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Brian and Griff dive into the Listing Templates feature and talk about the difference between Listing Templates and the Inventory tool. The “You Got Questions” with a special guest seller to help answer a question about multi-quantity listings.

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Episode (Show) Links:
Quickbook and eBay
Manage Templates
Share Your Success Sweepstakes
The Queen Of Auctions

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Brian: I'm Brian.

Griff: I'm Griff. And this is the eBay For Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and inspiration you need to start and run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this is episode 180. Welcome back.

Brian: 180.

Griff: 180. It's hard to believe. Isn't it?

Brian: It's a lot.

Griff: It's a lot of episodes.

Brian: Lot of content. For any of our new listeners. Don't just feel like you have to listen to the latest ones. There's some great content on some of the old ones.

Griff: Right. In fact, just put aside a month and go through them.

Brian: Well, binge watching TV shows is a thing, so we might have some binge listeners too.

Griff: Yeah. If you're going on a road trip soon, why not think about taking the eBay For Business Podcast with you? It's not a TV show, but you won't get that distracted. Unless we say something that you find inaccurate or offensive, in which case you can pull over and you can let us know at podcast@ebay.com or (888-723-4630).

Brian: Or just scream very loudly out the window.

Griff: Be careful. You don't want direct your rage at anyone on the road that can lead to really unfortunate circumstances. Hey, Brian, what's in the news this week?

Brian: We do have a crisis in Ukraine. And want to make sure that all of our sellers are aware. So first off, thoughts and prayers to the Ukrainian people and anyone in that kind of region that might be adversely affected by what's going on there. Want to make sure that everybody is aware that if you're the Ukrainian seller and you're shipping outside and you're unable to, we will protect you. And likewise, if you're outside the Ukraine, shipping into the Ukraine and you've shipped items, and you're concerned about the shipping time and things like that, again, eBay will protect your ratings.

Griff: That's good to know.

Brian: Some other news, the eBay Business Team announced a new sweepstakes last week called the Share Your Success Sweepstakes. Over the next two weeks, you can share your tips for success with your seller community on the eBay For Business Facebook page, for chances to win a $200 eBay gift card.

Griff: Ooh. $200! I know how I'd spend that.

Brian: You do?

Griff: There's some fragrances I want right now.

Brian: So you can sell 'em 10 years later. To enter just tell us what you do after the sale to help make sure your buyer comes back for more by commenting on the specific eBay For Business Facebook post. We'll post a link to that post and the transcript for this episode. Number 180.

Griff: That's already underway so although it's open for two weeks, I think we're gonna be into the second week by the time this releases. So it's still not too late this week while you're listening to go and Hey, all you gotta do is comment. And just tell 'em what you do to keep customers coming back. I know what I'd comment.

Brian: What would you comment?

Griff: So I make sure my packages are so well packed and so nice to open. And there's not lots of tape that you have to get a surgical scalpel to get through in order to find the item. It's a kind of a nice reveal. You open the box and the item is there and easy to take out and easy to pull the little sticker off and have the bubble wrap off. And I like to think that keeps in people's mind. You know, this was not hard to open and it was well packed. Maybe they'll come back and buy from me.

Brian: I have a feeling you just saw the package. I just handed off to the shipping department yesterday.

Griff: Why? What did you Brian?

Brian: Well, you're getting it really mad at me. I still don't have a label printer.

Griff: Brian, I've got one at home. Do you want me to lend you one?

Brian: No. You know what? This weekend I have a whole bunch of things. I'm gonna list. I sold an iPhone and I had a good box for it, but then I had to print the label and I realized I taped up the box and I went, well, now I gotta tape the label onto the box. So when you were commenting about tape all over the box, that's kind of what my box looked like.

Griff: Yeah. I have a new thing. I'm gonna invest in that. I'm gonna start using as well.

Brian: What's that?

Griff: The paper tape with the glue on the roof.

Brian: Oh, you're doing that.

Griff: Yeah, Because it's more environmentally friendly at composts. I've got the tape machine. I just have to get the right tape. I think I have some eBay tape from a while ago.

Brian: You just gotta make sure the little water thing is there.

Griff: Yeah, the little, I think that's what I gotta replace. The water bottle was missing. It's a big piece of machinery and it takes up a lot of space. I mean, I don't know about you, but when I buy stuff on eBay, I take the tape off before I put it in the recycler. I just think it's, it's better. The tape I have to put into the regular trash. It goes into a landfill and I am thinking that's too bad because why are we degrading the earth like this? So it's like my whole thing about styrofoam peanuts. Don't get me started. Oh, go ahead, start.

Brian: You're gonna get mad at me because you know what, I have this last bag of peanuts. And so whenever I need something, I do still use them. And so it's... i'm down to about this many peanuts left. And then...

Griff: And then this many, he was doing like a little…

Brian: It looks like two foot. Maybe it's probably a foot and a half by foot and a half bag.

Griff: I can't believe it. Brian.

Brian: I bought this massive bag because back in the day it was like such a great, I just went, I'm buying it. And you know why I bought it?

Griff: No.

Brian: Because I don't normally use them. I use other kinds of things, paper or whatever I have around. But I bought 'em because I shipped an antique wall clock and I really wanted to make sure it was super secure. And it was probably like, oh, I dunno, four years ago. So I just sparingly use 'em but I had nothing to put around the iPhone. When I put it in the box. So I use the peanuts.

