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.

[rose-dee]

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@rainbow71113 wrote:

Rose-Dee- why don't you put an accept above and decline below on your best offers?  That would weed out the low end offers.  

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I tried automated offer response for a few months, then stopped because I found that, not only did it make it sometimes impossible for me to negotiate with a buyer whose offer might be too low, but it left me to open to "fishing expeditions" (buyers who start near the bottom and work up, hoping to hit the lowest possible price.)

So ever since that point, I decided to personally deal with every offer, and it's worked well for me. 

[rainbow71113]

those buyers would have to be careful since they can only submit 3 offers.  

[rose-dee]

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@rainbow71113 wrote:

those buyers would have to be careful since they can only submit 3 offers.  

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Yes, that's true, but some do try to hit the magic number (or close to it) within their allotted tries.  Or try once or twice, get rejected by the system, then just give up and move on.  

I found it was ultimately more productive for me to personally interact with buyers making an offer than to leave the process entirely to an automated programme.  This might not work for sellers with hundreds of items listed at Best Offer, but I tend to use that feature very selectively, and I never let any offer go by, no matter how low, without making a counter-offer and messaging the buyer directly.  It's surprising how many buyers will move their positions enough after a bit of communication so that a compromise can be reached that satisfies both parties.  

At any rate, I'm going to have to seriously consider whether to list Best Offer items in $Cdn on .ca or move them all to .com when the time comes.  I really don't want to add a layer of confusion and complication to what for me has been a very workable feature. 

[pjcdn2005]

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@canadiangemstamps wrote:

It is my pleasure to do this. I believe that it is my duty in fact to report my experience here. I see I had a typo in my last message, but you looked past that. Anyway to answer your question:

The catalogues I refer to are in CDN$. I would often list my stamps at 40-80% of the catalogue price, but in USD. So for example a stamp listing for $10 CDN in the Unitrade catalogue might be priced for $8 USD. Now when converted, my asking price might actually be slightly higher than full catalogue. I did this because I know full well that very few people are going to pay full asking price for a stamp, but I would rather they tell me their price than for me to just go out and say "Hey everyone I sell everything for 50% of catalogue!". If I did that there would still be a lot of people who would still expect a discount. So the way I did things, the average person would offer say 60% of my asking price and I would accept. On the $10 stamp above, I would get an offer of $4.80 USD (60% x 8 USD), which at 30% exchange would convert out to almost $6.30 - a decent price. 

Now though, what I see happening is that now that I have that same stamp priced at $8 CDN, the buyer comes along and now offers me $4.80 CDN. Not so good. Not horrible, but not good enough to compensate for the low turnover rate in this business. Sure, there are sellers who price everything at auction for $0.01, but those are consignment sellers selling other people's collections who have absolutely no skin in the game. You can turn your inventory over as often as you want if you are willing to give it away. But of course that requires no vision, no discipline and no great business acumen. 

And I'll tell you something else. I think the reason sales are plummeting even with Canadian customers is because they know that come August, everything is going to be 25-30% cheaper than it was when most sellers were listing in CDN. So they are just going to hold off until listings start appearing in CDN. Stamp collectors are a patient lot. Makes sense to me. 

Unfortunately 2-3 months of little to no sales is enough to kill a lot of businesses. 

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I can understand how currency conversion could cause a problem with best offer in some cases however I don't understand why you would ask C$8 on a stamp that you would normally ask US$8? Would you not adjust your prices when switching currencies?

[ferret-mom]

Pierre, we all respect your wisdom and selling prowess. However, when it comes to free shipping, the ratio of selling price to shipping cost must be taken into consideration.

If I were to begin selling lightweight, flat items, then free shipping would definitely be an option. However, if those whose merchandise is bulkier and heavier were to incorporate free shipping into the starting bid or buy-it-now price, they would be at an even greater disadvantage relative to their US competitors, and could actually run the risk of just breaking even - or worse - if the amount earned were to simply cover the postage costs.

Free shipping may be good for some, but it is not a universal solution.

[rainbow71113]

plus your final fees on shipping are lower than the final on the item itself, or at least that used to be the case

[pierrelebel]

"the ratio of selling price to shipping cost must be taken into consideration."

Yes is this is one of the most challenging aspects for Canadians selling online.  Our shipping costs are generally well above what our American competitors pay for a similar service.

In many instances Americans can easily incorporate shipping cost in the price while Canadians are facing double or triple the shipping cost.  It may not be fair but that is the reality we face.

If Canadians want to compete on the American marketplace, we have few options: remain noncompetitive or absorb some of the costs of dealing from Canada in our profit margins.

[pierrelebel]

"your final fees on shipping are lower than the final on the item itself, "

Quite the contrary.

A seller pays regular FVF on shipping charge (TRS rebate does not apply) but could get 20% rebate on FVF if Top Rated Seller (TRS).

Now, if a smart seller offers "free shipping"  as the first shipping option domestically, no FVF will be charged on the "shipping charge" when shipping outside the country.   It helps to know the rules!

[rainbow71113]

Hello Pierre,

I was referring to average sellers who may not qualify for top seller so I didn't think about any discount.  I do offer free shipping to Canadians if it's a higher value item but if I remember correctly, the fees on shipping were lower than the final value fees but that may no longer be the case.

