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Hi everyone -
We're doing something a little different this week as I'll be at eBay Open.
I'm working with Andrea Stairs, General Manager of eBay Canada, to respond to your questions.
I'm opening the chat now to give you a few days to get questions in. I'll close it around Monday and work with Andrea to get responses to your questions which I'll post mid to late next week.
Thanks!
Tyler
@snoopwiz wrote:
(1) Has there been or do you anticipate there being an official announcement about what eBay plans to do to help sellers who were severely inconvenienced with the photos suddenly disappearing in their GTC listings. Last I heard was something was going to be announced on July 18.
(2) Would eBay Canada consider adding another store level? Perhaps for 5,000 listings? I have no need for 10,000, never did and most likely never will. Seems like my per listing cost doubled from 3 to 6 cents with that increase.
Oh yes, there are a few perks involved however, the only one that has any worth to me is the "upgraded" c/s. I have zero need for the (less and less as time goes on) choice of (in my view) overpriced boxes/tissues/tape. I would be more than happy foregoing the $210 materials credit per quarter in exchange for a $100 - $110 store credit per quarter.
Perhaps a price-point of $229 or so, monthly, for 5,000 listings? My store subscription/renewal comes due in a few months and I would prefer keeping my listings here on eBay. I appreciate you taking the time to come here, read the posted messages.
Hi @snoopwiz - here are Andrea's responses to your questions:
(1) A small number of Canadian sellers were impacted by the picture GTC issue. These impacted sellers should have been contacted by eBay last week. However, I have asked the Canadian team to review our response to the issue and come back with a recommendation for additional communication and/or other measures. @happy_pigeon or Tyler should have more to report on this in the coming days.
(2) We do anticipate launching the additional store tiers – Starter and Enterprise – that were launched on eBay.com earlier this year. In the interim, if Canadian sellers want to take advantage of the benefits of an Anchor store, they can subscribe on eBay.com.
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Hi Andrea and Tyler,
I am usually busy on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning so haven't been posting on the weekly board very often but since I have time today, I have a few things that I want to comment and/or ask about. Please forgive the overload!
According to the summer update certain categories such as collectibles and cameras would have the option of offering 14 day returns. The option is still available on .com but on .ca sellers just have the option of 30 or 60 days. When will the 14 day return option be added back to .ca in those categories?
Hi @pjcdn2005 - response from Andrea below:
Thank you for this question and for the catch. Canada does offer the same 14-day returns for select categories but it appears that 14-day returns were inadvertently removed for all categories. I have raised this oversight with our product team and they are investigating. Tyler or I will get back to you with an update as soon as we have one.
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
On the search pages on .com or .ca the free returns option is highlighted on each sellers listing even when the free returns criteria is not chosen. However, in most cases the free returns is just for US buyers. So as a Canadian buyer I see free returns, click on a listing and unless I actually scroll down and then click on the shipping tab and then again scroll down to the return area, I would purchase the item thinking that there were free returns when in fact it is more likely that I would have to pay for a returns or that the seller doesn’t even allow returns for international buyers.
All screenshots below are of the same listing (Item 292621807963) but the first 2 are a search result for a Canadian buyer and the last two are results of a search by a US buyer. In this case the item would be sent through the gsp but the results are the same for items sent directly by the seller.
The screen shots were done on .ca although you would see the same results on .com
It is obviously very misleading that all international buyers are shown that a listing has free returns when it doesn’t. Is this going to be changed so that the results are accurate?
Hi @pjcdn2005 - the response to this question and your next one are both the same:
Another great point. Thanks very much for bringing this to my attention – our product team is investigating.
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Regarding the missing pictures...
Why did ebay not make an announcement about the problem so that seller's could check to see if they had pictures missing from their listings? Yesterday I saw a post on the US boards from a seller that just noticed that they had a number of listings with missing pictures. This is one month after the problem happened and they just found out that there ever was a problem! Most sellers do not click on their own listings very often and I'm sure that a seller with hundreds or thousands of listings may never notice that their pics have disappeared unless a buyer happens to comment. I really think that is was poor judgement on ebay's part not to make their customers aware that their was a problem.
