Ep 305 || eBay Open: The Biggest Seller Conference of the Year

[podcast_team]

Sr. Manager, Seller Engagement & Community Allison Engles joins us to talk about the upcoming eBay Open event in September. Your questions this week: What happened to USPS First Class Package? Bubble wrap bubbles facing out or in?

Episode Links:
eBay Open 2024

Recurring Links:
eBay for Business Podcast
eBay for Business Podcast Listener Survey
eBay Seller News Announcements
eBay for Business Facebook
eBay Seller Center
eBay Help
eBay Local Seller Events
Seller Hub
eBay Events

Kayomi: This week on the eBay for Business podcast.

Allison: EBay Open, it's our biggest seller conference of the year and this year we're gonna be hosting it on September twenty fifth and twenty sixth. It'll be a two day virtual event where we have in-depth learnings from sellers, our eBay experts, showing the latest strategies, insights, tools to really help our sellers grow their businesses.

Kayomi: I'm Kayomi Kayoshi.

Griff: And I'm Griff and this is the eBay for Business podcast, your source for the information and inspiration to help you start, manage, and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. This is episode three zero five, Konichiwa.

Kayomi: Konichiwa,

Griff: For those of you who wonder what's going on, Kayomi's actually on vacation as you're listening to this, but we've recorded our episodes in advance so we could go without a a break.

Kayomi: Yeah. I I didn't wanna leave you all.

Griff: I didn't want you to leave either, but I can't stop your vacation. I don't have those powers. So

Kayomi: You can come with me, Griff. It's fine.

Griff: Well, I think I've told you on a previous episode how jealous I am that you're there in Japan. It's one of the places I've always wanted to go, and I've

Kayomi: You have to.

Griff: Yeah. I know. Well, I hear they have a somewhat good train system.

Kayomi: Oh, yeah. I mean, it might be decent, you know.

Griff: I hear it's not slow. It kind of gets you there pretty fast, so you can travel around the country.

Kayomi: I think some people might call it the bullet train. I don't know. I don't know how true that is. We'll see. So, Griff, who is our guest this week? I have a feeling that I might be familiar with them.

Griff: Our guest this week is the lead for seller events here at eBay, and she's on our seller engagement team. We work very closely with this person. Her name is Allison Engles. And Allison has news to share about this year's upcoming two thousand twenty four eBay open event.

Kayomi: Are we already here? Is it that time?

Griff: Yeah. So registration opens, I think, today.

Kayomi: Oh, amazing.

Griff: Yeah. There'll be an announcement. So you wanna get a space. There is some interesting things, that are different this year that I think a lot of folks are gonna really like. So we're gonna talk about eBay events. You know, it brings to mind to me I guess you weren't around for these, but we used to have really big in person sort of events.

Kayomi: Oh, I've heard about them.

Griff: Yeah. They were legendary.

Kayomi: I think Brian even gave me a little pin from the podcast room, I think, from one of those past eBay opens.

Griff: Oh, yeah.

Kayomi: And so I still have it, and it's just so cool. But every time we meet sellers, whatever the occasion is, they are bringing up the past eBay opens and how amazing it was.

Griff: Or eBay lives. Yes. It's a little confusing now because the branding for eBay live is our live auction platform. But back in the two thousands, we had, I think, about seven or eight years in a row, we did event called eBay Live, which was anywhere from eight to fourteen, fifteen thousand people. And we would go to a different city every year in the United States, mostly to their convention centers. And it would be a three day whirlwind event. And I was at all of them, and it was quite exciting. And then we had eBay opens, which we did up until the pandemic, and then the pandemic shut everything down. So now we moved that eBay open event from a live in person event into a virtual event. With Sun Live touches to it, I won't say anything else.

Kayomi: That is, something I've been working very closely with, but I'll let Allison tell you about it.

Griff: And of course, since then, since those days, seller events themselves, seller meetups, seller events, you know, the ones that sellers hold, have grown a lot in the last fifteen, twenty years.

Kayomi: Oh, yeah. A lot of great engagement from everyone, especially this year. There's been a lot more awareness about it, so a lot more applications. If you're interested in attending any of these, keep your eyes on the seller events dot ebay dot com site because if there is an event in your area, you will know if you visit that site.

Griff: Yeah. And eBay employees would love to go to these events still do because they can they can talk about different products or features or changes that are happening or coming and also answer a lot of questions one on one and with a live audience. I always love doing that. I kinda miss that.

Kayomi: If you're located in the Palm Springs area and would like to host a seller meeting, you just might get Griff attending.

