Bad News for Many Small eBay Sellers

[pierrelebel]

by Ina Steiner,

Editor of EcommerceBytes.com

Mon Apr 1 2013 20:16:16

In what is sure to be perceived as bad news by many small eBay sellers, the company said its stricter requirements for maintaining Top Rated Seller status is working - meaning it's unlikely to relax its tough TRS standards. At last week's Analyst Day, Senior VP of eBay North America Christopher Payne said higher standards for TRS sellers has had a significant impact on its business.

One of last year's changes requires TRS sellers to upload tracking information within handling time on 90 percent or more of their U.S. transactions. At the time, this was very controversial - and it continues to be so. I received the following email from a seller just la...

For more: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2013/4/1364861776.html 

Do not miss the comments from eBay sellers at the bottom of the page.

[pierrelebel]

IMPORTANT NOTE:

"Payne revealed that over the past 2 years, eBay has doubled the amount of listings on its site - there's more inventory on eBay than ever, doubled to 400 million items in 2012 from 200 million in 2010. "

Let's think about that for a moment.

The number of items offered for sale on eBay (not the number of listings) has doubled in two years.

In the same period, overall worldwide sales by sellers has increased by less than 35% (15% in 2011 and 18% in 2012 according to eBay's financial reports).  There is nothing worng with 35% growth in two years.  However, that 35% does not look too good since it took twice as many items offered for sale on the site. 😞  

CONCLUSION: Turnover has slowed down substantially in the last two years.  On average, it now takes much longer than ever to sell one of your items on eBay.  And these numbers are not made up: they come directly from senior management at eBay!

[gotwhatchuneed]

Seems to me the only way to maintain TRS is a high volume of sales. 1 neg on 200 doesnt hurt but 1 neg on 10 transactions will kill your business.

[pierrelebel]

"Payne said Top Rated Sellers represent the best of the best and deliver the best experiences to shared buyers. "This program recognizes them and rewards them for their efforts. Today they drive a significant portion of the GMV in North America."

Because eBay rewards Top Rated Sellers with greater exposure in search, it's no wonder Payne said Top Rated Sellers' growth in 2012 not only outpaced non-Top Rated Sellers, but outpaced the ecommerce market overall."

North America?

It just so happens that I am one of those TRS sellers (100% feedback rating; 5.0, 5.0, 5.0 and 5.0 DSRs; zero case closed without resolution, free shipping on all items; one day handling; 30 day return privilege, etc...)  who was advised by eBay last year that I had lost my TRS status on eBay.com, my TRS icon on eBay.com and higher placement in Best Match on eBay.com.

All the above was not good enough for eBay! 😞

Why?  Because I did not include a tracking with every shipment which I shipped at my own risk!

In the meantime most of my American competitors who ship with USPS with DC for a few cents are TRS, show the icon in their listings, benefit from higher placement in Best Match for competing items.

OK I get the 20% discount.  Big deal.  As a Canadian, I am still treated like a second class citizen and put into an uncompetitive situation in the "North American" market.  I noticed a substantial decrease in sales soon after the TRS icon was removed from my listings and from Search results on eBay.com, not to mention excluded from many buyers specifying TRS in their search.

So eBay has done a good job selling the merits of TRS to buyers.  Great job.  Too bad they decided to knowingly ignore many Canadian sellers in the process.

Some of you may remember that earlier last year, eBay had advised Canadian sellers that we would be exempted of the tracking requirement due to the onerous cost of providing such service through Canada Post. Unfortunately, eBay Inc (.com) later decided to forget the Canadian exemption - without notice. Shame on them.

[rosscd57]

I still don't understand why they eBay is looking for sales volume instead of total dollars. I will likely never make Top Rated Seller yet in three months my total income is 8 times what is required for Top Rated Seller but I only do about 40 or 50 sales and not 100 which would put me in the Top Rated Seller Capacity.

And no, I am not going to sell 50 or 60 - one dollar widgets just to get to 100.

The low volume high dollar sellers are getting the raw end of the shaft.

