Retirement of USD from eBay.ca Selling Flows

[raphael@ebay.com]

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.

[Anonymous]

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@sheepgal54 wrote:

So my question is what happens to my store? If I change some of my listings to CAD and move others to .com What will show up in my store? Will CAD show up on .ca and US$ on .com?  Hopefully both will show up.  And what happens to my selling manager page? Will I need another ID and another store on .com?

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Your eBay store on eBay.ca will show all the items that ship to Canada, and your eBay.com store will show all the items that ship to USA. It works that way even if you listed on somewhere else completely, like the Australian site in AUD. Listing currency doesn't matter to your store.

You don't need another store. One subscription lets you list on either site. I don't think you need to add another selling manager instance either.

[Anonymous]

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@selected_gems wrote:

If we post on ebay.com can we still list the items in USD? 90% of my customers are American...

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Yes.

[Anonymous]

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@libaliss wrote:

If I decide to use both ebay.ca and ebay.com, with using two different currencies, isn't that going to be a nightmare to sort out in my paypal account?

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It's not as complicated as it sounds. Many sellers do this. All charges will convert into your billing currency.

[Anonymous]

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@deeeight wrote:

No ebay's appointed workers for this thread are simply trolling us... the sellers.

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I'm not here to troll you. Raphael and I have been doing many of these posts late at night when our regular day jobs are through. No one is telling us to do this. We do it because we want to help answer questions for sellers regarding this change.

I'm doing this on my day off today, and was posting a little over the holiday weekend as well. I'm not expecting folks to thank us for it - far from it - but we are trying our best to answer questions and help people through this. There is no disrespect intended toward our sellers, although I do understand there is quite a lot of disrespect intended toward us. Fair enough.

I understand that we are taking away a feature that many sellers enjoyed using, and that folks are disinclined to believe US buyers will really purchase CAD items. So of course people are frustrated.

[Anonymous]

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@canadiangemstamps wrote:

Yes, but why would you implement a change ahead of being certain that you had the necessary migration too ready, knowing the problems it would cause sellers with thousand or tens of thousands of listings?

That is my main issue with this change. Not the loss of sales, but the fact that I may have to spend weeks re-doing work I've already done. 

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We're not. The migration tool is expected on May 2nd and we won't start impacting new listings until June and GTC until August.

[Anonymous]

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@billybee99 wrote:

I just realized that not only will I have to change the cost of the items from USD to CDN but I will have to also convert the shipping costs in every single auction; so I will have to go into the item descriptions of every single auction and make changes to the shipping - I doubt the "new tool" will allow for this to be done easily.

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The tool will update your shipping costs in bulk using the foreign exchange rate off your choice.

If you have described shipping in your item description, the tool can't help you with that. We recommend that you use eBay's structured shipping tools rather than putting info into your description. These allow buyers to check out immediately without you having to send an invoice, and tend to be cleaner and easier transactions.

[Anonymous]

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@tansi_girl wrote:
When is the tool going to be available to send all of my .ca listings over to .com?

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May 2nd.

[pocomocomputing]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@sheepgal54 wrote:

But consider the Canadian shopper that sees you are Canadian and then sees how much more they have to pay compared to the US buyers. I expect to lose some Canadian sales for sure. I think I will put a blurb in the description for canadians to find me on .ca and give them a bit of a discount. Now at least I won't be dinged for duplicates

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Our data shows you can attract more Canadian sales by listing in CAD.

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I have listed in both Can $ and US $ on ebay.ca over the years. I have also listed on eBay.com in US$.

My experience shows that listings in Can $ on ebay.ca has more Canadian buyers that US buyer with less International buyers.

Listing on ebay.ca in US $ on ebay.ca has less Canadian buyers and more USA buyers with more International buyers.

Listing on ebay.com in US$ has even more sales to USA buyers and less Canadian buyers.

No hard study or facts on the above. Just my sense of what was happening. I was a small seller with 100 listings a month at best and low sales. So not a great amount of data to work on and of course the sales were over the past 7 years.

As I understand the eBay study, it says there will be more sales overall with no breakdown from where the sales come from.

So it seems to me based om my experience there is some truth in Sellers saying listing in Can $ will reduce sales to the USA. The question is whether the loss of USA sales will be made up by Canadian sales and international sales.

This is the "leap of faith" that ebay.ca Canada wants sellers to take. Personally I do not think this is possible because the USA population is 10 times the Canadian population so how can the extra Canadian sales make up for the lost USA sales. I do think sales will go down for some, perhaps many, Canadian sellers who switch to Can $ on ebay.ca.

I would suggest that Canadian sellers who can list on ebay.com in US $ should move some listing there if they can use the limitation of Flat Rate shipping and loss of Canada Post calculated shipping options in the listing.

