Ep 286 || Your Spring 2024 All Q & A Episode

[griff@ebay.com]

This week is dedicated to your questions! Griff and Kayomi dive deep to give answers for topics such as: Sold price difference in Sold View and eBay Research; keyword spamming prevention; buyer return windows; Changing local pick up to shipping post payment; Promoted Listings; Bulk Editing Best Offer settings; and Store subscription and search.

Episode Links:
Promoted Listings
Bulk Listings Tools
Recurring Links:
eBay for Business Podcast
eBay Seller Spotlight Podcast
eBay for Business Podcast Listener Survey
eBay Seller News Announcements
eBay for Business Facebook
Community Chat with eBay Staff
eBay Seller Center
eBay Help
eBay Local Seller Events
Seller Hub
eBay Events

Kayomi: I'm Kayomi Kayoshi.

Griff: I am Griff. And this is the eBay for Business Podcast, your weekly source for the information and the inspiration to help you start, manage and grow your business on the world's most powerful market place. And this is episode 286. It's our quarterly all Q and A episode. Hi Kayomi.

Kayomi: Hello. My first quarterly Q and A episode.

Griff: Well, you've been co-hosting for a couple episodes. What do you think?

Kayomi: I love it.

Griff: Oh, you do? Good.

Kayomi: I do, yes. Part of the reason is, I don't want to say ego boost, but the amount of supportive sellers who chime in and who are just very appreciative of what you and I do. And so I think that goes a long way and I really appreciate that. Getting it on the community is one thing, but that's behind the screen. But it's good to know that they're also appreciating this podcast as well.

Griff: I'm glad because I don't want to go searching again for another co-host. You know, we have such a turnover over the years and I'm glad that you were willing and able to take this on. I should explain to the audience that we don't have the uh, ability to find a co-host outside of our own team or out of eBay. And most of the people who work for eBay, they have jobs. They're full-time. And even though the requirements for being a host of the podcast is only about maybe an hour to 90 minutes a week, it's still a big commitment. And I think it frightens a lot of people. The idea, well, I'm could have my voice recorded. So finding someone who's got the capability and the ability and the willingness to be a part of this has always makes me very happy. Thanks.

Kayomi: Of course. I will spare you another search.

Griff: Well anyway, this week, as you know, there are no guests and I believe there's no news. I checked. So we can get right into the questions. But Kayomi, I wanted to issue a clarification. I know that I interviewed a guest last week. I don't know if you were able to listen to the segment, but it was this eBay seller, his name is Andrew, and we were talking about a POD or Print on Demand service. The company that he works with is called Printify. So before we get to the questions for this episode, I really feel I need to make a little bit of a clarification 'cause there was quite a bit of discussion on our podcast Facebook group. I don't know if you saw that.

Kayomi: I did.

Griff: So we're talking about our Facebook group, it's called the eBay for Business Podcast Facebook group. And there was a lot of discussion around last week's topic, which as I said was Print on Demand and using it as an option for listing inventory with, you know, your own designs or brand and you put it on eBay. And the discussion, I have to admit was mostly it was pretty negative regarding what sellers have heard about POD services. Like Printify. These are things they've heard in the past and they were talking about things like inconsistent item quality and late delivery times and customer dissatisfaction feedback and blah blah blah. So what I should have included in that segment. So my bad, I didn't, and this is what I should have said, and that is, any seller considering employing a third party service for any aspect of their business, well that seller should always research that service thoroughly prior to adopting it. This would include shipping, of course, packing services, freighting branding, fulfillment, or other adjunct services like a Print on Demand service. Any seller who's maybe considering exploring A POD service should order examples of that services products like their t-shirts, mugs and whatever before committing to using that service so that way they can see for themselves and ensure that the product quality meets their and their buyer's standards. Many sellers use third party services including A POD service with great success. So I know POD is probably not for every seller, but as we presented it, it is one of many options available for sellers to consider and test as a way of well sourcing inventory.

