eBay

raphael@ebay.com · ‎03-18-2016

Hello Canadian sellers,

This thread is open for discussion regarding the recent announcement about eBay Canada retiring USD support from its selling flows. Myself and other employees will come visit this thread and do our best to answer any questions on this topic.

this-that-whatever · ‎03-22-2016

Are you kidding me??

Anonymous · ‎03-22-2016

@roadrunners123 wrote:

Are you making this change because of the current Canadian-to-US dollar exchange rate?
No. We’re making this change for the long term. Removing US dollar (USD) listings is a response to the changing eCommerce landscape in Canada and the US: eCommerce is now a significant part of Canadian retail, while US buyers are now used to seeing and buying foreign inventory online. This change allows us to simplify our selling platform and will ensure that we're better able to launch new or improved selling features on eBay.ca. While the current, weaker Canadian dollar (CAD) creates an advantage for Canadian sellers, we're making this change to ensure that Canadian sellers can be more successful—both now and in the long term.

So my question is this: Why now? Why wasn't this done when the Canadian dollar was worth more then the American dollar? This was only a few years ago, I remember very well that the Canadian dollar was worth more then the American dollar, so I placed the listings in Canadian dollars. I mean if Ebay imposed this new rule back then, I couldn't see any Canadian EBayers complaining about this new rule.

Great question. Honestly, it's because we didn't know CAD was a better choice even for exporter sellers at the time. Personally, I wouldn't have believed it at the time, as I still thought USD was the best choice for our export-minded Canadian sellers. I would have bet money on it.

This is a really big decision that Andrea and the team here did not come to lightly. It took us a while to study this because we wanted to be certain it was the right move. We are now certain is the right move. We weren't ready then.

Anonymous · ‎03-22-2016

@roadrunners123 wrote:

So why do you think that Canadian Ebayers are unhappy with this? Would it have been possible to send sellers in Canada that post the listings in Canadian funds a survey asking if they had better results? Then if you are 100% positive that sales are better, our Ebay peers would have been able to tell us this in there words, thus making an easier selling point for Ebay.

We didn't need to send a survey because we can analyze marketplace data in aggregate. That's a more reliable approach than a survey.

Anonymous · ‎03-22-2016

@eurobeads wrote:

Maybe they already know we are all going to move to ebay.com...Maybe that's EXACTLY what they want, and perhaps that is the goal of this update. Think about it, it makes sense: We will make more money on eBay.com & selling in US currency, and so will ebay. Maybe ebay.ca doesn't generate enough profit for Ebay to justify continuing its existence/operation, and they want to shut it down altogether. They realized that we all list US currency so they don't see the point of even having ebay.ca. So, instead of making a bold & sudden move to completely wipe out ebay.ca on the spot, they transition us away from it "smoothly" under nonsense pretences. Now this explanation makes some sense to me...

Okay, now you're scaring even me a little bit. 😉

All I can do is assure you that literally none of that is true.

Anonymous · ‎03-22-2016

@eurobeads wrote:

Maybe they already know we are all going to move to ebay.com...Maybe that's EXACTLY what they want, and perhaps that is the goal of this update. Think about it, it makes sense: We will make more money on eBay.com & selling in US currency, and so will ebay. Maybe ebay.ca doesn't generate enough profit for Ebay to justify continuing its existence/operation, and they want to shut it down altogether. They realized that we all list US currency so they don't see the point of even having ebay.ca. So, instead of making a bold & sudden move to completely wipe out ebay.ca on the spot, they transition us away from it "smoothly" under nonsense pretences. Now this explanation makes some sense to me...

Okay, now you're scaring even me a little bit. 😉

All I can do is assure you that literally none of that is true.

Anonymous · ‎03-23-2016

@lorraine_carol wrote:
Will ebayers in the USA be notified via emails/notifications about this change? Like many of the posters here, 99.99% of my sales are in the USA. A bit of education in the buying process of purchasing in Canadian funds would be helpful. Regardless of what the numbers apparently state, I do not believe the majority of Americans are confident in making purchases in any other funds but the USD for lack of education. Lorraine

No, they won't.

eBay Canada's listings will continue to be in either USD or CAD, just like they were before. The USD ones won't be listed on CA anymore but on eBay.com instead. That has no impact on buyers.

