I find it odd... this isn't also on .CA

[ricarmic]

This is on the system announcements for .COM in the .COM seller hub, yet nothing on the .CA seller hub?

Your business: Our Results. A note from Jordan Sweetnam, SVP + GM Americas

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Your-business-Our-Results-A-note-from-Jordan-Sweetnam-SV...

[ricarmic]

tyler@ebay 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Just tracked down the email regarding the agreement update. Appears to be a contradiction in terms. Based on date received. Are announcements supposed to come into effect immediately or do they require specific advanced notice?  -Lotz

[kawartha-ephemera]

A bit odd I agree. As for the message itself, I find the lengthy narrative around the marketplace's GMV struggles surprising to see here in black and white.

Top management has pointed to IST as the reason behind falling GMV and no doubt it is a headwind but I'm not buying their explanation. Their own financials show GMV was flat and then in retreat well before IST got going. The U.S. market GMV has been shrinking for about a year now (6% year over year last qtr) despite natural inflation of the shipping portion.

Their financials fail to break out results by region beyond the U.S. but it would be a good bet .ca is performing not much better than .com .

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @ricarmic - thanks for the call out! I got this escalated last night and it looks like it was a miss - we've since gotten that same announcement made here too. 🙂

[reallynicestamps]

What is GMV? What is IST?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@ricarmic , @reallynicestamps 

A few of my favourite bookmarks for those emergency situations.

https://www.ebay.ie/pages/help/account/acronyms.html

https://www.dummies.com/business/online-business/ebay/ebay-abbreviations-you-should-know/

https://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/onlineauctionabbreviations.asp

GMV = eBay's Gross Merchandise Volume

IST = Baffled also

The 2nd one I use as my own personal backup.  🙂

Lotz

[kawartha-ephemera]

GMV... Gross Merchandise Value = the gross value of all merchandise sold including shipping but not taxes.
Basically, it refers to any funds transacted on which ebay charges FVFs. Therefore, sales taxes are excluded. Promoted listing fees have no impact on how GMV is calculated.

IST ... Internet Sales Tax. This is ebay's acronym for State sales taxes they are collecting.

[ricarmic]

I believe IST is Interstate Tax but I could be wrong....

[hlmacdon]

---

@kawartha-ephemera wrote:

Top management has pointed to IST as the reason behind falling GMV and no doubt it is a headwind but I'm not buying their explanation. Their own financials show GMV was flat and then in retreat well before IST got going. The U.S. market GMV has been shrinking for about a year now (6% year over year last qtr) despite natural inflation of the shipping portion.

---

Blaming tax is a handy executive excuse for the problems they are seeing with sellers departing the platform, drastically reduced external traffic, and a platform that has more bugs than a flophouse. They tried to inflate numbers with coupons but rather unsurprisingly giving away money didn't result in buyer loyalty that extended beyond the redemption of a coupon and having large and ineffectual marketing expenses doesn't inspire investor confidence. The problem here is there is zero engagement with sellers, just the same old executive soundbites and lip service packaged into an anonymous blog post that offers no opportunity to engage with the audience and nothing of substance in the form of an actual game plan.

If you want to surprise and delight, perhaps try that with sellers and introduce policies that aren't a net negative for sellers. If you want to differentiate stop trying to steal every last penny from the sellers who actually deliver that differentiating inventory to the platform. Perhaps actually try protecting sellers against the absurd amount of buyer fraud that is committed on a daily basis and you might see more differentiated inventory appearing on the platform. If a platform aims to be differentiated maybe lean to code so you don't penalize search results of said differentiated inventory and try something other than copying every aspect of Amazon's design. If you want a seller to be able to build their brand perhaps stop meddling with every aspect of their business.

TLDR: Tax is bad. Coupons didn't work the first time, so let's try it again!

[kawartha-ephemera]

You're memory is better than mine, I'd forgotten about the coupon frenzy .... was that back in 2018 or was it in 2017? Whatever, that strategy failed too, GMV barely moved.

I'll admit to claiming a $5 coupon last week so there's that.

[femmefan1946]

I've been offered coupons almost weekly over the past couple of months.

But I'm old and don't buy much. I already have it, it hasn't worn out yet, and I've lived this long without it.

Which actually may be eBay's problem.

The buyer base skews old.  Over 40 even over 50.

(I suspect the sellers may skew even older, especially in Collectibles.)

And Boomers are downsizing and don't have the urge to buy we used to.

If eBay is going to thrive, they will need to connect with those younger consumers, who, in spite of Millennial laments are working, marrying, buying homes, having kids, all of which require purchasing.

And there are more of them than there ever were of we Boomers.

How to reach them?

Damfino.

I thought the Kardashians might be over, but I saw a girl on the bus wearing a Kylie Jenner jacket the other day, I think unironically.

Maybe if Kanye Kardashian stopped selling sneakers to stores and became an eBay only seller?