Kayomi: Exactly like Griff was saying, please explore your options, do the research necessary before making that decision. Everyone is different and like we were saying, it works great for some people, for others it may not be your cup of tea. So please explore your options. Don't just go based off of what Griff and I say. We try to be as knowledgeable as possible, but we are all very nuanced people. All of our businesses are nuanced. So please do your research beforehand, before making a decision

Griff: Kayomi, I couldn't have said it better myself. You know, I though as we're saying this, that you and I, at least on the podcast team, we utilize a POD service. So we have our friend in Temecula, who helps provide us with the swag that we brand and have sent out to sellers and we did that research before we settled on this particular person and his business. So those podcast mugs, we saw them beforehand and were able to inspect them and say, yeah, these are pretty cool. And now whenever we ship a podcast mug out, I don't ship it. Our friend in Temecula, he ships them out, he has a supply that we committed to and he gets the address that I provide to him and he ships it out.

Kayomi: I think, so I would consider it that. Yeah, I was confused where you were going with this, but yeah, we do use that.

Griff: I mean at the very least you could call it drop shipping. If you are drop shipping properly on eBay, it's perfectly allowed. I saw some people posting and saying, well it's as bad as drop shipping. And I said, well wait a minute. I don't know what that means. But drop shipping can be a viable way for anyone to do business as long as your drop shipping source is not another public marketplace. Where you are just in time purchasing items from say Amazon or another site and then adding the address to your account there and then shipping them as "a gift "that's not allowed.

Kayomi: Absolutely. Yes. And hopefully everyone understands that. And if not, I'm sure we will have another hot topic in our Facebook group that we may have to cover next week.

Griff: So yeah, hot topics, uh, don't mind them. I mean they do get a lot of engagement so as long as they follow the rules of the group, we're happy. So let's take a short musical break and we'll segue into our Q and A.

Kayomi: You've got questions

Griff: As we know you do and we've got answers. And in fact, we have a whole episode of questions. We have seven big fat questions waiting for our answers Kayomi.

Kayomi: I know. I'm sure everyone is excited to listen.

Griff: Yeah, we get a lot of feedback. They love these Q and A segments. All Q and A. And in fact, we're considering maybe a little change up in the podcast format, the coming months where we may have, well I don't want to give anything away. I'm shutting the Kimono and belting my obi.

Kayomi: Well now I'm curious Griffin, we're gonna have to have a chat after this.

Griff: That is right. I haven't told you.

Kayomi: Yeah, you have to let me in on it, at least.

Griff: I will. I'll send you a little memo. Anyway, enough of that. So here's our first question. You get to peek into what is coming. This one's from a listener named Bob and he asked, I was listening to the podcast today about Terapeak and the expert that was Shelley Ball who was on a couple episodes ago, she said that the search produces the actual prices of items sold. I'm using the desktop version. And she said was primarily talking about the mobile features, but I assume they're the same regarding the basic information provided. So he said, I have a question. This is the item and we won't get into the details, but I'll tell you that it's a cool item. It's a Zenith military trans oceanic receiver. Like a shortwave radio. Shortwave radio. Boy, say that three times.

Kayomi: Say that three times. Yeah. .

Griff: And Bob says it shows in the sold listings as completed sold for $1,850. However, in Terapeak in eBay research, it shows the same exact listing that it sold for $750. Now can you explain, based on what I've heard on the podcast, the price difference? if it did sell for 750, shouldn't the completed listing have a strike out on the BIM prince? Thanks Bob. And his user ID is Racer Trek.

Kayomi: Alright, well Bob, we're not absolutely certain why the sold view and the eBay Research formerly known as Terapeak view amounts don't match. But we did reach out to the lovely Shelley Ball who was on a couple episodes ago and she says that the accurate data reflecting accepted Best Offers can always be found in eBay Research. Another good reason to use eBay Research.

