eBay

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-05-2019

Out of curiosity, when was Offer to Buyers Enhancement from the Spring Update supposed to kick in on Dot ca?

Best Offer and "Offer to buyers" enhancements in Seller Hub

Starting in late May 2019, we're making several improvements to Seller Hub to help you take advantage of these features.

New Best Offer and "Offer to buyers" features include:

Edit Best Offer in bulk. Apply Best Offer to multiple listings at one time in Seller Hub. When you enable Best Offer in bulk, you'll also be able to set auto-accept and auto-decline thresholds. The auto-accept and auto-decline price you set using the bulk function will not change when you change the price.
Best Offer filter. Filter listings eligible for Best Offer on your Active Listings page in Seller Hub.
"Offer to buyers" filter. Filter listings eligible for "Offer to buyers" on your Active Listings page in Seller Hub.
Bulk "Offer to buyers." Apply “Offer to buyers” to eligible listings in bulk on your Active Listings page in Seller Hub.

If it is there, I'm not seeing. Also wondering how it's been working on dot com as a "Getting Sales" tool?

-Lotz

mrdutch1001 · ‎07-05-2019

I don't use Best Offer on any listing, nor do I intend to use the idea of sending offers to potential buyers such as has been implemented on .COM when there are watchers on items. Items are "watched" for a variety of reasons and not necessarily do those "watchers" have any intention of buying nor have any interest in buying. To me, sending offers to "watchers" is a sure way to annoy and **bleep** off potential buyers and send them fleeing...

On my Active Listings page - I do not appreciate eBay.Com's blue bar across my listings that have a couple of "watchers" that reads: "Send offer Get it sold by sending an offer to buyers interested in your item" with a darker blue clickable "Send offer"

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-05-2019

@mrdutch1001

I was mostly just curious. It was something that was mentioned in the April Announcement to be released in May. Here it is July and it's still not here. I use Best Offer on a good number of my listings. If I receive an offer and it's reasonable I will always take it into consideration. At the speed sales are arriving as of late, was just wondering if folks had tried it and if the results were positive or negative. It's entirely up to a seller to decide if it will work for them or not.

-Lotz

PS. Business has been so slow lately I can see a new "watchers" as they appear. Right up there with watching paint dry in excitement. The ones as you say are watching are most likely other sellers just monitoring prices. I guess if we know who they are we may be able to tell if that's the case and watch their prices in reverse.

forester_studios · ‎07-05-2019

Just like taking months to begin the GTC listing duration, ebay is late yet again on .ca. It does seem that Canadians are a very low priority to ebay. For instance we have never had the option to use the GSP here. I recently was watching the youtube channel of a very well known and successful seller in the UK. In a recent video he mentioned that using Global shipping program he only had to pay the small amount to ship to the GSP office in the UK and ebay paid the rest of the shipping cost! With Canada posts enormous overseas costs just think how helpful that could be to sellers costs in Canada.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-05-2019

@forester_studios

All depends on where the center of the wheel was located for Canada? Westerners could end up having to ship to Toronto to get "processed" before it went to the States to be sent on to its final resting place. And would we pay more to get it to Toronto than someone in Eastern Canada? Can only imagine the delays that would cause and grouchy US customers. Right now my parcels go from Calgary to Richmond to LAX for clearing and forwarding. Standard delivery for airmail is 4 to 7 days consistently. Tracked a bit faster than that. Very few customers are willing to pay for Expedited unless they really have to. Something to bring Canadian postage back in line would be something only for our wildest dreams.

-Lotz

forester_studios · ‎07-05-2019

Just saying they could put a hub in Winnipeg. Central location and if I could ship a parcel that was a few kilos there for $20 instead of having to pay like $70 for small packets overseas it could transform my business. Question: why does ebay subsidize UK sellers international shipping costs while giving us absolutely nothing????

forester_studios · ‎07-05-2019

I'm talking about overseas shipping not shipping to the USA.

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-06-2019

@forester_studios wrote:
.... Question: why does ebay subsidize UK sellers international shipping costs while giving us absolutely nothing????

eBay does not subsidize UK sellers with "free" GSP.

