Episode 53 || You’re the Voice Contest Winner, eBay VP Mohan Patt from eBay Open, and More

[doug@ebay]

In this week's episode we’ll hear from Shine award winner Clara Jeanne LaCelle as well as eBay Seller Peggy Smith on our Better Know A Seller segment. We’ll also hear Mohan Patt, Vice President of Buyer, Ads & Retail Standards, from eBay Open 2019, telling us about the new buyer experience. In The Buzz, we’ll talk about Chicago UpFront, trending topics from the eBay Community, eBay news, and we’ll also announce our You’re the Voice contest winners! Jen Deal is back with another edition of What’s Hot with sourcing news around Tech, Baby Tech, Weather preparedness and football. We’ll also answer some seller questions. To have your questions answered on eBay for Business, call us at 888 723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com.

eBay for Business- Episode 53 – You’re the Voice Contest Winner, eBay VP Mohan Patt from eBay Open, The Buzz, What’s Hot and More

In this week's episode we’ll hear from Shine award winner Clara Jeanne LaCelle as well as eBay Seller Peggy Smith on our Better Know A Seller segment. We’ll also hear Mohan Patt, Vice President of Buyer, Ads & Retail Standards, from eBay Open 2019, telling us about the new buyer experience. In The Buzz, we’ll talk about Chicago UpFront, trending topics from the eBay Community, eBay news, and we’ll also announce our You’re the Voice contest winners! Jen Deal is back with another edition of What’s Hot with sourcing news around Tech, Baby Tech, Weather preparedness and football. We’ll also answer some seller questions. To have your questions answered on eBay for Business, call us at 888 723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com.

Links

#ebaypodcast

ebay.com/podcast

ebay.com/sellingonebay

ebay.com/meetups

ebay.com/community

ebay.com/sellercenter

ebay.com/payments

ebay.com/communitychat

explore.ebay.com

eBay.com/TheNorthFace

ebayinc.com/BatonRouge

https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/retail-revival-empowering-small-businesses-adding-new-jobs-in-b...

ebay.com/salestax

https://community.ebay.com/t5/eBay-UpFront/ct-p/Chicago

https://www.flippertools.com/ebayYoutube/embed-youtube-videos-in-ebay-listings.htm

Hosts

Griff, Alan Aisbitt, Jen Deal, Doug Smith

Guests

Mohan Patt (eBay Staff), Liz Austin (eBay Staff), Clara Jeanne LaCelle (eBay Seller), Peggy Smith (eBay Seller)

Transcript

Hey Alan. Guess what?

Griff. What's happening?

It's a special anniversary.

Oh, it is? What is it?

It's August. It's beginning of August. What did we start in August?

Last August?

Yeah, last August. What did we start doing?

I started a new diet. Losing some weight.

No, that's not what we're talking about.

No, looking good.

Yeah. Fabulous. You are a skeleton to begin with.

Thank you. Thank you. Let me see. So we would have just finished eBay Open.

And what happened at eBay Open?

We said goodbye to eBay Radio and we started a podcast.

Thank you very much. That was like pulling teeth. It's the one year anniversary of our podcast, show 53. So you figure 52 weeks, it kind of works out. But we started in the beginning of August, first week of August. This is the beginning of our second year.

Well look at us! We've come a long way in a year.

And we've only just begun. You can look for more compelling seller stories and tips and news in the weeks ahead. Just tune into the podcast.

I'm Alan.

And I'm Griff and this is the eBay for Business podcast, your weekly source for the information and inspiration you need to start, run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. Welcome to episode 53 Alan.

Hi Griff. Glad to be here.

On this week show Alan, we'll hear from Shine Award Winner, Clara Jeanne LaCelle as well as eBay Seller, Peggy Smith on our Better Know A Seller segment. I recorded both of them at eBay Open. They have great stories to tell.

Nice and we'll also listen into your interview with Mohan Patt, eBay Vice President of Buyer Experience. Mohan talks in depth about the new buyer experience when it comes to finding items. With an emphasis on how the new items specific changes and enhancements will help guide buyers to the specific items they seek. And then our good friend Jen Deal will be back with another edition of Whats Hot. Jen has sourcing news around tech, baby tech and weather preparedness.

And you've got questions.

Who me? Yeah, always.

No, no, not you. Them. And for those out there who can't see me, I'm pointing to our seller audience in case you are wondering.

Oh, our sellers, of course. You've got questions. We've got answers.

More specifically "we" as in Doug Smith and yours truly. Doug, will call in later to help us sort through the questions and their appropriate and with any luck accurate answers.

One more thing. Griff.

Yes. Alan. What's that?

Think about it. Some winners.

Yes. I nearly forgot. We as in the entire podcast team have selected the two top winners of the You’re The Voice contest and I will announce them later in the show. Each of the winners will receive a $500 eBay gift card to spend on well , guess which website you'd spend an eBay gift card on Alan?

Oh I know the one! We had over 50 sellers stop by the podcast boot to record their stories with us. Each one was entered as a contestant in the You're The Voice contest. And it wasn't easy selecting them Griff. As you know, we had many outstanding seller interviews recorded throughout eBay Open.

Yeah. There were a lot of interviews and we're going to get through them all and we'll announce the winners.

Nice.

All this and more. But first, The Buzz.

Welcome to The Buzz with Alan and Griff. You know it's a special one today.

Isn't every episode special, Griff? Especially in our new studio.

I know it's pretty exciting in here. We have a control room with a window look! It's really professional and everything. It's like we're pro.

That's what I just said. I can record my debut hip hop album now.

But first let's welcome our favorite correspondent from down under Liz Austin.

Oh Hey Liz, you're looking tired.

Thanks guys. I'm just back from Costa Rica.

Fantastic! Was the weather nice?

So good. Even though it's the green season, which is what they call their rainy season, which I think is the best marketing ploy ever because you wouldn't ever want to tell anyone that it's the rainy season.

Nice.

Very smart. Well Liz, what do you have for us?

I was hoping to make an announcement in this new smicker room of yours.

Well you can, if you're in the room you might as well make the announcement.

How good is it in here?

It's very good.

We have a window.

Yeah. Okay. I think we've made that clear. We have a window. That's The Buzz. We have a window.

Done. Goodbye.

So anyway, what's your announcement, Liz?

Well, we just announced the next eBay Up Front is going to be held in Chicago.

And Liz, remind us what UpFront is?

It's eBay going out and meeting our sellers in their own community. We heard from a lot of you that you couldn't get to Vegas, but you'd still love the idea of meeting with executives and hearing about the latest selling strategies. So we've organized a night's worth of awesome presentations, round table discussions, food, drink and desserts. And it's all free for sellers who attend. So far we've toured eBay Up Front around LA, Dallas and Miami and the next stops is Chicago, September 11th and New York in November. We haven't announced a date for New York, but it will come up.