Griff: It's not that you shouldn't check out the sold items, but you're gonna get more accurate data apparently in eBay Research. And you know, now that we're talking about this, I actually think, and I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that there was some logic behind us not showing accepted offer amounts in the sold view. And I think it was based on sellers requesting that we don't displace it, which an item might have sold so as not to telegraph to potential buyers, what kind of deep discount they may get on an item that is currently under consideration that has best offer and not setting realistic expectations. I could be wrong and there may be a seller or two who may remember this better. Here's the most confusing part of this. It really doesn't make any sense to me. Apparently there are some instances on the sold view, not in eBay Research where you'll find a sold item that is a strikethrough, what Bob says actually does happen. But it doesn't seem to be consistent or follow rhyme or reason. My suggestion is those two teams have to get together and have a little talk about this.

Kayomi: Let's facilitate that conversation.

Griff: I don't know Bob, did that answer your question? But keep an eye out because we actually alerted Shelley and some other people so hopefully maybe there'll be some consistency in the future. We, we like consistency.

Kayomi: Absolutely and if you do notice that change, I don't know, maybe take credit for it in your seller groups. Just tell people this change was because of you. Reference this episode.

Griff: I wrote into the podcast and they got it done.

Kayomi: Because of me.

Griff: Anyway, that's that one. And reiterate here, you want to know the exact price something sold for including situations where there was a best offer accepted rely on eBay Research formally known as Terapeak. Our next question comes from eBay seller Derek, he writes this, I'm wondering if eBay is working to combat against keyword spamming. I have many saved searches for certain sports cards. There are sellers that list many popular athletes on their listings to manipulate searches and to gain more looks on their listings, this creates unwanted spam on my saved searches. There are usually just a single athlete on trading cards and maybe three at the most for all cards. I have reported some of the listings just checking to see if there will be a fix in the future. Thank you Derek. Do you hear about this on community at all?

Kayomi: I have and every time I, as you were reading it, I don't know if you saw, but like I let out a little minor cringe, just a minor cringe just because this topic, I'm sure we'll get into it more, but there really is no resolution on combating keyword spamming unfortunately.

Griff: Because what would you imagine a fix would be? If you had something like a bot or maybe some sort of algorithmic fix, it would be nearly impossible to fine tune given the width and breadth of and depth of all of the different title combinations. And you try to do that with some sort of automated feature and you're gonna end up catching so much tuna in the net, it's just not gonna work. It's gonna cause more problems than it could solve.

Kayomi: Yeah, I was even trying to think of another solution and I know AI has been a really popular topic, but even trying to brainstorm with that, it just seems maybe that's an option down the line. I mean years from now. But like you were saying, Griff, it's very complicated when trying to think of a solution. I don't even know where we'd start.

Griff: There's nowhere near the ability to use human eyeballs to scan this. It's just not possible. Billions of items on the site. So yeah, in the meantime Derek, the best way to combat this is to help us out, continue to report listings where the titles contain. Well for in your example all those unrelated athlete names and it's easy to do so if you obviously know this beause you've done it, but if you haven't done this, you just click to report this item link directly above the item description on the listing page. And because of the way these reports work, unfortunately you have to report each item individually. The team responsible does not go through and then look through a seller's listings. And I'm gonna tell you why. It's just plain and simple. There's no time. That's that question.

Kayomi: Alright, moving on. Our next question is from seller Catherine who sent this to podcast@ebay.com. Catherine says, my question is about returns. I offer 30 day returns on everything I sell, but I'm confused about the amount of time a buyer has to return the item. Could you please explain the return time frames that buyers have to get the return item back to the seller? Thank you Catherine Allen.

Griff: Yeah, it's a good question

Kayomi: And I feel like a lot of people are asking this. So Catherine, once the return is accepted, eBay will provide the buyer with the date by which they should ship the item back to you after 15 business days. If we don't see any indicators that the item is on its way back to you, we may close the item and protect you from negative feedback. However, some if not most returns may remain open for up to 35 business days. After which if the buyer has not made any indication of shipping the item back, eBay will close the return.

