Retirement of USD from eBay.ca Selling Flows

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.

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Re: Retirement of USD from eBay.ca Selling Flows

Anonymous
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@sealsbuyrequest wrote:

Another Mine Field put in place to make Selling on EBay as difficult as possible !!!!  I can only believe that EBay somehow collects more money in the  process on Currency Exchange Fees !!!!  Just about every little change somehow usually benefits EBAY in Fees. First it makes buying US Products for Canada out of reach by Charging Huge Delivery Costs on Small USA Purchases such as a $ 2.00 Stamp Purchase that costs about $ 12.95 US or more,  under their new postage rules - Go Figure. Does Ebay Canada ever act in the best interest of Canada  ????? This new policy will only limit Canadian Sales to the USA, which is out largest Customer.


Foreign exchange on eBay is handled by PayPal, which is no longer a part of eBay Inc.Whether or not PayPal makes a dollar more or less formed no part of our consideration whatsoever.

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@mindbender3 wrote:

Totally agree with this comment.  If eBay is forcing us to list in Canadian currency then the fees must also be in CAD.  


Hi mindbender3,

 

This is already true. Your insertion and final value fees are always charged in the same currency as your listing's currency, regardless of what you have selected as your billing currency, which is a separate thing. You could get your eBay invoice in Japanese Yen if you chose to.


@mindbender3 wrote:

Additionally, as someone mentioned earlier are other foreign sites now being forced to list in their own currency.  Somehow I doubt it.


All other eBay sites in the world only have their respective local currency available to sellers. eBay.ca will have been the only site in eBay's history to have had more then one selling currency. 


@mindbender3 wrote:

Many years ago the eBay motto was to have a fair and equitable marketplace.  What happened?  This move is truly absurd.  As a former employee I am biting my tongue not to say more!


I don't know how long ago you were an employee but like you, I remember the eBay Values and Behaviours well. As the company evolved, so did the values but the gist is still the same. We have made this decision because our data clearly showed us that it was the best thing for our sellers. I'm hoping that in time, you see it this was as well.

Message 462 of 1,448
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I agree with most of the other participants: this decision will affect   canadians sellers BIG TIME...

 

We already have a hard time competing with US sellers  mainly because of higher shipping rates   across the border. We cant   sell knick-knacks like US sellers do because of shipping rates. Cant sell  all those Starbuck mugs  fro 10$  free shipping... My shipping cost With tracking from  Montreal to  the US west coast  is at least 15$... We have to find a niche    ( mostly high ticket items) that we can buy low and sell high   to be able  to  offer free shipping ( which is, by the way,  never free and should be called  shipping included...but thats another debate...).

 

The exchange rate is giving a little bit more leeway to canadians  to set  competitive prices.

 

Sorry but Americans dont give a rats ass about canadian currency ... They are ABSOLUTELY in LOOOVE with their Benjamin  and  those weird prices  after the exchange will make them look the other way.  After all, canadian  money is nothing else than ...Monopoly money right?  Im sure you"ve  all heard that one  once in your life, have"nt you? 

 

And what about currency fluctuations? Canadian sellers will always have to be on the look out , spend hours  every month to review their listings and make sure that in spite of the exchange rate, their items are still priced competitively in US dollars. Most Ebay sellers have full time jobs and  are using their spare time to more productive activities like,..LISTING!  And , with that new policy, we will need  our full time job more and more because  sales will plummet... 

 

Lets Talk about demographic...estimated on Jan 1st:     CANADA:  35 872 748        USA: 320 million  

So, whats wrong  in trying to make it easier and more appealing  for our largest market???   

 

We tried in the past  to list on Ebay.com:  shipping rates  from Canada Post were not available on the .com site, so we couldnt print our labels at a discounted rate through PayPal...  I bet  Ebay didnt think of that ... but hey! surprise me and  prove me wrong... 

 

How about return policy? If we list on .com, do we still have the  privilege  to set our own  return policy or do we have to  go with the 30 days  like  the americans? 

