eBay

downsizing2018 · ‎09-03-2015

I have had two informatin notices about Canadian sellers listing in USAD versus CAD. Ebay states that historically sales are greater for us Canadians if we indeed sell in Canadian dollars, which is the opposite of what they have always advocated.

I see no feedback on or discussion on this - just wondering what everyone else is thinking here in Candada......

pierrelebel · ‎09-03-2015

Personally, from my own experience (I sell in both currencies - Cdn$ on eBay.ca and US$ on eBay.com) I totally agree with the most recent assessment by eBay (except for auto parts of course).

The marketing value of the current differential in the value of the Canadian and American dollars is often grossly overstated by many Canadian sellers assuming buyers are stupid. Online buyers are not stupid. Most understand the value - in their currency - of the item they wish to buy.

From my experience, if an item is worth Cdn$ 100 in the marketplace, a Canadian will be willing to pay Cdn$100 and an American US$ 75. The currency of the listing will have very little to do in the purchasing of an item.

When listing in Canadian dollars, Canadian sellers avoid having to pay PayPal 2.5%/2.6% conversion fee on every payment they receive. If they sell $1,000 monthly, that is a net $25 saved. If they sell $5,000 monthly, that is a net saving of $125.

femmefan1946 · ‎09-03-2015

There has been quite a lot of discussion about this.

One poster pointed out that the polling done by eBay seemed to be made during the precipitous drop in the loonie in the past year .

His point was that if a Canadian seller had listed an item at $10CDN in September 2014 (when the loonie was 91 cents USD) by September 2015 it would show to US customers (or Canadian customers shopping on eBaydotCOM as many do) as $7.50 USD.

A saving of $1.60 USD.

Many sellers, especially those of us using Fixed Price/ Good Til Cancelled, rarely look at listings once they are posted. It is possible that the extra sales are based on the suddenly lower prices Canadian sellers are asking.

Or not. YMMV.

pierrelebel · ‎09-04-2015

According the the announcement by eBay.ca (details available on the Announcements board) the survey took place from January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2015. So the severe drop in the value of the Canadian dollar late last year - matching the drop in the price of crude oil - should not substantially affect the results of the survey taken this year.

On the other hand, in all fairness, unfortunately eBay has little credibility when they announce major policy changes based on data they collected. The problem is partially their own fault as they kept telling Canadian sellers until early this year that it was preferable to list in US$. eBay had to know, early this year, that this was no longer correct and should have pulled their recommendation from the listing tool.

It is also pretty obvious to all Canadian sellers that eBay Inc intends to have eBay.ca become a single domestic currency site like all other eBay international sites. That's OK. But they should be more candid about it.

That nonsense about "no final decision having been made yet", quite frankly, has no traction. It sounds like another election blah... blah... blah...

eBay demands honesty from its sellers when listing on their sites. It is fair for us to expect the same from them. We are not getting it.

mr.elmwood · ‎09-04-2015

@pierrelebel wrote:
Personally, from my own experience (I sell in both currencies - Cdn$ on eBay.ca and US$ on eBay.com) I totally agree with the most recent assessment by eBay (except for auto parts of course).

The marketing value of the current differential in the value of the Canadian and American dollars is often grossly overstated by many Canadian sellers assuming buyers are stupid. Online buyers are not stupid. Most understand the value - in their currency - of the item they wish to buy.

From my experience, if an item is worth Cdn$ 100 in the marketplace, a Canadian will be willing to pay Cdn$100 and an American US$ 75. The currency of the listing will have very little to do in the purchasing of an item.

When listing in Canadian dollars, Canadian sellers avoid having to pay PayPal 2.5%/2.6% conversion fee on every payment they receive. If they sell $1,000 monthly, that is a net $25 saved. If they sell $5,000 monthly, that is a net saving of $125.

Eh?

I do not understand this Loonie VS Greenback issue that eBay is foisting on us. My prices are the same to everyone in the world. Better, because I am in Canada, CDN buyers do not have to deal with customs, GSP, lengthy delivery times.