Griff: All right, well, we'll give you a pass this time, but don't let it happen too much again. You know what I do love? And when I get them from a seller, when I buy something and they've used those compostable peanuts that are made out of food starch, those are great. They do the job. And you know how you do, you get rid of them? You put 'em in the sink and you run water on them. They all dissolve.

Brian: Oh, that's a great idea.

Griff: You could actually put 'em in a compost heap as well. They'll dissolve there. It is just it's starch.

Brian: It's kind of like what they've done with like the, you know, plastic forks and stuff. They're compostable.

Griff: Yeah. But I have to recommend something. If you do have compostable peanuts and you have styrofoam, peanut, please don't mix them. Cause then I have to go through an hour of picking them out. Not a good buying experience.

Brian: Yeah. Not a good use of time.

Griff: No, not a good use of time. You know, I try to do my environmental duty to the extent it's possible. I also don't use a lot of bubble wrap anymore. If I can get away with using tissue paper again, which is, you know, recyclable, compostable. I use the eBay tissue paper I get from the eBay shipping supply store. You learn depending on what you're selling, when you can get safely away, you can pack it safely with crumped up tissue or when you really have to use something like bubble wrap. But I use as little as possible now. You don't have to take an item and you don't have to wrap it, wrap it, wrap it, wrap it, wrap it, wrap, wrap it! And then you don't have to take tape and go tape, tape, tape tape! It's not gonna make it more secure. And in fact, for an older person like me with arthritis and the fingers, it can be really difficult to open. And if I'm wielding a pair of scissors trying to open this. There's always the chance that I'm gonna stab myself. And then where are you? Anyway, these are things to consider. And we were talking about the sweepstakes. So if you've got a tip, yes, make sure you enter the sweepstakes. And we'll put the link for that specific eBay page, eBay For Business Facebook page in the transcript.

Brian: And I do wanna just add one little thing. Like overpacking. Think about it. I mean, if you're running a business, if you sold a hundred items this month and you over pack every single one of 'em, that eats into your margins. It eats into your profits. You should only use as much packing material as necessary to get the items safely to the buyer.

Griff: And it's not always easy knowing where that dividing line is. You don't want it to be poorly packed so that it's damaged in transit. But there is a point beyond which it's just superfluous packing and you're wasting money on packing materials and you're making it difficult for the buyer who wants to open it. Do you know what I use when I'm using bubble wrap and I wrap something, what use is, you know those little circular eBay stickers you get? So I just use one of those. They're visual so you can see where the sticker is with very little effort. You can rip them. You don't have to peel them off. Unlike clear tape where you don't know where you can start for pulling it off. And it kind of makes the bubble wrap not reusable because it's all over the plate. And you know, it's just, you had to end up throwing it into the trash. I reuse as much bubble wrap as I can that I get from my purchases. And if I can't reuse it, then it's, it's too bad. It goes away. What else is in the news? This is longest news section.

Brian: I was gonna say we haven't had a news section this long. So QuickBooks, the PC magazine, the number one rated accounting solution for small and medium sized businesses is now integrated with eBay Payments. If you're not already a QuickBook subscriber, you can subscribe now and save 30% for 12 months. This exclusive offer from QuickBooks for eBays sellers is only available for a limited time. QuickBook subscribers can conveniently and securely access QuickBooks via a web browser, no apps or special software required. Sellers can use QuickBooks to invoice buyers, pay bills, generate reports, and prepare taxes. You can learn more at ebay.com/announcements.

Griff: Now it's time to get to the meat of this week's show.

Brian: And what is the meat of this weeks show?

Griff: It's another time saving tool that I wanted to talk about. I think I teased it for a while. It's called listing templates and right after the musical break will jump right into it.

Griff: You may recall Brian that an episode, 177, we took a close look at business policies, how they can eliminate the time it takes to list an item and how to organize business policies in a way that makes them easy for you as a seller to parse and select when you're doing a listing.

Brian: I do recall that segment some excellent tips for saving time.

Griff: And saving time is what it's all about. So today we want to take a dive into another time saver tool that many sellers may not be using. They're called listing templates. Now, Brian, have you used listing templates?

Brian: Not so much Griff, but I know something about how they work.

Griff: Why aren't you using them, Brian? I hope after this segment you'll be using them.

Brian: Well, I can tell you why.

Griff: Tell me why.

Brian: So for me, I think of them as something that someone with like consists listings or like they're buying inventory and they're getting it all the way back. That's in my head and it's probably not correct. Cause like I'll sell an iPhone or I'll list a car, or then I'll list a shirt or something. So it's all over the map. And so that's why.

Griff: I think maybe your very low volume of listings, you could get away without using a listing template, but there's nothing lost by having a few. And I hope after this segment, you'll consider having them.

Brian: Maybe I'll try 'em this Saturday, cuz I've got about 15 items I wanna list.

Griff: Now you're gonna think about listing templates. And I think after we're done here, you'll want to create at least a few. We should start off by pointing out that there are actually two options for saving time when listing that use template. They're both template tools, but there are not the same. So to be clear about which one we're outlining in depth today, one is called listing templates. That's the one we're gonna spend a lot of time talking about and the other one is called inventory.

Brian: And how do they differ?

Griff: Well, listing templates can be used to list any item on eBay by any seller, regardless of what your business mode is. The inventory tool, which is completely separate, is really only intended for specific sellers that sell individual products for which you as a seller, have a continuous supply on hand or on order. Does that make sense?

Brian: It does. And in fact that inventory tool piece is more of like how I think of listing.