Griff: You might get me hosting at this point. So

Kayomi: There we go.

Griff: Well, anyway, let's go meet with Allison. And then when we're finished, we'll answer a few questions that we have that came in and, and a seller tip.

Kayomi: Yeah. I'll meet you over there for some q and a.

Griff: Okay. It's hard to believe, but, you know, it's been a full year, almost, since eBay opened two thousand twenty three. EBay Open is our big seller conference that we do every year, mostly online, but it has some offline components to it. And this year, it's gonna be September twenty fifth to twenty sixth. Now I thought it would be great to bring on the person behind the scenes who runs the whole thing, the wizard of eBay open. Please join me in welcoming our colleague on the seller engagement team, Allison Engles. Allison, welcome.

Allison: Thank you. I'm so glad to join you and talk to you about my favorite time of the year, eBay Open.

Griff: And it's a lot of work, so we wanna thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to come on and talk about this. So if I'm a seller who's never heard of this before, what is eBay Open?

Allison: EBay Open, it's our biggest seller conference of the year. And this year, we're gonna be hosting it on September twenty fifth and twenty sixth. It'll be a two day virtual event where we have in-depth learnings from sellers, our eBay experts, showing the latest strategies, insights, tools to really help our sellers grow their businesses.

Griff: What exactly can I expect in the way of content when I'm registered and attending this online event?

Allison: Yeah. Of course. We have a full schedule of events that we're really excited to share with our sellers this year. We've really geared everything to really help these sellers grow their businesses, like I said. And so we've got keynotes where you'll hear from our leaders on the latest topics that are top of mind. We've got training sessions where we'll dive deep into tools that are most valuable to our sellers and category sessions where they'll hear updates and trends on their categories that they sell in. And the ones that we're always most excited about are seller led training sessions that we're calling seller labs this year, where you'll hear from tips and, tricks to grow your businesses from sellers like themselves.

Griff: This is a traditionally a popular component of our eBay open, isn't it?

Allison: Yes. Yeah. The sellers know best, you know, and they are here to share their their knowledge with the community of sellers. So really excited about that.

Griff: Do you, get a lot of seller requests to be part of a panel?

Allison: Yeah. We have lots of sellers who wanna share their tips with, other sellers. And so it's a hard process to select, but we think we have a great group of sellers that will be sharing their info with others this year.

Griff: Will we know who the sellers are and what their labs are gonna be soon, or is that something we have to wait a little longer for?

Allison: Yeah. They're gonna be on our website. Their sessions as well as their bios and headshots will be on our website, ebay dot com backslash open.

Griff: There's going to be sessions that are sort of, category sessions. Can you give us a little more insight into what that means?

Allison: Yeah. Of course. The categories that are included are, but not limited to, p and a, trading cards, fashion. We have eBay experts to share some of the updates in these categories, examples like fitment plus for our p and a sellers. And then we have they'll dive deep into the trends in these areas. And a nice part about these category sessions this year is we're bringing in sellers, and these category managers will be interviewing the sellers, asking them to share their insights on these categories with our sellers.

Griff: So if you're a seller in in any of these categories, this is gonna be valuable information to learn, not only from the eBay side what's available, but how sellers in those categories actually utilize those features within the categories like Fitment. Fitment is an amazing tool that a lot of sellers, have no real experience with. This can be the, opportunity to learn more about that. Exactly. And then talking about tools and updates. So how in-depth will this be during eBay open?

Allison: Yes. The suite of tools available for our sellers directly on the eBay platform are a valuable resource for their businesses, and we've brought team members, including product managers, to really educate our sellers on a number of these tools and to figure out how to utilize them to succeed. You actually get one on one time with their product managers within booths to ask these experts questions and get answers directly from them. One topic, for example, that a high number of views last year, so we brought it back this year, is listing best practices. Whether sellers are seasoned or new to the platform, the success of this session proves that the refresh on this topic is always appreciated.

Griff: I know from my own experience that you can never go over best listing practices enough.

Allison: I agree.

Griff: When you say talk to product managers, is that a one way conversation, or will they actually be able to provide feedback to product managers?

Allison: Great question. Yeah. The training sessions this year will include q and a. So they'll have their content. And then at the end of each of these sessions, there'll be some live q and a where the product managers will come on the screen and answer your questions. Additionally, we also have our expo hall, which is an area where you can interact directly with teams from eBay, ask them questions, and get those answers you're looking for.

Griff: I know a lot of sellers have suggestions when it comes to product. And I know our product team is also open to suggestions, so it's also an opportunity for sellers to provide their feedback on the tools that are available.