I don't really expect a response...just wanted to make a comment.
Hi @pjcdn2005 - response from Andrea below:
From what was said at Open last week… It was clear that sellers like you, as well as executives up to and including Devin, were all unsatisfied with the recent set of site issues that we have all experienced. Devin – and the full eBay team – has committed to improving the situation and we’ve made changes, including reducing the number of initiatives teams are working on, and the composition of those teams, to ensure that we do fewer things and we do them well.
In terms of the recent photo issue, I apologize that you have had to deal with this situation. While we have identified and corrected the issue, the delay in communication was unacceptable; while we do our best to prevent issues arising in the future, I also commit to managing communication better in the future.
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Hello Tyler,
Just following up. Is anything happening with the issue regarding attempting to save a draft listing and then getting the following message:
https://sm.ebay.ca/Your connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from sm.ebay.ca (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn more
NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALIDI believe this pointed out over a month ago and is still occurring.Thanks,-CM
Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies - thanks for the reminder. I haven't heard anything back on this but will shake the tree again. 🙂
@reallynicestamps wrote:
I hope eBay Canada (and/or dotCOM) will start advertising more aggressively particularly for the back to school and Christmas sales periods.
(These don't actually affect my business, which is strongest from January to April.)
I would also like to see the Resolution process made clearer for new and guest buyers. All too often complaints about feedback are really complaints about failed transactions that could have been resolved faster and more satisfactorily for both parties through the Resolution Centre.
Actually, if feedback disappeared entirely, it would n't bother me a bit.
Hi @reallynicestamps - response from Andrea below:
We are! For those Canadian sellers who were at eBay Open, they heard both eBay CEO Devin Wenig and Americas CMO, Suzy Deering, talk about how we are investing in marketing. You can watch Suzy’s presentation from Open (link coming in the next week or so) to get a sense of the customers we’re targeting, what we’re saying and where (what media) we’ll be saying it in. And, it won’t just be the US; as we did in the spring, we’ll have brand advertising live in Canada this fall.
Regarding your Resolution Centre comment, I definitely hear you on this – adjustments need to be made. Trust generally, and the post-transaction experience for both buyers and sellers, was a key topic covered at eBay Open this year. Specifically, Wendy Jones, SVP of Customer Experience, who now also leads Trust, discussed changes that she and her team are making to get the right balance of protections for buyers and sellers. I’m excited to see what changes will be made to improve the overall experience and to lessen pain points for both buyers and sellers.
@momcqueen wrote:
Hi Andrea, hello Tyler. Thank you for taking the time to hear our questions and concerns. I’m going to sing my favourite song: the one about Promotions Manager. How much longer will we have to wait on eBay Canada for this feature that USA sellers take for utterly granted? I’m absolutely loyal to eBay Canada; I don’t feel like I should be punished as a seller for that but the only way I’d have had access to creating special offers for my buyers is to leave eBay.ca for eBay.com. That’s not right. I’ve been waiting since 2012.
Thanks,
Maureen
p.s. What is ebay doing to get our special eBay discount for postage from Canada Post back?
Hi @momcqueen - response from Andrea below:
I’ve been at eBay for nearly 13 years and the experience gaps between eBay.ca and eBay.com have always been a key pain point for me. I’m happy to say that after years of investment, our experience on eBay.ca is the closest it’s been to eBay.com in years – this year’s launches of Seller Hub, Catalogue Fitment, and Product Based Commerce are key initiatives we’ve pursued to close the experience gap and avoid opening up new gaps.
Unfortunately, some features implemented on eBay.com simply cannot be brought to eBay.ca in their current form – Seller Marketing Engine is one of these. However, as new generations of features are developed, the Canadian team (along with similar teams around the world) is working to ensure that these are built in a more “global” way so that we avoid these situations in the future.
@amcdc79 wrote:
Oh Wow, a AAA morning where we get to ask the big kahona questions. Thank you Andrea for taking the time to do this.