Also - really - US buyers snap up an astonishing amount of items from Canadian sellers in Canadian dollars every day. We would not do this if that were not true.

Anonymous · ‎03-23-2016

Okay folks,

I responded to as many posts as I could and I hope I was able to help answer some of your questions.

I will be tied up in meetings with my day job (Director of Product and COO for eBay Canada) tomorrow, so likely won't add any more responses for 18-24h. Raphael will be around to respond when he can as well.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, however frustrated you might be. We do care, and we do want you to succeed on eBay.

Thanks for your business. Please keep selling. Give CAD a shot. And have a look at the materials we prepared to help you with this change.

Good night!

albeu0 · ‎03-23-2016

That's what I call Liberty !! eBay don't ask, eBay order ! That's the democracy! eBay don't ask us what we think about, because our poor intelligence couldn't understand, so they decide for us, Since I start selling on us $ my sale increase, now my sale will drop. But Why ????? What's wrong ???

zome2 · ‎03-23-2016

Rodney,

You keep saying that this for our own good. This is to help the sellers. It will all work out in the long run.

However, you are very short on the specifics. How exactly is this helping us? What, in the long run, or for that matter the short run, is our benefit here?

All we see is a lot of work ahead for diminished returns. No matter how often you repeat that this is a good idea, it does not make it a good idea.

You're saying "trust us, we know what's good for you", but believe me that the sellers complaining here, who have put years of work every single god **bleep** day into their business are far better equipped to know "what's good for us".

By all means please direct me to your data that shows US buyers are more likely to buy in a foreign currency. This is so counter intuitive that it beggars belief.

You should have had a far large consultation than 20 or 25 sellers from Canada and I'm willing to bet my business that the majority of those people told you this was a bad idea.

Having said all this, I actually feel sorry for you having to defend the indefensible. You obviously have the right temperament for it, but please, stop blowing smoke up our butts and tell us the real reason this is happening. People are mad as hell either way. What difference does it make?

crazy_for_comics · ‎03-23-2016

This upcoming currency change has caused me allot of stress, anxiety, anger, a headache and confusion today. Selling here is a big part of my livelihood. And I'm sure allot of other sellers agree. I literally feel sick to my stomach..........There are so many questions that I have in my head. Seems like this change is going to create a whole bunch of extra work and more headaches....

I picked one question out of my head .........

I have gtc items listed in usd. If I stay on Ebay.ca will the eBay listing migration tool in May convert all my gtc's from usd to CAD with the the proper exchange rate? .......Like for example would a $9.99 usd item become 13.05 cad?

What if this change effects Ebay.ca sellers' bottom line? and was a mistake?

zome2 · ‎03-23-2016

Rodney,

Belief does not constitute reality. Your entire group may have an unshakable belief that this the right thing to do, but from every angle that I can see this, it will make my life more difficult and for that trouble, I will make less money.

I am beyond frustrated with this BS. I had over 100K in sales in 2015 on your site. All in US dollars. I would have made substantially less than that have I listed my items in CAD. There is no getting around this FACT!!!! Not a belief, but a FACT!!!!

So far everything we sellers said here was like throwing water on a brick wall. The wall doesn't care and it seems that neither does ebay. And for all your reasonable tone and polite answers, there is not one concrete indication on just HOW this will benefit us.

I get depressed just thinking about how this whole thing is going to affect my bottom line.

Really, just be honest with us. After all, that's the Canadian way, right? There can't be much worse fallout than what you're getting now, so tell us why you decided to knee cap us in such an incomprehensible way. If the reason makes sense, however nefarious it may be, I can at least live with that, but if you keep sticking to this lame story about how this was done for the sellers, I really have to question the humanity of your whole group.

