eBay

momcqueen · ‎02-21-2018

Heavy sigh.

So, my sales have taken a nosedive this past week. Some sellers who use Calculated Shipping would blame the broken Calculated Shipping tool but I'm finding it's my domestic buyers that have vanished without a trace. Although this kind of dry spell does periodically happen, I don't often see it like this in February or like it and always wonder what I need to do to stimulate sales. My Promoted Listings are running, I have Markdowns running....

And then I participate in the Managing Returns webinar today. Good experience, on the whole, and I have signed up for another tomorrow and more later in the month or next month as I can fit them into my schedule.

But here is the thing: ebay is recommending sellers offer 60-day returns for free. As in free returns, seller-funded, for all reasons including remorse. And, no, there is no way to offer that Return policy to only domestic buyers as opposed to international ones where return postage will also cost $40 meaning the postal loss alone on that return could total $100 both ways.

I'll share a few screenshots. These aren't state secrets. All the webinars are available here and also many on-demand.

https://www.ebay.com/rpp/mso-webinars

I could start by eliminating my restocking fee which ebay says causes buyers to back away from listings like a house on fire. And I do suppose the security of knowing a item could be sent back for free increases buyer confidence but how often is a remorse return halted by a buyer realizing exactly how costly it is to send back? Three or four times to me this has happened as a seller. Someone feels fussy, maybe it was a gift that didn't hit the mark. Remove that return postage so it's no skin of theirs in the game and.....? And 'what' is the question. There is one online retailer that I use as a buyer that offers Free Returns but they're a mega corporation and what I keep of the clothes I order always far outweighs what I send back to them. But I'm not a fussy or kneejerk buyer.

I just don't know how this could be feasible for Canadian sellers with our costs of postage being four times as much as our neighbours to the south. and it;s not like you could tell the buyer, hey, send it back on the cheap without tracking because that means they don't have to send it back at all, you've forfeited seller protection. And you can't say, oh just keep it and refund their money and give it to them for free because Return postage is too costly once a buyer learns that trick, they'll never pay for anything on ebay again.

I get the reason ebay is encouraging its sellers to play this game but, with only its sellers having to bear the risk, it seems like advice that I'm not quite ready to take. Especially since I can't isolate that Return policy to domestic buyers only. I'd have to list things on ebay.ca for Canadians only with 60-day free Returns and move everything else to ebay.com and say no returns for you and that's just more time than I'm prepared to invest on an experiment such as this.

Thoughts?

rose-dee · ‎02-25-2018

@westcoastart2wrote:
Think about this when ebay tells you which strategies to follow - is it good for your business, or is it good for Ebay's - in many cases, they are not the same thing.

You make some very cogent comments, and I agree with most of them. I think many sellers are under the illusion that eBay is their helpful partner whose sole purpose is to enable them to make a profit. Of course eBay itself would protest loudly that this is indeed their point of view, and to a certain extent they are right.

I agree that much of what eBay does is in conflict with its sellers' best interests. In a very real sense, eBay is a service provider with virtually no accountability to its "subscribers" (I'm using the term broadly to include all sellers). Cable and cell phone companies are answerable to the CRTC for their practices, but there is no such watchdog for service providers like eBay. EBay has, in addition, structured its user terms to make any legal challenge a practical impossibility. In other words, sellers are hostage.

But here's where I differ somewhat. I don't think that it's even in eBay's best interests (in the longer run) to drive its sellers to the point of being only marginally profitable.

There is a bit of poetic justice in this (if it's any consolation to us established sellers). In order to sustain its fee income, eBay must either retain its existing sellers and make them want to continue making a profit here, or else forever be looking for replacement sellers. I think we've all seen eBay go through that exercise, inducing anyone who drops by the site to start selling. The problem with these wet-behind-the-ears "replacements" is that they often won't know how to sell in a way that continues to generate income for eBay. They get themselves into trouble very quickly, and then eBay has to downgrade them or boot them off the site anyway.

I think there is some incentive, as cynical as it may be, for eBay to try to make it possible for sellers to not just survive, but make a sufficient profit to justify the fees paid. Making legions of experienced sellers -- the ones who know how to make customers happy and make a decent profit -- so fed up that they go to another site is, I would think, not in eBay's best interests either. The pool of available or potential sellers in the world isn't infinite, and there are a lot of other sharks in that pool, grabbing at what they can lure.

So while I agree that eBay is in it for their own good, they are, at least to some degree, dependent on us as well. As uneven as that relationship may be, it's still a good incentive for eBay to try to make sellers, if not happy, at least continue to be the contented cash cows we are to them. If we sell our inventory at a lower price, it does affect eBay's fee income as well (higher selling price=higher FVFs).

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you were trying to say, I'm not sure I agree that a lower dollar amount from more sales is better for eBay than a higher dollar amount from fewer sales. Either way (seller promos and discounts aside), the percentage for FVFs remains the same, i.e. 15 sales of $10 each nets eBay as much as one sale of $150. What eBay needs is for sales to continue in an uninterrupted stream.