Griff: Yeah. And they're not the same. With a listing template, you can create a reusable template with some of the information pre-filled in for example, a template might have pre-selected eBay and store categories and shipping and return policies. The empty listing template when you're creating one looks exactly like the listing form. When you create the template, you give it a name and later you can call up that template and use it to create a listing for an item or multi items or you know, an auction. It can be saved for any feature. And at that point you would add the individual details like photos and titles and maybe other information specific to that item only. You mentioned inventory and we did talk about it. With the inventory tool you can create what are called products or product templates. And actually they are called in the tool "products". And these are for sku-able items . With an inventory product all the fields in the template have to be filled in, in order to save it. And that means photo title items, specifics, your shipping, your return information. And even the price, you can't save that product template in inventory unless everything is filled in.

Brian: Which makes sense because it's tied to a specific product.

Griff: Exactly. That's right.

Griff: So I suppose you could use a filled in inventory product to list an unrelated item, but you'd have to change nearly everything in the template or edit everything nullifying the reason you are using a template, to decrease data entry.

Griff: You got it Brian. You are so smart sometimes. Inventory products track the quantity remaining and sales of an individual specific product. Listing templates do not do this. They don't track your inventory sales or quantity sold or remaining. Now, if you have a robust business on eBay selling lots of sku-able multi quantity products, then you might want to test drive the inventory feature. For example, say you're a seller of, I dunno, new fragrances maybe. And that you restock your supply on a regular basis. You could really benefit from the inventory feature. With this inventory tool that seller can create a product template for each of the individual SKUs with a current quantity available. She can then track that inventory for each individual fragrance SKU so she knows when it's time to reorder.

Brian: So it's kinda as opposed to taking like physical inventory. Which is a lot of work. I've done that before in my old life.

Griff: It's the thing I dread more, even more than doing taxes.

Brian: So by the way, we may want to define the acronym sku or SKU for our listener. It means Stock Keeping Unit.

Griff: Stock Keeping Unit. So if you didn't learn anything from this broadcast and you didn't Google it beforehand then you just learned something.

Brian: Yes. It is SKU not skew.

Griff: Right. We're not skewing our skews. The inventory tool can reduce the times a seller has to take to stay on top of SKUs that are needed restocking. So you don't run out.

Brian: That makes sense.

Griff: However, if your business and I have a sneaky suspicion our listener fits this profile that you sell mostly one-offs and maybe you have a few listings for products with two or more quantities, but you don't plan on restocking those products. Like you happen to pick up four of something, but you probably aren't gonna pick them up again. Then the listing templates are the tool for you.

Brian: So Griff. Do you use listing templates?

Griff: I eat the dog food. You can be sure.

Brian: I guess I'll be doing that this weekend.

Griff: In fact, I've gotten so used to listing templates that I use them all the time now and having to create a listing from scratch actually makes me break out in hives. I feel so unsure myself. I just rely on my listing templates, take listing items from my collection of fragrances. You know, I have almost 2,500 bottles, maybe a little less now, but I'm selling almost all of them off. That's a lot of work. I don't have mass restockable quantities of new fragrances. I have a few where I might have three or four examples, new inbox, for example, but not enough to use 'em as inventory. My personal inventory of fragrances tend to be single quantities of older or really sought after examples that aren't in a production anymore, but they do share some attributes in common. And that's the first step to consider when you're creating and using listing templates.

Brian: So you mean attributes like categories?

Griff: Yeah. That's one, that's one attribute. I have examples for both men's and women's fragrance as an example. So that would be two templates right there. One that has pre selected health and beauty fragrances men, and one for health and beauty fragrances women.

Brian: Or even a third one. Health and beauty fragrances unisex, right?

Griff: Yes, I suppose. So that would make three templates just for fragrances, just for categories. But actually there are more than three even that I have to create.

Brian: So why ?

Griff: Some of the examples in my I collection are really, really old. Like they're from the fifties, forties, even the thirties and some are bottles that are half full from either evaporation or maybe they've been used. Those I cannot list in health and beauty for fragrances categories because they would be considered used. And that category for condition was edited out last year to exclude any used condition.

Brian: Why did we do that?

Griff: Well, it has something to do with the FDA regulations on used cosmetics. You're not supposed to sell them. And unfortunately this makes me furious is that perfumes are considered in there. So eBay was proactive, making sure that they weren't violating FDA guidelines. And so they eliminated the used category from the Health and Beauty fragrances, but there's another category that you can list these in. In collectibles, it's called Vanity Perfume & Shaving Collectibles. That would mean another listing template for that category.

Brian: So interesting. So I get categories, but what other attributes might require new templates?

Griff: Well, I may have different business policies to apply to groups of items in each of those separate categories, for example, I don't ship fragrances internationally. So I can pre-select shipping policies that exclude GSP for each of those templates. And I really don't, it's a lot easier. You can't ship fragrances through GSP anyway. And I suppose I could push the boundaries of what's allowed and you know, ship them directly myself as alternate shipping method. I just don't wanna take the risk. So I don't do that. But having those shipping policies pre-selected inside each template, well, that's another step eliminated on a new listing. I might have different return policies depending on the item. So for example, if the item is not wrapped and it's not in its original box and it's not completely full, if you test it a few times and send it back, cause you don't like it, mazel tov! But if it's new sealed in the box and you send it back, I'm gonna have to withhold a little bit because now it's worth less than what I sold it for, because it's no longer new.