So exciting. I went down to LA and what I love most about these events is that we're working with the local meetup organizers who run monthly meetings for eBay sellers and we're inviting sellers to meet their local community at Up Front so that when we leave and go back to San Jose Sellers have each other to continue to learn from how to sell. And after all sellers are already experts in selling and have the best advice and are always happy to help each other out.

Absolutely. How can sellers register Liz?

Sellers can go to community.ebay.com and on there we've got a banner that takes people to the registration page. You can check your emails if you live in Chicago. There should be an invite in your inbox and we'll keep sending those and you could go directly to the link, which we'll include in the podcast transcript, which is pretty handy.

Well, this is exciting news. What else do you have, Liz?

We have a new page on Seller Center. ebay.com/ebayforbusiness where sellers can go to find ways and different channels for selling, inspiration and education. That is where the podcast can be found. We've also got eBay For Business on Facebook, on Twitter, on Youtube, and also in the newsletter, which is a monthly eBay For Business bulletin, which is a snapshot of all the selling inspiration and updates you need to run your business. So go check out ebay.com/ebayforbusiness and follow along. That's it. Thanks for having me.

Thanks Liz. As you know, Griff, we're always passing on the voice of the seller from our community boards.

We are indeed.

And guess what? There were some questions this week around the Seller Protections, announced at eBay Open.

Well, what were some of the questions Alan?

Well, I won't bore you, but some of the most common questions we saw were are free returns required? How does a seller prove a return as a false, not as described claim and why would eBay believe sellers over buyers? What happens when the buyer reports to eBay that a seller's claim that an item was returned, although their damage was false. And why is eBay not providing more than a $6 credit for return shipping?

As always, I'm sure the community team answers these questions and clarifies how the new protections will work. What was the overall sentiment though?

Overall sentiment is really good. Sellers are excited that we're making progress on seller protections, especially around some topics that have been close to their heart for a long time. So there will be more information about these policies and as they're rolling out over the next couple of months. So I would encourage sellers if they are reading the policies and if they have questions to come and talk to the community team over on the community boards. And you can get that by going to community.ebay.com and jump over to the selling board and post your questions and we'd be more than happy to answer them.

That's great. Alan, what else is "Buzzing" this week?

Well, we've launched another Retail Revival.

Oh really?

Yeah. Always exciting news. Steve Wymer, who is eBay's Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer penned, an article on eBay Inc com with some insights. Steve wrote after months of preparation our eBay Retail Revival program officially launched this week in Baton Rouge. Ultimately, we will help small businesses find their place and thrive in a global economy by introducing their unique inventory to our 182 million customers around the world. And if you're in the area, applications to participate in the Baton Rouge Retail Revival are now open. Baton Rouge business owners can learn more and apply by Wednesday, August 21st at ebayInc.com/batonrouge. Mr Griff?

Yes?

I have one more important piece of news to share.

Well please share it.

It's about everybody's favorite topic, Internet sales tax. Another state has joined the roster. Ohio will start collecting internet sales tax on September 1st and we'll have all the details and a Seller News announcement in the community and there will be updates at ebay.com/salestax.

And that's all the news that fits to The Buzz. Up next, Shine Award Winner, Clara Jeanne LaCelle.

Continuing with our Shine Award Nominees who are here in attendance at eBay Open 2019 at the Mandalay Bay hotel and resorts in Las Vegas. I don't know why I'm giving them that plug. We're paying them. They're not paying us, but here we are. I'm joined by Clara Jeanne LaCelle. You like to go by Jeannie. Jeannie is one of our Shine Award Winners and she sells on eBay under the User Id of…

Surfinjunkie.

Surfinjunkie?

Not the ocean surfing. I am from California, but I'm not a surfer. Just surfing the internet.

Oh, surfing the internet and finding stuff to buy and sell obviously.

So what do you sell on eBay?

I sell mainly in health and beauty items, makeup, cosmetics.

Jeannie, you actually submitted your story for Shine Awards 2019 and were nominated as one of the winners. I'd like to learn more about what it was that sparked you to submit and what the story was.

What caught my attention was, I think it was an email or a headline of some sort that stated that the shine winner was going to be able to donate $10,000 to a charity of their choice. So that's what drew my attention first. I work with quite a few charities, one in particular in Sacramento, so my heart really is drawn to that area, so that was the big catch for me.

What is the charity?

The charity is called The Glass Slipper. It is a nonprofit organization that works with at risk youth in the Sacramento area. These are foster girls or girls that are in group homes that are very high risk. Most of them have been pulled into human trafficking or have been homeless. The majority of these girls, about 90% of them have been trafficked and the average age is about 12 years old.

12 years old. That's horrid.

Yeah. A recent FBI sort of tracking found that of all of the young people that are trafficked in the United States, about 50 to 70% of them are foster youth.

Oh, that's, that's really disheartening. But the charity, they help these poor children get restarted in life?

Yeah. They really teach them life skills and give them a foundation. They give them that family structure that they don't have to keep them accountable, help them with their schooling, make sure that they stay on track with their education. They teach them skills. Right now they're putting in a commercial kitchen for the girls and local chefs are going to come in and teach them culinary arts. They sew, they do crafts, they sell things at a little boutique. We're just trying to find something that they're excited about and get them to put their energy into it, into something positive so that we can keep them focused on their future.

This is what sparked you to submit, not to benefit yourself necessarily, but to benefit this charity.

Absolutely. So any time that Surfinjunkie is bestowed upon winning for this will go directly to them.

I wish you luck.

Thank you.

We've learned in the past that any of the Shine Award winners or nominees that are promoted, they do see benefits to their business as the years go on from all the promotion that happens.

Yeah, we've already got a lot of attention from the local media in Sacramento. I was on Good Day Sacramento last week and talked with them. I was on Channel 10, they did a spot on it and several of the newspapers. So The Glass Slipper is already getting calls and attention from this and so we really hope that it will rally our local community to get behind The Glass Slipper in what they're doing.

So you've already seen some reactions?

Yes, yes, we definitely have.

Already people offering help with whatever that they can do, whatever their skill is.

The Surfinjunkie your presence on eBay, you donate part of your proceeds to this charity?

Yes, we do. Last year we were able to donate close to $10,000. We did, we bought 40 brand new dresses for an event called Say Yes To The Dress. Where the girls got to come in and feel like Cinderella and pick out a brand new dress. We do a huge Christmas party for them. We've bought laptop computers to help them to study when they come to the program. We send them to summer camp and allow them to just go have fun and do that. Whatever their needs are, we try to contribute. If they have something that we feel like we can access and buy for them and help them out.