Ultimately, the CDN buyer who knows his currency will immediately know that I am faster and cheaper than the US seller. I am "free" shipping to Canada and the US, so, I eat a couple of dollars on each CDN sale. Yes, not all my listing are free shipping. Gradually moving them all over.

Are they suggesting I price at $1 US to the world and $1 Cdn to Canada? Eat the 32%? I do not think I will do that.

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pierrelebel · ‎09-04-2015

"Are they suggesting..."

Based on their six month analysis, eBay is suggesting that if a Canadian seller sells auto parts on eBay, listings in US$ will get better results.

In all other categories, listing in Cdn$ will give better results than listing in US$.

mr.elmwood · ‎09-04-2015

Really! I did not know that. Still, Canadians do not buy auto parts.

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rose-dee · ‎09-04-2015

@pierrelebel wrote:

eBay demands honesty from its sellers when listing on their sites. It is fair for us to expect the same from them. We are not getting it.

I agree. And while we're on the subject of honesty, I found it curious to say the least that no mention was made (or should I say no admission was made), that if the survey was done in the early part of 2015, the ".com cart disconnect" must surely have influenced those figures.

Here's what I mean.

I think we can fairly say that most Canadian sellers have a market in the U.S., and that many depend upon U.S. sales. Any seller who lists in $US on .ca and regularly sells to the U.S. (or to anyone buying on .com for that matter), especially those who would expect to have buyers purchasing more than one item at a time, will have been impacted by the dysfunctional .com cart, whether they know it or not.

Neither sellers nor eBay have any way to accurately quantify this loss, since it's impossible to measure sales that don't happen because buyers give up before purchasing. This loss of buyers could be very significant.

Now, those Canadian sellers who have either continued to list in $Cdn or have switched to listing in $Cdn since the "cart disconnect" became an issue (which was around late 2013/early 2014) will not have been as seriously impacted by the inability of .com buyers to use their cart to purchase from a Canadian seller. This is because listing in $Cdn will not permit the .com buyer to use the .com cart at all. Buyers are thus forced to purchase items one-by-one, but can still request a total for any shipping adjustments, etc. The result? Slightly better sales. A difference of 5% to 10% would be a reasonable figure to account for this in many categories.

Before the "cart disconnect" became an issue, I frequently sold multi-item orders. I haven't had a single such purchase (all in one combined order) since. Yet I do have the occasional U.S. buyer -- usually an experienced eBayer -- who remembers the old way of checking out and manages to purchase 3 or 4 items one at a time. I then refund excess shipping.

About once every week or two I get a U.S. buyer contacting me to tell me that can't manage to check out and pay for more than one item. I give them directions on a "workaround", but many just don't bother and disappear without buying (this happened twice in the last 2 weeks). However, these are the buyers who do contact me. The buyers who try to purchase more than one item, find it impossible, then just give up and go away probably represent a much larger number -- 10% lost sales certainly wouldn't seem to be an exaggeration for my experience.

I've listed in $US for years on .ca and it worked very well up until last year and the "cart disconnect". I've considered switching to listing in $Cdn, not because eBay suddenly tells us it may be better based on their specious explanations, but because I know the cart problem is behind a good percentage of my sales downturn.

However, listing in $Cdn still doesn't permit .com buyers to use their cart, which is no solution if the majority of your sales are to the U.S. (and don't forget that many Canadians also shop on .com). I plan to switch to listing exclusively on .com shortly, as this is the only way to ensure that .com buyers can easily and seamlessly check out and pay for purchases of more than one item at a time.

So I find it completely disingenuous, even laughable, of eBay to be telling us now that listing in $Cdn will now be better for most of us. Of course it will! They made it so.

EBay created a problem (or should I say have refused or neglected to solve a fundamental problem, i.e. incompatible checkout flows), and then rationalized the solution -- which isn't a true solution at all, more like a 5% solution, a band-aid measure -- by telling us to list in $Cdn. A large part of why the eBay.ca survey shows Canadian sellers do better listing in $Cdn is precisely because it avoids some of the worst aspects of the "cart disconnect" problem. Holy smokes. Do these guys think we're idiots?