Griff: And I don't know why that discrepancy between 15 days or 35 days. I don't know what makes the system decide which one is going to be the period of time. I just always assume it's 35. So like I've had in the last, I went back and checked in the last year, I've had two returns which were never sent back. The person either changed their mind or forgot about it. And it was pretty much on the 35th day I got an email from eBay saying that return is closed, don't worry about it. And in fact, I remember now that I actually received emails saying, Hey, we've reminded the buyer to return the item. So eBay does step in and say, Hey, you going to return this or not. And I guess if they're going to ignore that, then they're either happy with the item, they're forgotten all about it, who knows. Or maybe they died, you never know.

Kayomi: My mind was going, maybe they're just lazy. But I like how you jump to the extreme. .

Griff: Yeah, it's the morbid side of me that just always makes (inaudible)

Kayomi: A bit of a shock to the system. Yeah, I'm sure all the listeners were like, oh, okay. I guess that is a possibility.

Griff: And I think a lot of sellers are they are thinking, I want to get, get that item back so I can relist it. And my advice is to not even think about it. You have the money, they have the item, they haven't shipped it back. I don't worry. And if it comes back I go, oh, here it is. Then I'll immediately relist it. Because once that happens, you get the, if they do send the item back, you can relist it.

Kayomi: Yeah. Catherine, I would just keep those two dates in mind. 15 to about 35 business days.

Griff: Yeah. But like we said, don't worry about it too much.

Kayomi: Yeah, don't stress yourself out. Hopefully we answered your question.

Griff: Our next question was sent from eBay seller Kim and she sent this to podcast@ebay.com and I think it's a good one. Again, I want to thank all the sellers who answered the call that we put out to for your questions. 'cause what we got back were really juicy questions. Here's what Kim wrote. Hello there. I have a situation that I've run into a couple of times and I wondered what the best remedy is. In addition to shipping items USPS, we also offer the local pickup option. Now occasionally a customer will purchase an item, select local pickup, but have no intention of picking it up. And I wonder how do I add freight charges after the transaction's been fully paid for? I could never figure out how to do this. So I typically cancel the transaction, refund it, and have them repurchase and select a freight option or shipping option. Now can I send them an invoice to PayPal after the transaction is has been paid for? I'm not sure how to handle this as Kim. Thank you so much. And it's Kim and her store is The Porch Resale Shopee spelled the old way S-H-O-P-P-E Ye old gifty shopee. I think you know the answer to this, but I'm happy to say it. It's just not possible. Once a listing is closed and it's been paid for, there's no way to then add shipping charges to that sold item. The only way to facilitate this, Kim, is exactly what you're being doing, which is to cancel the sale. Yes, I know you could go to PayPal and send them a invoice. I don't recommend that. It's just not no longer part of the, the eBay transaction of record. If you have to cancel a sale on this case, you can explain to the buyer how to purchase with the shipping option and then relist the item and have them repurchase it.

Kayomi: Exactly. And I know you mentioned in your question that you've run into this issue a couple of times. Hopefully this doesn't become a regular occurrence for you. If so, to mitigate this, you may want to include a line in your description that indicates shipping cannot be negotiated post-sale. And hopefully your future buyers will see this and you will stop running into this issue.

Griff: Yeah, I hope it's a one-off.

Kayomi: Alright, this next question is a two-parter. It's from the seller Eric, who sent this to podcast@ebay.com. Hi Kayomi and Griff, I have a couple of questions for your show. One, regarding the Promoted Listing Standard. I sell a lot of one-off items, so unsure if I should be using Promoted Listings at all. But I use a standard 4% or so across the board to cover the chance. It helps close the sale for me. Say I have a vintage sterling silver teddy bear charm, if I promote it, will eBay move the listing up versus other listings that have vintage sterling silver teddy bear charm in the title? The charm category is quite competitive, but I want to make sure I'm spending my money wisely. As you should. Two, is there a replacement for the listing quality report that has been discontinued? Third and final question. Thanks. Oh, it's not a question. Thanks for delivering weekly content, it's very much appreciated. Bye for now. Eric. Ending on a high note.