What would be your word of advice to me as a new seller with a charity interest in mind to get started so that I can help donate to my charity.

I grew up in foster homes. I was put into foster care at the age of five until 18 until I aged out of the system and, and I ended up homeless a couple of times. So obviously that's close to my heart. So what it would say to people is find something that's close to your heart. Maybe a situation that you've gone through that you've had a struggle and you can reach out to an organization that's helping with that. I know women that have had miscarriages and they do counseling and they work with women that are going through that situation or working with the homeless community or working with just a group of people that is struggling. Maybe you've gone through the struggle of alcoholism and you've been able to really change your life. Just get involved with that because people want to know and they want to hear from people that have gone through it. Because they know that you understand. So when I speak to these girls and I tell them, you have a future, do not give up. Keep going. Invest in yourself, that you really can turn this around. They know it's true because I've been able to do that. When you can speak to someone from the real experience. So find something that just sparks your heart, something that is really close to you that you're passionate about and find an organization that is working in that area. Jeannie, you are an inspiration to these girls, obviously because of your story. Have you had the benefit of seeing really great success with some of the girls that go through the program and see them blossom and grow into women that are happy and productive and fulfilled in their lives?

Oh, absolutely. I'll give you one example. Her name is Akoya. When I met her, she was 16. She had been put into foster care at the age of three, adopted at five. At 15 her adoptive family decided they no longer wanted to deal with a teenager. They threw her back in the system. She just ended up in terrible conditions. When she got involved with The Glass Slipper, we began to help her work through those issues and get back on track. So I actually told her, I said, I'm so impressed with you, if you will graduate from college, I'll take you to New York. I will absolutely spoil you. We will do everything you want to do. So we did. She was successful. She beat the odds. We went to New York, we saw like three or four Broadway plays. We went to everything which absolutely lavished her with love and it was just, she and I bonding at that time in New York. She just graduated from Sierra College with her AA. I went to her graduation party. She's transferring to Sac state. This is one example.

That's wonderful.

Where it's not a huge organization. We're working with about 40 girls at a time, but small enough to where we can develop those one on one mentoring relationships. Because when I was in high school, I ran away from a foster home that I was at when I was 16. I was just rebellious and I ended up on the streets for several months. But my high school English teacher, Mr Mulvihill found me and he just pulled me right back in and found me another home. And I think mentorship is the key because most people have a family structure. They have a mom or a dad that when we go off course they pull us back in, but these girls, they don't have that. They don't have anyone keeping them accountable, so it's that one on one mentorship where I think that that's what's making this organization The Glass Slipper so successful.

Well, I hope for continued success for The Glass Slipper. This has been a wonderful story and I assume you're enjoying the event?

I am. I'm having a great time. I'm really excited about the changes that eBay is making and I think this is such amazing progress. I'm so excited for next year to see where we will have come in this next year. But I think that the eBay team, the leadership team has an incredible vision right now that they're implementing and I'm excited to see what that looks like next year.

Well thanks. I'm sure they will love to hear this because there'll be listening. Jeannie, I want to thank you so much and continued success with The Glass Slipper up there in Sacramento. Thank you very much.

For the next several months. We are featuring each of the sellers who stopped by to talk with us at our booth at eBay Open this past July in an ongoing special segment here on the podcast. We're calling Better Know An eBay Seller and for this week's Better Know A Seller, I talked with eBay Seller, Peggy Smith, about her well-known son, Jason, and their YouTube videos as well as waterskis and of all things webbed aluminum lawn furniture. Here's that interview.

Behind every great and successful man. There's always a woman. In this case, a mother, and we're welcoming the mother of a very successfully eBay Seller who you've known and heard of before and has been on our show. Jason T. Smith, please welcome his mother, Peggy.

Hi Peggy.

Hi everyone. Good to be here.

So when Jason got started, you weren't necessarily in the business of selling on eBay?

No, I was not. I was still working at my real job.

What was that?

I was a sales representative for a cheerleading company, selling cheerleading uniforms. All the high schools, Ohio State University, you know, that kind of thing.

Can you twirl?

Oh No. I was just a cheerleader, not the twirler.

Just a cheerleader.

Yeah.

Well, how did this happen? How did you end up getting this?

I've finally retired. I had been dabbling a little bit with eBay, and Jason's says, mom, yet just go on ahead full time. And he said, you go to garage sales, you do flea markets, you do all of that anyway, so why not go ahead and sell? I said, yeah, good idea. So he gave me a two day training course way back when, just about 10 years ago now.

Wow. 10 years ago.

Yeah. And then I started to dabble and start out small with small, easy things to ship.

Sure. That is smart.

Yeah. And started with clothing mainly because it's so nice and easy.

You can't break clothes.

Yeah. And then it just kept evolving and the more we shopped, the bigger my items became.

Bigger? What are the items now?

We sell waterskis, we sell Polo mallets. We sell vintage webbed chairs. We sell, uh, the little Tikes huge toy chest.

Wait a minute. Back up. Webbed chairs? You mean those cheap aluminum frames?

Yes!

Those are valuable?

Those are valuable.

Get out!

Yes. And usually I find them at the garage sales for a dollar, maybe two. Nobody wants them, but you turn around and you sell them between anywhere from 35 to 50 bucks.

Oh get out!

And the lounge chair is even more.

You are kidding!

The lounge chairs are pushing close to a hundred.

I've sent so many of those to a landfill. I feel so stupid.

Yeah. Money on the table. And it's been really great. And then from selling, then Jason came up with the idea, well what we should do a mother son youtube show. So we do that on Sunday nights and it's called selling past your expiration date, being thrifty over 50. So we kind of geared towards towards the older crowd, but ours is a little bit more of a teaching show because I told Jason to do it slowly.

So you know, we can teach everybody anything new that's coming down, how to do it. And because us old timers, it takes us a little longer.

You know, the sponge is a little old, it takes a while to absorb.

It sure does. From there I started an Ohio meet up group.

Ohio? That's where you're based.

Yes, I'm from Ohio and so we have a great group of people. We probably average between 25 to 30 people every meeting and we just have a super time. And In this past summer, we normally meet on Saturdays through the Winter because on Saturdays everybody's thrifting in the Summer in our area. Our last month meeting was at my home and we had 40 people show up for that meeting and we had Craig and Rick, our Canadian sellers come down and they were our guest speakers. And I gave a guest presentation on seashells and it just, it just has been evolving. I'm at 76 years old, Griff. I said, how did this happen and why?

Wait a minute! You're 76?

I am.

You don't look a day over 60.

Oh, thanks sweetheart.

I know how to flatter them, don't I?

You sure do.

