Hello everyone,
We've just released the details of the 2015 Spring Seller Update. You can read all the details here:
http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2015/index.html
Feel free to post any questions, I'll do my best to come here daily to answer as much as possible.
Happy Spring!
Thanks everyone for posting your thoughts and questions. I'm reading through and will answer what I can throughout the day. If I miss any important questions, feel free to call me on it.
@lami0001 wrote:
I am in disbelief that ebay is reducing the monthly free listings from 100 monthly listings to 20, (5 listings a week in a month). I don't understand this move? Will is attract more new sellers? No! Will it increase my number of listings? No! Will I sale more and in return increase ebay revenues? No! Is this helping me develop my hobby in to a business? No! It is simply pushing a small ebay seller away and limiting options for buyer.
GREAT BUSINESS STRATEGY ebay! Must be a greedy guy in a business suit sitting in a corner office that made this decision...
This is an undercover boss time for ebay I think! Put yourself in the shoes of a small seller. Understand what we do and why... It's not all about the large amount of merchandise and big money! It's also about small transactions, hobby and collections.
You want small size sellers to open an ebay store... Ok but make it worth our while... Offer more than a hundred free listing (auction style) in a basic store... We don't gain anything... We lose on all fronts!
I'm disappointed, frustrated and would realy like ebay to explain the logic? Not a quick damage controle response.
Hi lami0001,
Actually, for you it's going to be 40 free listings per month since you list in a Collectibles category. I know it's not as good as 100 free listings but I still wanted to get this fact straight.
The main reason we are increasing the Media category fixed price insertion fee is to be simpler and equated with all other categories. As a result, the Media category will no longer have a different insertion fee. To help mitigate the increase, we recommend for Media sellers to consider which eBay Store is right for them to benefit from lower insertion fees and discounts on final value fees.
@le-grenier wrote:
Why are you not answering any of the important questions,because you don`t know how!!!1
Bonjour le-grenier,
Quite frankly, I think I am answering all the questions. There's a lot of venting off going on, which is totally fine, as well as many suggestions which are read by me & other employees. Sorry if we don't have time to respond to each and every post. 🙂
@mjwl2006 wrote:
My questions are in regards to the changes to Product Identifiers.
#1) I don't know if you're aware of this or not but, as of last night, there is no option to enter a UPC code on a Sell form on ebay.ca. Only MPN. The only way to find a place to enter a UPC is in the 'bulk relist' function. Entering the UPC in the MPN slot doesn't call up the product; I tried it. If I am trying to stay ahead of the mandatory change with each new listing that I create, when may I look forward to finding the UPC spot on the page where I create each new listing?
#2) My second issue is with what I call 'lots' as in listings of one or more similar items being sold together. Mine are toys, new and it's easy to group them in a way that makes logical sense. Sellers like me use the term 'lot' or 'set' but today I found an ebay help page that is telling me that, like another giant online retailer who I will not name, I am now supposed to call this a 'bundle'. The word 'bundle' is twice as long. As it stands, I always use every single character in each item title to accurately describe my listings. Was any thought given to adding an additional three characters to what we are allowed to use in the item titles if the term we are now required to use is changing to one that is more characters?
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/bundle.html#guidelines
#3) The ebay product catalogue never has what I am listing and I am, by no means, selling odd products; they are items which are either currently on the market or manufactured within the past five to seven years. Is this going to change? If and when it changes, are sellers still going to be allowed to customize their item specifics?
Thank you.
Maureen
Hi Maureen,
Sorry if I wasn't able to write you a reply yesterday.
1) The best way to include the UPC code is to use it to start the listing. Give this a try: go to the start of the Sell Your Item form and enter this UPC in the box: 097855098498 and click Start selling. You should be taken to the selling form pre-populated with a Logitech mouse. If you click the See details link at the bottom of the Product details section, you will see the UPC code is there.
If you don't start the listing with the UPC code and/or the item you're listing isn't in the eBay Catalogue, it's true that there is no UPC field in the Item Specifics. In such cases, you can either just put the MPN number if you have it, or add your own Item Specific for the UPC code.
2) The word "bundle" is the most commonly used, and therefore correct way to call lots of sets. While I understand your predicament, we are unlikely to make the Title field 83 characters long just to accommodate bundle sellers. Probably best to just see about removing 3 characters elsewhere in your bundle titles. Sorry for the inconvenience.
3) While we do recommend for sellers to use the catalogue whenever possible, it is not mandatory to do so. If the item you sell isn't in the catalogue, you should simply list without the catalogue and add your own Item Specifics, including the required Product Identifiers. That way your listing will be compliant.
Lastly, we won't allow sellers to edit the Item Specifics when they list via the eBay catalogue. That would defeat the reason to have a catalogue. If the product you're listing isn't exactly the one in the catalogue, you shouldn't use the catalogue for this item.
@melissasminis wrote:
I find it absurd Raphael that you would tell people that you don't have time to answer their questions, I thought this is why you're here. I find that you can be rude at times, and make it sound like ebayers are bothering you with their questions and are wasting your time.
