w~~_7.JPG "pjcdn2005"){kind=avatar}
Hello Canadian eBayers!
Welcome to our weekly chat. Please start posting at your convenience, we will be with you at 1 PM Eastern.
Good morning Raphael.
In the last few days, I noticed a few posts by different Canadian sellers suggesting eBay.ca has made changes to the default of the listing form (SYI3) so that the currency for new listing defaults automatically to Cdn$ instead of giving sellers the option to select US$ or Cdn$
For fifteen years, staff and management at eBay.ca have recommended listing in US$ (as stated on the listing form). Is this a change of policy?
Now, when I checked SYI3, I did not see a change (the currency option and recommendation were clearly shown near the top of the form).
Are you guys testing a new form on some sellers or in some categories, or is just another mistake (oversight) somewhere in your system?
Please take a look at:
Thank you
@pierrelebel wrote:
Good morning Raphael.
In the last few days, I noticed a few posts by different Canadian sellers suggesting eBay.ca has made changes to the default of the listing form (SYI3) so that the currency for new listing defaults automatically to Cdn$ instead of giving sellers the option to select US$ or Cdn$
For fifteen years, staff and management at eBay.ca have recommended listing in US$ (as stated on the listing form). Is this a change of policy?
Now, when I checked SYI3, I did not see a change (the currency option and recommendation were clearly shown near the top of the form).
Are you guys testing a new form on some sellers or in some categories, or is just another mistake (oversight) somewhere in your system?
Please take a look at:
Thank you
Hello Pierre,
The quick listing tool (different tool from SYI) is the simplified selling tool for consumer sellers which we launched over a year ago and from which the screen shots posted by user realhf on the other thread were taken. It has been made to only allow listing in Canadian dollars for any new listings created on it. This change is about a week old and simply put, we made it because we were able to measure that for that seller segment specifically, listings in Canadian dollars tend to sell more, as well is helps us in our mandate to stimulate Canadian domestic inventory & sales. Also, the whole philosophy behind the quick listing tool is simplicity; we deliberately remove any options from there in order to make the listing experience as simple as possible in order to help new sellers get through the process more easily. Lastly, any consumer seller who wishes to list in USD or use listing options not offered by the quick listing tool can easily switch to SYI and do that from there.
You don't see the quick listing tool because you are considered a business seller. The same will be true for any seller who uses one of eBay's business selling tools, such as a Store or Selling Manager.
@maggiebvintage2010 wrote:
Hello Raphael
The free listing promotion that started today has a discrepancy. The title states it's good for 5, 7, 10 & 30 day Auction and Fixed Price Listings, but in the body only 5, 7 and 10 day listings are mentioned. Which is correct? Thank you.
Hi maggiebvintage2010,
Thanks for flagging this. The 30 days duration is included in the promo and our team is updating the pages as we speak. Everything should be corrected within a couple of hours.
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Raphael,
Another problem with that quick listing form is that if a seller using it wants to sell worldwide, they can choose a shipping price for within Canada but they cannot separate the U.S. from the rest of the world. So if they chose to ship worldwide, they have to either overcharge the U.S. buyers or undercharge shipping to buyers in other countries.
Hi pjcdn2005,
This is true, for more advanced shipping features, a lister should use SYI. To be fair, flat rate worldwide shipping is very hard to price accurately, US or not.
@merritt-motorcycle-salvage wrote:
Hi merritt-motorcycle-salvage,
I'm sorry you're not satisfied with my answers to your questions, which were rather rhetorical to begin with. Of course I know what you're getting at, but I don't think I can answer the question as to why don't certain features exist on eBay.ca when they do exist on eBay.com any better than I already have.
If you do have questions that you would like answers to from me today, please post them, I'll be happy to answer them as best as I can.
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Raphael,
Another problem with that quick listing form is that if a seller using it wants to sell worldwide, they can choose a shipping price for within Canada but they cannot separate the U.S. from the rest of the world. So if they chose to ship worldwide, they have to either overcharge the U.S. buyers or undercharge shipping to buyers in other countries.
Hi pjcdn2005,
This is true, for more advanced shipping features, a lister should use SYI. To be fair, flat rate worldwide shipping is very hard to price accurately, US or not.
Having worldwide as an option without being able to set a cost for outside of North America is only going to confuse new sellers. If they can't set it up correctly, why offer it at all?
If the seller wants to ship all over the world and use calculated shipping they have to choose which shipping service they can use. Since there is no one shipping service that goes to both the U.S. and overseas, the calculator is not going to work on their listings. That is just setting them up for future problems.
If a seller is using lettermail or light packet there is one price based on weight for the U.S. and one price based on weight for the rest of the world but they can't even do that. AND it allows them to check off a service that isn't valid for a particular country. That's just confusing.