PS Rodney, is there a breakdown of where the sales came from for listings in Can $ (Canada, USA, International) in the study and the change from listing on ebay.ca in US$.

[Anonymous]

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@torontosports326 wrote:

I may not speak for everyone, but I'm sure I speak for some in saying this. Although we dislike the new policy, we do appreciate you and Raphael taking the time to assist us in the process and answering our questions.

I was looking forward to the new promotion of 100k free Fixed Price listings, but just as quickly felt disappointed to find out the promotion was only for items listed in CAD dollar. This means the sellers that choose to migrate to ebay.com will not be able to benefit from the promotion. So if we want to take advantage of the promotion, we must list in CAD on eBay.ca.

Based on the feedback received so far, is there any possibility that the new policy will be brought back into the eBay head office drawing board? The focus group may be selected at random, but I think releasing the new policy to the public and the overall reception of the new change so far, it it being negative, is a better understanding of what we, the sellers, really want.

I understand the new policy is supposed to be beneficial to Canadian sellers in the future, but is it too much to ask to give us the option of choosing to sell in Canadian dollar or US dollar? Perhaps you can offer additional benefits and perks for selling in CAD, but taking out the option of selling in USD seems a bit cruel. Largely in part due to the fact that we have our own system setup already to the way we think works best for our store. Not to mention I will have to fix the item description for each listing to match the new currency, since there is no option to edit and replace item descriptions in bulk.

All of this is really frustrating as a seller. I took on eBay because it was the best selling tool out at the time. All the changes made over the year has made it harder to sell. I have never felt the need to speak up, but I really think this has gone too far. I hope our opinions in this discussion board really does make a difference and the eBay team will hear us out on the issue.

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I'm sorry you feel so frustrated. This is a decision that has been made.

To be clear - we didn't make this decision from a focus group, we made it from multiple studies of aggregate data and then after several rounds of discussions with sellers. The intend of those focus groups was to help us with planning the communications, migration tool, etc. to better understand the kinds of concerns sellers would have.

[Anonymous]

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@billybee99 wrote:

Raphael and his colleagues should have answered our questions BEFORE they rammed this down our throats.

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We have been answering questions in advance of any actual changes to the site. Nothing happens until June.

[Anonymous]

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@eurobeads wrote:
Rodney/EBay employees:
I have a GREAT idea. You keep insisting that we will make more sales/money if we list in Can currency. Most of us here don't accept/believe that. The solution to this dilemma is very simple: if you stand by your Stats, put your money where your mouth is and give us unlimited zero-insertion fee listings until July, for items listed in Can currency on eBay.ca (in both auction & fixed priced formats). If you are SURE that your "research" is correct, then you have nothing to worry about because we will all make tons of sales and you will have proven your point and confirmed the validity of your findings. I, for one would be willing to give Can currency one last shot if it didn't cost me to list. You shouldn't ask us to gamble with our listings on our dime; prove to us that you want us to succeed with your ACTIONS instead of your words.

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That IS a great idea, and it is pretty much exactly what one of the focus group sellers said to me as well.

Fortunately, we took that seller's advice and we have launched a couple of promotions along these lines already. They are generous promos. Shorter in term than what you have suggested here, but it doesn't mean there won't be more. It's our policy to not give details of pricing promotions in advance, but I've already said on this thread that it's safe to assume we will be running more promos as we move through this process. And it is safe to assume we will run more promos!!

[Anonymous]

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@10abaco wrote:

If I decide to send all my items to ebay.com in USD, what would now be the requirements to be a Top Rated Seller? Do I remain under the Global requirements or would I now fall under the USA requirements (1-day handling time and 14-day-or-better return).

I don't offer returns; I am therefore afraid that if I start selling on ebay.com in USD I will loose my Top Rated Seller standing and thereby the 20% discount on the final value fees. 

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There are no changes to seller standards programs as part of this retirement of USD listing support on eBay.ca. The requirements to be top rated on eBay.ca or on eBay.com don't change with your listing site.

[Anonymous]

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@toddmarde wrote:
I know a total idiot if you look to hire in your upper management.

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LOL

[momseaqueenfifteen]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@toddmarde wrote:
I know a total idiot if you look to hire in your upper management.

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LOL

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Rodney, I think you and the other ebay Canada staffers are too kind to the hostile sellers here who are throwing down insults like there is no tomorrow! 

[Anonymous]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:

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@ypdc_dennis wrote:

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@tobysh-itzu wrote:

The real losers here are the sellers who have been listing in CAN$ all along.  With the others going to see an increase in sell through surely that will mean we will see a decrease as we lose share to them!!  Very angy over this

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Haven't you been reading this thread?