 

Earlier tonight, I've read the letter of Andrea Stairs, Managing Director of eBay Canada.  Nice piece of corporate BS...  Ms Stairs  has still the nerve to call  that new policy " Sellers GUIDANCE"... Nice Euphemism... Sellers OBLIGATIONS would have been more appropriate

 

And  SERIOUSLY?  After 2 years at Ebay , that's all you came up with to "help" canadian sellers???    How about you get cracking  and  negociate better shipping charges with Canada Post?   But I guess, that would be too simple for high level executives to think like  the little people. 

 

Be Transparent Ebay...there has to be another reason behind all that... Does it have anything to do Revenue Canada cracking down on Power Sellers?  Hummmm..... what do you all think?     

 

Am I being sarcastic??  yes, you can say that...

 

And my final  words: . it sucks to be a canadian seller on Ebay...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message 463 of 1,448
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Anonymous
Not applicable

@micromachineworld wrote:

I , like most of the people commenting here cannot believe that Ebay would do this.

Usa sales probably constitute most of my sales

 

I like many sellers here am very surprised to hear about the "focus" groups on this, Ebay come on, there arent that many canadian sellers , why wasnt a email sent out advising us asking for input -why? because its easier to do it , say youve done it with a select few that are more easily "managed " in the response you want for your business , than it is to ask properly and not get the response you want ..... cynical yes, and even more so when I saw the very flippant response from from a ebay rep to one seller that basically there were so many canadian sellers and they had missed him...... that illustrates just how bad 

Support for canadian sellers on Ebay is not good anyway.

 

we are subject to a postal service that charges more than our Usa sellers so Ebay , we have to compete with that , with I am sure most sellers making less money just to do so- Ebay response to help that ------Nothing .

Ebay wont even offer us multi tab listings for variations of the same listing as they do for other countries to save money

I could go on here

 

I have been selling in this name and others for 12-15 years plus and   I WISH there was a alternative to ebay.

How do I migrate all my listings to ebay .com ie when selling manager only appears in ebay .ca ???


Thanks for your note.

 

We would never do this if we thought this would hurt Canadian exports to the US. That's what pays the bills for us too. I understand that it is very counterintuitive.

 

We don't employ focus groups to ask sellers if they want us to change things. We used them to understand the kinds of challenges we would have in helping sellers through this.

 

This thread is not about shipping, but yes, it is much more expensive to ship from Canada, and that makes it harder for Canadians to succeed.

 

Thanks for supporting us for so long. You've been on eBay as long as me. We have seen an unbelievable amount of change.

 

You'll be able to use the migration tool to help you move your listings to eBay.com. Selling manager will be accessible for you on eBay.com. More about the tool here. http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/list-in-cad/migration-tool-usd-listings.html

 

 

 

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Anonymous
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@equalityrocks wrote:

Unless eBay.ca is shutting down, they should take a look at why Canadians sellers have NOT switched to Canadian Currency. Forcing this Currency on us, will mean more money out of our pockets for conversion rates. Are they anticipating the Canadian dollar to skyrocket above the American dollar? That is the only scenario that might make sense to me.


We aren't shutting down. Honest..

 

We aren't forcing anything. You can list in USD if you prefer, you'll just need to list on eBay.com. We don't have an interest in conversion rates and it had nothing to do with our recommendations. The decision is not tied to speculation on future FX rates in any way whatsoever.

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Anonymous
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@supraguy777 wrote:

I'm sick of ebay implementing these BS rules to Canadian's, first was the "DUTIES AND TAXES AT CHECKOUT",  now this, if I want to list an item in USD then I am going to, it should be my choice, not ebay. If ebay implement this new rule I will have to find another auction provider. To many rules and it's too expensive for Canadian's


You still have that choice, You just need to list on eBay.com if you want to list in USD. You can do that with your existing eBay credentials.

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Anonymous
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@jkhayes wrote:

Most US customers don`t understand CDN$ and want to see US$ listings. This will cut my sales in half or worse. US Ebay doesn`t recognize the high postage rates needed to send from Canada. It has limits on postage amounts.  So we can`t just start selling there.   Cancel this idea or lose many sellers.


We wouldn't do this if the old conventional wisdom of US buyers need US dollars was actually borne out by the facts. On our marketplace - one of the largest cross border marketplaces that exists - we are seeing a change. US buyers ARE buying CAD items and they are buying them a lot. Every day.