I expect the reason some categories didn't show 5% to 10% better sales from a 2015 survey was because a larger proportion of sellers in those categories may have been already listing in $US on .com, or don't traditionally sell more than one item at a time. Neither group would be affected by the .com "cart disconnect".

As I've said earlier, it's like buying a car whose brakes don't work and being told it's best to use the hand-brake, as it will stop the vehicle 10% better than no brake at all. Well, thanks.

For those who may be tired of hearing me harping on the "cart disconnect", consider what the effect might be if you were to take 3 or 4 carefully selected items up to the checkout counter in a B&M store and be told "sorry, these aren't for sale". I think I'd throw them down and walk out. At least in a B&M store, you know when your potential customers have left the store.

For all of the above reasons, and because over 90% of my customers have traditionally been Americans, I am going to be reluctantly abandoning my spot on .ca shortly. It was great while it worked (up until 2014), but it doesn't work anymore, no thanks to eBay. I suspect, as Pierre says, that we Canadians will soon be obliged to list only in $Cdn on .ca at some point anyway, so better to jump ship now than be forced on a trip I don't want to take.

tobyshitzu · ‎09-04-2015

The auto parts were exempt form their "list in CAN$" beacause the parts compatability thing doesn't exist on .ca, so not even possible to list properly in CAN$ if you wanted to

Some different posters popped up on one of the threads about this having a fit about ebay suggesting list in CAN$, and claiming how bad it would be. It was interesting to look at their own sales and see they didn't support what they were claiming. One of them claiming how much lower the price would be in CAN$ was selling the same thing I did in CAN$ at the same time, their US$ listings went for less. Think there are a lot here who believe things, who have never looked to see if they are actually true or not.

rose-dee · ‎09-04-2015

@mr.elmwood wrote:
Really! I did not know that. Still, Canadians do not buy auto parts.

Aha! See what you think of my post above, I believe this explains a lot.

Do you list on .com or .ca, or both? Only in $US? How often do your buyers make multi-item purchases?

The answers to those questions will tell you whether you've been a victim of the ".com cart disconnect" or not, and hence whether that 5% to 10% increase eBay is suggesting might apply. Of course, what they don't tell you is that if 90% of your buyers are American, switching to listing in $US on .com will probably be even better.

rose-dee · ‎09-04-2015

@sistersweird wrote:

I see no feedback on or discussion on this - just wondering what everyone else is thinking here in Candada......

You might want to also check this thread: http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Are-other-Canadian-sellers-having-major-problems-selling-...

pierrelebel · ‎09-04-2015

"Still, Canadians do not buy auto parts."

It is not about Canadian buyers. The recommendation to list in US$ is for Canadian sellers.

And you are most likely correct that the recommendation is the result of Canadians not buying in that category.

pierrelebel · ‎09-04-2015

"the ".com cart disconnect" must surely have influenced those figures. "

I will not write a book about it but while the problem is real, I believe that your conclusion and assumption of the importance of the problem are wrong.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-04-2015

I am just catching up on board posts so this might have been mentioned to you already. Raphael and you were discussing how to change your listings from .ca to .com. If you do it on Auctiva then it is a bit easier. You still have to redo some of the information but not as much. Message me if you want to know how to do it through Auctiva.

rose-dee · ‎09-04-2015

@pierrelebel wrote:
"the ".com cart disconnect" must surely have influenced those figures. "

I will not write a book about it but while the problem is real, I believe that your conclusion and assumption of the importance of the problem are wrong.

I'm sorry you don't appreciate my detailed discussion of this problem. I think many sellers are only vaguely aware, if at all, of the complexity of the issue, which is why I try to be specific and analytical. It is illogical to assume that the .com cart dysfunction could not have had an impact on eBay's 2015 survey. None of us could possibly have known the extent of the impact before -- now we may have some idea.