Griff: Yeah Eric, I'm not going to lie about it. We love compliments, so thank you. Well, this I think is a misunderstanding among a lot of Promoted Listings for the first time or haven't really looked into it. So the Promoted Listing Standard feature does not boost the listings rank in search or category. Now what it does do is provide occasional placement as something called a sponsored item. And if you're a buyer on the site, you may have seen these and it puts it in advantageous places, including the search results page. And on some product pages, your Promoted Listing may also appear in sponsored placements off eBay, including search engines to help drive traffic to your listings when buyers are, they're out there like on Google, actively searching and shopping across the whole internet.

Kayomi: Yeah, that's really important to note. And also keep in mind that the frequency of appearances as sponsored depends on the ad rate selected by the seller. The higher the ad rate, the higher the possibility of ad placement leading to increased visibility. You can learn more about how the Promoted Listing feature works by searching our Help And Contact pages on Promoted Listings and by visiting the Promoted Listings page in Seller Center.

Griff: Those are two really good resources. And another thing I would add here is when you're using Promoted Listing track, you want to know how effective it is for your listings to make sure that you've got the right ad rate and what your sell through rate is. And you can do that on the dashboard in Seller Center so that you can follow how effective your Promoted Listing strategy is at your given percents. Test it. I always, you are gonna hear us say this a lot if you haven't already. Test, test, test, test, test, test, test. You're always testing and adjust.

Kayomi: Was going to say, um, I've been following this one seller who's kind of started her journey with Promoted Listings and she's I think doing weekly or daily updates on how it's working for her. And so, like Griff was saying, experiment with it, see what works for you, figure out your magical formula. But yeah, track it as closely as possible.

Griff: Hey, I am curious, who is this seller and why isn't she on the podcast?

Kayomi: I think we have had her on, not when I've been a co-host, but it's Liz O'Kane.

Griff: Oh, Liz, Of course! Well we're gonna have to have her on to talk about this.

Kayomi: Oh, absolutely. I'm sure she'd be very happy.

Griff: Well, she's listening. I know. So, hey Liz, guess what? You're gonna get an email. .

Kayomi: Hello Liz.

Griff: Now as for your second question regarding the Listing Quality Report, this is so embarrassing to me, so it's gonna come back soon. It's really all we have officially at this point. They're working hard to fix it. If you had access to it before, it will be back again soon. We're a human company with human beings. Now this next question is from eBay seller Greg. And his question is about bulk editing listings. And this is what Greg sent to podcast@ebay.com. Dear eBay for Business Podcast Team hope this message finds you well. I have a question regarding the management of listings, specifically those with the Buy It Now or Best Offer feature enabled. Is there a method or tool available to perform a Bulk Edit on these listings or remove the minimum offer feature. As I continually refine my selling strategy, I find myself wanting to streamline the process and ensure consistency across my listings. Being able to efficiently adjust this aspect of my listings in bulk would greatly enhance my efficiency overall selling experience on eBay. Any guidance or suggestions you could provide on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and for the invaluable resources you've provided through the eBay for Business Podcast. Warm regards, Greg Glover and his store is Utah12Man.

Kayomi: What a nice message. Well, Greg, I hope this information and answer finds you well. Great news, you can bulk edit live listings to add, subtract, or change the Best Offer feature on those listings. Here are the steps, go to the Seller Hub and then the listing, and then the Active tab. Select the listings you wanna edit by checking the box to the left of the listing title. Click the Edit button. This will open the Bulk Edit feature. Check the boxes for the listing selected. I know it seems like this is a redundant step, but it actually isn't because you may want to edit different features for different listings, then click the Bulk Edit button on top of the list and select Offers. From there you'll be able to follow the instructions

Griff: And then you'll see that you can actually remove the offers or you can change them from there. So, if you wanted to take out the minimum and the steps may actually be that you remove the offers and then you put back offers in a Bulk Edit with the minimum. I didn't follow it all the way through because at at the moment I don't have any with offer set that way. So, but you can use that Bulk Edit feature in the future as Naomi says, not just to edit the Best Offer. You can scroll down that edit list and there's just about every aspect of your listings you can edit in bulk.

