eBay

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

Hi everyone.

Opening up a thread to discuss the 2017 Summer Seller Update, announced May 9th on eBay.ca.

momcqueen · ‎05-09-2017

Hello! Random Thought #1. Pleasantly surprised to see the return of eBay Canada Bucks.

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:

Hello! Random Thought #1. Pleasantly surprised to see the return of eBay Canada Bucks.

Thanks mjwl2006.

To be honest, we were surprised by that too. It would come as no surprise to anyone that we've been trying to get our loyalty program back for a number of years.

We were initially told that we wouldn't get that investment in 2017, but Hal Lawton, our senior vice-president who oversees all of eBay North America, wouldn't take no for an answer this year, immediately and forever establishing himself in my mind as an honourary Canadian.

msmaggie060 · ‎05-09-2017

Some clarification please. Does the new performance standard for Global mean that I will lose my Top Rated status since most of my items ship to the US and a few to the UK and Canada? I do sell worldwide but my type of tems sell mostly to the US. I hope this isn't true, I've worked hard to achieve top seller status!

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

@msmaggie060 wrote:

Some clarification please. Does the new performance standard for Global mean that I will lose my Top Rated status since most of my items ship to the US and a few to the UK and Canada? I do sell worldwide but my type of tems sell mostly to the US. I hope this isn't true, I've worked hard to achieve top seller status!

Thanks for your question msmaggie060. Congrats on earning top rated status in several markets.

This is a very complicated topic!

There are a few things to consider:

First, the US and UK programs are unchanged. So if you were top rated under either or both of those programs before, you can still be top rated on those sites in the future, assuming you can maintain your high standards.

Second, as a Canadian seller, if you are able to be Top Rated under either the US program or the Global program, note that you'll get the FVF discount on both listings created on eBay.ca and listings created on eBay.com.

Finally, we'll continue to extend both the FVF discount and the Top Rated badge on eBay.ca for Canadian sellers who are otherwise Global Top Rated, except that they are not longer reaching the qualifying transaction volume because of the new changes to the program. I anticipate we'll be doing this for some time, while we evaluate how Canadian sellers are faring with it.

momcqueen · ‎05-09-2017

I'm a little worried about changes coming to printing postage labels. Shippo? Who and what are they? http://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/news/seller-updates/2017summer/shippo-shipping-labels.html

What made necessary the change from how we've always done it? And if we're working around instead of through PayPal and Pitney Bowes, why not take it straight to Canada Post? What am I not understanding about this new partnership? Please set our minds at ease. We sellers depend on a smooth process when it comes to purchasing and printing postage.

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:

I'm a little worried about changes coming to printing postage labels. Shippo? Who and what are they? http://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/news/seller-updates/2017summer/shippo-shipping-labels.html

What made necessary the change from how we've always done it? And if we're working around instead of through PayPal and Pitney Bowes, why not take it straight to Canada Post? What am I not understanding about this new partnership? Please set our minds at ease. We sellers depend on a smooth process when it comes to purchasing and printing postage.

Hi mjwl2006. Great questions. Let me tackle them one at a time.

1. Who is Shippo - Shippo are a relative newcomer in the crowded space of online shipping services. We love their technology, their platform, and the user experience they serve up. I hope you'll love them soon too.

2. Why make changes? - Our PayPal label printing platform is over 10 years old. For some time now, we've been looking to add more features and more carriers, to our solution. PayPal is a wonderful company of course, but they are a payments company who operates a shipping label solution for us. Shippo is a shipping label company who will operate a shipping label platform for us. In truth, PayPal was just as keen to get us off of their label platform as we were to find a new partner. Our friends at Canada Post were also keen to find a platform that could better support their plans for products and rating in the future. So PayPal, Canada Post, and eBay are all excited about this change, and hopefully you'll be too!

3. Why not take it straight to Canada Post? - We considered that idea together. Ultimately, we weren't able to find a viable way forward together in the timeline we were hoping for. And we are very excited at some of Shippo's capabilities that weren't likely going to be available on Canada Post, including the ability to print labels for other carriers, the ability to print labels in bulk, label printing that works even on mobile, etc.

Lots more to come on this in the weeks ahead!

scrappin_rabbit · ‎05-09-2017

What better way to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday than by paying taxes on Ebay fees for shipping. Woo-hoo!

thestuffofchris · ‎05-09-2017

I'm also glad to see the return of eBay Bucks, and the introduction of gift cards!