Hi melissasminis,
If I have offended anyone, I apologize, far from me the intention to do that. We're dealing with a sensitive topic that made some sellers rather unhappy, and since I don't write the rules, there is little I can do to change that. I come here to answer questions on the upcoming Seller Update, and to some questions, the correct answers unfortunately won't be satisfactory.
Also, answering questions on the forums is actually not my primary job description. In fact, it isn't on my list of responsibilities at all. We're a really small team at eBay Canada, we don't have anyone who can dedicate their full time to the discussion forums. As much as I love chatting with you guys, I can only allocate so much time to this. I'm sorry if that causes inconvenience to anyone.
@melissasminis wrote:
It is very petty to tell ebayers what words to use in their titles. Lot, set, bundle, what's the difference. It should be up to the seller what words they use to describe the items they sell.
I think I may have been unclear there. I never said it was mandatory to use the word bundle in listing titles, and neither do the eBay guidelines for bundled items listings. Someone was asking me if eBay was going to extend the length of listing titles from 80 characters to 83 so in order to accommodate for them to use the word "bundle" instead of "kit" or "set" in their already 80 characters-long titles, and all I said was, that's highly unlikely to happen, one ought to consider shortening the title elsewhere to fit the extra 3 characters. At the end of the day, that's the easiest solution to this problem.
There is a lot of things we mandate and enforce at eBay, calling kits or sets of items bundles in the listing title is not one of them.
melissasminis wrote:I see this spring update is forcing small sellers off of ebay. Everyone starts off as a small seller, and not everyone uses ebay as a full time job. Most of the unique items on ebay are sold by small sellers. So if you only have large businesses selling here, as I see this is what you're aiming for, it will be overloaded with the same types of predictable items, and not as much unique hard to find items, which in my opinion, makes ebay interesting.
All ebayers should be treated equally. Raising the fees on certain catagories is ludacris, "Media".
Another way to look at this would be that Media sellers have enjoyed much lower insertion fees than sellers who list in any other categories for a while now. This Fees update aligns the Media category with the rest of the site.
@melissasminis wrote:
Ebay promoting auction style listings doesn't make much sense. I find it a waste of time to list auction style, unless it's a high value item, something you can wait a week or more to sell and get paid for. Why would I want to list an item, watch it sit there for a week on auction, and hope for the best. I don't like how ebay expects everyone to list their items for next to nothing on auction, and us sellers hoping we get bids and a certain price. On many sites, it's the other way around, you only pay fees if your item sells. Ebay is offering to return insertion fees only if your item sells at auction, and you pay high fees when your item doesn't sell. Sounds like ebay is penalizing sellers when their items don't sell.
No one is forcing anyone to list Auction-style. In fact, for most items, Fixed Price is the better choice. Auction is best for one of a kind items that will attract enough bidders to create a bidding war, where the seller is comfortable to let the market set the sale price. If the seller has a firm idea of what price the item should or needs to sell for, then Fixed Price is the best option.
The way the fees are structured, we want to ensure everyone uses the right format for the right items.
@melissasminis wrote:
It can be pretty pricey to list here on ebay, with the insertion fees of up to $0.30 for some, 10% final value fees on item price and shipping depending on catagory, paypal fees if paypal is accepted method of payment, exchange rate fees if applicable. Also for the Canadian buyers, having to pay for the global shipping program fees up front. Since it's a "global" shipping program, I feel I should be able to charge these fees to US buyers as well. Soon people will only be able to afford to sell high value items only. It's getting to be comparable to the government, or the mafia.
Ebay sellers deserve better than this!
If a seller lists 20 items or less per month, which is the case for most consumer sellers, the new fee structure doesn't really change anything. Anyone with more sales velocity should consider a store subscription to get the extra free monthly listings as well as rebates on final value fees. No one is denying that this may represent a slight raise in eBay fees compared to the old 50 free listings per month with no store, but there's a plan that can work for the vast majority of sellers.
Here is a page to easily compare between the store subscription levels:
http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2015/rate-plans.html
These tools will help you forecast your fees under different scenarios:
http://www.fees.ebay.ca/feeweb/feeillustrator
http://www.fees.ebay.ca/feeweb/feecalculator
With that, I wish everyone a good weekend.
Thank you. I have taken your advice and run some tests given your instructions and encountered a few bugs which cause me concern.
When I do as you suggest on ebay.ca, first with the UPC, I get this:
It should be noted that this item is neither a Hockey Card or Bra or Canadian Stamp.
Then, when I enter the title that I would use if I were to create this listing from scratch which is what I always do since my toys are never in the catalogue or, if they are, have incorrect information associated with them, I get this:
Now, we're getting somewhere. But this result had nothing at all to do with the Product Identifiers it should have been associated with in the ebay.ca catalogue.
So, if I go to ebay.ca and do an Item Search in the field like a buyer of the UPC, this is what I find:
Which is absolutely not the item in question. They are similar, but not the model. If I scroll down into the search results far enough, I do find my item and here are the Item Specifics related to it. It is from a seller on ebay.com.
