Regards,
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Happy Wednesday!
Join the Community Team here today at 1 PM PT for our Weekly Community Chat. Bring any general buying and selling questions you might have to discuss 
Thanks & see you then.
@mam98031 wrote:
brian@ebay wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:I’d like to share some ideas on potentially making GTC listings Better and/or more Palatable for those that are skeptical about using this format as well as those of us that have used them for years.
GTC listings don’t currently state the time left on the listing before it ends its current duration [one month].
The 30 day FP listings had this date showing in a listing when a buyer would view the listing.
IMHO it would help many with this transition if Ebay were to insert this into all GTC listings.
When a GTC renews, it currently will not appear as a newly listing item. This one has pros and cons to it. There is good argument for keeping it this way as buyers will be able to see what is truly a new listing. But there is also good argument that it may bury listings as well as sellers lose the ability to have repeating GTC listings be seen if searched by Newest listed.
Granted we would all be in the same boat as we are all running GTC listings but are there any tips or options to utilize the GTC in a more effective way?
Thanks for the suggestions, @mam98031!
I appreciate the reply and that you will hopefully pass this information on to the appropriate team. But I had a questions too. Do you have anything to share that may assist sellers that may be new to GTCs.
I agree with this and would like to see a response as well ...
tyler@ebay wrote:
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
In last week's Weekly Chat, Brian told us:
"Hi @fern*wood, the 1 year mark is the timeframe to be aware of. Listings that have gone unsold for longer than 1 year may be removed ended and moved to the Unsold section. "
That seems to imply that a one off, long tail item listed as GTC basically has 12 months to find a buyer. Will ebay end it at the end of 12 months? You say listings "may" be ended...that seems to suggest wiggle room on eBay's part, but raises the question: under what circumstances would it be "may be" rather than "will be"?
Also, will ebay be providing any sort of warning? Say, at the 11 month mark, something like that?
As for multi quantity listings, would it be correct to say that ebay starts the 12 month countdown only at the point when the listing is showing zero sales? In other words, for a listing with 1000 items, selling 1 a day, it would be well over 12 months before the seller would need to worry about ebay ending the listing....
At one point, I believe ebay sellers were seeing warnings in Seller Hub about listings that were 16 months or older.....will that sort of thing be ended now? Or will we continue to get reminders?
Also: If I list a one off, long tail item but revise it every few months....tweaking the title here, adding item specifics there, maybe changing the gallery photo.....do those revisions have any effect on the countdown?
And finally: If ebay ends my listing after 12 months and puts it in the Unsold folder, will I be able to relist it, just like any other item from my Unsolds?Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques - a lot to unpack in this question, so I'll take it blow by blow:
We'd consider a listing stale after 12 months, but that doesn't always mean it would be ended (though it could be if it were getting minimal or no traffic). I don't have specifics on what would determine an 'always will be ended' vs 'allowed to stay up longer'.
I don't have information on if there will be any notation similar to what you're used to seeing (This listing hasn't had any sales in X months, consider revising it), but I'll see if I can find out!
I don't have specifics on exactly when an item would begin to be considered stale when it comes to multi-quantity, I'll see if I can find out.
Revising a listing could prevent it from being considered stale - it depends on a number of factors but comes down to 'do the changes help it get more visibility?' if it increases in views, watchers, etc it should be fine.
An item in your unsold folder can be relisted at your convenience (within 90 days). The reason it got sent to the folder doesn't have a bearing on your ability to relist it.
Thanks!
Just an additional note from what I've experienced with this.
I have never had a listing removed for being stale. At least not that I'm aware of. One would hope that Ebay would send an email notifying a seller if that happened, but this is not something I've ever noticed happening.
On my Active Listing list in the Seller Hub I will occasionally see a note that reads as follows:
eBay note:This listing hasn't had any sales in at least 16 months. Please consider updating it
I usually update the listing or close it myself. Just depends on the item listed. Sometimes it is due to an error I've made in the listing and didn't catch it until Ebay flags me that it hasn't been moving.
This is just my experience.
@coffeebean832 wrote:
I use Seller Hub. I can filter listings to show out of stock, but I can't find a way to include out of stock variations in that view. How can I achieve a view that includes out of stock variations?
I can't find a way to sort and show just variation listings whether out of stock or not. How can I achieve that view, as well?
Hi @coffeebean832 - you can use the 'manage variations' link to quickly see the available quantity of the variations on an item, though I'm not aware of a way to have Seller Hub display just variation listings.