I know the default for many users is to resist changes, but I'm optimistic (albeit somewhat cautiously) about the Shippo announcement. If I understand correctly, this means that we will be able to print labels from the Shippo platform while remaining on the eBay website, instead of being taken to a third-party website (as we do with PayPal). If this is the case, it should (hopefully) make things a bit simpler and more stream-lined. As a simple-minded person, that excites me.

luxe.labels · ‎05-09-2017

But the Seller Update says: "This summer, selected Canadian eBay buyers will be invited to participate in the eBay Bucks program." Who does that include? And why would not all Canadian buyers be included?

booksandpaper4you · ‎05-09-2017

Well, I just read the information on the changes coming on July 1st. I live in Ontario so will be paying 13% more on fees? And if we print labels with Shippo, will eBay continue to charge a fee for shipping? We already have to charge our customers double or more for shipping and lose sales compared to U.S sellers (or absorb the cost out of our profits). What is the incentive for Canadian eBay sellers to continue selling on this eBay platform that keeps taking more from our pocket? I have been selling for 17 years and this is the worst it has gotten for sellers. Time to consider other online platforms which I have already started to use.

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

@thestuffofchris wrote:
I'm also glad to see the return of eBay Bucks, and the introduction of gift cards!

I know the default for many users is to resist changes, but I'm optimistic (albeit somewhat cautiously) about the Shippo announcement. If I understand correctly, this means that we will be able to print labels from the Shippo platform while remaining on the eBay website, instead of being taken to a third-party website (as we do with PayPal). If this is the case, it should (hopefully) make things a bit simpler and more stream-lined. As a simple-minded person, that excites me.

Hi thestuffofchris

Thanks for your post. We are excited about Bucks and about eBay Gift Cards too.

I appreciate your optimism, albeit cautious, re Shippo. We think you're going to really like this new shipping platform.

But to set expectations, with Shippo, you still won't be able to print labels while remaining on the eBay website. The integration will be similar to PayPal:

After an initial one-time setup process, you'll be able to pull your eBay sold items into your Shippo dashboard and print labels from there. You'll also be able to click links on your sold items within eBay, which will soon begin routing you to Shippo to purchase and print your label instead of to PayPal.

Whether you start your label printing on eBay, or on Shippo, buyer address details will be pre-filled, you'll benefit from eBay's negotiated rates with Canada Post, and you can still pay for your labels using PayPal.

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

@luxe.labels wrote:

But the Seller Update says: "This summer, selected Canadian eBay buyers will be invited to participate in the eBay Bucks program." Who does that include? And why would not all Canadian buyers be included?

We do anticipate broad-based membership in the new Bucks program - we aren't planning to go out to a tiny subset of buyers or anything like that. But we do need to make some sensible decisions about who to invite.

The way we think about this is that we'd rather give a higher value benefit to the customers whose behaviour we believe we can positively influence with a loyalty program, then to dilute the benefit by including absolutely everyone in that program.

What we have in mind is getting the most for our eBay Buck, for ourselves and for our sellers.

thestuffofchris · ‎05-09-2017

Oh, okay. So it's going to be similar to how it is currently with PayPal. I misunderstood at first, sorry about that.

I know there have been different issues lately that some users have been having with the PayPal platform, so hopefully those aren't present with the Shippo platform.

hlmacdon · ‎05-09-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
But to set expectations, with Shippo, you still won't be able to print labels while remaining on the eBay website. The integration will be similar to PayPal:

Do you plan on leveraging their API in the future for an on-site experience? Seems like an odd choice not to.

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

@booksandpaper4you wrote:

Well, I just read the information on the changes coming on July 1st. I live in Ontario so will be paying 13% more on fees? And if we print labels with Shippo, will eBay continue to charge a fee for shipping? We already have to charge our customers double or more for shipping and lose sales compared to U.S sellers (or absorb the cost out of our profits). What is the incentive for Canadian eBay sellers to continue selling on this eBay platform that keeps taking more from our pocket? I have been selling for 17 years and this is the worst it has gotten for sellers. Time to consider other online platforms which I have already started to use.

Thanks booksandpaper4you.

