c!~~_7.JPG "kalvin@ebay.com"){kind=avatar}
As an aside, I have a purely marketing-focused approach on the matter of fonts, so I should add that I'm willing to give up a little in the way of functionality or universality of view in exchange for elegance, clarity and style. 
@rose-dee wrote:
Hi Kalvin et al ! The subject of fonts in listings came up on a discussion thread this week. My query is: does it really make any difference whether you use only such well-known, sans-serif fonts as Arial, or is there any disadvantage to using a somewhat less common font such as the one I always use, which is Georgia?
Even though I use a 3rd party auction management service to prepare listings (Auctiva), I see that eBay's listing preparation frame has Georgia, along with a number of other fairly popular fonts, available for use.
There are three or four issues around the use of fonts: (1) whether fonts in listings will enlarge/reduce signficantly (even to the point of illegibility) when seen by a viewer, in which case, what is the best size of font to use? (2) whether certain fonts are more "eBay friendly" than others for purposes of editing, etc.; and (3) whether using a non-recommended font will cause a seller to suffer in terms of search, placement, etc. There may be other aspects to the font question, but these are the 3 most common I can think of.
Your input would be much appreciated, thanks!
Hi rose-dee,
I don't think we have any data on hand to tell if there is a font in particular that performs better for buyers, given that we don't have any control, nor do we have any way to know what type of screen the listings are being viewed on and with what display settings. My best piece of advice would be that unless your own computer screen is way out of the ordinary (for example if you use a 60" HDTV as a computer screen), as long as you find your font looks OK when you look at the listing, your buyers should too.
One thing I can tell is that as far as I know, the font & size you use have no bearing what so ever on your search placement. I'll check to be sure and let you know if I'm wrong, but I'm 99% sure of this.
Lastly, the font itself shouldn't change how editable your listing description is, however if you create your description with complex HTML or CSS coding in another tool and then paste that code on the Selling form, that can have some funky results if you start modifying the code (this happoened to me before). The font itself shouldn't be a problem though.
@rose-dee wrote:
Thanks very much Raphael, that's reassuring, especially the following, which I suppose was my overall concern:
"... as long as you find your font looks OK when you look at the listing, your buyers should too."
That rule should apply in the vast majority of times. Glad I could reassure you!
@pocomocomputing wrote:
In the eBay.ca forums, the View Listings on the left has been fixed to go to eBay.ca. However, if you click on the feedback number, it goes to eBay.com. It should go to eBay.ca in my opinion.
Why the feedback info is the same, the browser window or tab opened is now on the eBay.com site and if you use that window or tab to go to My eBay or Selling Manager, you are on the wrong site. Very annoying.
Hi pocomocomputing,
This is an open request with Lithium - hopefully it'll be fixed soon. Thanks for flagging.
@rose-dee wrote:
Since I'm the only one here, I have to add: you guys must never know what sort of question will come flying over your way on these discussion boards -- there must be a huge flurry of activity with every question, and the clock ticking away.
I'm always amazed that you manage to put your collective fingers on the answer to most questions within minutes. And, what is even more significant, it's almost always helpful and informed response. Thanks for doing this, in case no one else has ever mentioned it.
Thanks for the kind words. 🙂
@pocomocomputing wrote:
eBay Seller Tools - Turbo Lister, Selling Manager (Basic, Pro), etcetera.
I was reading the eBay.com forums and came across a topic a year old that new Seller Tools are being developed to replace the old. The topic was 1 year old (I do not have it handy) and said the tools would be coming out in 2 years (1 year from now).
Is there any truth to this?
Hi pocomocomputing,
Not having seen what was specifically discuss on that year old thread, it's hard for me to say whether this was true or not. What I can say is there definitely are changes coming, some listings methods are being enhanced, others retired. The launch of Business Policies was part of these enhancements and there are more coming, they will be announced in due time.
There's an announcement coming out very soon about one older listing tool in particular actually, watch for that in the next week or so.
@rose-dee wrote:
Well, since no one else seems to have a question, I have a perhaps more difficult one: can you tell us why sellers in particular are not being given any "heads-up" when really major changes to the site are about to be made?
There have been some doozies lately that just got plunked down without a word. For a few days we were left wondering if this was yet another massive glitch, or a permanent alteration to the site.
Personally I'd like to know why eBay can't (or won't) alert at least its sellers to really significant changes, even a day or two prior?
Thanks.
Great question - we usually announce changes that require a sellers to do things differently, ie, Seller Updates about twice a year. For others, we may roll out without announcing as we feel it'll be beneficial for the entire Community. We definitely try to share as much information as possible - we're always just an email away if you have any questions you can't find answers to 🙂
@pocomocomputing wrote:
Speaking of Selling Manager (Basic and Pro), a change was made recently on the eBay.com site in Listing Activity view where tabs were added, one for the existing Search and another for Listing Recommendations.
The change confused at least one eBay.ca member to thinking search was removed because Listing Recommendations was the default Tab now.
I have found that there are no announcements made for changes to My eBay or Selling Manager. Why can't these be announced in advance?
PS eBay.com has had Listing Recommendations for a while in the My eBay and Selling Manager Summary page and eBay.ca does not. Why?
As we explained before, there are product gaps on the back end of the eBay systems which sometimes will prevent new features to not be possible to roll out to eBay.ca. We are always working hard to close these gaps but like with any long list, things need to get prioritized is anything's going to be accomplished and as a result, it will take some time before we get all of them.
As for announcing in advance, that's something that we certainly prefer to do. I can't speak to what happened with the Selling Manager updates specifically, unfiortunately. I'll try to track that down.
@rose-dee wrote:
raphael@ebay.com wrote:
There's an announcement coming out very soon about one older listing tool in particular actually, watch for that in the next week or so.
Uh-oh. I don't know about other sellers, but I'm starting to cling to the "older" parts of eBay. Maybe they're like comfortable old shoes, but it seems there aren't many left anymore, and many of them still work well. Leave us a few familiar tools.
Please, please, can't those designers and programmers in San Jose all go on an extended vacation for a while and give us some time to coast for a while?
The decision to retire a listing tool is not something that's taken lightly. The biggest factor is that very few people still use it. We wouldn't want to pull the rug from under too many seller's feet! That said, there comes a point where company resources and efforts become wasted on old legacy tools that haven't been kept up to date for a longer period of time; it's better to put those down and reallocate efforts on things that benefit a larger portion of the eBay community.