Brian: Right, right. Because they've opened it.

Griff: And I may have some boiler plate text for descriptions that is shared between certain groups of items. Here's another example. For my older collectible fragrances I have a paragraph that explains that some older fragrances may smell differently from what a buyer may remember since older fragrances can and often do change over time. Now I don't need this paragraph for all my fragrances. So maybe that just requires a new listing template.

Brian: So that makes sense. It's another, I don't wanna say category, but it's another attribute, age of the item, just like category of the item.

Griff: And that way I don't have to recreate the wheel every time I'm doing a listing. All of those important bits of information are ready to go and just like business policy by the way, Brian, you can name each template. So it's easier to pick out from the dropdown list. And I love this. You can create up to 50 of these listing templates. So just like we said with business policies in the previous episode, a good naming convention is important. So you don't get confused.

Brian: Right. Especially if you're combining multiple things here, because now what I'm hearing you say is like, we're gonna combine listing templates and we're gonna put business policies in those listing templates. And if I've already named the business policy I've gotta know what both are.

Griff: If you use the wrong template or if you have a template that has like, it had the paragraph in it, but everything else is right. I just edit it out.

Brian: You can edit it.

Griff: It is not like it is written in stone.

Brian: So you've been doing this for a while. How many listing templates do you have?

Griff: Well, surprisingly, I only have 13. I'm building new ones as I list more items only as needed.

Brian: Lucky 13.

Griff: I know. Not for long though. So I have separate one right now for watches cameras. And of course men's shirts. For example, for men's shirts, I have separate ones for short sleeve, under 16 ounces, short sleeve, over 16 ounces. And you know why, right?

Brian: Yeah. For shipping.

Griff: Yeah, because sometimes they weigh more than 16 ounces. I have to ship them a different service rather than first class, same too for long sleeve. There's long sleeve for under 60 ounces and long sleeve for over 60 ounces. And those are what they're named. So I can find them quickly.

Brian: Ah, so different sleeve lengths and different shipping weights, which means different classes of shipping.

Griff: Exactly. All of these might seem insignificant when it comes to time saving. But in reality, we actually do cut down the time It takes to create a listing from scratch. And the key to making listing templates work for you is to take stock of the types of merchandise you tend to list, you have to do that first, then group them into separate buckets for shared attributes and then listing templates for each one of those buckets.

Brian: So two comments, is 50 enough?

Griff: Well, honestly, I, I really don't know. I don't think I'd need more than 50, but maybe there's a case where a seller might need more than 50, but 50 should be more than adequate for any seller at the very least for testing, right? You only need one. Right? Just to test.

Brian: A long time ago when I was doing account management, I came across a seller who had high volume. And one of the things that he said to me was, most important thing that he learned early on when he started selling on eBay was he had to reduce the number of clicks on everything that he did. And for me, as I think about what you've talked about with listing templates, it allows the seller to reduce the number clicks, to get the item listed.

Griff: Exactly. And you know, that might seem insignificant these little steps, but like you said, they add.

Brian: That's that was what this seller emphasized to me. He said over the course of the year, if you can take out a clicks a week, it's real time as you add it up over the course of year.

Griff: Yeah. I did some tests by the way, using listing. And if you take out taking photos, which still takes some time, but I've got it set up now where it takes a lot less time. And we'll talk about that in another segment. If you're just looking at the data entry, part of it using listing templates, I can get that listing completed in 60 seconds or less. That's a time saver. If it's difference between one or two minutes, that extra minute adds up. If you clock your own speed now, and then clock your speed with a listing template, you may find something it's easy to do. The math. You could see how much faster you could be going by using listing templates.

Brian: What about merchandise? That might be an eBay's catalog like fragrances?

Griff: Well, even then starting off with a listing template might still result in less work. You know, if it's in the product category and you select it or you put the UPC and it prefills, that's even less work, but you can use that in conjunction with listing templates as well. You have nothing to lose by testing out this feature.

Brian: So how do our sellers find the listing template?

Griff: Easy Brian, you go to Seller Hub.

Brian: I knew it was gonna be Seller Hub.

Griff: Everything is Seller Hub, hover your mouse over the listing tab and select Create Listing. The next page will be one of two possible views. If you're still using the classic listing tool, it'll show a section for listing templates where you can choose or create or manage to templates. If like me, however, you're using the new and improved listing tool. And I love it. At first I was a little, I dunno, but now I much prefer it to the old one. It'll look different. You'll find if you have any drafts, they're gonna show up on the left. And if you have any existing templates, they'll show up on a list on the right. And if you don't, you'll be prompted to create a template. And when you click the templates link, it'll take you to the next page, which is the managed templates page, where you can create a new template. So slightly different navigation, depending on which listing tool you've opted to use. New or classic.

Brian: And I believe you can get right to the manage template page with the link HTTPS://bulkedit.ebay.com/managetemplates.

Griff: And we'll put that link in the transcript for episode 180. And so if you want book market, you can get right to your manage and create template immediately.

Brian: And if you have lots of restock SKUs and you wanna cut down on data entry and keep track of quantities sold and remaining, we suggest you explore the inventory feature, go to Seller Hub hover over create listing and select inventory.

Griff: Yeah. And if you have any questions as always, you can always tell us or ask us about listing templates or the inventory tools. Just send them to podcast@ebay.com. Call them in at (888)723-4630.

Brian: Since I'm gonna be trying this tomorrow, I might be sending in a question.