[rose-dee]

And no, I am not going to sell 50 or 60 - one dollar widgets just to get to 100.

The low volume high dollar sellers are getting the raw end of the shaft.

I agree with your last statement.  But Ross, if you found a sideline of less expensive, easy-to-sell items that could be shipped for free (or cheaply, say using Small Packet so you could get the online "tracking" #), you'd get the 20% discount on the more expensive FVFs, which I think would ultimately save you money.  Since I assume you ship the majority of your radios with tracking, you wouldn't have the same conundrum as Pierre when it came to qualifying for TRS.

I had the same problem (higher-priced items but lower # of sales), and had to do this to get to TRS.  However, that doesn't mean I agree with the way eBay "rewards" its Canadian sellers!

[gifts_of_elegance]

We cry and complain, not without reason and nobody listens.  eBay management must be rolling on the floor laughing their heads off. Makes no difference what they do, we put up with it. Must be the first company in history that has been able to do so.  That's what I call real  management!  Their paying customers (us sellers) not only jump through hoops to please them, but are in mortal fear of not being able to do business with them.  

[asyahijab]

While compare to all you guys here, I'm cosider myself still baby on ebay, would you listen to me 😉

If top rated status plus has more benefit, bring more money than discounted postage, why don't you send your letter post item to US by printing your label in paypal.

I have done that since I started selling here because it is big headache for me to go to PO with 4 young children (I'm stay home mum without any helper).  Well another reason because I didn't know discounted postage before.

Once I knew about discounted postage, I keep printing my label for US and international buyer through paypal because I notice ebay count it as tracking number.

After the program TRS Plus applied I got status TRS Plus on dot com.

And FYI I got TRS since 1 year ago, but one month ago I noticed my TRS status was rewarded from US transaction, not global TRS. I was hit by low star on shipping cost for global (has 5 low DSR on shipping cost) but didn't loose the discount because I still qualify for TRS for US (only has 2 low DSR).

One month ago I got congratulation email from ebay that I am now a global TRS because my 2 low DSR on shipping role out (I have 3 now).

[pierrelebel]

"why don't you send your letter post item to US by printing your label in paypal"

1) I am a stamp dealer.  I deal with stamp collectors, not label collectors. There is no way I would insult my customers by affixing a label to envelopes or parcels.

2) PayPal does not provide lettermail or letterpost labels

[asyahijab]

Pierre I meant send it by light package for letter post item.

Arhg... as I said I am still baby on ebay I didn't know about a lot of  thing yet.

I am new too in Canada.

I didn't know l that if a stamp dealer attached paypal label is consider insult

Hmm... learning something new. Thanks.

[asyahijab]

I posted my experience because I thought it might help for anyone doesn't know that printing label through paypal is counting as tracking for TRS need.

I got many helps from here, just want to pay back as little as I know 🙂

[gifts_of_elegance]

That is very nice.  

[angelic_passion]

You are spot on.  My sales are down 4 thousand dollars a month.  Basically because I do not offer returns. I do work with buyers if the size is not correct and will exchange but I do not think it is fair when buyers wear an item and try to return it with stains and pet hair. For this I lost my US top rated status. I am still the same seller I was but am being punished by eBay for not conforming to everything they throw at us.   I just spoke with an eBay rep about my sales dropping, he told me I should take all returns or offer buyers 50% off to keep the item so they remain customers.  Most of the ones wanting a return really only want money back and to keep the item.  There are pages on the internet dedicated to this practice. Those are customers I do not want.  He also told me I should phone every customer to follow up with their purchases in order to build my customer base. And that I should use the report a buyer form only in dire circumstances or my reports would not be taken seriously. Obviously there are not very many bad buyers in the eyes of eBay.