So you've been doing it a long time now, for 10 years.

For 10 years.

You are an old pro.

I am. I've learned so much.

Well you are a pro, I won't say old.

That doesn't bother me at all. I'm proud of where I am at at this stage of my life.

Sure. What do you tell sellers who come up to you and say, I want to get started? What's the most common bit of advice you give them? Yeah, my best tip for a beginner sell what you know about.

Start, start there, you know, pick an item. If it is clothing, ladies clothing or men's clothing, whatever the case might be. Start there. Something that you are knowledgeable about and then branch out. That's what I did. I did that, that exact same thing because then it just kept, you know, like I say evolving and I almost need the warehouse now myself.

It's the waterskis.

Yeah. Yeah.

Patio furniture.

Yeah. Yeah. We've done really well with waterskis and I've helped people when they watch our youtube show. Our Youtube show is, our first half hour is teaching and the second half hour is my scores of the week and my haul of the week. So I have gotten to show people my waterskis and my TV trays and the webbed chairs. And so people coming up to me here at eBay say, Hey, you've helped me so much because I never would have thought that that was something that would be salable.

And why waterskis? How did you get into those?

We saw them at a garage sale. And they were the older vintage ones are wood, you know, and so and beautiful. And they wanted a whole $5 for them. So I quick got out the phone and started looking.

I said, oh, we need to buy these. And so we bought our first pair and sold them for a hundred and a quarter for five bucks, you know? And it just, every time we see him now we buy them. And we have, we found a slalom that we paid two bucks for. It was called, Marquesa. I think was the name of it. Sold those for $150 one ski.

Well that's like printing money!

Yeah, I know. I mean, you know, so it's been very lucrative. It's been a little tougher now with the shipping changes that came about, you know, with the weight thing. And so that's been kind of a challenge, but we just switched over to FedEx Home Delivery.

And that's easier?

And that's easier and way cheaper. Way Cheaper.

Oh, that's good to know. I would not have considered that. So if I get a pair of waterskis, use FedEx Home Delivery.

Yeah. And when we shipped the waterskis, very simple. You turn them back to back, get out your shrink wrap and go around and around, around and around and put on your label and away they go.

That's all you have to do?

That's all you have to do.

It's so easy.

Very.

Wow. You're giving me some ideas.

Yeah, same thing almost with the web chairs. I've put cardboard on the sharper corners and just wrap them. Yeah, because some things just don't get hurt.

Yeah, I mean what could happen to shrink wrap right?

Yeah. If you want to be as inspired by Peggy as I just was, you want to check out their youtube channel and that again is, the promo here.

Thank you. It's selling past your expiration date, being thrifty over 50.

So check it out on YouTube and you can also find your store at old-wahini.

old-wahini. Look Peggy up on eBay as well. It's always a pleasure.

Always good to see you. Griff. Thank you so much.

We spoke with several eBay Executives last month at Open. And today we share our last Executive interview from that jammed packed Week of fun in Vegas and his name is Mohan Patt. Mohan outlined some of the work he and his team in the Buyer Experience and Core Experience Team have accomplished towards making the buyer experience more profitable for you sellers. Let's listen in.

One of our favorites is here with us now Mohan Patt. Mohan welcome.

Hey, glad to be here. Just a quick intro. I run the Buyer Experience Team at eBay. I've been at eBay for 14 years. I've been at Open and for the last three, four years. Great privilege to be here with our sellers and love showcasing great things that we're building for both buyers and sellers.

That connection is a lot tighter than people think. It really pays to understand the buyer and the seller.

100% Harry, my colleague runs Seller Experience, were like thick as thieves. I mean everything we do, we do it together because it's a two sided marketplace. And what we built for buyers, sellers are the one who's bringing the inventory and we gotta make that connection and we got to make it easy for sellers and we need to explain why so that it can build amazing experience. What I had the opportunity was to show a lot of great experiences that we, eBay and Sellers can do together to deliver those so that we have buyers engaged in our platform. Harry showcased a lot of cool things that makes that process easy for sellers and gives them a reason why.

We're talking about showcasing here at eBay Open.

Oh yeah, here at the eBay Open. It was just a lot of great updates today.

When we talk about updates. This was during the general session. Talk about a little bit what you announced and what you showcase for the folks who didn't have the benefit of being here or watching the stream.

What I shared today is we've done a lot to attract customers. Our marketing team and programs have been great and we've had constant buyer growth but that's mostly coming from new customer acquisition. What we need to do is to really get our buyers to spend more on eBay, buy more on eBay. And one of the simplest thing but extremely powerful thing that we launched today and will be shared today is ability for buyers to easily buy a game. You know, a simple thing, you go to my eBay, go to your purchasers. The first thing we did, that history is now three years. You used to see only 90 days. We've made it three years. And then we put a very simple button to say you bought this thing from the seller, you had a great experience and you want another one, hit buy again and it goes to the listing and you can buy right away. And as sellers, all you have to do is to make sure that if you're selling multi quantity listings, please use fixed price, good till canceled because your buyers are looking for your products again. So that they can come back and buy it. It is just an amazing experience. There are plenty of examples where you're buying things that you need every month, every other month, and I really want to build a path to subscription because I've done all the research. I found an awesome seller on eBay who is selling this printer paper or selling this battery or selling this kind of sandpaper that I like and I just want to buy it and I know I need five of them every month. We are really thinking about the next step in this journey is a buyer to say, you know what? I need two of these every month for the full year, but sellers have to offer some sort of a further discount, but it's worth everybody's time because you get a guaranteed sale every month from this customer. You build your customer base because my goal is to make eBay a daily habit for our buyers. That is what keeps buyers engaged in our platform. Versus going somewhere else and paying a membership fee for things that half of that you don't even want.

I wonder who that would be. Okay. They shall be nameless, but okay.

That's what we can do. eBay and sellers in partnership can do because we have everything that we need to power those kind of experiences.

I want to make this clear. If you're a seller that has, for example, a health supplement that I want to buy. And you have it as good until canceled and you keep canceling the listing and relisting it cause you think you're getting some sort of quote unquote benefit, I'm not going to see you the next time I go to buy again. Right? It's because the item number is so important.

I run the Search Team at eBay and I can tell you this. Canceling listings and creating again, it's not helping you.

It's not.