Griff: You know, that would be really funny. So Brian sends in a question, well, this looks familiar.

Brian: Maybe I'll have to it just give you my user ID.

Griff: I'll still figure it out Brian. If you wanna be our guinea pig, go for it and we'll include it in the next episode.

Brian: Hi, for any of our listeners out there, if you haven't used listening templates, be a guinea pig like me this weekend and write us in and tell us what you think about us, or give us an idea or ask a question.

Griff: And that includes comments. Like I tried this and it's not gonna work for me.

Brian: Yeah and then, and then tell us why. Yeah, because there, you know, there are all types of sellers on our platform and not every tool is appropriate or applicable to a given business. Right?

Griff: Like I said about the inventory tool, that's definitely not for many sellers.

Brian: Not for me.

Griff: Yeah. Not for me either. Wouldn't but if you fit that profile with the restock SKU's, it could really cut down on your, uh, the time you spend managing your, your inventory. That's important.

Brian: Great. Well, I hope our listeners liked this info. I did.

Griff: I'm glad you did.

Brian: You got questions.

Griff: We got answers. And our first two questions are on the same topic. So two birds with one stone. First one is from eBay seller, Russ. And why don't you read it?

Brian: Hello Griff, Brian and Rebecca. I've been a seller buyer on eBay since 2000 seller ID, Russ And Roll. I still remember the days of Griff on eBay radio, eBay magazine, as well as the anxiety riddled balancing act of 20 watched items limit.

Griff: A old timer. Boy,

Brian: I remember we rolled out that feature so people didn't have bookmark items anymore. After a lengthy sabbatical, I've been diving back into the madness. My question is regarding eBay Payments. Well, this may sound dated. I remember back when PayPal would not only allow your payment to stay in your PayPal account, but it also gained interest via PayPal's money market. Another perk was being able to pay bills via PayPal as well. Are there any future plans to be able to keep our sales funds kept in a payments count rather than sending the payments through to the seller? My reason for asking is because I would let my funds basically sit in order to my monthly eBay invoice afterwards, I would then cash out my balance. Once the bills were paid. Thank you in advance. Great job by all. And I'm not trying for brownie points for a mug, but it would be a nice addition to my eBay memorabilia. I think we can increase his memorabilia collection by one.

Griff: Yeah. Believe me. We're happy to get rid of these mugs. We're flogging. 'em left and right. So Russ one is on the way. And Brian, there was a similar question that came and I'll read this one. And this is from eBay seller Ethan who wrote to podcast@ebay.com and says: Good morning. My question is I'm an avid seller, but also a shopper on eBay. Is there a way that I can make purchases on eBay by using my pending payouts rather than using a debit or credit card on the other side of things, is it possible to charge eBay seller fees, for example, insertion and final value fees along with the cost of shipping labels, a credit card instead of payouts? Thanks for all the help respectfully. Ethan, think we need that. Which is, is it possible to charge eBay seller fees like an insertion and final value fees with the cost of shipping labels to a credit card instead of payouts? And the answer is actually, no, because we net those fees out your proceeds before we put them into the payout. So, and value fees are already paid. They are automatically paid and the cost of shipping labels is currently set so that you can fund it outta pending payments or you can fund it out of PayPal. And if you fund it outta PayPal, from that end, you can choose a creditor debit card to use for funding. So we got that out the way, but let's talk about the meat of those two questions, which is the idea of keeping the funds in your eBay payment account. So you can use them as you see fit.

Brian: I believe the payments Team is considering options like those requested by Ethan and Russ. But as of now, there are no plans to allow sellers to keep their selling funds in their eBay payments account indefinitely.

Griff: It's hard making the comparison between PayPal and eBay Payments because eBay Payments is just a payment processor. PayPal was actually built as an account process where the money goes in, it sits in your account and then it can go out. So it was a lot easier for them to provide services in the beginning, like paying your bills or using those funds as a balance that you can use anywhere in the world. PayPal was not built for eBay. PayPal is built for PayPal. They were always intended as a separate payment processor, but engineering wise, two different products.

Brian: Different. I have to say both Russ and Ethan as someone who also buys and sells, like I just sold an old, broken up iPhone for $75 and there was $68 that comes back to me for me. I buy a lot on eBay. I probably buy more than I sell on eBay. Mm. Having that $68 just in an account would be great. And I think that's what Russ and Ethan are getting at. And so it's not something we haven't heard and just don't have an answer.

Griff: Yeah. We don't have an answer yet. There's always the possibility additional features for payments in the future. We just don't know. And you'll have to stay tuned. But keep in mind whenever you're making those comparisons that PayPal and eBay Payments are very, very different products. Our next question was called into our voice line at 888-723-4630. Oh let's listen.

Guest Caller: Hi crews, Mike from Minneapolis. My store name is Accessories Program. So about vacation settings and shutting down the stores early. I thought you maybe missed an opportunity to discuss something you guys implemented a few years ago that a lot of people might not know about. You can allow account access for people to do varying of work in your store for instance, just fill orders or just do listings. That hasn't been discussed for awhile and that may be a thing you want to cover again. It might give people confidence confidence about finding someone to manage their stores if they wanted to take an extended leave. And one more thing. I detected a little condescension with Griff using paper in conjunction with his online work. I gotta defend Griff on that one. I might have two screens open in Google docs and everything else, but I got a three ring notebook of questions and checklists and tasks and things like that. That really is a good way for me to operate and apparently Griff as well, I don't know if you have noticed but there's a whole chain of office stores that dedicated to selling these supplies so don't think it's just me and Griff that still use paper, even though we're working online.