Strange that the longer we are on ebay, the more questions we have, may I start out with,
Starter Store level- How is it working in the US, is it coming to Canada? It is great that ebay realizes there needs to be more than 3 or 4 store levels, one size, or even the amount now needs to be increased.
The cost of shipping within Canada is brutal, to the US about the same, the cost everywhere else with tracking is just plain gouging. Any thoughts regarding a GSP for Canadian sellers?
Then there is the big elephant in the room, China. Many fine sellers, but also scammers galore, cheap shipping to us, but expensive the other way. Land of piracy and counterfeit, they really don't worry about IP at all, so they flood the market. Many do not even bother to ship, just take the money and run. Of course this is not just an ebay.ca issue.
The big issue, is reporting the illegal goods for sale on ebay, yes the VERO system works for the big guys, but the rest of us see it take months for the counterfeit items we report to be taken down. Sadly the sellers just open another account, and they are back in business.
I was surprised to see on an ebay listing, an add for your competitor on the listing, my jaw just dropped, is ebay aware of this, or are they collecting fees for bringing the "river" the sale?
I do have many more questions, a lot of them are already discussed on the sellers board. The fine folks helping on those threads, generally answer most of them, I hope that they also let the higher-ups know what is going on.
Since ebay is an US company, their policies are generally geared towards that market, the Canadian market may have similarities, but as you know it is different. Good luck presenting the Canadian perspective, and thanks for all the fine work and help provided, by those who work in .ca.
Hi @amcdc79 - response from Andrea below:
I understand the difficulties of shipping, particularly for Canadians – as a seller myself, I’m always stunned by the cost to ship domestically and to the US – and I appreciate that the level of service (e.g. tracking) we have available to us as Canadian sellers is also woefully in adequate. Over the last few years, eBay has been active in the various reviews of Canada Post’s mandate – we’ve invested a lot in telling the story of internet-enabled commerce and the critical role the postal system plays and encouraging both the Canadian government as well as Canada Post to address the negative impact high shipping costs have on Canadian small businesses.
At this point, we have no plans to bring GSP to Canada. However, we are looking at other services to improve Canadian shipping options, particularly into the US. These are still in the early stages – so while I can’t announce anything yet, I can confirm that easing the pain of Canadian shipping remains a top priority for me and my team.
We’ve been consistent about having a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to counterfeits on eBay. And, on a marketplace of more than a billion items, it takes all kinds of methods, from Artificial Intelligence, to programs like VERO, to Community reporting to ensure that the policy is enforced every day. If you find that VERO is not working for you, please reach out directly to me and I can see what I can do to help.
We do our best to filter out ads for our competitors both in our third party advertising (text, banner) and in our listings. We use a wide range of methods to find these, but if you spot something that slips through, send me a screenshot or a link – I’ll get on it!
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Is the possibility of a store with 500 listings being considered? Going from 250 to 1000 is a bit too much of a jump. Cost wise and for space. 500 is a level that would definitely work for me. Thanks.
-CM
Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies - response from Andrea below:
While we frequently review the levels and benefits of our store tiers, at this stage, the only changes being planned are the introduction of the Starter and Super-Anchor stores on eBay.ca to bring our store tiers in line with those being offered on eBay.com.
@msmaggie060 wrote:
Hi, what with slower sales and constant changes we all need some motivation. Have you given any thought to doing some “meetups” on .ca similar to those seen on the .com board. I realize that members themselves do the arranging and get some help from eBay but they might work in larger areas. Would be great to meet some other ebayers to discuss strategies. I seem to recall many years ago eBay did have some Canadian get togethers.
Hi @msmaggie060 - response from Andrea below:
I couldn’t agree more – I’m always so impressed with the immediate sharing of tips, tricks, successes and challenges that takes place whenever sellers get together, whether at massive events like eBay Open, or smaller gatherings closer to home. I’d love to support Canadian meet ups to foster more of this energy and motivation. If you or anyone is planning a meet up, please let me know and I’ll make sure to bring in our Community and Communications teams to ensure that we provide some support!
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