Yes, they can use the other form but if you are going to offer worldwide shipping on the quick form then they should be able to set it up correctly.
Shipping is by far the most complicated part of selling on eBay. For years there has been attempts to simplify that part of the selling flow, but no matter what once we start incorporating all the details required to make the shipping section cover all possible scenarios, we end up with a platform as complicated as the one we were trying to simplify. Right now, that platform is the legacy SYI we all know and love, and the simpler quick listing tool defaults to domestic shipping only, with the option to add one international shipping service.
There are plans to revamp the whole listing process which I unfortunately can't talk about at this time, and from what I've seen so far it will incorporate both the simplicity of the quick listing tool and the expansion options available on SYI.
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
That reminds me of another pet peeve that has been around every since I can remember. When using calculated shipping, the regular syi form allows sellers to put in dimensions that don't work for a particular service and doesn't warn them that it is not going to work. For example, the dimensions for Expedited USA are smaller than the ones for Expedited within Canada so the shipping calculator may show the correct cost for within Canada but will give a 'postal/zip code' error message when someone from the U.S. tries to look at a shipping price.
I realize that the shipping calculator probably isn't maintained by ebay but surely someone who looks after it can fix it so that sellers cannot put in the incorrect dimensions. There are lots of questions on the boards asking why the calculator does not show a shipping cost for U.S. buyers.
That's a pet peeve of mine too! 🙂 I agree this is pretty bad. There are a few issues at play here: the lack of warning when a seller inputs data that doesn't work with the selected shipping service, as well as the unclear error message shown to buyers as a result.
One way to avoid this while creating the listing is to use the Calculate shipping feature. This tool isn't perfect in that it won't be much more up front about dimensions and/or weight that don't work with the selected service, but it will show example rates when the dimensions and weight do work. This way a seller can tell when the settings are right.
@pocomocomputing wrote:
Oh, no, more changes that will mess up an already glitchy, unstable eBay.
Hi pocomocomputing,
I appreciate the vote of confidence 😛
Thank you Raphael for your detailed reply.
"we were able to measure that for that seller segment specifically, listings in Canadian dollars tend to sell more"
I had to read that sentence a few times to understand its meaning.
Do you mean that more experienced Canadian sellers do better listing in US$ (as recommended by eBay.ca for the last fifteen years) while newer, less experienced sellers benefit from listing in Cdn$ ?
Since success of a transaction is largely determined by buyers, why would buyers prefer to buy in US$ from some sellers and in Cdn$ from others? I am having a tough time making sense of that concept.
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
@pjcdn2005 wrote:That reminds me of another pet peeve that has been around every since I can remember. When using calculated shipping, the regular syi form allows sellers to put in dimensions that don't work for a particular service and doesn't warn them that it is not going to work. For example, the dimensions for Expedited USA are smaller than the ones for Expedited within Canada so the shipping calculator may show the correct cost for within Canada but will give a 'postal/zip code' error message when someone from the U.S. tries to look at a shipping price.
I realize that the shipping calculator probably isn't maintained by ebay but surely someone who looks after it can fix it so that sellers cannot put in the incorrect dimensions. There are lots of questions on the boards asking why the calculator does not show a shipping cost for U.S. buyers.
That's a pet peeve of mine too! 🙂 I agree this is pretty bad. There are a few issues at play here: the lack of warning when a seller inputs data that doesn't work with the selected shipping service, as well as the unclear error message shown to buyers as a result.
One way to avoid this while creating the listing is to use the Calculate shipping feature. This tool isn't perfect in that it won't be much more up front about dimensions and/or weight that don't work with the selected service, but it will show example rates when the dimensions and weight do work. This way a seller can tell when the settings are right.
The expedited USA dimensions problem happens only with calculated shipping. Perhaps they aren't checking the prices...they probably just assume that the calculator will give the right price.
@pocomocomputing wrote:
You have to admit that every time eBay changes something, they break something or remove features that buyers or sellers were using before without issues.
In the past year, there have been so many glitches from the changes made than I have ever seen in the previous 5 years of selling. And they take far longer to fix if at all.
The excuse is that ebay is a complex international site but if so complex why keep changing it if you know eBay is going to break things constantly.
PS The ghost Hello your username is still on the bottom of My eBay pages after months since I reported it. Not a critical issue but being there is just and indication of how things are done at ebay.
I actually can't admit that at all because it isn't true that things on the site break only because new features get implemented. A great deal of research and testing is done before the decision is made to add, change or remove a feature. Meanwhile, bugs happen and we do our best to fix them. All of that has to be looked at with the big picture in mind, especially when considering unfortunate circumstances like those that have created the current situation with the eBay.com shopping cart being unable to handle items listed on other sites.
If you know of just one site as complex as eBay that never has any bugs or never has any updates done to its features, I'd love to see it.