Kayomi: Yeah, a lot of different capabilities. Alright, are you ready for our last question?

Griff: I think, uh, let me gird my loins. Okay, I'm ready.

Kayomi: Okay, well this one's interesting deals with a popular eBay myth.

Griff: Oh, eBay myths. Oh, okay.

Kayomi: If you can recall this one is regarding eBay Stores and Search. This question was sent to us at podcast@ebay.com by the seller Ann, who writes, hi Griff. Hi Komi. First off, congratulations Kayomi on becoming the new co-host. Griff, I think you may have cherry pick these. These are all very nice warm messages.

Griff: No.No.No. I didn't cherry pick them. I promise.

Kayomi: You wanted us to end our Friday on a very high note. I appreciate it. Thank you, Ann. My question is related to having a storefront. I currently do not have one and I'm trying to get a feel if it's a needed extra expense at the moment. I read through the list of perks associated with each tier, but I am curious to know if having one changes the way your items are shown on the algorithm, do those with the storefront get more exposure than those whom do not? Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure listening to the podcast, Ann Barnes. Ann and everyone listening, we are going to demystify this eBay myth. eBay store subscriptions have absolutely no connection to how a seller's items are ranked in best match. I just wanna repeat that. None. Zero zilch connection.

Griff: Nada. Exactly. Yeah. This seems to be yet another one of those classic eBay urban myths that circulate around the Inner webs and social nets. Now, some sellers claim that they see a boost in sales after they subscribe to an eBay store, and that's terrific. Many boosts in sales would be entirely coincidental In this case. Correlation is not causation. Believe me, if a store subscription did provide a boost in search, we'd be crowing about it as yet another reason to have a store. But the truth is simple. There is no boost in search. None, if you have an eBay store.

Kayomi: Yeah. Like you said, if there was, I think you'd all be annoyed with how much we were promoting stores then.

Griff: Exactly. , that is our seventh question. We've come to the end of our quarterly Q and A. All Q and A episode. I hope you enjoyed it.

Kayomi: Yeah, we did it and we had a lot of great questions.

Griff: Boy did we, did we ever thank you to everyone who sent them in?

Kayomi: And if you forgot to send your question, you still have a shot at our next episode. You can call your question in at (888) 723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com.

Griff: That's (888) 723-4630. And we love that hotline. I'd love to see more people using it. Just call it any time of the day in day week, leave your question or comment and we'll put it on the air.

Kayomi: And if you're not a call on the phone person, like you said, you can always email us at podcast@ebay.com. That's podcast@ebay.com.

Griff: And now it's time for our weekly Three Point Podcast Checklist number one.

Kayomi: Let's get into it. Check the announcement board at ebay.com/announcements for up-to-date seller news every day.

Griff: Number two, if you haven't done so yet, start filling out your Schedule C for your 2023 federal tax filing. Do it today. Don't wait until the deadline is just a couple days away. No procrastination. You're a professional seller. Get to it.

Kayomi: Save yourself the stress. And number three, need to review anything in this episode. It's easy. Check the transcript for this and all episodes for follow up on what you've heard and to find the links we referenced during the episode.

Griff: Yeah. And speaking of our next episode, we'll be talking Spring workplace clean up and organization with eBay seller, Kendall Van Gilder, who happens to have experience on this topic.

Kayomi: Nice. And just in time for spring, it's finally starting to get warm again.

Griff: Yeah.

Kayomi: We like to again, thank our guests this week, the many sellers who submitted a question for our quarterly Q and W episode. Thank you to Bob, Derek, Catherine, Kim, Eric, Greg, and Ann.

Griff: Yes. We're nothing without your questions or as Sarah Bernhard said in the eighties, I am nothing without you. The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411. We'll see you next week, Kayomi.

Kayomi: Okay. See you then.