It's not helping you. I run search. The entire Search Team worked for me. I can be very clear. I think your past sales history is more important than anything else. It plays a role in this new experience we're launching called buy it again and honestly this is your path to subscription. This is your path to volume discounts. It's another one that we showed where anytime when you're selling multi quantity and you give discounts, when a buyer buys more than one , conversion gains, we're seeing out are the range of five to 10%. Honestly, most of our sellers, thank you because you offer free shipping, you're putting two of the vitamin pills in the same box. It's $5 shipping that you pay for it, but you still pay five bucks when you've got two sales and the buyer's getting a, you know, 3% 5% discount. That's why when you think about multi quantity, these are all the levers to use. Create a great listing, build your sales history, offer multi quantity discounts and also now you're part of buy it again and hopefully when we are finished building it. You're on the path to having a subscribe buyer base that buys your products every week, every month, whatever the frequency they want, and let's do this together.

A lot of sellers will not have that product forever. They may run out of stock, but I noticed if it's not the original seller, it says buy similar. And at first I was a little, how is this going to work? I clicked on one. It was the exact same product. Another seller had it.

Yeah, it's perfectly normal if you've run out of it. But if you're going to bring it back again, I would say, don't end the listing. Put the quantity to zero and then when you have stock back again, put the quantity back and your item number still stays. But if your listing is not available, you don't have any quantity. We take it to a similar listing and most of the time we take it to almost the same product. And even if it is not, the customer can look for it and find another. If you're not keeping your stock in that listing and you're not keeping the same listing but the same item number, this is going to send it to another seller. One of your competitors. So stay competitive. Keep the stock up there.

Absolutely. And keep the stock on eBay. The other couple of things that we shared today is our continued focus on images. Anytime on the eBay app, if you see an image of a product, you should start a new search from there. In the world we live today, image, voice, text. They all have to work together. So you can do a text search on eBay, find something great and because you've described it only to the extent that you can and then use that image to start a new search. And then we are also doing item pivots, which is really the focus around getting sellers to describe the product using item specifics. So that we use it on the buy side. And again, what we find out is that almost 80% of all eBay searches include some sort of an items specific such as brand, size, color. Because nobody says I want to buy a TV. They say I want to buy at 32 inch TV or a red shoe or a red running shoe. So that's customer intent. And US sellers get only 80 characters in the title. So use the item specifics. And there's more updates on this to come. As provided great tools for sellers to know which item specifics matter, how many searches. Now I can be part of if I fill the item specifics. So you can do the math in your head to say, well you know, if you want more sales, first of all you need to be visible. And by providing this item specifics you are in that search result, you will get ranked higher and you will see sales.

This information, if I have access to it, might actually help me when I'm sourcing product. Knowing what the ones are most searched for by item specific.

100%. Like you can pick any category. If you're looking for, what are the brands that people are looking for in dresses or shoes? Or what kind of styles people are looking for? And it may vary seasonally. So this is a real time information that is available in our selling flows. Also available in APIs for using a third party, ask a third party to integrate with those APIs. I think this is the first time we've made sure that our sellers understand why this matters. Because buyers are looking for it. eBay, it's job is to really in the simplest world connect buyers and sellers. Buyers are using a language to look for things, inwards, inquiries and filters. Sellers are kind of using that in title, but we're asking you to also fill the item specifics so we can make the connection. And I can assure you that the test that we've done, great conversion went and we're not asking for things that you cannot know. It's very easy. You have the product in front of you, you know what the material is, you know what the pattern is. We were asking for UPC last year and that took us to some extent and then pushing that further more honestly, we felt like it's a tax on our settlers. It's not going to give us the benefit. And because it's for more commodity goods, head products where it makes sense. We will still want that. We want the UPC so that we can associate it to the catalog. But a lot of soft goods, clothing, used goods, even for commodity products. If you've thrown the box away, you don't have the UPC, but you can tell me this is an iPhone seven this is this color, the size that is good enough to get you to the right buyers. That is why this thing is super important. And then the last thing I want to share, which I'm super excited about and we shared this today, doesn't even have a name. It's a new experience that we're trying to build of bringing content and commerce together. Which is really allowing our buyers to stay engaged on the platform. If you're into comic books, if you are into trading cards, if you're into baseball cards or if you're into clothing, if you're into camping. It is bringing interesting articles, content videos, that's off platform outside of eBay, allowing our buyers to read about it. But then showing items that they read about it in the article. How to have your first camping trip with your son. Great article. Here's 10 things you need. Here are all the items to buy on eBay. Now we're doing this as a small pilot in certain areas, but my ultimate goal is to give that to sellers so you as sellers can write about the areas that you guys are honestly the experts. We're not the experts. You are the experts. You can write about anything out there that you're passionate about, that you know more about. And you can actually say and here are the items that if you really like this you can buy to go learn something or you can put a recipe to go sell the goods that you're selling. That is where I think really the community comes together. The sellers are providing content that points to their items and buyers are coming to eBay because the content is fresh. This is where the community at scale can really, really help us. So those are like the four really, what I think are game changing experiences on the buy side. But the best thing of the day that I saw was Image Cleanup.

Yeah, that's what everyone's talking about.

It is just crazy. Every seller that's coming up up to the podcast booth. That's their favorite thing so far.

It is so cool. You can take your photo, do your best to take the best photo. But on top of that, this tool, again the same technology we used on the buy side to do Image Search, we changed that to say, can we just clear the background and the noise and just put a white background on it. I thought Harry was faking it, but actually it's all real true. He did some real tough examples on the stage and it did a really good job of cleaning the background and those products just look great.

They pop.

And they pop really well. And remember we talked about Image Search. Image Search is getting bigger and bigger on eBay and when you have great images with white background, again you get ranked higher. So I advise all sellers to utilize this and really get all of your images cleaned up with this new technology. Sign up for the Beta. Harry is looking for sellers who want to sign up for the beta.

I am signing up, that's for sure.

It just makes your listing look like it's got that white glove touch to it. It is just beautiful.

Plus it's much more efficient than having to do it in post photography editing.

No, it's, it's, it's just makes it an experience. The way they built it. It's in the flow. You take a photo and right away it tells you like, look, I found that I can actually make your photo look better. And here's your original one you took and here's one we cleaned up. You the seller is still in control and it's just in line. Beautiful. It's really great.

Mohan, this has been a pleasure. Are you enjoying eBay Open?

I'm just having a great, great time. It's just the biggest celebration, of in many ways what powers eBay. Which is our sellers and the amazing inventory that they bring and the businesses that they run.

I mean, none of this would exist if not their passion and their commitment to making eBay successful. So I'm just privileged to work for a company that just honors that.

Well, we've been talking to Mohan Patt and he's currently heading up Buyer Experience. But the actual title of what you do is?

It is the Core Product Experience. But I focus on the Buyer Experience and the Promoted Listing Ads Platform.

Mohan. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of eBay Open.

You too. Thanks for having me.

We'll see you back in the office.

Sure. Bye.