Yes, I do take a skeptical view of eBay and all it proclaims to do for sellers, but I also recognize that it does have tools and features that, since we are locked in this mutual grip anyway, we may as well use to maximum benefit. I think as long as a seller approaches eBay realistically, with eyes open, it is possible to make as much profit here as in any other online platform, especially since eBay does still have wide visiblity and recognition. The other important factor to keep in mind is that eBay is a U.S. company, whose policies and services will always be U.S.-focused. But Canadian businesses in general have always had to cope with that challenge.

In short, over the years I've learned not to expect any favours from eBay, but I make the best possible use I can of what they do give me. I have to admit that it's far tougher now than ever to make a profit here, but it's not much better elsewhere. I think buyers have been spread too thin for everyone out there wanting to sell to do as well as they used to when only 2 major online venues existed.

femmefan1946 · ‎02-25-2018

If I may be the devil's advocate here:

@rose-dee

Making legions of experienced sellers -- the ones who know how to make customers happy and make a decent profit --

You know what group of sellers keeps their customers happy?

The much maligned and despised 'Chinese'.

Even sellers with hundreds of negative feedback are still selling here because they ASLO have thousands upon thousands of happy customers, who go low prices, free shipping and prompt delivery.

And whether eBay encourages them with low listing fees or with easier Dispute mechanisms, from a commercial point of view, they are doing it right.

momcqueen · ‎02-25-2018

As per ebay's advice, I shifted my Returns to 60 days and eliminated the restocking fee which I had never charged anyway.

I don't get many if any Returns but that's not to say I'm willing to offer free Returns for Reasons of Remorse. For a Canadian selling overseas, that is simply not feasible.

momcqueen · ‎02-25-2018

60-day Returns and no Restocking fees

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-25-2018

Lol I have to ask....why the screenshot?

momcqueen · ‎02-25-2018

Why any screenshot? I changed my Return policy and thought other sellers might want to see the Additional Terms... no?

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-25-2018

Screenshots come in handy sometimes when trying to explain something or to provide extra information. But I thought that your explanation in your previous post "As per ebay's advice, I shifted my Returns to 60 days and eliminated the restocking fee which I had never charged anyway" already gave all of the information. The screenshot didn't give any extra information imo so it made me giggle. It just reminded me that you had to delete your screenshots in order to post more. Before that, I didn't know there was a limit!

momcqueen · ‎02-25-2018

Ah, yes. I hit the limit for screenshots and images, I did. No wondering as to the reason. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a user was allowed a thousand images... until I hit that ceiling.

rose-dee · ‎02-26-2018

@femmefan1946wrote:

You know what group of sellers keeps their customers happy?
The much maligned and despised 'Chinese'.
Even sellers with hundreds of negative feedback are still selling here because they ASLO have thousands upon thousands of happy customers, who go low prices, free shipping and prompt delivery.

And whether eBay encourages them with low listing fees or with easier Dispute mechanisms, from a commercial point of view, they are doing it right.

Ah yes, the Chinese. I thought it, but didn't dare say it in my earlier post.

Yet there is a cadre of small to medium sized sellers, probably still hundreds of thousands of them, even millions around the world (like most of the sellers who post here) who have been on eBay for many years and who provide something the Chinese mostly don't -- outstanding customer service, and integrity, including some assurance of product quality.

Can eBay afford to lose most of those sellers if it's impossible to make a profit here, or if they just get fed up with eBay's policies and practices? What happens when politics intrudes into the Chinese business model, and shipping rates escalate, or (as we've seen recently) delivery times are extended due to security or customs issues? Where is eBay going to go to replace all those Chinese sellers who fall off the selling wagon?

I admit to purchasing some of my raw materials from Chinese suppliers, mainly because I can't get them elsewhere at a reasonable price, so I too am guilty of undermining my own position as a seller. However, I do check buyer feedback very carefully before I deal with any Chinese seller, since many Chinese eBay sellers have abysmal FB. I have 3 or 4 Chinese sellers that I've dealt with over the years who are trustworthy and have decent quality products.

I find the best tend to be from Hong Kong, I surmise because Hong Kong has been for so long used to selling to westerners and dealing with a free economy (while they were in British hands). Perhaps they learned, as a lot of mainland Chinese sellers haven't yet, that selling shoddy or fake, knock-off merchandise is a short-term plan.

momcqueen · ‎02-27-2018

From the 2018 Spring Update released today on ebay.com

http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-spring/seller-protection.html

eBay seller protections

Starting June 1, 2018, when you offer free returns, you'll have greater control to manage your business, and you can decide to issue partial refunds to buyers. For example, if a buyer uses or damages an item and returns it, you can decide to issue a partial refund and we'll take it from there. If a buyer escalates a case, we'll take care of it for you so you can focus on your business. Plus, we'll protect your reputation from any negative feedback.

rose-dee · ‎02-28-2018

@momcqueenwrote:

Starting June 1, 2018, when you offer free returns, you'll have greater control to manage your business [...]

I just love how eBay spins their control of our business into our control. Really? LOL.

momcqueen · ‎02-28-2018

There is a Great Big Thing with Free Returns though. When a seller offers them and the item comes back wrecked, the seller can discount the refund to the buyer while ebay compensate for the difference. So, as a seller, if I offered free returns, essentially I'd almost WANT all my returns to come back wrecked by the buyer so that I only had to offer partial refunds so that ebay would have to pay the rest. Counterintuitive.