With all due respect,

zome2

lorraine_carol · ‎03-23-2016

Hi.....I am in complete agreement with you zome2. Our frustration should be directed at eBay US. Ebay Canada did not decide this, they are only following orders from the parent company. Of course Canadian ebay employees are going to side with their employers whether they agree or not. Part of eBay Canada's employees jobs at this particular time is to convince us it's the right thing to do.

lorraine_carol · ‎03-23-2016

With due respect Rodney, your 'good night' sign-off was rather patronizing and condescending and of course the blatantly obvious, canned "thanks for your business. Please keep selling."

lorraine_carol · ‎03-23-2016

Bonanza's customer service is 2nd to none. They work with you via phone and are extremely patient. Many ebay sellers sell on Bonanza. At this point in time, my sales are higher.

pocomocomputing · ‎03-23-2016

Regarding the migration tool.

I understand the tool is for converting eBay.ca Canada listing in U$ to C$ or to move eBay.ca Canada Listings in US$ to eBay.com in US$.

What about sellers like me who have listings on ebay.com USA in US$ and want to move them back to eBay.ca in Can$? If selling on eBay.ca in Can$ is so much better, why is there not a tool to move my listing back to ebay.ca?

I have only a few listings running so I can convert back manually but what about sellers who have many listings on eBay.com USA in US$? Should they not have a tool to go and try the eBay.ca site in Can$? At least to move some est listings over to see if sales improve?

pocomocomputing · ‎03-23-2016

Selling Manager Pro.

Someone posted in another topic that they have ebay Selling Manager Pro with their store subscription on ebay.ca. If they move their listings to eBay.com, what happens to Selling Manager Pro on ebay.ca? Will it work for listing on eBay.com? Will they have to end the subscription on eBay.ca and subscribe again on eBay.com? Will they lose all their eBay.ca templates, cost, inventory on ebay.ca?

retro_thrift · ‎03-23-2016

@crazy_for_comics wrote:
I picked one question out of my head .........

I have gtc items listed in usd. If I stay on Ebay.ca will the eBay listing migration tool in May convert all my gtc's from usd to CAD with the the proper exchange rate? .......Like for example would a $9.99 usd item become 13.05 cad?

I can answer this one since I asked this question in my seller panel phone call. Once we are able to use the tool in May and bulk edit our listings to change the currency, you can use the feature in the bulk edit tool that is already there to increase cost by X amount of dollars or X amount of % (or decrease if our $ ever became higher than the US$ again). We will be able to bulk edit 500 at a time.

I have around 2600 listings so I will only need to do this 6 times which should only take a few minutes each batch. The exchange rate usually only drops 0.005 percent a day lately so I don't think we will ever need to be bulk editing daily unless the market crashed overnight.

nicknack17 · ‎03-23-2016

If we list only in CAD will US buyers have the option to pay in USD??? I've been with Ebay many years and have listed both ways and found that U.S. funds have been the best approach for me. I find that U.S. buyers wish to pay in U.S. funds.

chipmunk_collectibles · ‎03-23-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
@sirspinalot wrote:
So, what "new features and improvements" are being considered once this comes into affect?
This change makes every single feature an easier business case when we press for concurrent or fast follow launches. In general, this ensures we stay on pace with everything that is coming down the pipe, in the near, mid and long term.

SO basically, this decision was not made in the interests of Canadian sellers, most of whom it will generally harm to varying degrees. Instead, your decision was only made to save Ebay.ca a few thousand dollars in administrative costs and thereby pad your stock performance report for the year. Undermining the foundation to add a few shingles is not a particularly wise business strategy.

nicknack17 · ‎03-23-2016

If we list in CAD will the U.S. buyers have the option to buy with USD. I have been with Ebay.ca many years and know from experience that Americans prefer to pay for items from us Canadians in USD.

This should stay the Sellers choice (U.S. or CAD listing) depending on what they offer for sale and where the interest or Market is best for the Seller. Each Seller knows which side of the border their items will sell not Ebay.