2016 Spring Seller Update

[raphael@ebay.com]

Hello Canadian sellers,

This is the thread reserved for discussion around the 2016 Spring Seller Update announced today.

Read about the Update here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/index.html

[pjcdn2005]

Also regarding the mobile view...will item specifics be seen on it?

[cumos55]

Turbolister died for me  on my Windows 7 (my new computer ) and Windows Vista computers....in August 2015.... The problem had to do with updates  that created a totally disfunctional Turbolister... 

I now use Auctiva....  It provides a quick and easy way... a lot easier than Turbolister...  for me to prepare listings.....

The future looks good with Auctiva.

My understanding is that Auctiva will adjust to eBay's rules.....  It cannot afford not to do so...  It did so in the past... by agreement with eBay... If I remember correctly... many years ago

I have one computer ... with Windows XP.....dedicated to my one copy of unadjusted... sort of functional Turbolister...  with lots of templates for books previously sold...

I find the template  and mail the title and content  with respect to description ... to my Windows 7 computer......quick  and very easy to do...

Auctiva is a great help to do this....

[deeeight]

Didn't you make the connection between THIS and last year's change to force in UPC and MPN #s ?

[cumos55]

Items specifics are used in the search.

As long as I state Subject = History

and

Topic = Canada

and no where else in the listing

All of my listings  with Canada History  as words in a search by a potential buyer... will show up in a search.

[cumos55]

When I list books, I  have never used eBay's catalogue ... It is a mess looking for a place to happen.

Too many books listed by other sellers... with the ... wrong... information.

I scan and edit  the information from the dust  jacket  from the Foreword or Preface..... or even elsewhere.....  and then contents if it is short... or alternatively provide photographs (Scans)  of the contents  pages.... 

Auctiva provides a super way for me to include photographs of contents in a  listing...  as part of the description

For all new listings,  the ISBN is added  not in eBay's specified spot... but as a personal addition.

What I do not want to have is for eBay to add information from eBay's book catalogu... based on the ISBN included in a listing.....  as per eBay's provided-specified  location  and not my personal addition placement....

[xeposter]

---

@thecoinhunterca wrote:

---

@x..e wrote:

What operating systems does Turbo Lister support?
Turbo Lister supports the Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems. The product does not currently support Macintosh operating systems, but we continue to evaluate the demand for Macintosh support. Please visit the Solutions Directory and search for third-party listing tools that support Macintosh.

I found this info at http://pages.ebay.com/turbo_lister/turbolisterfaq.html.

Alex

---

Turbo lister is theoretically no longer supported by Ebay.

---

Yes, but I was replying to mjwl2006 about their question.

Alex

[xeposter]

---

@cumos55 wrote:

When I list books, I  have never used eBay's catalogue ... It is a mess looking for a place to happen.

Too many books listed by other sellers... with the ... wrong... information.

I scan and edit  the information from the dust  jacket  from the Foreword or Preface..... or even elsewhere.....  and then contents if it is short... or alternatively provide photographs (Scans)  of the contents  pages.... 

Auctiva provides a super way for me to include photographs of contents in a  listing...  as part of the description

For all new listings,  the ISBN is added  not in eBay's specified spot... but as a personal addition.

What I do not want to have is for eBay to add information from eBay's book catalogu... based on the ISBN included in a listing.....  as per eBay's provided-specified  location  and not my personal addition placement....

---

I know. Sometimes my books are too new or too old, then the catalog will not recognize it! As you said, there ARE too many of the same books in the catalog...that is why I don't waste the time to list books unless they are older...then the catalog doesn't recognize them.

Alex

[pocomocomputing]

---

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

---

raphael@ebay.com wrote:

---

@lorraine_carol wrote:

" eBay derives a brief, 250-character, text-only description summary from your full item description. This provides relevant listing information that allows shoppers to make fast, informed buying decisions."

