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.

momcqueen · ‎03-29-2016

@lady.stark wrote:
@mjwl2006 wrote:

This is not a bad-news announcement. I have been selling in CAD exclusively for a few years and it helped my business grow. I achieved greater success in CAD on ebay.ca.

I am curious about something... how do you source your inventory? Do you buy it in US$ or in C$?

And if your response is US $, how do you decide which price you will ask in C$?

Thank you for your time.

It is about 50/50 sourced American to Canadian. While I am not a mental math genius, each time I considering buying something in USD, I convert it (in my head) to CAD so that I understand whether it is a good value for my dollar. Because CAD is the value of all aspects of my selling experience here, it keeps things simple. Once that USD-srouced item is valued at CAD, I continue as I always would for a CAD sourced item in terms of my selling price.

canuckchick · ‎03-29-2016

I've been trying to migrate some listings to .com but it doesn't work. Keeps signing me out.

Val K. in Oakville, Ont.

pierrelebel · ‎03-29-2016

" trying to migrate some listings to .com"

What exactly are you doing? Step by step.

illsnic · ‎03-29-2016

Please move my store to eBay.COM so that I can continue to sell in USD.

Thanks!

ight.coin · ‎03-29-2016

Hi Rodney,

I was surprised but pleased that you mentioned the long tail. Hope that wasn't throw away corp-speak.

You may understand the concept but I wish that ebay understood my business like I do and was not so anti-seller in their wrong-headed policies. The long tail business model could work here. It kinda did at one time.

The cookie-cutter approach to one business model for every seller is the intended goal or at least the result.

pierrelebel · ‎03-29-2016

Your eBay store does not have to "move".

With your store you can list on eBay.ca, eBay.com, eBay.uk, eBay.au, etc... ALL eBay sites around the world.

ALL your listings, in ALL currencies, will end up in your one store.

If you want to list on eBay.com, start with one listing after you log in at eBay.com and you will find it in your eBay store a few minutes later.

If you check your store on eBay.ca you will find ALL prices are shown in Cdn$ or equivalent Cdn$ (if listed in US$)

http://stores.ebay.ca/madlabsgear

If you check your store on eBay.com you will find ALL prices are shown in US$ or equivalent US$ (if listed in Cdn$)

http://stores.ebay.com/madlabsgear

The same applies if you list on other sites in different currency.

If British buyers visit your store on eBay.uk they will see all prices shown in equivalent Sterling £ regardless whether you listed in Cdn$, US$, or other currencies

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/MAD-LABS-GEAR?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

And the Chinese in HongKong will see: http://stores.ebay.com.hk/MAD-LABS-GEAR?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

Good Luck.

hlmacdon · ‎03-29-2016

@herology wrote:

Like many others, I buy my stock in USD. The fluctuations in the CAD make it impossible to ensure that our calculated profit can be obtained when listing in this denomination.

It doesn't really matter in this case. You should be booking your inventory in CAD based on the bank of Canada FX rates at the time the USD inventory cost is incurred. If you were selling in CAD that would in fact guarantee your margin is consistent rather than make it inconsistent. Where this issue does come into play for USD sourced inventory is for sellers who would use those funds to pay for their incoming stock in order to avoid extra costs associated with currency conversion, as well as eliminating the margin upside when the CAD dollar decreases (assuming fixed USD selling price).

eurobeads · ‎03-29-2016

Yesssss, your instructions work! Thank you SO very much for your help Herology - you are amazing! What a relief! It will be a bit of a hassle to change country settings back & forth between Canada and the US every time, but at least it works!!!! And today I get a little hope after a week of frustration over all this, thanks to you 🙂

Good luck to you all with the new changes. Most of us don't like any of it...But in the end, those of us who have stuck around through every Canada Post rate increase and every unfavorable eBay update have found ways to still make it work. If this new update frustrates Canadians enough to make them abandon ship, then good - less competition is better anyway. And the rest of us will adapt and we will persevere.

ight.coin · ‎03-29-2016

A question about scheduled listings?

If a scheduled listing is in USD, what will happen to that listing on June 1st on .ca?

universal-heros · ‎03-29-2016

good point, but as the CDN strengthens and if your DON'T adjust your selling price you now have items over priced relative to other seller for the same product. That's the rub when you do conversions from US$. So it is best to sell in the currency that you buy in. For me ALL me purchases are US$ so this is a no go. I have to switch to .COM, I have no choice.

