this though. Here's the navigation. To create a new business policy, go to the Seller Hub, active view, click business policies in the left hand column, then click business policies again in the left hand column, click create policy and select return. Fill out the options as provided for the new return policy. Check the box at the very bottom for replacements or exchange available. Now, this is important. You have to do this before you list, give your new policy a name that identifies it as a return policy with replacement option. You can edit any existing listings in bulk to change their return policy, to the new return policy with the replacement option. And then you can also select this new policy for any new listing. When you create it.

If the Seller, you were talking about has a few listings where they want to be able to add that as the option of replacement or exchange, they can select those in their active view and then click edit and bulk edit them all at once. And there's one thing I need to mention here, because there's some confusion also about just how this works. You as the seller, you can provide the option to a buyer for their selecting, either a refund or replacement or exchange, but be aware that it's the buyer who selects the option at their choice. When they open a return request. You may offer a replacement, a buyer still may want a cash refund and that's the buyer's option. The seller can't make that decision.

But if you want to give that option to the buyer. So in the dropdown, when the buyer is going to communicate with you and they say, do you want to return the item? And they're giving the reason or what they want. If you want replacement as an option there, you have got to do this first, because if you don't do this, they don't even see this as an option because we only actually want to provide the buyer this option when a seller has told us, yes, I will do an exchange or a replacement.

Thus the need to create. If you don't have one, a specific return policy that allows for this.

What I love about this feature is it really puts the seller in control.

Of course, I mean, it puts the seller in control and that they can provide the option, but eventually it's the buyer who determines that well anyway.

So that was great advice, Griff.

I know Brian.

If you want to benefit from our excellent advice and answers here on the eBay for business podcast, why not call us on (888)-723-4630.

That is (888)-723-4630. You can call that number any day of the week, any time of day, just leave a question or comment. And if it's family friendly and G rated, we just might put it on the air, but you're asking I'm not a phone person!

Not to worry. If you're not a call on the phone person, you can always email us at podcast@ebay.com that's podcast@ebay.com.

Well, Brian, another week, another episode, but wait, we really aren't done until we remind everyone of their daily podcast to do list. It only has three entries to check Brian.

The announcement board for up-to-date seller news. Griff.

Read up on the new 2020 eBay Fall Seller Update at www.ebay.com/sellerupdate. And finally check out the transcript for this and all episodes for follow up on what you've heard and to see the links we referenced during the episode. You can also post your questions on the episode, chat board for possible inclusion in a future episode.

And on our next episode, we'll meet another seller whose story was selected as one of our 25 winners of the 25 Years Of eBay's Story.

We'd like to, again, thank our guests this week, eBay sellers, Quorvardis and Carlo of QCConsigns, Head of Seller Finance and Add Ons at eBay, Devin Payne and Head of Product at LendingPoint Lee Chau and Manager of Global Seller Update, Justin Johnson.

The eBay For Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.