When it comes to Out of Stock - my gut instinct would be that if any of the variations are OOS, the entire listing should show up in your OOS search. However, I don't have a specific account to test that with at the moment. I'll see if I can get more info and let you know. Thanks!
@wooden_flower wrote:
One for me - if you post something for CS on facebook, do they ever acknowledge the post?
I detailed an issue with orders being split into multiple payments when there is no reason for them to be split. I did not expect a solution, but I thought they might let me know they received my post. I posted a follow up asking for acknowledgement, but didn't get a response to that either.
I'm thinking the only solution for me right now is to opt out of guaranteed delivery.
Thanks!
Sue
Hi @wooden_flower, we do have a customer support team that responds to questions on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. It's important to be aware of where you post a question on our Facebook page. A comment on one of our marketing posts won't be answered, but comments posted directly on our page will. If you have account specific questions or concerns then it's best to use the message option on our Facebook page since our social media team will be able to discuss account specifics in a private message.
As a general example of why orders may be split up, if items within an order have different shipping services. For example, if two items have USPS Priority and three items have USPS First Class, then this order will be split into two orders. The two items with USPS Priority will be one order and the three items with UPSS First Class will be another order.
2 Quick Items on Promoted Listings:
1) I am seeing Promoted Listings frequently showing up in search results directly adjacent to the original listing:
In these situations, paid promoted listings provide no value to a seller as it's a virtual **bleep**-shoot whether the buyer clicks through one or the other. It also delivers a poor buyer experience having 2 duplicate listings next to each other, something I am told eBay has made efforts to clean-up.
Recommendation: Ensure a minimum spacing between a paid promoted listing and the original listing in search results.
2) As eBay continues to develop different one-to-many offer submissions, sellers paying for Promoted Listings have no visibility as to whether or not accepted offers will be subject to promoted listing fees.
Transparency into whether additional PL fees will be applied to a sale in many cases is critical for obvious reasons if the seller can't accurately calculate their margins.
It would be helpful if eBay would take steps to remedy this in good faith, as eBay continues to thrust "offer" features on both the buyer/seller side, especially with their double-digit "trending" suggested Promoted Listing fees that inexperienced sellers are likely to use.
Recommendation: Advise sellers when reviewing pending offers whether the sale will be subject to additional promoted listing fees.
TIA for passing these thoughts on to the proper teams.
brian@ebay wrote:
@wooden_flower wrote:One for me - if you post something for CS on facebook, do they ever acknowledge the post?
I detailed an issue with orders being split into multiple payments when there is no reason for them to be split. I did not expect a solution, but I thought they might let me know they received my post. I posted a follow up asking for acknowledgement, but didn't get a response to that either.
I'm thinking the only solution for me right now is to opt out of guaranteed delivery.
Thanks!
Sue
Hi @wooden_flower, we do have a customer support team that responds to questions on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. It's important to be aware of where you post a question on our Facebook page. A comment on one of our marketing posts won't be answered, but comments posted directly on our page will. If you have account specific questions or concerns then it's best to use the message option on our Facebook page since our social media team will be able to discuss account specifics in a private message.
As a general example of why orders may be split up, if items within an order have different shipping services. For example, if two items have USPS Priority and three items have USPS First Class, then this order will be split into two orders. The two items with USPS Priority will be one order and the three items with UPSS First Class will be another order.
GREAT Info. I did NOT know this. Thank you!
@wooden_flower wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@wooden_flower wrote:
Hi,
One question that comes up on the M2M board is why aren'y variations allowed in all categories?
Is there any plan to allow them in more categories?
thanks!
Sue
Hi @wooden_flower! Variations aren't available in all categories as there are some where they don't quite make sense. However, the team in charge of them does monitor and look at adding categories regularly. Are there any in particular that you've come across that you feel could be useful?
I would tell them anything that comes in sizes, colors, etc is a good candidate. As soon as you think it doesn't apply, someone can tell you why it could.
The one I answered yesterday was water pipes that came in different colors 🙂
Sue
@wooden_flower - who would have thought that water pipes came in different colors? If you find any other great suggestions will you tag me to the thread so I can get it to the team?
@papermoneyforme wrote:
Is it possible for a Canadian registered in Canada to open their store on .com, and vice versa, can an American registered in the US open a store on .ca
Hi @papermoneyforme - yes, though there are some considerations. The largest is that a store subscription would apply only to listings created on that site, so if you have existing listings on .ca that you'd like to be covered under a subscription on .com you would need to consider ending them and relisting them directly on .com after you open the store subscription. Thanks!