Harry

clipmart · ‎03-29-2016

So tell me, is this what the whole "glitch" with the shopping cart was all about? After months and months of being told it's a glitch, it really wasn't ever a glitch was it?

clipmart · ‎03-29-2016

And every time you have to refund that shipping, ebay has already charged you their fees and you do not automatically get refunded by ebay unless you call them.

momcqueen · ‎03-29-2016

The shopping cart at eBay.com and the shopping basket at eBay.co.uk are not universal in the way the shopping carts at eBay.ca and every other global eBay are. It's not a glitch. It's an oversight. eBay.com can only accept listings created on eBay.com. Ditto for eBay.co.uk.

momcqueen · ‎03-29-2016

Let me correct that:

Less an oversight, more a limitation.

femmefan1946 · ‎03-29-2016

I want to add here that sellers who plan to start all their new listings on dotCOM in US dollars should remember that they will not be able to use Calculated Shipping there.

'So if that is your choice, add a Note to each of your dotCOM and dotCA listings telling you which site they are on. This will be a help when the new transfer tool becomes available and you move your USD/dotCA listings over to dotCOM.

If you need to use Calculated Shipping, remember that your customers who are shopping on dotCOM will see your prices in USD no matter what currency you listed in.

Shipping is more important, in my opinion, than currency of listing.

fairydus1 · ‎03-29-2016

I have always been registered with Ebay.com and live in Canada.

Also what happened to the other questions I posted on this discussion board?

lady.stark · ‎03-29-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

It is about 50/50 sourced American to Canadian. While I am not a mental math genius, each time I considering buying something in USD, I convert it (in my head) to CAD so that I understand whether it is a good value for my dollar. Because CAD is the value of all aspects of my selling experience here, it keeps things simple. Once that USD-srouced item is valued at CAD, I continue as I always would for a CAD sourced item in terms of my selling price.

If I understand correctly, you never change your C$ price once it is listed. Even when your item look overpriced. Am I correct? (Of course, I know that a seller can have "sales", but I mean generally speaking when there is no sale).

I am trying to understand how other sellers work in order to decide which option is the best for me, so I appreciate your input greatly. 😉

If only there was a shipping calculator for Canada Post on eBay.com, that would solve my problem. Unfortunately, I know it will never happen, unless all eBays merge into one single site.

lady.stark · ‎03-29-2016

@westernstargifts wrote:
If I list in USD on .com will the shopping cart work for my customers?

I think it will, yes.

The tricky part is that there is no shipping calculator there. You must always use flat rate shipping. And your FVF on shipping are calculated on your US 'domestic' price, except when the buyer is Canadian.

thewoodguy1 · ‎03-29-2016

Well, I started new listings in CDN dollars.

Customers have now purchased some of said CDN $ listings and if they purchased only one items there does not seem to be a problem

HOWEVER!, Most of my customers purchase multiple listings at the same time. If the customer purchases some older US dollar listings and some new CDN dollar listings they cannot make payment. PayPal rejects their effort to pay. My customer spent over 3 hours with ebay tech support spread over several calls. I have split the invoices so that all CDN dollar items are on one invoice and

While typing this one of the payments just came in.

Anyways, it may be wise not to mix the two listings on ebay.ca for the remaining two months. At least that is the way it appears. It's all or nothing...............?

Rodney, Rafelle, when are you going fix the shopping cart???

westernstargifts · ‎03-30-2016

I only use flat rate shipping so the shipping calculator does not concern me. You are correct regarding the domestic shipping which is a big drawback to my listing on .com but, given the choice, I would work around the shipping if I could get a shopping cart that works.

I need to know for sure that the shopping cart will work before I make that big of a change. I am going to start a list of the pros and cons of both sites. Another problem that was mentioned in this thread is selling on other sites, too, including Bonanza. My listings there are synced with eBay but that will likely be impossible if I change to CAD. Neither of the other sites offers the option to sell in CAD. I pay my bills with them and other things with USD.

It is looking more and more like .com is the answer for me. I don't have time for this right now and I can see, from what I have read here, that many other sellers are in the same boat.