We here on the eBay For Business Podcast Team. Want to thank all of our Execs who took time to talk with us in our booth. Sharing their accomplishments and their vision for a better marketplace on eBay for buyers and sellers. Up Next, What's Hot.

And now it's time to revisit what's hot with our guests. Jen deal. Welcome Jen.

Hey Griff.

Tell us what's going to be selling in September and beyond.

Well, this is going to be a quick update because I don't want the technology I talk about to be obsolete by the time this podcast is finished.

Moves that fast?

That's right.

Okay. Let's run through your list.

A couple of important things to note about sourcing and planning listings for the next several weeks. Sales of baby items peak two months in the year and September is one of those months.

Really, September? I wonder why that is.

Yeah. Actually I think we talked about it on a past podcast. It's a big baby month for baby births. Birthdays.

So you go back nine months. What happened nine months ago?

It was like cold winter holidays.

Yeah, I get it.

Yeah. This also coincides with many announcements in cell phones and the start of electronic sales as we start the end of back to class sales. And the early beginnings of holiday season for those prepared shoppers.

Oh, right. It's always they announce the new phones this time of year.

Yep.

Okay. That's top of mind.

Top of mind. Also, if that wasn't enough, the weather starts to turn here in the northern hemisphere and hurricanes, winter storms and other cranky mother nature occurrences happen. As homeowners are looking at home improvements for seasonal changes. They are also thinking about weather and disaster preparedness.

Or you should be, if you're out there in podcast land and you haven't put that on your list yet.

Right. So you would, depending on where you live.

Yeah, it's very true.

So let's get to the list.

Okay, so the list. In baby tech, this is where we're going to start. Other than standard baby giftables and consumers like diapers, onesies, bottles and blankies. New technology meant to make parenting easier. Our top sellers include baby soothers, like Baby Shusher for babies.

What is a Baby Shusher.

It's this device that makes like shushing sounds..

I need this for my everyday life.

Get one. It's a top seller.

I'm going to get one.

Does it go, Shh!

No, it's a little more softer. It's like shh.

Oh, I need an aggressive one for meetings.

Maybe you can turn up the dial. I don't know.

Hey , pipe down in there!

Yeah. So Hatch Baby Rest Sound Machine. Similar, but their version of the ocean, I guess.

It's like white noise for babies.

That's right. Baby and Toddler video sound and door/movement monitors.

What are those for?

If you want to know if they've rolled over. If you want to watch them on the screen. if you want to hear them cry. All of the above. That's what those are. The doors slash movement monitor one is interesting because it's for when toddlers climb out of their crib.

Oh, they do that?

Yeah. And then you can tell if they've moved or open the door.

Right. That's why you put wire mesh on the top of the crib.

(laughter).

Cheaper.

Right. Exactly. We had our systems. Bottle and formula warmers. In fact, there's a Keurig type system for formula.

Oh No, you're kidding with pods?

With pods.

Oh, brother.

Baby Formula Pods, you know. Vibrating mattress pad devices and programmable bassinets and swings.

Well, I get the last one. I've seen those automatically swinging swings, but what is a vibrating mattress?

So there's this small little pad. It looks, it's smaller than a diaper pad where you lay the baby on, but, it vibrates and you slip it under the baby. So there's a little bit of a vibration and they feel like things, I dunno whether they're feeling like they're in a moving car or something.

Sellers, you need this. Put this in your inventory. I don't know where you're going to get it, but if you can get your hands on these, , these are the top sellers in baby tech.

You can just, you know, make them yourself. Right.

Okay, Griff. You can try that. Digital thermometers. Pacifier style being the top seller.

Oh, they have digital thermometers in the style of pacifiers.

Yeah.

That took a long time to figure out.

Right. It seems so common sense.

Yeah it does.

I actually liked that one a lot. And then sleep monitors, by the way, have a digital sock.

A digital sock?

Yes. So you put, it's kind of like a foot wrap on the baby and then it monitors their sleep.

How nice for them. I need that. Do they make them an adult sizes?

They do. We're going to get into that next. It is actually called a Fitbit or a Garmin or you know, I use an app called sleep cycle on my phone. I love it. It's great.

So for those reproducers out there, you want to stock inventory for them, you may be one yourself seller.

Right, right. Overall baby items, toys and giftables and these new digital gadgets are the things to list for peak selling season in September for baby tech.

So that's baby and baby tech.

Yes. And then for cell phones, I don't touch on the new cell phones necessarily because the new cell phones, once they hit the streets, they will sell. So hopefully if you have access to them and not every seller does, those are definitely things to list. On eBay, they sell really, really well on the site.

Well there's people who they're not even looking for huge stock. They'll buy one or two in a pre sale and then sell them.

Yeah. Those early adopters are willing to spend money on them. And we've often seen where we move into that scarcity situation. Where they'll actually pay a little bit more than retail for a really limited, whether it's color, stock, unlocked, those things.

Got to have it before everyone else.

That's right. That's right. So definitely list those. But also the last two to three seasons of iPhones, the Google Pixel and Samsung phones are popular onsite.

Hmm. I should sell mine.

Definitely. So if you have those in your drawers, if you have access to them, if your friends have them and are willing to sell to you for the low, low price of...

Nothing. Five finger discount.

Yeah. Check those drawers.

What else in the electronics category?

Well, memory cards, high-end SLRs and lenses. Airpods and wireless earbuds, all still Top Sellers. Smartwatches and fitness watches. That's the Fitbit and Garmin in particular. Phone chargers, mobile, home and wireless. And I call those out specifically because they have those new cool pads that are wireless and you just lay your phone on them.

Oh yeah. Que Chargers.

Yeah. So you don't actually have to plug them in. So those are popular . TV mounts, cables and remotes still seem to be selling along with devices. I noted this because it was a little bit strange to me, although it makes sense. At the same time, people still have to connect their TVs to things.

Yeah. They're not putting art on their wall. They're putting TVs on their wall.

Right.

Smart. If your art isn't selling, start selling tv mounts. You will do better.

The tip of the day. Yeah, by the way. In electronics as a competitive space, more than 90% of sellers ship free on most of their products. TVs aside.

Yeah. Most of the sellers who sell TVs charge shipping.

That's right. It is freight usually.

Right. And it's going to vary from place to place. It'd be really hard to work in a price to the cost of the TV.

Yeah, exactly. But I found this interesting and I pointed it out because it is a very competitive space. That's where margins generally are very tight, but more than 90% of our sellers are offering free shipping there. So by comparison, baby sellers are a smaller percentage of that competitive playing field and just over 60% ship free. So this may be an untapped market for some of you out there looking to expand your categories.

I think I'll get into baby things and list them on the site.

Okay. What are you thinking about specifically? I Dunno, where would you start? With digital? With onesies?

I was thinking of baby fashion.