[pjcdn2005]

The fees are not lower on the shipping portion. I honestly don't ever remember them ever being lower other than when they 0.

[rainbow71113]

it was quite a while ago, I think you paid something like 12% for the final and only 8% for the shipping

[pierrelebel]

"I think you paid something like 12% for the final and only 8% for the shipping "

My memory is not what it used to be but my recollection of the introduction of FVF on shipping goes along these lines:

eBay lowered FVF from a standard 12% on most fixed price transactions to 9% to 11% (depending on category while imposing FVF at the same rate on the shipping charge.

The result was that sellers who were already offering "free shipping" would save money on fees. I was one of them.

Sellers whose shipping charge was about 10% of the value of the item would more or less break even.

Sellers whose shipping charge was 20% or more of the price of the item would end up paying more.

Many sellers whose shipping charge was as much or more than the value of the item simply stopped using eBay.

eBay offered an additional incentive to TRS to offer "free shipping" by restricting the 20% rebate to the selling price, not the shipping charge. 

So a TRS paying 10% FVF would end up paying 8% on the sale but 10% on the shipping charge.  As such it made a lot of sense for TRS to incorporate the shipping charge in their selling price, lowering their effective FVFs.

We all have to keep in mind that those changes were made in the USA by Americans for Americans where shipping charges are generally much lower.  Most Canadians were generally negatively affected by that change of policy..

[brixtonchrome]

That is a good question. The main reason is that the stamp had a $10 value in CDN. But I know that a converted price would look strange, so I simply asked $8 USD, knowing that someone would instinctively offer me $4 or $5 USD, which would convert out to a good price. Now that I have to list in CDN, I'm not going to put $10.13 CDN because it looks weird to every CDN buyer and most of my buyers are in Canada. So $8 CDN it is. 

[femmefan1946]

Seeing prices fluctuating from day to day or week to week for the same item does not inspire customer confidence.

That's interesting.

Do most of your customers look at their purchases over a number of weeks?

I really doubt mine do.... or if they do if they particularly notice that the price has changed by a few cents or even dollars.

If I put something on my Watch List, the price changes from day to day in any case (when the item was not originally listed in Canadian dollars and I am Searching on dotCA). There is no record of the high and low points in the price.

On the contrary, if the customer is sophisticated enough to understand that  a dollar is not always a dollar , sometimes its a buck and sometimes it's a loonie and sometimes it's a piastre, then those little fluctuations could even be an incentive.

"It's going up! Buy NOW!"

Sort of an auction for Fixed Price listings.

But on the whole I'll stick to my belief that the currency of listing is much less important than what each seller needs for shipping.

If the seller can use a Flat Rate service like LetterPost/LightPacket, like I can for my books and mass produced patterns, then listing on dotCOM is not a problem. And I am moving most of my new listings there already.

But if the seller needs Calculated Shipping, for bulky parcels or heavy books, or just to avoid the stupid media shipping cap, then listing on dotCA is the wisest move.

[padfootmagic]

Look at the questions here its all negative to sell in canadian dollars,where do you get the positives ebay rodney employee.your lying here with your answer!Its a mess friend!!!!!

[pierrelebel]

" its all negative to sell in canadian dollars,"

Please read again... carefully.  It is NOT all negative.  Many Canadians have sold in Cdn$ for years on eBay.ca and eBay.cafr very successfully.

[padfootmagic]

Where's your positive comments.I guess we missed you?lOOK AT THE BOARD EMPLOYEE.

[padfootmagic]

Your answer not positive look at the board.I guess the sellers missed your comment employee no kudo only your fellow employee.

[padfootmagic]

If its only a tiny amount of people disapprove as you say and most people want to list in Canadian dollars why is his the board 95 % negative to list in Canadian dollars,could you answer me on this question?95% of this comment board disagrees.

[lady.stark]

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@rose-dee wrote:

I've just slogged through 44 pages of this thread, 

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It is strange, I only have 19 pages so far... 😉  (I should mention that I chose to see 100 messages per page, which is why my number is lower).

Joking aside, I am really glad to see you back on the boards. I really hope you won't go away forever, as I always appreciate and value your input here.

By the way, I totally agree with everything you wrote, because that is also what I am experiencing. Especially the Best Offer part. With all these changes here, it made me think how I began selling under this acccount and I remembered that when I first started, I had listings on .com and listings on .ca, and strangely enough, my .com listings always sold faster than my .ca listings. Even with those higher sales on .com, I eventually switched everything on .ca (in US $ though) because of the FVF on shipping on .com and the problem with sending 2 invoices for multiple purchases. Granted, that was almost 5 years ago. Maybe my experience would be different now (although I highly doubt it).

With that said, I decided to give it *another* try (listing in C$). However, all my listings are still up and NONE have sold so far. I think it would probably be easier for me to transfer everything on .com if my sales continue to drop. The FVF on shipping will be much higher (they are almost 0 at the moment, except when a Canadian buys from me), but at least, I won't loose any sale. It might even improve my sales since the cart WILL work.