Griff: Unfortunately the call got cut off, but Mike from Minneapolis, thank you very much for that vote of confidence.

Brian: I think I was the condescending person.

Griff: Which is hard to believe. Brian.

Brian: Mike did raise a good point. It wasn't really about paper or electronics or whatever. It's almost, I think ultimately his point was do what's best for you to make things work for your business. And I wholeheartedly agree with Mike on that point.

Griff: And we can take that ethos back to the first part of his question, which is we did miss out an opportunity when we were talking to those two sellers who were looking for a way for an extended vacation. And both of them seem to immediately sort of discount or reject the idea of having someone run their business. And we missed an opportunity there to talk about a feature on eBay, which Mike from Minneapolis reminds us, Multiuser Account. Access, otherwise known by its acronym. MUAA. It's a very cool feature. If you're a seller and you need to assign, say your shipments while you're away and you're leery about providing full access to your eBay account, this can be the tool for you. You can provide limited access to your workers or temporary hires through this eBay Multi User Access Account feature.

Brian: And with MUAA you delegate aspects of managing your eBay account to your employees. It is a great way to delegate your work load. For example, you can assign specific tasks to an employee such as creating your eBay listings or printing labels.

Griff: And you don't have to give out your password, they'll have their own password and user ID, and they'll not be able to see other aspects of your account. So they won't be able to Seller Hub and read through all your stuff. It's just limited to the number of things that you allow that person to do, the account access you give them. With MUAA for example, you can grant access to your account to other eBay users by just sending them an invite from the account's permission page in my eBay, you'll need to be opted into Seller Hub. And I think our sellers are so that once invited the other users can manage aspects of your account.

Brian: And if the person you wish to grant access to doesn't have an eBay account, they'll need to create an account first.

Griff: Yeah, that's important. Does anyone not have an eBay account these days? I find that hard to believe and with MUAA you can choose to grant any of the following selling permissions, create and edit drafts, publish and revise listings, view orders, download an order report, add shipping, tracking, print shipping labels. That's the one that's really important research products using Terra Peak and on the customer management end, you can designate permission for them to be able to manage refunds requests and to resolve disputes.

Brian: And it is a super valuable tools, especially for those of our sellers who have an employee or have somebody, or maybe they've got a part-time worker who comes in and then, Hey, I wanna go take a week's vacation. You don't have to shut down your entire business.

Griff: And for the sellers that asked, I'm going away to hike the Appalachian trail and I need five months. Well, I know that if I was out hiking them Appalachian trail, which I won't, but if I was, it'd be nice knowing their sales taking place. And somebody who I trust, but who doesn't have full access to my eBay account is coming in once a week and making sure that items are being shipped out because I changed my handling to so you only have to hire them to come in once a week. It's, you know, and it's an expense. You can always expense it at the end of the year, but it gives me peace of mind knowing my business on eBays not stopped.

Brian: So thanks Mike for that suggestion and, uh, keeping me in line.

Griff: Anyway. What's our next question, Brian.

Brian: So our next question, or rather questions were sent to podcast@ eBay.com by eBay Seller Ethan who writes: Good morning. I would first like to thank you for all the information. My question is I have a basic store, so I have discount off shipping rates. For example, a small flat rate box is $8.01. What I am wondering is that with a higher store, do I get a greater discount percentage off in addition, are there any other ways to maybe increase this discount? Thanks. Second question is about visibility of listings with markdowns. Would a listing that is $10 get the same or less visibility than a listing that is 11 and 12 cent and 10% off, $10 after discount? Both listings are the same price for the same exact listing. This would be a good metric to know. So someone can just increase price and create a markdown to generate more visibility. Thanks side note, will there be an in person eBay Open this year or any other in person larger scale? Thanks. Thanks for all your help. Respectfully Ethan eBay username, eh_sales_one. Well, Ethan, thanks for those questions.

Griff: The first one through me, but go ahead.

Brian: The first one. eBay discounted rates for all carriers in all class of services are provided to all eBay sellers. They're tied to store subscriptions or store subscription levels.

Griff: Yeah. There's no discount for shipping labels based on your store tiers, the discount you're getting is provided to all eBay sellers as part of our negotiated rates with the carriers.

Brian: As long as you're using labels through eBay.

Griff: Yeah. As long as you're using, you're printing the labels through eBay. And to the extent that prices factor Ethan in Best Match, the price of an item is determined by the price, whether it's marked down or not. So if two items are $10 and one is marked down to $8, that's gonna be considered an advantageous price. It's not that it's the markdown, it's the price. And that is going to be a factor in best match. It's not the only criteria considered. So we have to say a markdown listing, all other things being equal, at least visually in best match rank. The slightly higher priced item is probably gonna rank a little lower. Not always because again, I can't stress this enough, best match is not based on just price. It's an important part of it. There are other factors to consider and we'll put a link in the transcript that takes you to the help page. That explains how Best Match works.

Brian: That's a good idea because there are a lot of factors that go into that Best Match algorithm and price is just one.

Griff: Exactly. So there's no advantage in markdown unless it results in a lower price overall. Cause that's all that matters. Focus on the price, not on the tool that got you there cause you could do it manually, right?