Oh, fashion.

Yeah. Drag Queen, baby. I like it.

Could be a thing. Yeah. As a seller, list your electronics items now and as much of it as you can in preparation, not only for September but for the coming winter holiday months. And if you list now you can set up from us for the whole season.

Well that was great information. I'm going to go through my drawers and look for phones.

Yeah, I think I will too.

Now the last section that we're going to talk about is weather related items.

Weather related items, disaster and weather preparedness time. It's for me at least, I still feel like it's the beginning of summer, although we are dwindling down.

It's over now.

Very quickly, hard to switch gears on this. But the things to list include tactical flashlights.

Those really bright ones.

The really bright ones, good sizes, smaller sizes, but there's some larger ones too. The regular flashlights and batteries, tarps.

You can live under those.

Yup. You can cover things up. You can move bodies. I don't know that firsthand. Food and first aid kits for families or homes of four. Single unit kits and multiples of these kits. So bundling the bundles is a tip you can use too, when you're selling these during this time of year.

Earthquake kits, you can sell them to Oklahoma buyers.

Yeah. Hardware and tools, axes, drill, drill bits, hammers, chainsaws and nails pick up. Actually, not just for weather, but because it's naturally also that time of year for home improvements.

What are you building? A torture chamber?

No. I am building a place to hold my electronics.

I get it.

Generators.

I bought these in the past.

Have you?

Yeah, I have one at home.

Portable?

Yeah.

Okay. So we do sell a lot of portable. We sell a lot of the standard sizes, and occasionally when weather gets really, really bad, we'll send up to the 10,000 Watt full size.

That's what I have. 10,000 Watt.

So for those that have small businesses or that are trying to keep their business running during disasters, we have all sizes. Camping gear. This is the last push for the season for tents, ropes, lanterns, etc. Those might have to be priced a little bit more aggressively, but it just depends on supply and demand. So take a look at the site. Draft door stoppers, window sealants and indoor and outdoor cameras are popular. Headlamps and portable lamps are particularly popular. And then interesting and new in this section are the hand crank radio and phone chargers.

Oh, I have one. Yeah, you can crank it and it will charge your phone and it's a little radio.

Yeah. Yeah. I've always seen the radio ones, but they've come out with even more fancy phone charger ones. I don't know if you don't have to crank as hard or what, but because of that, these have become popular.

Well my hand gets tired, so what I do is I hook it up to a hamster cage. My hamster charges the phone. It's old tech meets new tech.

There you go. That's fancy.

Well there's a lot to unpack here, Jen. As usual, whenever you share something with us. Where can sellers go to find out more about these particular items and more?

They can always go to explore.ebay.com.

That old site we know and love.

That's right. You can look at graphs of seasonality and cyclicality. You can look at price points and you can see other listings there. And if you're a basic store and above or not, maybe you have a subscription, you can use Terapeak.

Right. And Terapeak is great for figuring out trends. So that will help you source when you're looking for inventory for the upcoming holiday season.

That's right. And if you want to know, this is also where I found and pulled a lot of stats around those competitive set with shipping. Oh yes. So the cost of shipping by item or by category and how many of the sellers are actually supporting that.

So check out Terapeak, check out the you need to stock your shelves. You may think it's too early. Most every major retailer, small or large has already figured out what they're going to list for the holiday season. You're no different. You got to get your inventory ready. Jen, I want to thank you. It's always a pleasure.

Always fun to be here.

Jen Deal. Jen Works in our Marketing Team but she loves our Podcast Team, so she comes and spends time with us.

That's right. I'll see you next time.

Coming up next, We will take some questions and hopefully we'll have answers.

Time now to answer a few seller questions that were left on our podcast hotline number (888) 723-4630. And joining me now to help with the questions all the way live from beautiful downtown Temecula is Doug Smith. Welcome Doug.

Hi Griff.

So Doug, what do you have for us this week in the way of questions?

Well, we ran through the messages left over last week and we selected three questions to answer.

Oh, three questions. Fantastic! Let's start with the first one.

Well of course I wouldn't start with the last one.

Oh brother.

But anyway, our first question was left by eBay seller Monique, and she has a question about Terapeak and stores subscriptions.

My name is Monique. My Id on eBay is ( inaudible). My question is, do you know if Terapeak wil

l be available for starter or subscriptions also? And if so, when do you think that would roll out? Well, Griff. What do you think? Are there plans to include the starter store level in the free Terapeak subscription that basic stores and above currently enjoy?

The first answer is no. There are no plans. The starter level is a very bare bones level to get people, as we said, started with an eBay store. But there are no plans to include the starters store level as part of the free subscription base for Terapeak. You'll have to upgrade your store to the basic or above.

Okay. Sorry, Monique. As Griff said, if you want to get a free Terapeak subscription, you'll have to upgrade to a basic store or above.

Well, nothing like starting off with bad news. Doug, thanks a lot. Well, what's our second caller question?

Well, Griff. Our next caller has a question about a feature in the new Returns flow.

Oh Returns. It's always a popular topic. I can't wait to hear it. Okay. Hit the play button.

My Name is David Rapports. My eBay ID is E. K. U. S. P. A. R. T. S. Recently, eBay has changed the process of returns and has included a re list check. If you want to re list your part after you were given return, it is defaulted as box is checked. Why can't we have the default to be unchecked? And if you want to re list it, you would have to check it. Thanks a lot.

What do you think Griff? Possible to change the default checkbox?

Uh, no. The reason why is because we think of the majority of sellers and transactions. And the vast majority of sellers who issue a refund after accepting a return want to re list the item. In deference to the majority, we decided that the default setting would be that the box for realist would be checked and we want the merchandise back on the site. So in most cases a seller is going to re list the items. So that's, that's what it is. If you're not going to re list the item or you're not going to re list it right away, it is a simple mouse move to uncheck the box.

And yet another bit of bad news.

Doug!

You're hitting two for two so far, Griff.

Oh yeah. Thanks Doug. I wouldn't call this last one bad news per se. It is really just a fact. I mean we have to go with the majority and like I said, the majority of sellers do re list an item once it's been returned.

Understandable. Shall we try for a better response on our third question? Oh, you know, I can only hope so. We might as well. Shoot.

All right. Our third and last question this week comes from eBay seller Paul and he has a question about including something in an eBay description. Let's listen in.

I wonder what it is.

This is Paul Huffman. My username is P. E. P. Y. My question is for many years I was able to provide video within my description for eBay. I don't believe that's possible anymore. Does eBay have plans to make that available again sometime in the future? Thank you.

Okay. Griff. You got good news or bad news for Paul?