If you don't believe my conclusions, take a look at the statement by Raphael this week. Even he, who previously dismissed the problem as miniscule, seems to have come around to an acceptance of its seriousness:

"Please don't confuse my statement for the amount of impacted sellers for an assessment of the size of the problem. I think it's a huge problem, and for the affected sellers, it's colossal. But that doesn't mean it's easy to make the case for the resources necessary to change this."

rose-dee · ‎09-04-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I am just catching up on board posts so this might have been mentioned to you already. Raphael and you were discussing how to change your listings from .ca to .com. If you do it on Auctiva then it is a bit easier. You still have to redo some of the information but not as much. Message me if you want to know how to do it through Auctiva.

Thanks 'pj', but Auctiva has a 15 per month listing limit, and then they charge per listing, so I only use it for the more important listings. The trouble is that I also often make substantial edits once the item is on eBay, so going back to my saved Auctiva listing doesn't always work. I may be able to salvage some of them.

I've used Auctiva for years and they have a very simple-to-use format with good support. However, I may take you up on the offer if I run into snags.

There is no doubt I'll be paying more in FVFs once I'm listing on .com, but I can only hope that an increase in multi-item orders will compensate. If it doesn't make a difference between now and Christmas, my usually busiest season, then I'll have no choice but to slink back to .ca and list in $Cdn to avoid constantly losing money.

rose-dee · ‎09-04-2015

BTW, one question: is a Canadian seller listing on .com subject to the "Hassle Free Returns" programme? This could pose a problem in situations where eBay requires the seller to cover the cost of return shipping and I want to be prepared. My understanding is that there is no way to provide a prepaid shipping label to a U.S. buyer.

pierrelebel · ‎09-04-2015

"I'm sorry you don't appreciate my detailed discussion of this problem"

I do. I simply do not agree with your conclusion. It overemphasizes the problem and the conclusion is wrong. End of story.

It is a huge problem for those affected (myself included). However I think it is wrong to conclude it had a substantial effect on the analysis conducted by eBay.

I think Raphael understood the problem clearly on Wednesday:

"Please don't confuse my statement for the amount of impacted sellers for an assessment of the size of the problem. I think it's a huge problem, and for the affected sellers, it's colossal. But that doesn't mean it's easy to make the case for the resources necessary to change this.

Listing in USD or CAD on eBay.ca won't change anything to how buyers on eBay.com see items. Neither can be added to the shopping cart on eBay.com. Only items listed on eBay.com can be added to the cart on eBay.com."

rose-dee · ‎09-04-2015

@pierrelebel wrote:

Listing in USD or CAD on eBay.ca won't change anything to how buyers on eBay.com see items. Neither can be added to the shopping cart on eBay.com. Only items listed on eBay.com can be added to the cart on eBay.com."

I'm sorry, Pierre, but Raphael was wrong in the first sentence of this statement which you marked in bold (as he has been mistaken about other things on occasion).

Through tests a number of us conducted a few months ago, we realized that a buyer attempting to buy more than one item from a Canadian seller listing in $US will run into what I call a "dead-end cart". In other words, it will appear to the .com buyer that the cart is available, but the cart will not accept a second item. In fact, if the buyer tries to purchase a second item, they may see error messages such as "Item Not Available" or "Item sent to Auction". This is very, very bad, but it is not the same experience a .com buyer will see if the Canadian seller lists in $Cdn.

It is true that if a Canadian seller lists in $Cdn, a .com buyer will not be able to use the .com cart at all -- they'll be routed through the "old style", one-at-a-time checkout process. This is at least an improvement over being completely thwarted at the checkout counter by a dead-end cart, i.e. quite a difference from the buyer's end.

You can see that this is why this particular issue is so difficult to parse. There are many permutations that at times even Raphael hasn't been aware of until some of us pointed them out.

His statement you quoted above is quite wrong on the face of it. Ask 'pj' or 'mjwl' if you don't believe me -- they were the ones who made it clear to me that listing in $Cdn was at least a partial solution to the "disconnect", in that .com buyers would not see those terribly confusing messages or find themselves stuck in a dead-end cart.