 

If that weren't true, it would not make sense for us to do this.

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@klunder1928 wrote:
I am very disappointed to hear this decision. I believe it will have a disastrous effect on listings moved to ebay.ca. Canada and the US are technically separate countries, but the reality is that Canadians consume products and culture from both interchangeably, if not more US products entirely. Americans do not. It pains me to say it but the Canadian market is more of an annex of the US market than an entity of its own. Separating the two does not make sense in this increasingly porous global market.

I am curious about the focus group of Canadian sellers who you say experienced more success selling in cdn currency. What were their products? What was the reason for this? Why is there such a discrepancy between these results and the experience the rest of us sellers have had, that of plunging views and sales when listing in cdn?

A lot of your Canadian sellers depend on the income they generate from selling on ebay. This decision will seriously jeopardize that livelihood. I implore you to reconsider and allow us the choice of currency ourselves.

Hello klunder1928,

 

I'm sorry that you're unhappy with our decision. I apologize for repeating the same message, but it's true: we have very convincing data that shows that US and global eBay buyers are totally OK with buying items listed in foreign currencies, and that as a result of the increasingly porous global market you describe, Canadian sellers actually benefit from listing in Canadian dollars. This is true for the vast majority of Canadian sellers, not just those who were part of our focus groups. In fact, we got a lot of participants in those focus groups who, like you, didn't believe us or didn't trust the data we showed them in support of our claims.

 

Our decision was not based on a few specific seller's success with CAD, it was based on real from all Canadian eBay sellers.

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To Raphael from Ebay: 

You wrote: "  We have made this decision because our data clearly showed us that it was the best thing for our sellers. I'm hoping that in time, you see it this was as well." 

 

Let the business owners be the  judge of what is best for them...  Show some respect for your sellers...

 

Message 469 of 1,448
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Canada Post shipping does not work on .com
Shipping to Canada FROM Canada becomes international. Too many other shipping problems.
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@amazingidea wrote:

I can sell my items on eBay.com but some categories such as "Coins & paper money > Bullion" are not allowed for non-us members! How can you fix it?

 


 


Could Raphael or Rodney confirm if this is true?  I was sure that a friend of mine had listed bullion on .com and he's Canadian.

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Anonymous
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@al_sgarage001 wrote:

Why change something that works well. We should have the choice to list in USD or CANADIAN $$. I do not agree with this decision that will add a load of work for me. Is there any mods available for the turbo lister if I decide to list is USD? Will I have the option to upload on ebay.com?


Turbo Lister is no longer supported by eBay, though if it's still working for you, that's pretty cool.

 

We will not be updating that product. Since it works through our trading API, what will happen is that after June 1st, any listing you attempt to submit to the eBay.ca site in USD will generate an error and will not list.

 

Having said that, Turbo Lister did support eBay.com listing when we supported it. Give it a shot. Hopefully it will still work for you. It's getting long in the tooth.  

 

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Hi sweet.things.4u,


@sweet.things.4u wrote:

Rodney I presently list on Ebay.com (u.s dollar) and Ebay.ca ( u.s dollar). I prefer to and want to continue to list in U.S. dollar as it works better for me. My question is once this change happens can I continue to list on both. Meaning can I list on Ebay.com in U.S. dollar and for my items which I need a shipping calculator (maybe 5%-10% of my items) list them on ebay.ca in Canadain dollar. If so I would like to know how this will affect my selling reports? Does it mean that I will now have 2 sets of selling reports, one is u.s dollar and another in Canadian dollar? Also for my selling fees invoice does that mean I will have two invoices instead of one?

 

I realize that when a customer buys an item from ebay.ca and ebay.com I am unable to combine the items in one invoice but I have managed to work around that and my customers do not seem to mind receiving two invoices as long as I adjusted the shipping. So basically I want to know how that would affect the selling reports and the billing invoices if I chose to list on .com in u.s dollars and on .ca in Canadian dollars. Thank you.