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. So regarding your third question, Ethan, there will be an eBay event this year in line with what we have last year, which was primarily an online type of event. The event team is considering several additional options to an online event for, but that's all in the information we have at this point. The team will announce more details. Once plans are finalized.

Griff: Brian, our final question this week came through a very unusual channel. I've never taken a question through this channel before. This was a question that was left in our, you know, our survey? Somebody actually asked this question in the survey and I thought, Hmm, I don't know the answer to this. I wouldn't know how to respond directly to the person who posted, because we don't have that information. There is like no user ID, but it was such a great question. It got me thinking, cuz I've never had this question before. Let me just get you the question and you'll, you'll understand what I'm talking about. The person who asked the question wrote in the survey, can you list individual pieces of dinnerware or China as a variation in a multi variation listing? If it's the same pattern or just different pieces, is this something I can do? Is it worth it? I thought no idea. And then of course who came The Queen of Auctions. And she's joining us now to help us answer that question. Welcome please. Lynn. Hi Lynn Dralle. Lynn: Hi guys. It's so great to be here.

Griff: So I think you heard the question. Lynn: Yes I did. And I have to say from 22 years selling dinnerware and China on eBay. Absolutely not that multi variation too does not work. And let me tell you why I know this. When I sell something, you know what? You guys, I have 17,000 things listed. Can you believe that?

Griff: I can't believe it. No I can't. But go, I you're, we are not worthy. We are not worthy. Lynn: I love it. So anyway, I have 17,000 things listed and sometimes like I sold a cup and saucer last week and all we could find was the saucer. And I know this happens to all sellers. So what I will do is, I will pop back on eBay and I will search for the cup to go with the saucer and I will buy it from another seller. And I usually can make money you guys doing this and I don't let my customer down cuz they still get the item. I buy it from someone else. Who's not as smart as me and price it cheaper but where I'm going with this is when I do search for things. And it comes up in that multi variation listing. It's impossible to find that cup because it'll come up and it'll show you all these different things. And instead of just being able to see what you're looking for, you have to open every single listing and see if they do have that tea cup for sale. Does that make sense?

Griff: Yes it does. Lynn: Yep. It's much better to picture every single different piece. And what we do too, is like if I have 10 dinner plates, I'll make a listing for 1, 2, 3, and four. That way people know exactly what the shipping is. If they're looking for two plates, it's really easy for them. So we've learned a lot about selling dinnerware over the years and that's what really works well for us.

Griff: Well, wait a minute. When you say you give the option of different amounts, 2, 3, 4, whatever are those separate listings or is that a multi variation? Lynn: No, those are separate listings and I started doing that about, I don't know, 18 years ago, but we really found that it's very visual. So if somebody is shopping and instead of like having the one plate come up and eBay, hasn't done this yet where it'll say like multiples available, you know, on that first page. So people don't know that it maybe when they go into the listing, there's 10 plates available. So instead of just showing one plate and saying 10 available, I'll do a listing for a one, a two, a three and a four because I find buyers are very visual. They wanna see. And if that's what they're looking for, they're gonna buy it from me.

Griff: They'll see in the picture and in the title, there's two here. And they can tell clearly from the photo, there's two items. Lynn: Exactly. Cause a lot of times people get really confused. I get questions all the time. They're like, well, I'm making an offer on this and you have three available. Is that offer for all three? Is it for one? So our customers, we really need to make it simple for 'em.

Griff: And I don't think it's make it simple because they're simple. I think it's, it can get really confusing. Right.

Brian: It gives them choice too. Lynn: It's really confusing.

Griff: Yeah. Yeah. What happens if you wanna promote all of your listings for those different dinner plates, for somebody who may be looking for more than four. Lynn: So then what I will usually tell 'em is make me an offer of a penny less on all the four listings. I'll accept them and I'll send you a combined invoice.

Griff: Ah, of course, do they have to put them in their, they have to put them in the cart first, the shopping cart so they can do that. Right. Lynn: Usually they'll, you know, message me or ask me a question and say, you know, I want all 10 of 'em. Can you make me a deal? And instead of like doing a whole listing for 'em, I'll just say make an offer of a penny less and then once they make the offer, cause if they put a shopping cart it's gonna charge them all my different shipping. Cause I I've never, I've never set up the discounted. It's too hard with so many variations that I carry. I mean, I carry stuff that weighs an ounce up to like a hundred pounds so I have never been able to use the multiple shipping thing. We kinda, so I've never been able to use those multiple shipping thing.

Griff: Yeah. We kind of covered those last episode and they can be confusing and hard to use for all items. They're not really a very cookie cutter. They' can be difficult. Lynn: No, yes, no. I mean, if all you sell is like baseball cards. Absolutely. But you know, I'm selling, I sold twin beds last week and I delivered them on my way to Palm Desert.

Griff: Twin beds.

Brian: Not even pick up. You delivered@. Lynn: I delivered, well, I know I go there once a month, but you know, they were twin beds. I carried around with me for the last 25 years and didn't need them anymore. And I got an offer of 300 bucks and he didn't know that they were in Ventura. He thought they were still in Palm Desert. And I said, you know what, I'll deliver 'em I want the $300. And he was thrilled with them. So that was pretty fun.

Brian: That's great. Yeah. And what did you do in that situation? Did you have local pickup on them? Lynn: I did. Yeah I did.

Griff: And did you use the QR code feature that's now available for local pickup? Lynn: No. And you know what Griff that would've been so smart. Cause you know, you deliver 'em and then how do you know that? They're gonna say they got 'em. Yeah. You know, but yeah, it worked out, but that would've been a cool thing to use. Very high tech.