Allison: Feedback is key for our teams at eBay, and so we're always welcoming the feedback and really taking those learnings and insights from our sellers and having it inform our road map and, our plans for the years.

Griff: And we know also from the surveys from past years that this has been a successful way of presenting this information at eBay Open. The attendees are overwhelmingly very positive about their experience in past years.

Allison: Yes. One hundred percent. One of the main pieces of feedback that we get from sellers after these events is that one on one touch point with eBay has been invaluable, And they also appreciate interacting one on one with each other. It's a great networking opportunity.

Griff: And that was gonna be my third question is that opportunity when it comes to seller labs, again, is not just a one way conversation that you'll be able to ask questions of your peers who sell maybe in the same category at the same volume, who may have the information you need to help boost your own selling.

Allison: Exactly. Seller Lab sessions will be topical, and so you'll learn from the sellers based on each of these sessions. There'll be q and a, and there'll also be opportunities to network with these seller lab hosts on our day two. In addition to our seller lab sessions, we also have networking sessions. These sessions will be hosted on day one by our category specific sellers, and you'll be talking and sharing tips on your categories. Day two, we'll be having our seller meeting host regional networking rooms, which will allow you to find your local communities a little easier. And then on and like I mentioned, we'll have, some seller lab, networking on day two as well. So, really, it's all about getting to know eBay and, most importantly, the seller community that we have at hand.

Griff: So I know in past years that not only do we have the online event, which is easy to attend regardless of where you are, But we also have had these sort of satellite in person events in different cities. Are we repeating that this year?

Allison: Yes. We are, and we are super excited about our plans this year. We're teaming up with our seller meeting host who will be hosting kickoff parties throughout the United States. So far, we have thirty different locations planned for this year. So we're really excited, and we hope that you're able to attend some of these local events.

Griff: It's not only a great way to attend the event, but you meet other sellers in your location, and you can establish some really good working partnerships and sometimes great friendships.

Allison: Exactly. These events will be hosted on Tuesday, September twenty fourth. And, you can check out the locations at, ebay dot com backslash open. Again, these are our kickoff parties hosted by our sellers. We encourage you guys to get involved in your local communities.

Griff: So I have one big question before I let you go. Oh, says seller x. I see it's going to be on September twenty fifth and twenty sixth, but I'll I'll be away and I won't be able to attend. What about poor little me? Can I see the content later?

Allison: Of course. All of this content is gonna be recorded within the virtual platform. We will have a replay tab that you can visit after the event. And, of course, we've got our YouTube channel, our eBay YouTube channel, where we will post all of this content after. So no worries, little one. You will get to enjoy it as well.

Griff: Will there be some great swag available this year? I know that's always a big selling point too for with sellers.

Allison: Of course. We always have swag, so keep an eye out. We'll, definitely reward those who attend our event with some swag.

Griff: Especially if you're going to one of those thirty cities. Right? The seller events, the kickoff parties. Yeah.

Allison: Good point. Yes. We'll have swag available at our kickoff parties. We'll have swag available, for the virtual attendees. Swag for everyone.

Griff: There's swag for everybody, so don't miss it. Again, registration is open as we speak, so head over to ebay dot com forward slash open, and you can secure a spot. Should they register if they can't make it, and then will that allow them to view the content later, or can anyone view the content?

Allison: Everyone should register for the virtual event. You will be able to see it on the platform at any point week following. But, again, YouTube will also be a place for them to view this.

Griff: Excellent. Well, Allison, I know the work is not finished. There's a lot of work in putting this together. And I think in the coming months, we'll talk more about sort of the behind the scenes of what goes on to put on a virtual event. It ain't easy. Trust me. It takes a whole huge village at eBay to put these on. So we thank you very much again for taking time out of your day to talk to us about this, and best of luck. We're looking forward to, eBay open this year on September twenty fifth and twenty sixth. Again, you can register at ebay dot com forward slash open. Take it from me. Something you don't wanna miss. Thanks, Allison.

Allison: Thanks, Griff. Appreciate you having me on.

Griff: Allison Engles is the person behind eBay Open. She's the wizard behind the curtain that runs the whole thing.

Kayomi: You've got questions.

Griff: We've got answers. We got two questions to answer this week, Komi. Now I assume you're eager to read the first one as you are every week champing at the bit as it is.

Kayomi: Oh, yeah. I am shaking with excitement.

Griff: Okay.