Well finally Doug, it's a question that I can answer in the affirmative. So yes, Doug, we have good news for Paul! Paul, you can include videos in your descriptions. It's not super easy, but it really isn't that hard either. It's kind of in between. Now I should mention first that we did in fact change how a seller can include a video in their listings. Way Back in March of 2017 when we started disallowing the inclusion of what is called active content from all eBay descriptions. Now we did this for security reasons and the details of which I won't get into here, but you can indeed include a video in your descriptions by following some simple steps. Doug, you ready for the steps?

I am ready.

All right, so the first step that Paul has to do is take the video. So take your video and then upload it. You can use YouTube or Vimeo or one of the other allowed video hosting sites that eBay lists on our links policy page. Go Up to the link for help and contact. And then when you're on that page, type in links and you'll find the policy. Now the next step after you've hosted your video is to copy the URL for the video to your clipboard. For example, if you host the video on Youtube, go to your uploaded video YouTube page. And then look for the share link, click it, and then select the copy option to copy the video link to your computer's clipboard. All right, so then the next step then is to generate the html five embed code you'll need for pasting into the html view of your item on the listing page. Okay, so creating the embed code. What do you think I am Griff? Some sort of programmer? No And I don't expect you to be. In fact, there's some really nice people who created pages that'll do it for you automatically. You can find them If you search on Google with the phrase, add video to eBay listing. Just search on add video to eBay listing and you'll see, but a few of all of the examples of sellers and programmers who put some tools out there. Now, one that I found that I liked that's easy to use is by flipper tools. That's flipper as in the Dolphin. Flipper tools. Now we'll include a link to that one in our episode transcript, but you can also find it if you just search on Google. So follow the instructions right there. Each of these pages will ask you to paste in the URL that you copied from your video hosting site. It will automatically behind the scenes generate the html five embed code text, and once you've generated that html five embed code text for whichever embedded code tool you've selected, you copy it to a text editor, says copy and then paste. And in windows that'd be note pad or in Mac it's text edit. I don't know what it is in Linux, but I don't suppose any of our sellers are using that. I don't know, maybe, I mean I shouldn't assume, but then you'll have a copy of that entire text ready to go. Now here's the last step. I know this sounds like a long process, but once you've done it once, it's easy. So during the listing process, when you come to the description box, you create your entire description in the standard tab and then once it's complete, click the html tab on the top of the description box. Go copy your embedded texts that you got from the generator webpage and find a place inside the existing html code. Just read through it. You'll see some places where it's just text that you've actually typed. And then paste it in where you want the video to show up. Most sellers put it towards the bottom of the description. So once you find where it is, just paste it in. And then to see what you've done, click the standard tab and you can look to see where the embedded video is showing up. And if you aren't happy with the placement, just repeat the last step until you're happy. You know, delete it, go back, copy it until you get it right. And that's it. That's how you get a video into the listings. Should it be simpler? Probably. Will it be simpler? Will eBay provide this? Who knows? Maybe, but for now, this is the way you can do it. It's the way a lot of sellers are doing it. We got one where we could say, yes, it is possible.

What do you think? I am a programmer.

No, are you?

No, I don't. You know, I don't know, but I do like flipper tools. Excellent. Griff. Some good news. So you're not bad, one out of three today.

Yeah, I'm so glad you're keeping scores Douggie. So where can sellers go to leave a question for us?

Well Griff, they can leave a message on our podcast hotline by calling (888) 723-4630. They can also email us at podcast@ebay.com or leave a question in the comments section of any podcast episode on the podcast section of our eBay community platform at www.ebay.com/podcasts.

Thanks Doug. Now your job here is done. Get back to work there in Temecula and we'll see you again next week.

Thanks Griff.

And last but not least, as promised at the start of the episode, it's time to announce the two winners of the eBay For Business podcast. You're The Voice Contest. It wasn't easy selecting a winner from so many wonderful interviews, but in the end and after several rounds of voting, the team chose two winners. So drum roll please. Congratulations to Terry and Todd Thayer and Craig Dawson and Rick Balenger. You both win a $500 eBay gift card to spend on where else? eBay. Thanks to everyone who entered by stopping by to be interviewed at our booth at eBay Open. We'll have another contest next year and hopefully we'll see you then.

And that's our show for this week.

Join us next week as we start delving into one of my favorite topics, leaning into the holidays.

Yeah, and if you think it's too early to start talking business about the holidays, well think again. Most retailers have already finished their holiday planning and their holiday sourcing and they're now starting to execute.

That's right Griff. In fact, if you haven't started planning for the holiday shopping season by now, you're late.

Yeah, but don't worry, you can catch up. You're nimble. Just listen to next week's episode. We'll also meet with more eBay Sellers from eBay Open and we'll talk with another Shine Award winner.

And if you want to join the phone here on the eBay For Business podcasts, you can be part of this show when you call us on (888) 723-4630.

That's right. That's the number (888) 723-4630 and you can call that hotline anytime of the day, any day of the week. You can leave a question or a comment and we just might put it on the air.

And we have our very own email address where you can send your questions if you prefer. It's podcast@ ebay.com that is podcast@ebay.com.

Hey, want to spice up your eBay selling life? Well, it's easy. Just to attend a local eBay seller meet up in your area. At seller meetups, sellers share tips, stories, pie recipes, insights, even a few caveches. You can see seller meetups that are scheduled on our special eBay community page for meetups at www.ebay.com/meetups.

And don't forget to tune into our weekly live video stream on the eBay For Business Facebook page every Wednesday at 12:30 Pacific. Go to facebook.com/ebayforbusiness and then after the live stream, hop on over to our community chat at ebay.com/communitychat from 1:00 to 2:00 Pacific.

And that's our show for this week.

The eBay For Business podcast is brought to you by our team. Special Marketing Correspondent Jen Deal, Head of Community. Brian Burke, Executive Associate Assistant Segment Producer, Guest Booker and eBay Field Guide. Doug Smith. Marketing Strategist, Liz Austin. My Co Host, Alan Aisbitt, Editor in Chief and Host Griff.

eBay For Business podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.

There you go. Our anniversary show is in the can.

Are you taking me out for dinner?

I am not taking you out. Well, okay. Where do you want to go?

Um, some seafood would be nice.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Anything in mind? Special?

Shrimp.

Shrimp?

Shrimp. I had a shrimp curry recently it was really nice.

Where?

Shrimp, Indian, um, downtown San Jose.

All right. It's a deal.

Okay.

Go put your shoes on. I'll get my purse.

You have let my secret out. That I don't wear shoes when I am recording the podcast.

I just gave mine out too.

It's a nice window right?

Again with the window. It is just a piece of glass. Yes. It's very nice to have a window.

It's nice to be able to see outside.

It's nice to have everything.