I've been selling on ebay for over a decade and the suggestion/advice by ebay given to sellers was to ALWAYS include as much pertinent info as possible in order for buyers to make an informed decision to purchase or not to purchase. So now, ebay will be editing our listings picking out certain words they feel will describe our item(s). Am I understanding this correctly?

If this is the case, how will ebay respond to buyer's complaints stating 'seller didn't state 'this or that' in their listing', when in fact "this or that" was included in the non-edited ebay version?

Lorraine

---

Hi lorraine_carol,

Your own description isn't going away. eBay will pull a summary from your description and use that mainly on mobile buying channels, where buyers know they have to click a link to see the full description.

With this change, we aren't taking anything away. In fact we are adding a longer, better description summary and putting it where buyers will see it.

---

1 - A few months ago eBay did a test on some listings where they pulled out part of the description and I believe they put it where the condition box is. The info that they pulled was not always the most relevant info. Will they be pulling info for mobile the same way that they did for the test? 

2 - Will a character count be available on the syi form so that we know how many characters we have?

3 - From the update - Because the new View Item description summary is automatically generated by eBay, no action is required from you. If you want to highlight information that isn’t captured in our auto-generated summaries, you can choose the specific listing information you want to show using more advanced HTML options

Will eBay be explaining what those more advanced HTML options are or will there be something on the syi form to indicate which information we want highlighted?

---

The FAQ page here shows the HTML type code that would be used. I hope eBay does not expect sellers to use HTML. I have to assume eBay will make a data entry box in the Sell Your Item form similar to the Condition Description under condition to describe the condition details. It would be exactly the same method in the Sell Your Item form in my opinion. It has a character count and limit to 1,000 characters.

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/view-item.html#tab=faqs&faq=faq-vi-q09

PS raphael/rodney, why is it called Condition Description at the top of the SYI form and when displayed in the live listing, the Condition Description is shown under Condition (Used, New, etcetera) without a header but when the Condition Description is repeated in the Item Specifics it is called Seller Notes in the Item Specifics in the live listings.

[westernstargifts]

---

@triber wrote:

---

raphael@ebay.com wrote:

Hello Canadian sellers,

This is the thread reserved for discussion around the 2016 Spring Seller Update announced today.

Read about the Update here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/index.html

---

In the spring seller update it gives details for the future  limited characters in the description. I don't understand the difference in the 250 character and 800 character options, and I don't know what "active content" is. 

I have "boxes" in my descriptions, will these count in the characters?

Does eBay expect us to count the characters in each description?

I think it is a good idea for eBay to do a store option at $59.95 for 1,000 listings. I think there are a lot of sellers who would like that amount, but don't want the high cost of an anchor store, but for those sellers like me who just need the 500 listings, and that is what we signed up for, why should we be asked to pay double the fees for an amount we never wanted.

---

I totally agree.  I was quite happy with the 500 free FP listings.  I will not likely ever have more than 600 tops.

[sheepgal54]

---

@this-that-whatever wrote:

FIRST THE CURRENCY DECISION.

NOW A RATE INCREASE.

ETSY IS LOOKING BETTER EVERY DAY..

---

Etsy just announced a new website available to sellers for a FEE called patterns. some are jumping into it but its really just the same as an Ebay store. Its completely controlled by Etsy and you have to be registered with etsy to buy and you can't change anything unless you are on the Etsy site. They are trying to copy Ebay so don't bother moving over there.  

[sheepgal54]

I haven't had a sale in over 10 days. I can align that with the announcement about the change in currency on .ca. (I started changing my listings over) I wonder how much longer I will have to wait now with this spring seller update? I doubt I will keep my basic store since I don't use all the free listings now so more doesn't help in the least  and I miss out on free auction listings with a store. There is no way I am going to use Ebay shipping materials and give them free advertising when they are increasing my fees.  I am close to being done 

[hlmacdon]

---

raphael@ebay.com wrote:

---

---

Hi mjwl2006,

Product reviews help buyers make a decision on whether to buy a product based on previous buyers' reviews. They aren't a reflection on the seller offering that product. Showing reviews for productized items will, in the long run, help the marketplace raise the bar in terms of quality. I see no legitimate reason why a seller would need to opt out of that. If the product offered is a good product, even if it has a few bad reviews (almost all products have some bad reviews), buyers will review accordingly. AT the end of the day, product reviews are a standard in pretty much all other marketplaces and are something that is lacking on eBay.