Kayomi: This was a question asked on a forum by an eBay seller who wrote, elicit an item in for shipping selected first class because I thought I could easily ship the item in a poly mailer. I remember using USPS first class to mail a small box sometime last year, I think. However, when the item sold and the buyer paid, there was no option for printing a label. Is this a bug or a tech issue? Thanks. Well, so I think I see the confusion here. First class package, the service you are remembering, was discontinued back in twenty twenty three and substituted with a new service called USPS Ground Advantage. There was a distinction between first class package and first class envelope. They are two different services. First class envelope is a non trackable service, and as such, it is not possible to print a label for that service on eBay. It is an option that sellers who ship small items using a stamped envelope can provide for a listing, but, again, you won't be able to print a label or track the item.

Griff: Yeah. And that that's obviously what happened here. He just got those two things confused. And although the old first class package service was suitable for objects, like you could mail it box, the box had to weigh one pound or less. And first class envelope, as you may discover, is not suitable for items that would cause the envelope to be thicker than an inch or weigh more than x ounces or so. So because there's so many legacy sellers who use stamped envelopes to ship, like, ephemera and other things, That option is still available, but you won't be able to print a label. You have to buy the postage or buy the stamps to do that.

Kayomi: And just so you know, USPS Ground Advantage, which replaced USPS first class package, does not have the one pound weight maximum. With USPS Ground Advantage, you can ship packages to seventy pounds and up to one hundred and thirty inches in length plus girth. In that regard, it is overall a better service than the now defunct USPS first cost package.

Griff: Absolutely. I use it exclusively now for all my sold shipments. So, and I'm I'm seeing more and more sellers relying on it too. Of course, there's still FedEx and UPS and whatever works best for you, of course. And UPS does have other services that are fast, like, all their priority or priority express. But if you're looking for value where you're it's the least expensive method and it will get your package, we hope, two to five days. I'm finding my packages get there, but there are some places in the country where there's still ongoing delays, I think, for some hubs or whatever, and you may find that your packages take a little longer than that. But it is really a great, great feature that USPS came up with.

Kayomi: Mhmm. And I'm glad we were able to clear that up.

Griff: Yes. I don't know what that seller ended up doing, probably having to go out and buy the stamps or something like that. So our second question this week is one that really resonated with me. It's sort of like that old debate about which way the paper should go on a toilet paper holder, over or under. This was sent in by eBay seller, Gwen. She sent this to podcast at ebay dot com. Hi, Kaomi and Griff. Could you solve a debate I'm having with another seller? He claims that when using bubble wrap, you should wrap the item with the bubbles facing out. I say you should always wrap the item with the bubbles facing in. Before this debate drags on, is there a right answer? Who's right here? Does it even matter? Thanks, Gwen.

Kayomi: Okay. Let's weigh in. Let's be the judges on this graph.

Griff: Alright. So, Gwen, unlike the toilet paper debate because it really doesn't matter, I don't think, when using bubble wrap for packaging, the bubbles should always face the item being wrapped. They should be faced into the item. So if it's the small bubbles that you're using, that should touch the surface of the item. If it's the big bubbles, the same thing. This provides better protection and cushioning and grip and can also reduce tackiness with tape preventing dirt from collecting and making the bubbles, like, less likely to pop. Think of it this way. If you put them on the inside touching the surface of the item, you're actually getting the benefit both of the bubbles and the space between the bubbles which becomes sort of a buffer. If you reverse the wrapping and wrap it with the bubbles facing out, you don't get that level of safe packaging. So I've seen this debate pop up, and, I know I'm gonna sound rather, harsh about this, but there is one way, and that's to have the bubbles inside.

Kayomi: Sorry for the other seller that you're having this debate with, but I'm gonna have to agree with Griff. It goes on the inside. I think it just adds that extra layer of protection directly around your item.

Griff: And I always wrap more than once. So if you wrap your item and you can see that there's a like an edge or a surface that's against the flat part, not the bubble part, wrap it again. I always do with least three wrap ins when I use bubble wrap. As I said last week, I kinda stopped using it because now I'm using a combination of eBay tissue and that honeycomb paper that you stretch out that creates all those little spaces. Now I use a lot of that because it's recyclable and it's not expensive. There's many more wrappings. And I've just now discovered since we had that, episode that you can buy that paper with different sizes of honeycomb. So I just thought there was the one size, but there's different different sizes too. So you could get the equivalent of, like, something like a bubble wrap with that. And you know what's confusing? In the past, I've purchased those small bubble wrap bags that you can put stuff in, and every time I get them, the bubbles are facing out. So I always have to turn that bag inside out, and that may lead some sellers to think that, oh, that's the way it's supposed to be used.

