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Giving serious thought to migrating to another platform
Summary: rdemaree is considering moving their business from eBay due to issues with false import fee warnings affecting their handmade artist oil paints, which are CUSMA-qualified and should be tariff-free. They expressed frustration with eBay’s handling of tariffs and the EIS program’s AI mistakenly flagging their products as hazardous. While exploring alternatives like Etsy and Shopify, they face challenges due to eBay's significant traffic and the prospect of driving new traffic to a Shopify store by themselves. john_koenig99 suggested Etsy, sharing that they have had a favorable experience selling on the platform, but rdemaree noted Etsy also has tariff warnings.
Due to eBay’s handling of the tariff issues from the USA I’m giving serious thought to migrating elsewhere if things don’t improve here for Q4.
For clarification- I sell nearly only CUSMA qualified handmade artist oil paints. (Zero tariffs, and my products arent even hit by the new 50% tariffs).
Yet still eBay is slapping false import fees on all of my listings with no end in site and I’ve lost about 1/3 of my business to no fault of my own.
I have hosted themed monthly sales for 2 years, added more products including entry level products, went through the trouble of getting my listings CUSMA approved and everything and yet still I’ve lost thousands of dollars primarily due to bad optics (an orange clown screaming about tariffs and how Canada is terrible on tv everyday) and eBay telling all my potential customers they will owe import fees on my CUSMA duty free items (which is a flat out lie btw) and to top it off I can’t even use their expensive and slow EIS program because their AI doesn’t like the words oil and paint.
Due to AI algorithms I am unable to sell with EIS because it treats my products as hazardous (extremely laughable btw!) yet they keep sending me automated reminders that I could reach more customers by using EIS which Would confiscate my products for containing no-no words like “oil” or “paint” because ai is in its infancy still and doesn’t understand context.
There doesn’t seem to be any real solutions here. I am already seeking a part time job alongside my eBay shop which is challenging due to me having a medical condition but I may also need to seek a slow longterm goal of migrating away from eBay if something doesn’t give by January because nothing is improving and it’s been nearly 2 years of trump and 1 year of no de minimis.
Anybody else have any thoughts on the matter or has anyone else thought about seeking other platforms?
john_koenig99
·1 week ago · EditedYou mean the dreaded blue banner warning to buyers? I hope you are not talking about actual tariffs. Because the de mínimis wipe out introduced a varieties of fees that many buyers in America were completely unfamiliar with.
About the AI banning your listings, have you experimented with new words instead of painting and oil? Although , to be fair, I think the very nature of the components in oil paints would flag them as flammable and dangerous goods.🤔
As for an alternative platform, Etsy would probably be suitable for your listings, IMO.
rdemaree
OP1 week agoYeah I know there are brokerage fees now but mine are less than a dollar per package (I use chit chats) and this is baked into my shipping fee. It is literally false advertising from the getgo that buyers will pay import fees because overwhelmingly DDP is the law for the most part. Exporters have to prepay all tariffs and often times brokerage fees as well unless a seller uses UPS or something like that but id wager a guess that even then sellers pre-pay to avoid issues.
I lost my top rated seller status this month as I have 96 transactions to the USA instead of 100 (I meet all other criteria and had top rated seller status for 6 straight years without losing it until now). I used to on avg. get 115-145 transactions per year on avg. and now it seems like my new avg will be 90-98, just barely cutting me out of the program and essentially slapping a few hundred dollars in extra fees onto me that I used to not have (on top of my 1/3 loss of business and my 2% loss according to how ebay does promoted listings now) .
Add to this the fact that EIS wont allow my products so I have no way to remove the false import fee warnings from my listings.
I guess the writing is on the wall its time to find another platform to spread out awareness for my product and potentially over time choose a different site as my mainstay and keep ebay as a secondary platform for old customers who only know me from here.
I have dabbled with Etsy in the past but jumped ship because I didnt want to compete with my ebay shop so I didnt disturb my top rated seller status and algorithm favor but I guess thats no longer a factor and it doesnt look like ebay is planning on doing anything to help sellers like me anytime soon.
My dilemma now is deciding whether to go with Etsy or Shopify. Originally I chose ebay because it has such a large built in following, Etsy would have something similar and even something more niche to what I sell.
With Shopify it feels more professional and less fees but I would need to drive all of the traffic and tbh I am a 1 person business. I do all of the manufacturing, inventory, shipping, packaging, customer service, social media etc. I dont think I could drive enough traffic myself to make it worthwhile of a venture but im open to someone elses experience proving me wrong.
Have you ever had a shopify?
transtraders
·1 week agoIn my experience etsy treats sellers way better than ebay. I sell some over there (mostly vintage electronics) and really enjoy the experience there overall. I currently only sell to Canada there however, I shut off USA when the de minimus was lifted.
rdemaree
OP1 week agoI’m reading apparently Etsy has its own tariff warning on listings whixh would be my primary reason for selling there. Just can’t win I guess.
Might need to go back to listing on .com and bake my shipping fees into item cost and offer free shipping for my listings .
sapphyres-designer-jewellery
·1 week agoThat's what I did in my other store on some pricey items... I figure if I'm going to sell something for $90, make it $100 and include shipping (international too... US shipping costs more than the UK, but not as much as Australia). People will fuss with me over the shipping cost, but if the item itself is $10 more people seemed to be OK with buying it. It worked out great when some buyers bought multiple items with shipping included. Seemed to be a win for me there.