About our promise to remove inappropriate reviews, keep in mind that this doesn't mean removing negative reviews, not anymore than our inappropriate feedback policy means we will remove negative feedback. I haven't seen the inappropriate product reviews policy yet but it's likely going to make sure we don't allow reviews with profanity, reviews that don't talk about the product or reviews that target a specific seller, for example.

---

One of the concerns as a seller is how you are handling inappropriate reviews. One of the frustrations as a seller is the perception many "report" xyz features on ebay disappear into the ether and rarely addressed. A great example is I have reported a seller who is violating listing policy (you have confirmed his listing style was a violation) many times and yet nothing happens months later. Ditto reporting hate material, fraudulent sellers, etc. Having managed ecommerce sites for many years I know review abuse is commonplace, and given many sellers inventory dollars are tied up in multi-quantity listings there is an obvious concern about the impact of suspect reviews on sales. What level of confidence should we have that reported inappropriate reviews are actually going to be dealt with in a timely manner? The lack of confidence in support is why you get the level of pushback from sellers.

Another question would be how are reviews going to be mapped to products? Are they mapped via UPC or MPN? Are you regexing to guess what reviews may belong to a given listing? A concern would be potential review to product mismatches, given item specifics are being crowd sourced from the seller base. I get the direction things are moving, but unlike ecommerce site that pull EDI data from qualified content aggregators ebay is relying heavily on community driven content here. There are categories where reviews make sense and there are categories where they are going to be an enormous hindrance depending on the implementation. Having a better understanding of how you are actually implementing this would be beneficial for sellers.

[hlmacdon]

---

---

---

@canadiangemstamps wrote:

How does the use of these things "lead to abuse in the marketplace"? What does this even mean?

---

Many users have exploited active content for malicious purposes, like phishing attacks to steal login information, redirecting to malicious external links, etc. That being said the ebay platform itself often has vulnerabilities unrelated to seller content, only in January was a login phishing attack patched (a month after being reported no less).

[momcqueen]

---

@x..e wrote:

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

These, for example, are part of the product reviews on a product that I currently sell here. This screen capture, however, is from another website, a different one, a competing one to ebay. Does ebay consider 'reviews' such as these to be of value? Or would they be deemed inappropriate? I'd like to know. For the record, it's a toy that I have listed at more than $150 CAD here which is selling for almost twice that elsewhere. 

---

I don't want my buyers seeing reviews like that in my products, because that might discourage them from buying it. Honestly, I don't think 3/4 of the people on eBay read the reviews before they purchase, but for those that do...I don't know.

Alex

---

That is my concern. Product Reviews have some value if they are moderated before they go live but suspect that's not going to be the case here. They will just show, like feedback, and then sit there until they are reported 68 times by 49 different, angry people, all calling the second-rung Customer Service team staffed by the rejects now reserved for any low-life, unimportant seller like me who doesn't hold an Anchor Store subscription. 

[momcqueen]

---

@deeeight wrote:

Please ebay...explain how allowing ANYONE, not just your buyers of those products you might have quantities of, posting reviews that show up on your listings as being a good thing? I see this being abused quickly, by other sellers who create dummy accounts to post negative reviews on listings of other sellers they do not like, to direct buyers to their own listings. If you have a LOT of listings, you might not catch the negative reviews right away, and until whatever "removal" tool for reviews happens, potential buyers will still be reading them and probably going to shop elsewhere.

---

Exactly! Or people who are just angry about not finding what they want someone where aside from ebay or other online sales venues where retail arbitrage has taken place. Do any of you want to guess how many angry, random messages I get from people who are NOT customers and who never will be simply because they don't like the look of me? And who resent my very existence? This gives them an easy, permanent method to damage my reputation. No questions asked, no consequences to them after the fact. Only I will suffer. This is a stupid move. Allow sellers to opt-out. I do my own Product Reviews. 