With all these sellers leaving eBay.ca there is going to be lots of extra share to go around...

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While I'm 95 per cent certain that what tobytobysh-itzu wrote was meant as tongue-in-cheek, this thought also occurred to me. 

I realized eight months into selling here that CAD was a better fit for my business and buyers. It began with my Canadian buyers asking why they were being forced to pay USD on a Canadian item listed on a Canadian site and I had no good answer to give them. 

Now the following is a legitimate question for Rodney or someone else at ebay Canada to please answer: are you sure it's the CAD that has led to greater success with those listings being cited as the successes in their survey of the lay of the land? Is CAD the causation? Or merely the correlation? Maybe all smart and successful sellers who provide excellent service and satisfy buyers were early adopters of CAD, and it's not that CAD specifically led them to success. Is there a way to analyze the two factors separately? Has ebay done this?

While I don't doubt that CAD is the way for ebay Canada to go, I wonder if there is more to the sell-through rates of those successful sellers than just CAD at play. When I analyze my own strengths and weaknesses as a seller here, there is a compilation of factors to consider. CAD is one factor, feedback another, handling time a third, free shipping the fourth, buyer location et cetera.

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That's a great question. 

While it's possible that what we are seeing is simply that sellers who list in CAD are more professional / have better pictures / have better prices / give better service, etc. and that this drove the results of our various studies, I think that's very unlikely because of the huge sizes of the populations involved and the number of data points. Even so, it would still tell us that it is possible to be extraordinarily successful on eBay seliing to Canada, USA and the world while listing in CAD. 

[Anonymous]

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toddmarde wrote:

Who's going to pay me for the week I will loose to convert everything on your stupid tool that won't work? where is this tool anyway?

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I hope it doesn't prove to be so much work for you.

You can read more about the tool here. http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/list-in-cad/migration-tool-usd-listings.html

[Anonymous]

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@thewoodguy1 wrote:

Rodney,

Your looking at a single tree and missing the forest it sits in.  Your entire premise is faulty.  When selling into the US a seller sets his price in US dollars based on competing with US vendors. The CDN dollar and any relative value it has at any point in time is not even part of picture and of no consequence.  I understand your patriotism,  but your allegiance to CDN dollar has no place in one's effort to sell into the gigantic US market place.  I cannot have my pricing bouncing around with CDN dollar exchange rate when competing with US vendors. 

Rodney, when I am focused on sales I am not interested in CDN dollars.  Like the rest of the planet, I view it as play money, especially when it is viewed from the perspective of international commerce.  

This is conversion to CDN dollars is just so very, very sad.......... 

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To the contrary, we have a huge number of data points on this. I can see more trees than you can from where I sit.

[Anonymous]

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@sporting-arts wrote:
There's a simple way to deal with ebay on this issue it's called "delete my account" which I will be doing as soon as these changes take effect. Amazing to me that this entity takes an interest in preventing folks from making a little extra on the exchange. eBay has been in a steady state of user decline over the last many years and I can only imagine the effect this will have to further the trend, if it doesn't decimate the Canadian user base I'll be amazed. I for one will be out, I have had enough. Its already a rip off with the fees etc....it's like anything though, once the greed kicks in the whole thing goes into the toilet....It's a real shame.

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Sorry to hear that. I hope you change your mind. We'd love to keep you on the platform.

[Anonymous]

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@luxe.labels wrote:

I sell on eBay.ca in US dollars.  80% of my buyers are US and overseas.  I do not want to encourage Canadian business as I  have to pay GST/HST/PST on all sales in Canada even though I do not charge it.  Like it or not, US dollars are the currency of international business.  

I plan to migrate my listings to eBay.com.  However, I would like to know if I will still be able to print my Canada Post ship labels through Paypal. I also do not 'officially' accept returns.  Can I still have a no returns policy and maintain my Top Rated/Power Seller designation selling on eBay.com?

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Yes and yes. 🙂

[Anonymous]

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@velvetfinch wrote:

I think the most unsettling part of this thing is the fact that we will lose the the ability to set a psychologically appealing price point for US buyers (the vast majority of buyers)  Since prices will fluctuate constantly based on the CAD/USD conversion, prices will end up looking 'messy' and 'unappealing' to US buyers.  Sure Canadian buyers (which constitutes a grand 8% of my total sales) will see a nice pleasant round price while the majority of US buyers will see crazy looking prices.  Example of an unappealing price, consider seeing something with a price of  $13.17 vs. a price of $12.99.  Which one looks better? There is a very clear correlation between price points and purchasing, it is basic Selling 101.

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That is a valid retail pricing point of view, but it is far less applicable in the context of a competitive online marketplace where your listings appear adjacent to others, in price competition. On eBay, the best price is usually the lowest price even if it ends in .17