Griff: People are BA people are basic. I know here we are QR codes, you know, ten years ago and they're high tech for eBay. So I didn't ask you when we started out how's business there, down in the consignment shop in Ventura,? Lynn: You know, it's pretty good Griff. We're cooking along and I'm getting ready to open a clothing consignment store on March 1st, which is also the four year anniversary of my store. If you can believe it. So that's super ex fighting. We're taking in tons of great clothes and it's actually in the space behind my store that we were using to store and put together furniture. It's about 500 square feet. We put in hardwood floors, we painted it all white I'm hanging chandeliers back there and it is just darling and people are so excited for this new store.

Brian: That's great to hear expanding. We've heard a lot about people having some struggles during COVID time and, and stuff. This is that's great news.

Griff: I don't think of Lynn Dralle Queen of Auctions selling clothing on eBay. Do you? Lynn: I do. Oh, I will sell anything that makes money.

Brian: Anything you might have to change the name of your store though, you know, Queen Of Auctions And Clothing,

Griff: Apparel. Fashion. Queen of Fashion. Lynn: Yeah. So now I have, I have the Queen Of Auctions. I've got Lynns Consignments Fun Home Furnishing. And now I have Lynns Fun Fashion.

Brian: She's a marketer. I'm not,

Griff: That's why you work three days. And she works for herself. Brian. Lynn: The best part of everything is my tagline. It's "everyone wins when they shop at Lynns".

Brian: Oh my goodness. That's so clever. That's great.

Griff: Oh my nine year old nephew came up with that.

Brian: Did you give him, uh, you know, a reward of so some sort? Lynn: Yeah. I took him to Atlantis his year for Christmas.

Griff: Oh good for you.

Brian: Yeah. For a nine year old. That's a super reward. Lynn: Isn't it? Yeah. It was really, it was really fun.

Griff: Well, Lynn, it's always a pleasure talking to you and I'm glad to, uh, hear that your business is expanding and business is good on eBay. Lynn: You know what? This has been the best February I've had in probably the last eight years. I'm I'm sitting in about 10 grand, which is not typical for February. So it's, it's really exciting. I mean, stuff is just flying out. I haven't been listing, you know how I normally list a hundred things every week at auction. With this new store, I haven't been able to. My assistant Mo has been listing about 40 things a week for me, but our business is still so fantastic. It's really great.

Griff: Good for you. I'm glad that's working out for you. I can't wait to see you sometime. I hope we'll see you soon. Maybe this year. Lynn: Yes. I hope are we doing an event this year? Anything live coming up?

Griff: Well, we can't really say, but it'll probably look more like last year as we just answered a question from another cell about that. Lynn, thanks again for answering that question for us. Lynn: Thanks for having me.

Griff: Boy, Brian talking with Lynn is always such fun.

Brian: And if you wanna join the fund here on eBay for business, call us on (888) 723-4630.

Griff: We love it. When you call that number, it makes our week. (888) 723-4630. You can call that number. You can leave a question. You can comment about an episode and the best part of this is because it's a hotline. You can do it any day of the week. Any time of day, just leave a question or comment. And if it doesn't contain too many profanities that are uneditable, we just might put it on the air.

Brian: And if you're not a calling the phone person, you can always email us at podcas@ebay.com that's podcast@ebay.com.

Griff: I'm thinking of rebranding this ending feature because we've been calling at the Daily Podcast To-Do-List. I wanna ask our sellers, if you have a better brand name, send it to us, we'll use it and we'll give you credit. But for now it's gonna stay your Daily Podcast To Do List. It just sounds so boring.

Brian: It does kinda boring.

Griff: I'm sorry. I came up with it.

Brian: Well I read it every other week and haven't made any suggestions to improve it.

Griff: You love routine, don't you?

Brian: A little bit. Yeah.

Griff: Change is good. Change keeps us fresh.

Brian: Change is good. First check the Announcement Board for the latest up to date seller news. And I will add if you haven't subscribed to the Announcement Board just subscribe because then we'll just send you an email if we add anything to it.

Griff: Yeah. And we don't add that much to it. It's not like you get an email every day, but it's one less thing on your task lists like listing templates, they make your life more efficient. And our second item on the To Do List is wanna save time when listing guess what? Listing templates might be the answer for you. So check them out, follow the links in the transcript.

Brian: Is that directed at me? I'll I'll let you know Monday. And speaking of checking out, always check out out the transcript for this in all episodes to follow up on what you've heard and to see the links we referenced during the episode, and don't forget or Discuss The Podcast Blog on Community where Griff has started posting screenshots of some of the features and tips we mentioned in each episode

Griff: When there are appropriate, of course, but on the Discuss The Podcast Page, you can post questions or comments during the week and I'll stop in to read and respond to those as I can every couple hours or so.

Brian: And maybe even if someone has feedback on an episode. You don't necessarily have to have a question. You could provide just feedback.

Griff: I'm the kind of person that likes to be in front of an audience. So I can read their faces and know is this working or not? And with a podcast that's not possible.

Brian: It' is more challenging. We would like to again thank our special guest this week, Lynn Dralle , The Queen of Auctions.

Griff: We will put a link to her eBay store.

Brian: Win with Lynn.

Griff: You always win with Lynn. The eBay For Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.

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The eBay for Business podcast is published every Tuesday morning and is presented by eBay, Libsyn and Podcast411.