[pocomocomputing]

---

@westernstargifts wrote:

---

@triber wrote:

---

raphael@ebay.com wrote:

Hello Canadian sellers,

This is the thread reserved for discussion around the 2016 Spring Seller Update announced today.

Read about the Update here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/index.html

---

In the spring seller update it gives details for the future  limited characters in the description. I don't understand the difference in the 250 character and 800 character options, and I don't know what "active content" is. 

I have "boxes" in my descriptions, will these count in the characters?

Does eBay expect us to count the characters in each description?

I think it is a good idea for eBay to do a store option at $59.95 for 1,000 listings. I think there are a lot of sellers who would like that amount, but don't want the high cost of an anchor store, but for those sellers like me who just need the 500 listings, and that is what we signed up for, why should we be asked to pay double the fees for an amount we never wanted.

---

I totally agree.  I was quite happy with the 500 free FP listings.  I will not likely ever have more than 600 tops.

---

I was expecting a change in the number of free listings for the stores. But the doubling for Premium and the Anchor quadrupling was a surprise.

I would have expected a better solution to fit seller needs.

For example, have a Premium store with 3 levels, 500, 1000, 1500 each with a different price so a seller can grow and move up or down as needed. No penalties for moving up or down but a limit to say 3 moves a year.

For an Anchor Store, 3 levels like 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 each with a different [price for each.

For a basic store, hard to do 3 levels, but 100, 200, 300 free, or 2 levels, 125 and 250.

Leave non-stores as is with 50.

This way a seller could tailor their listing needs to fit a store and level within a store better. Having the ability to go up or down 3 times a year would let a seller decide what to do for peak selling periods. Some have slow summers, some have busy Christmas season.

The above seems very logical and it should not be that hard to implement.

[thecoinhunterca]

---

@pocomocomputing wrote:

---

@westernstargifts wrote:

---

@triber wrote:

---

raphael@ebay.com wrote:

Hello Canadian sellers,

This is the thread reserved for discussion around the 2016 Spring Seller Update announced today.

Read about the Update here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/index.html

---

In the spring seller update it gives details for the future  limited characters in the description. I don't understand the difference in the 250 character and 800 character options, and I don't know what "active content" is. 

I have "boxes" in my descriptions, will these count in the characters?

Does eBay expect us to count the characters in each description?

I think it is a good idea for eBay to do a store option at $59.95 for 1,000 listings. I think there are a lot of sellers who would like that amount, but don't want the high cost of an anchor store, but for those sellers like me who just need the 500 listings, and that is what we signed up for, why should we be asked to pay double the fees for an amount we never wanted.

---

I totally agree.  I was quite happy with the 500 free FP listings.  I will not likely ever have more than 600 tops.

---

I was expecting a change in the number of free listings for the stores. But the doubling for Premium and the Anchor quadrupling was a surprise.

I would have expected a better solution to fit seller needs.

For example, have a Premium store with 3 levels, 500, 1000, 1500 each with a different price so a seller can grow and move up or down as needed. No penalties for moving up or down but a limit to say 3 moves a year.

For an Anchor Store, 3 levels like 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 each with a different [price for each.

For a basic store, hard to do 3 levels, but 100, 200, 300 free, or 2 levels, 125 and 250.

Leave non-stores as is with 50.

This way a seller could tailor their listing needs to fit a store and level within a store better. Having the ability to go up or down 3 times a year would let a seller decide what to do for peak selling periods. Some have slow summers, some have busy Christmas season.

The above seems very logical and it should not be that hard to implement.

---

Ebay is a marketer like any other. It's all about giving you a reason to pay more. It's why the base store does not have Selling Manager Pro. I would have a hard time reverting back from it (I use it's functionality)  so I would never drop a store tier because of it....So I will pay like the rest of the Ebay sheep....Personally I don't mind the additional listing numbers since it will allow me to list more products in 10 day increments.  