Kayomi: Yeah. They're on the other side of this debate. Yeah.

Griff: Turn those bags if you're using small bubble wrap, turn those bags inside out so that the bubbles are facing in and not out.

Kayomi: Mhmm. And, Griff, just to, you know, strengthen our argument. With your shipping methods, have you heard from buyers of things being breaking during transit or anything like that?

Griff: Yeah. I had one I had one sale last year that was a heartbreaker. I had a beautiful old piece of American New England redware from my old collection of said redware. I have a lot lot of pottery. And, it was a beautiful yellow color, and it was a big vase. And it wasn't that I just bubble wrapped it. I had bubble wrapped it and used a lot what I thought were sufficient peanuts. And, because I'm a good packer, but even the best of packer, you don't know what's gonna happen with your box. And the the seller the buyer who purchased it, you know, emailed me and said, oh, it arrived in three pieces, and I was heartbroken. So I said, oh, I'm so sorry. Here's the refund. If you can repair it as a shelf piece, hopefully, you know, you can at least display it, but I know that, you know, it's worth a lot less now that it's been broken. And, I thought long and how how did I do this? And I then I decided, and I haven't sold any. I've got a lot of this stuff that I have to sell eventually. The next time, it will be double boxed. So there'll be a box and then a box inside the I'll put it in a big box with more buffering and paper. Because the thing is, I'm sure what happened is it got tossed or it got dropped and and it and that's just I not only feel bad for the buyer, I feel bad for the antique because I feel like I've just I've just just helped someone just, you know, helped get something destroyed, and that's not why I like this. I love this. It was such a beautiful piece, and I felt terrible. I actually got really sort of depressed about it for a couple days, and the buyer was really understanding. Well, I I mean, I immediately refunded him his entire price. He said, do you have more stuff? And I said, yeah, but I'm not gonna list it until I'm sure I'm packing it better. So, you know, check-in with me later. I haven't had a chance to relist any of them. You know, there's a lot of sellers out there who have been selling and packing, for the longest time, and everyone has slightly different methods and, you know, things that they do to keep their packages, their items safe. And I always say that if you've got a question, you can ask us, but you can always just go out onto the community at community dot ebay dot com. And again, there's just such a great wealth of knowledge on that site. And I sometimes feel even though it's pretty active, there's a lot of sellers who just aren't, they're not taking advantage of that information, and you should. There's a lot of really great expertise living on that board. So they may have some advice for what you're like glassware, shipping glassware. Oh my God. Such a risk. You want to make sure that it arrives all intact. So

Kayomi: Oh, yeah. Pose a question and trust it. We'll probably receive a handful of replies. So definitely a great resource.

Griff: Well, that's all for this week in our question section.

Kayomi: And if you have a question about selling on the world's most powerful and sometimes, you know, a bit overwhelming marketplace, why not ask us? You can call in your questions at eight eight eight seven two three four six three zero. Or if you prefer, you can always email us at podcast at eBay dot com. That is podcast at ebay dot com. And it's time for this week's tip of the week.

Griff: So it's the summer season as we've been mentioning, and it can be normally a slower period of time, and it might be for you. If so, this could be an excellent opportunity to may take stock, go through your listed inventory, and make sure everything that is listed is accounted for on a shelf where you can easily find it. And consider checking your shipping supplies now so you aren't caught off guard later as the season picks up. And it will pick up where we'll be you know, it's gonna start heading towards holiday in a matter of a month or so.

Kayomi: Oh, yeah. At the beginning of the episode, I was so shocked to hear that it was already time for us to talk about eBay Open because it seems like we've been planning it for so long. So trust us. Time flies.

Griff: It does. It fly. And on eBay, it it flies first class. So

Kayomi: Oh, yeah. Like we mentioned earlier, first class. And remember to check the transcript for links referenced in the episode and check the eBay announcement board every day to stay up to date on eBay news, launches, and changes.

Griff: And on our next episode, we'll be joined by eBay seller and eBay employee, Steven Weller, and he's gonna address the perennial topic of why are my items not selling.

Kayomi: And we'd like to again thank our guest this week, eBay lead for seller events, Allison Engles.

Griff: Well, that's all for this week. Georgia Mpampanis is our monthly cohost and guest coordinator.

Kayomi: And I'm your weekly cohost, as you know me, Kayomi Kayoshi.

Griff: And I'm editor in chief and your host, Griff. The eBay for business podcast is produced in house and distributed by Quill and co host. We'll see you next week, Kiyomi, when you're back from Japan.

Kayomi: Yes. We will have American Kayomi again.