[kashka]

Asiahhijab,that was very thoughtful of you offering advice..It will be appreciated by someone who may have not known about doing the labels..:)

[renfrewite]

I am a seller with a perfect record as well, top DSR's and 100% feedback, and I had the TRS standing for only a few short months.  During those months, I didn't get the 20% discount, but my sales did increase by triple.  I too lost the TRS because half of what I sell does not have tracking.  This is just not fair to us, we as sellers are the ones taking the chance using untrackable services, not ebay buyers, yet we are punished for it, even though we have a perfect selling record.  I have said it before and will say it again, ebay sellers with a good record should be the one getting rewarded with TRS, not just the ones that have a higher volume of sales, and sell things higher priced or heavier, so they have tracking on thier parcels.

[renfrewite]

To the person that said printing labels through paypal counts as tracking, is partly not true.  I print all my labels through paypal, except the packages I ship within Canada that qualify for oversized lettermail, I put stamps on those.  But a lot of my packages are sent light packet for International sales, I print those labels on paypal, but they do not count as tracked packages for TRS, because there is no tracking on light packet.

[bb_cool_stuff]

How are the small time sellers doing ?

Are sellers noticing any difference ?

We have just past the quarter point of the year & my sales are still around my average mark.

I usually make price adjustments quarterly but will now try to make them monthly.

Competition is going to be fierce.

Tighten up Gang, it could be a bumpy road ahead with another huge increase in listings.

[pjcdn2005]

To the person that said printing labels through paypal counts as tracking, is partly not true.  I print all my labels through paypal, except the packages I ship within Canada that qualify for oversized lettermail, I put stamps on those.  But a lot of my packages are sent light packet for International sales, I print those labels on paypal, but they do not count as tracked packages for TRS, because there is no tracking on light packet.

If you enter the light packet number as a tracking number, it will count as tracking as far as TRS goes. When the tracking rule came into effect, ebay made that exception for Canadian sellers because the cost of tracking here is so high.

Small packet counts as well but you don't have to upload the number as it is done automatically.

[dipmicro]

The number of items offered for sale on eBay (not the number of listings) has doubled in two years.

In the same period, overall worldwide sales by sellers has increased by less than 35% (15% in 2011 and 18% in 2012 according to eBay's financial reports).  There is nothing worng with 35% growth in two years.  However, that 35% does not look too good since it took twice as many items offered for sale on the site. 😞  

CONCLUSION: Turnover has slowed down substantially in the last two years.  On average, it now takes much longer than ever to sell one of your items on eBay.  And these numbers are not made up: they come directly from senior management at eBay!

I totally agree. It's becoming more and more difficult to push a sale on Ebay. My Ebay sales are really down. Interestingly, it's becoming less and less difficult to sell off-Ebay. Canadians have lots of money to spend online, unfortunately this money goes outside Canada and it's just buyer inertia in many cases. USPS has doubled the Canadian rates in January 2013 so it's not worth buying in USA anymore, I expect many Canadians to start looking home again over following year.

[portabuddy]

more bad news eh...

the one that kills me.

Communication  1.05% 14 
Shipping time  1.20% 16 

Although i clearly lost shipping times on the bottom of everypage. with 5-20pictures per ad. and reply to every question within min. or imidiatly. and sell 120-160 items a month(Minus two weeks ago >.< ) the counts on the shipping and communication get me. 60-70% of all my items are shipped by post. with a stamp. because they are $6-10 items. and the rest($20-30 items) I ship light packet air for about $3 any item i sell over $50 i have shipped from the USA since my dad goes down daily...

I love how some buyer choose to forget they bought from someone thats across a bourder that needs to clear customs on packages and that our postal system doesnt run on the weekends.

I constantly hey glowing reviews from buyers that i give amazing service. people that have not sent a message should not be able to post a detailed review.

im thinking that people dont understand or care what the stars mean. i laughed when i get cards from china sellers that saiy leave us 5stars with a picture. but honetly. im thinking its a good idea...

I have items that state that you pay for 4items. but i include 2 for free!, thats 6items. and the most prevalent qrestion is How many do i get...

have a look what i had to do. black background pic.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/321095453166

And still i get questions. can i pls have a free one? Why yes sir you may have two!

One person last year gave me a neg rep, said. i ordered 4? you gave me 6!!!!

ahh sorry?