[westernstargifts]

---

@thecoinhunterca wrote:

---

@pocomocomputing wrote:

---

@westernstargifts wrote:

---

@triber wrote:

---

raphael@ebay.com wrote:

Hello Canadian sellers,

This is the thread reserved for discussion around the 2016 Spring Seller Update announced today.

Read about the Update here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/index.html

---

In the spring seller update it gives details for the future  limited characters in the description. I don't understand the difference in the 250 character and 800 character options, and I don't know what "active content" is. 

I have "boxes" in my descriptions, will these count in the characters?

Does eBay expect us to count the characters in each description?

I think it is a good idea for eBay to do a store option at $59.95 for 1,000 listings. I think there are a lot of sellers who would like that amount, but don't want the high cost of an anchor store, but for those sellers like me who just need the 500 listings, and that is what we signed up for, why should we be asked to pay double the fees for an amount we never wanted.

---

I totally agree.  I was quite happy with the 500 free FP listings.  I will not likely ever have more than 600 tops.

---

I was expecting a change in the number of free listings for the stores. But the doubling for Premium and the Anchor quadrupling was a surprise.

I would have expected a better solution to fit seller needs.

For example, have a Premium store with 3 levels, 500, 1000, 1500 each with a different price so a seller can grow and move up or down as needed. No penalties for moving up or down but a limit to say 3 moves a year.

For an Anchor Store, 3 levels like 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 each with a different [price for each.

For a basic store, hard to do 3 levels, but 100, 200, 300 free, or 2 levels, 125 and 250.

Leave non-stores as is with 50.

This way a seller could tailor their listing needs to fit a store and level within a store better. Having the ability to go up or down 3 times a year would let a seller decide what to do for peak selling periods. Some have slow summers, some have busy Christmas season.

The above seems very logical and it should not be that hard to implement.

---

Ebay is a marketer like any other. It's all about giving you a reason to pay more. It's why the base store does not have Selling Manager Pro. I would have a hard time reverting back from it (I use it's functionality)  so I would never drop a store tier because of it....So I will pay like the rest of the Ebay sheep....Personally I don't mind the additional listing numbers since it will allow me to list more products in 10 day increments.  

---

---

I am not home most of the time from May to October because we are at our summer place during that time.  I take limited stock with me and sell from there.  Two years ago I kept my Premium store on vacation, re-opening it for a few days whenever we came home for a few days.  Otherwise I used the free auctions to keep some listings going without having to end them all and relist in the fall. 

Last year we did not have as many free auctions so I ended all listings except for the stock that I took with me and changed to a Basic store.  I was undecided what I would do this year but now, with the increase in store fees, I will definitely go back to a Basic store.  I do not use all of the features in SM so it is no big deal to do this.  The biggest drawback is having to make up new listings for the rest of my stock when we return.

More flexible store options would definitely be a plus in my situation.

[pocomocomputing]

One of the biggest ironies I find with the eBay move to limit active HTML from listings is that those listings take longer to load and run reducing buyer expectations. Yet eBay has ads on their pages that are active and slow down loading the search pages. I guess ebay wants to save all the bandwidth for their ads and not sellers listings.

When eBay started cross promoting listings with ads from other competing sellers in a sellers listings, eBay thought this was fair since they owned the site. Anything to get a sale for eBay and a FVF. But when sellers have cross promotion galleries in their listings, eBay wants to eliminate them.

[xeposter]

I honestly don't know why eBay wants to do this to sellers. What happens when somebody opens an item not as described case? I don't want to say that "I couldn't fit that the item had a tiny scratch in my description because eBay wouldn't let me fit it" to my buyers.

Don't the scrolling galleries sell more for eBay? Does eBay realize how many potential buyers they are loosing?

eBay is slowly taking away the fun of customizing things...first the Me pages...not the description. Next it will be the stores...I want my listings to stand out!

Alex