New Unified Listing Tool Has Arrived

[kawartha-ephemera]

Until today I was blissfully unaware there was an update currently rolling out.

Here's the January "coming soon" announcement from eBay https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Try-out-the-unified-listing-experience/ba-p/31536605

And now that this update is out "in the wild" sellers report it's not so good. Here's the user discussion.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Tools-Apps/New-unified-listing-tool-SUCKS-ebay/td-p/31537136

[marnotom!]

Most of the posts in that thread are from one user. Harry’s post makes it pretty clear that at this point, the listing tool is in “beta testing” phase. It’s unfortunate the announcement isn’t as clear about that. Little clarifications like that can reduce angst and make the bigger picture more visible.

[kawartha-ephemera]

If you haven't already, download the screenshots. All inputs require opening and closing of a pop-up box. Those will be dreadfully slow to work with. The purpose of it seems to be simply a change of style .... oceans of white space everywhere. No mention of any feature enhancements.

[marnotom!]

Methinks the .com thread OP doth protest too much. It’s a work in progress. I’d give it some time.

Keep in mind I’m a Grandpa Simpson who remembers Mister Lister, so my thoughts may or may not have weight when this is considered.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:
If you haven't already, download the screenshots. All inputs require opening and closing of a pop-up box. Those will be dreadfully slow to work with. The purpose of it seems to be simply a change of style .... oceans of white space everywhere. No mention of any feature enhancements.

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Going by the posts.....Yikes!!! Definitely does not sound PC friendly!! Hopefully that discussion is being paid attention to by the powers that be?

-Lotz

[marnotom!]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:Going by the posts.....Yikes!!! Definitely does not sound PC friendly!! Hopefully that discussion is being paid attention to by the powers that be?

Those that go through the thread will find that mosts of the posts are by the same user, but there are a couple of statements by the "powers that be" that make it pretty clear that the listing tool is still being worked on.

[kawartha-ephemera]

According to the version release schedule outlined by harry@ebay the project is slated to be ready for general roll out any week now which is why I thought it worthwhile to start the conversation. At least the few who happenned to read this thread won't be gobsmacked when it's unleashed on us.

[marnotom!]

Harry Temkin's post dates back to January and I'm guessing that there's a lot more flexibility to this timeline than there is with that of Managed Payments.  Since the people developing this tool aren't sellers themselves, eBay is really relying on feedback from sellers to make this work, so as counter-intuitive as it sounds, it's really in sellers' best interests to give this a try so they can give eBay an informed earful if necessary, but have a backup plan in place if the new tool is too onerous to work with.

Do appreciate you giving us a heads-up on this.  Thanks!

[kawartha-ephemera]

@marnotom! 

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

Just an FYI ...  I know it's highly unusual and almost unheard of,  but this time harry's timeline was worth something. The new listing tool is available on .com today. Nothing yet on .ca  .... I didn't have the nerve to "try it", but the link is there at the top right of the listing form.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Well, my curiousity got the better of me; I have given the new tool a spin to see what's what. Although there are many more mouse clicks required than before they have got a nice design, there's a lot to like about it; if you're not too concerned about speed .... listings per hour.

The photo upload works fine and they've added a "delete all" link,  but it takes the user a tiny bit longer to accomplish the task. Every action needed to create or revise takes just that little bit more time to accomplish. On the plus side there may be less opportunity for errors, or when one is made. it may be easier to spot it.

The one aspect I found that is an absolute fail has to do with the description html editor. Currently, the user cannot paste html code into the editor, it's strange, whatever is pasted doesn't copy at the cursor, it copies at the end of the last line.  Right now, if I want to edit a hyperlink or make a wholesaale change to the html I'd be required to type the entire thing in one charachter at a time. There's a lot that the WYSIWYG editor just will not do.  Hopefully, this is an oversight and will be fixed pronto. 

Overall I'm impressed with it, the edit pop-ups load very fast so it will be interesting to see what effect they ultimately will have on listing speed. 

[marnotom!]

Thanks for the great post! This is very useful information indeed, particularly the insights into the workings (or lack thereof) of the HTML editor. I remember back in the day my wife buying Dummies-type books to help her learn the basics of handcoding our listings. The new setup appears to be an exercise in frustration.

As for the speed in creating listings, could that possibly be something that could be improved on the seller’s end as they familiarize themselves with the tool?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:

@marnotom! 

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

Just an FYI ...  I know it's highly unusual and almost unheard of,  but this time harry's timeline was worth something. The new listing tool is available on .com today. Nothing yet on .ca  .... I didn't have the nerve to "try it", but the link is there at the top right of the listing form.

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Going by the recurring responses with the US discusion and people that had beta tested it that it is directly intentially designed for folks that use the APP or a tablet. Not so much for anyone on a PC. In the announcement regarding the new discussion format (on dot com) it has a similar intention and was designed accordingly. The order shown was  1. APP, Tablet & then PC. This is the rational behind the constant desire to remove features sellers have relied on for years. I'm thinking with intention that if 1 or 2 features disappear every now and then sellers that rely on a PC for creating all their listings would not notice.

If there were any major complaints for the 3 platforms, which side do you think they are going to concentrate on with highest priority?

-Lotz

PS. For the discussion platform update, dot ca got it a week earlier than dot com. I guess making us the lab rats.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Yup, bit by bit every page, feature on the site is receiving the oceans of white space treatment. I expected the new listing tool to be a disappointment but it turns out I was very pleasantly surprised today after giving it a spin. Some tweaking is required but it might turn out quite well for desktop users.

By instituting the pop-up edit boxes the selected info on the form is much easier to take in. Most of the scrolling if required takes place within the edit boxes. Frequent selections are preloaded and available for quick selection without scrolling, if the desired selection is not at hand there"s a list search box available. If the user is not familiar with the list contents then lots of scrolling is required, AI learns the users frequent selections as they list. All of this has been slowly implemented in the old form over the last year, now it is being used more effectively in the new form, I think that part is going to work quite well.