My concern is that:
(a) the Product Catalogue on ebay.ca is inherently flawed
(b) when I go to ebay.com and enter this UPC as a seller in the Sell form, I get the right item immediately
Therefore, what assurances can you offer that if Canadian sellers on ebay.ca have to enter their own UPC on an item as a custom Item Specific that it will rank as high as it would in North American search results as it would for an ebay.com seller who has access to different results in their own Product Catalogue which is obviously not the same as the one on ebay.ca.
Also, you mentioned that we don't now have to use the term 'bundle' unless we want to and that it is more commonly used as a term than lot anyway? Perhaps I misunderstood your meaning because I tested that too.
On ebay.ca, when I search 'Disney Cars lot' I am given 2.486 results for milt-item listings. When I search 'Disney Cars Bundle' I get 721. People are not using it.
And the new 'Improve Performance by Bundling Items' instructions that I shared a link to in my first post specifically say : "Title: Include the word "bundle" and the name of major bundled items in the title of your listing so buyers can find your item and know what they're bidding on or buying."
Your thoughts on these matters is appreciated. I look forward to your response. Thank you for taking the time to deal with these matters. I know there are folks here who are upset with various aspects of the Spring Update but I am not one of them. I merely seek clarification now to prevent problems with the Product Identifiers rules down the road.
Thank you,
Maureen
@douce_micha wrote:
If i have a product up for Auction. And im not getting the bid i want . Can i stop that auction . And relist my product again . Thank you.
Hi douce_micha,
Ending an Auction-style listing early will incur fees if there were bids placed at the time the seller ended the listing. You can read the details of this policy here:
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/end_early.html#fees
There are a few ways you can work to avoid getting too low a price for your auctioned items:
- Start the auction at your lowest acceptable price
- Use the Reserve Price feature and start the auction price low
The latter usually reaps better results as far as I know.
mjwl2006 wrote:My concern is that:
(a) the Product Catalogue on ebay.ca is inherently flawed
(b) when I go to ebay.com and enter this UPC as a seller in the Sell form, I get the right item immediately
Therefore, what assurances can you offer that if Canadian sellers on ebay.ca have to enter their own UPC on an item as a custom Item Specific that it will rank as high as it would in North American search results as it would for an ebay.com seller who has access to different results in their own Product Catalogue which is obviously not the same as the one on ebay.ca.
Hi Maureen,
Thanks for flagging this. I'm engaging with the Catalogue team to figure this out, as the US and CA catalogues should be fully aligned.
@mjwl2006 wrote:
Also, you mentioned that we don't now have to use the term 'bundle' unless we want to and that it is more commonly used as a term than lot anyway? Perhaps I misunderstood your meaning because I tested that too.
On ebay.ca, when I search 'Disney Cars lot' I am given 2.486 results for milt-item listings. When I search 'Disney Cars Bundle' I get 721. People are not using it.
And the new 'Improve Performance by Bundling Items' instructions that I shared a link to in my first post specifically say : "Title: Include the word "bundle" and the name of major bundled items in the title of your listing so buyers can find your item and know what they're bidding on or buying."
Your thoughts on these matters is appreciated. I look forward to your response. Thank you for taking the time to deal with these matters. I know there are folks here who are upset with various aspects of the Spring Update but I am not one of them. I merely seek clarification now to prevent problems with the Product Identifiers rules down the road.
Thank you,
Maureen
What I said was, term 'bundle' is more of an industry standard. This doesn't necessarily mean it is reflected amongst eBay sellers. One advantage to use the industry standard over what the majority uses on eBay would be search engine rankings (like Google for instance). This is a big part of why we are going to require Product Identifiers: to help item pages place better in search engines.
As for the eBay guidelines for listing bundles, it's true that we say to put the word 'bundle' in the title there but we don't say to not use 'lot' or 'kit'. That whole page uses the term 'bundle' throughout, it's just textual consistency if it's used in that paragraph as well 🙂 You can feel free to use 'lot' in your titles if it is better for you.
@mjwl2006 wrote:
Thank you. I appreciate it. I have created some new listings over the weekend with UPC codes as Custom Item Specifics so, in a few days to give them ample time to find their way into the Search soup, I'll try searching those through eBay.ca and eBay.com and see what comes up. Thank you also for the clarification on the use of the term 'bundle'. (I do know which online retailers use it and which don't.) Ideally, I'd like to use both terms in either my item title or as a custom specific but, before I commit to doing that widescale, I'll experiment to see which nets me greater visibility and/or sales. I really do use every character in my listing titles and not with words like 'L@@K!' or 'NICE!' to aptly describe what I feel I need to describe in the item. Sometimes even 'lot' is tough to find room to incorporate. Particularly when you're dealing with multiple items.
Happy to help. Please let me know what results your tests yield, we always love to get 'real life' accounts of how the site performs.
I totally know how limited character count make sit hard to convey everything we need. We routinely run into this same problem when we have to come up with French versions for our marketing, the correct verbiage is almost always too long! In such cases, creativity is definitely the key.
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