 

If anyone else knows the answer to this I would appreciate the info : )


I'll take this one 🙂

 

Of course you'll be allowed to list on either site, or both, as you please. All we are changing is that if you list on eBay.ca, it'll be in CAD. You'll still get only one invoice for all items you list or sell. I would expect the same for your Sales Reports, but I don't actually know. I'll ask and update this post once I know.

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Anonymous
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@vandlquinn wrote:

That's exactly what I'm wondering. If we are only allowed to sell in Canadian, they should bill us in Canadian.


When you list in CAD, your fees are charged in CAD.

 

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All right folks, Rodney and I will retire for the night and come back tomorrow to pick up the conversation.

 

I would just like to take a moment to thank all of you for coming to this thread and let us know your thoughts, whether you're unhappy, apprehensive, skeptical or just venting off, we appreciate all feedback and hope that we are somehow able to help some of you through this.

 

Good night!

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Anonymous
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@mjwl2006 wrote:
Please have the courtesy to give eBay Canada staff some time to review the hundred comments that came in overnight. If you woke to 123 new messages from buyers in your inbox, wound you have a thoughtful answer to each one in 20 minutes?

That's really nice of you to say. Thank you.

 

We do appreciate that this is unsettling for our sellers. Impacted folks have every right to be angry. We're taking away a feature that they liked and asking them to list differently. That's asking a lot and selling on eBay is hard enough to begin with.

 

I understand why folks are upset, and also why the advice to list in CAD is so hard to believe.

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Anonymous
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@snidley7 wrote:

Being able to sell in USD is a tool.

Being able to use the Canadpost shipping options is a tool.

 

We require both these tools in order to operate our business

 

We have these tools now, so do not remove them.   Your new proposal does not address these issues.


This is not a proposal, it's advance notice of a change that is coming in June.

 

Unfortunately, you won't be able to list in US dollars and use calculated shipping on the same listing after that.

 

 

Message 477 of 1,448
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Just tried to list an item on .com...  no option for Canada post for calculated shipping...  

 

You didnt listen to the right sellers in your focus  groups... any experienced sellers  would have told you all that right from the bat...

 

 

 

 

Message 478 of 1,448
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Anonymous
Not applicable

@rufis1966 wrote:

There are many sellers like myself who BUY a lot of supplies on Ebay, which is in USD, and we make Items to SELL on Ebay and now we should sell that in CAD?  So I should just close my store and move 100% into Etsy. Thats it..after all the rip offs and screw overs Ebay has done to Canadian sellers, Ive stuck it out..but this would be the last straw.  I am NOT going to sell IN CAD.  

There is only One reason Ebay is pushing this and its because they are going to make money somehow at some end with exchange rates who knows.  This is NOT going to make Ebay More Money as far as making Canadians More sales...nope...So what is the point? is Ebay just looking to destroy Ebay.ca?  

 

Whoever in Ebay came up with this Bright Idea..is not a Canadian selling on Ebay.


Actually, she is.

Message 479 of 1,448
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AUGH!!  WHY!!!!

I recall when I first started on eBay 10+ years ago, reading that you would do better to list in USD because you'd be more likely to sell.  So how has eBay "outgrown this recommendation"?  Canadian Business is busy advising investors to consider Canadian companies that do most of their sales in USD but pay taxes in CAD, as they stand to make more of a profit with the exchange.  And you are telling us that little eBay sellers will "be more successful" listing in CAD?  How are we going to be more successful?  

 

"... we are actually correcting an anomaly that has prevented us from bringing many features and enhancements to Canadian users"... like what??  What "features and enhancements" require CAD, that you couldn't do with a USD option?

 

If you want to list in USD, you go do it on .com instead?  Then who sends you your bill?  .com or .ca?  And what currency will you get billed in then?  And will you then get paid in USD or will there be some conversion along the way?

 

I think people are annoyed because they stood to make a little more money listing in USD, and it helped to take the sting out of the fees (like fees on postage -- what the !!!!?  If I charge postage at cost like an honest seller, I get nicked for a fee on it and end up in the hole).

 

Next, they'll be forcing us to use that stupid Global Shipping Program here too, and charge buyers exorbitant postage fees for little items that wouldn't have duty on them anyway.  PLEASE tell me this isn't next.

 

 

 

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