The GSP is paid for as a separate charge to the BUYER.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-06-2019

As Dennis mentioned,,,no one is being subsidized. The buyer pays for shipping from the gsp Center to their location and they pay for shopping from the sellers location to the gsp Center. Some items may cost the buyer less for shipping than the shipped it on their own but some may end up costing them even more so it wouldn’t necessarily result in more sales,

femmefan1946 · ‎07-06-2019

a very well known and successful seller in the UK. In a recent video he mentioned that using Global shipping program he only had to pay the small amount to ship to the GSP office in the UK and ebay paid the rest of the shipping cost!

With that statement he put any other advice he gives into question.

EBay doesn't pay the rest of the shipping cost, the buyer pays the rest of the shipping cost, along with the import fees (duty, sales taxes and a service fee to Pitney Bowes -again not eBay) to wrangle the shipment to the buyer's country.

In fact, the seller never pays shipping.

That cost is the buyer's.

The shipper uses the money given him by the buyer to pay for postage and packaging.

If the seller uses Free Shipping, it just means these costs are included in the asking price, not that the shipping is paid by the seller.

I noticed after the US introduced the GSP that my percentage of overseas buyers increased.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-06-2019

Something to bring Canadian postage back in line would be something only for our wildest dreams.

Are you sure you are not comparing apples and oranges?

USPS international rates are quite high, even compared to Canada Post.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

Let's send a two pound/ 950gm package from Victoria to Los Angeles/Los Angeles to Victoria.

And 20x15x10 cm / 12x6x4".

Canada Post Tracked Packet is $22.62Cdn/ $16.96US

USPS is for First-Class Package International $17.25US/$21.56Cdn

For a Priority Mail International® Medium Flat Rate Box $49.60 US/$62.00Cdn
(Mentioned because it is the first one to come up and the one I believe most US sellers would choose.)

What you are asking for is not parity-- those prices are pretty close-- but a subsidy for Canadians shipping into the USA.

Like the one so many North American sellers complain is available to users of China Post.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-06-2019

Right now, what would be nice is reasonable shipping for smaller items (only slightly over 2 cm thick) across Canada. 21.00 + dollars to send a 250 gram package from Calgary to NS is crazy.

-Lotz

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-06-2019

@femmefan1946

My sellers' fees add up extremely fast due to the fact that vast majority of my sales cannot be shipped letter rate because of final package size. When expedited/regular mail for Canada is consistently twice the price as shipping the same item to Florida/California it makes a big difference to actual sale conversions. Tracking is not always required. Affordable is.

-Lotz

femmefan1946 · ‎07-06-2019

Have you been in the PO lately? I usually use the mailboxes, because I am fortunate enough to have mostly letter-sized shipments.

But the PO has the prepaid boxes back !!

Still not great, the smallest box is about 15x15x15cm but the price is $17.99, which is a help. I don't often need them unless I am shipping a large order of postage, but it's a start.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/personal/sending/parcels/flat-rate-box.page?

We don't get our Small Business Solutions discount on them and the price is taxable (of course). but they include $100 insurance and are tracked.

So there's that.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-06-2019

@femmefan1946

I package my items prior to leaving the house securely using Shippo with my discount and drop off at a counter for scanning as required. I rarely sell anything that would fit into 15x15x15cm box and the example in my other post was long and thin. So would not have fit. Everything is unique in shape and packaging requirements. I could pre-purchase quantities in advance for a greater discount, but I would need to buy an assortment.

-Lotz

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-06-2019

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
... 15x15x15cm box and the example in my other post was long and thin. So would not have fit. Everything is unique in shape and packaging requirements.

actual Canada Post flat rate box sizes:

July 2019

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-06-2019

@ypdc_dennis

I'm familiar with the flat rate boxes. The item in question was shipped to NS previously and was under 250 grams. Cubing bumped it up .360 grams. Final shipping was 21.61 after the discount. Item value was 10.00. No other options were/are available. Sending it flat rate would have been 22.99 + GST.

-Lotz

forester_studios · ‎07-06-2019

Ok obviously no one here wants to understand what I said. I know the buyer pays shipping. My point is that instead of the seller having to pay the international rate to ship they pay the domestic rate to ship it domestically to the ebay UK hub. In other words if a seller in Canada sells an item to Australia they pay the price to ship it directly to Australia. A UK seller only pays to ship the item to the UK location which costs them less than paying to ship it to Australia.