It's important to note that we aren't changing our final value fees, nor are we changing the rules for how we calculate your final value fees. Also, the taxes you'll pay on your seller fees don't go to eBay, they go to your Federal and Provincial Governments.

This announcement actually includes significant investments in the Canadian business. We announced gift cards, a loyalty program, and an investment in TV marketing, all intended to bring you more buyers and more sales.

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

@thestuffofchris wrote:
Oh, okay. So it's going to be similar to how it is currently with PayPal. I misunderstood at first, sorry about that.

I know there have been different issues lately that some users have been having with the PayPal platform, so hopefully those aren't present with the Shippo platform.

When things go wrong with the PayPal label printing solution, it's important to PayPal to address those things, and they've been great about helping us out when we bring issues to their attention. But they have to prioritize new features and bug fixes against all the other important things involved in running a world class payments platform.

If something goes wrong with the Shippo solution, we can expect them to be all over it very, very quickly, because Shippo's entire business is about shipping labels.

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

hlmacdon wrote:

Do you plan on leveraging their API in the future for an on-site experience? Seems like an odd choice not to.

Hi hlmacdon. We have no plans to do that.

The Shippo platform is incredibly robust. I think you'll be better served managing your labels with an integrated Shippo experience than you would be if we tried to replicate all their features on eBay.

Apart from a one-time sign up process, I hope you'll find this to be a seamless and well-integrated experience.

hlmacdon · ‎05-09-2017

@Anonymous wrote:

Second, as a Canadian seller, if you are able to be Top Rated under either the US program or the Global program, note that you'll get the FVF discount on both listings created on eBay.ca and listings created on eBay.com.

Finally, we'll continue to extend both the FVF discount and the Top Rated badge on eBay.ca for Canadian sellers who are otherwise Global Top Rated, except that they are not longer reaching the qualifying transaction volume because of the new changes to the program. I anticipate we'll be doing this for some time, while we evaluate how Canadian sellers are faring with it.

Just to clarify, which countries sales are now tallied under the "global program" for Canadian sellers? Is it everything other than sales to the US, UK, and Germany? I ask as the seller dashboard currently breaks out UK/Ireland, and Germany/Austria/Switzterland as separate regions.

Also for Canadian sellers who currently qualify under the global TRS program, will the FVF discounts still apply to sales made to the excluded countries, from listings on .ca and .com, in the case where the seller may not qualify as Top Rated under the excluded countries TRS programs? For example, Canadian sellers who list on .com but are unable to meet the same day/1 day handling time requirements of the US TRS program, but otherwise qualifiy as a global TRS.

Anonymous · ‎05-09-2017

@hlmacdon wrote:

Just to clarify, which countries sales are now tallied under the "global program" for Canadian sellers? Is it everything other than sales to the US, UK, and Germany? I ask as the seller dashboard currently breaks out UK/Ireland, and Germany/Austria/Switzterland as separate regions.

Also for Canadian sellers who currently qualify under the global TRS program, will the FVF discounts still apply to sales made to the excluded countries, from listings on .ca and .com, in the case where the seller may not qualify as Top Rated under the excluded countries TRS programs? For example, Canadian sellers who list on .com but are unable to meet the same day/1 day handling time requirements of the US TRS program, but otherwise qualifiy as a global TRS.

Hi hlmacdon.

Global seller standards will be based on sales to countries other than the US, UK and Germany. You raise an interesting point re smaller sites that are part of those regional programs. I believe that UK, Austria and Switzerland will all count toward your global standards. But I'll double check on that, and post back here with a correction if I'm wrong about that.

We aren't changing the special arrangements we have in place for Canadian sellers with respect to the US program.

To review, here are the special rules for Canadians:

If you are Canadian and manage to be Global Top Rated, then you will get the FVF discount on all listings created on eBay.com or eBay.ca (regardless of which site they are purchased on or where they are shipped).
Or, if you are Canadian and manage to be US Top Rated, then you will get the FVF discount on all listings created on eBay.com or eBay.ca, again regardless of where they are sold.
If you are a Canadian seller who can meet all the requirements of the US Top Rated program except the tracking requirements, then you will still get the FVF discount on listings created on either eBay.ca or eBay.com.
To qualify for the Top Rated Plus badge on eBay.com, you need to meet the same requirements as a US seller. But you can still qualify for the Top Rated discount (see #3 above) whether or not you qualify for the Top Rated Plus badge.