eBay

aligolf · ‎03-22-2016

First EBAY thanks for all the promotions this morning (3 different ones, could list 250,000 on these)

HOWEVER this is exactly what I have been complaining to you about for months/year now

No promotions for over a month then all of a sudden WHAM more promotions than I will ever use?

BUT all promotions currently are ONLY IF YOU LIST in CAN CURRENCY

I have my own stats that show I sell more and make more when I list in US currency for what I sell.

Would it not be better to be less restrictive on things like currency and auction duration and type and let the knowledgeable sellers list in a way that benefits them based on what they are selling?

Over the past month I have lost money and so have you based on your restrictive promotions, you also state that they are random promotions but you did the exact same thing last year at this time just on a smaller scale.

pierrelebel · ‎03-22-2016

"BUT all promotions currently are ONLY IF YOU LIST in CAN CURRENCY"

Not quite. The one (and only one) promotion I was invited to is for free fixed price listings in US$ on eBay.com only.

At least five different promotions have been seen so far today. It may get confusing for some members.

jersey..authentix · ‎03-22-2016

aligolf wrote: "Would it not be better to be less restrictive on things like currency and auction duration and type and let the knowledgeable sellers list in a way that benefits them based on what they are selling?"

Its all about the lack of Canadian sales. I'm like you. I list in USD which obviously makes it more expensive for Canadians to buy my items. This also goes for a large portion of other Canadian sellers who are selling in USD. This equals less sales. Obviously this is hurting Ebay's bottom line.

Recently they were trying to trick us when we relisted our items, automatically placing are listings in Canadian currency, even though prior that list was in USD. We had to manually change the currency on every relist. I see that they have stopped that practice recently.

So its no surprise the promos are only for CDN currency listing.

reallynicestamps · ‎03-22-2016

I list in USD which obviously makes it more expensive for Canadians to buy my items.

Well, no.

It seems more expensive, but if you try to think of the currencies as one greenback equals one loonie and 25 cents, it becomes clearer. Just as one greenback equals .89 euros.

Smoke and mirrors.

I suspect the promo being in CDN dollars is because it is 'promoting' listing in CDN, which is something eBayCanada has been promoting since before the precipitous drop in the loonie (or rise in the greenback, depending on how you look at it.)

jersey..authentix · ‎03-22-2016

Well, no.

It seems more expensive, but if you try to think of the currencies as one greenback equals one loonie and 25 cents, it becomes clearer. Just as one greenback equals .89 euros.

How did the Euro end up in this post? Ill take $100 US before a $100 CDN.

Why would Ebay be promoting CDN listing if it wasn't in there best interest, and there best interest has always been about revenue.

hlmacdon · ‎03-22-2016

@jersey..authentix wrote:
aligolf wrote: "Would it not be better to be less restrictive on things like currency and auction duration and type and let the knowledgeable sellers list in a way that benefits them based on what they are selling?"

Its all about the lack of Canadian sales. I'm like you. I list in USD which obviously makes it more expensive for Canadians to buy my items. This also goes for a large portion of other Canadian sellers who are selling in USD. This equals less sales. Obviously this is hurting Ebay's bottom line.

In my experience the lack of Canadian sales has more to do with the cost of domestic shipping rather than currency and the desire to avoid paying sales tax. If anything, in a period of currency gains like we are experiencing at the moment, a conversion to CAD translates to a higher price for Canadians.

pierrelebel · ‎03-22-2016

" Ill take $100 US before a $100 CDN"

Of course.

As a Canadian seller listing in Cdn$, I fully understand that US$100 is NOT the same as Cdn$100. I would think that all Canadian sellers do understand that.

If my item is worth US$100, I will list at Cdn$ 130.00 - which is basically the same.

American and international buyers will either see US$100 in the search result pages or whatever equivalent to Cdn$ 130 in their own currency (euro, Sterling, Australian dollars, Hong Kong dollars, or whatever).

aligolf · ‎03-22-2016

I am referring to the three I received this morning, how do I know what you got???

momcqueen · ‎03-22-2016

As an ebay.ca seller, I prefer CAD. As do many Canadian buyers which resent paying not just USD conversion on items located in Canada but also fees to their bank for the privilege of buying USD-listed items listed by Canadian sellers on a Canadian site. (That's what ebay.com is for.)

CAD works great for my purposes; not listing in USD didn't affect my American sales at all and it made my year-end accounting so much the easier. Americans or Brits or Germans come to my store, they look, everything is on sale in CAD compared to USD or GBP or Euros. Online shoppers are not so naive that they haven't figured out there are deals to be found in other forms of currency.

hlmacdon · ‎03-22-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

As an ebay.ca seller, I prefer CAD. As do many Canadian buyers which resent paying not just USD conversion on items located in Canada but also fees to their bank for the privilege of buying USD-listed items listed by Canadian sellers on a Canadian site. (That's what ebay.com is for.)

CAD works great for my purposes; not listing in USD didn't affect my American sales at all and it made my year-end accounting so much the easier. Americans or Brits or Germans come to my store, they look, everything is on sale in CAD compared to USD or GBP or Euros. Online shoppers are not so naive that they haven't figured out there are deals to be found in other forms of currency.

I agree with you on the simplification for accounting purposes. Although this is fairly easy to manage with BOC rates and a few vlookups few accounting packages manage multicurrency in a simple fashion.

In the same way Canadian's resent having to pay a currency exchange fee, so too do US buyers. I spent the better part of 10 years with an ecommerce business that did substantial US and Canadian sales, and the number one complaint from US buyers was the foreign exchange fees. That delta was enough of a competitive disadvantage sales were lost to competitors as well. Switching to segregated sites in native currencies eliminated those issues. Ebay unfortunately has no easy way to manage this for sellers other than doubling up on listings which makes inventory control and increases fees. List on ebay.com and you lose the Canada Post api. If ebay wants to play the buyers prefer currency x game they should move to a true multicurrency opt-in setup where sellers take payments in the currencies specified, direct without conversion on the buyer's side. This is how modern ecommerce sites are implemented.

What works best depends on where the majority of your sales go to and what currency you are sourcing your goods in. If I was using CAD my overhead would increase as I'd end up paying domestic suppliers (who source in USD) in CAD, meaning I am paying their currency hedge (which is far greater than your typical 2.5% conversion fee) as a premium and I would be paying currency conversion fees to convert to USD for imported goods. It is a bit of an oddball situation where not only are goods imported in USD, you have many businesses here buying in USD even from domestic suppliers.

mmmcross · ‎03-22-2016

Yes it is a little confusing. I have not received any emails either.

I activated the offer of 100k CAD listings on .ca:

http://pages.ebay.ca/promo/2016/0322/ListForFree.html

I didn't have to activate the offer for 50k GTC listings on .com:

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/2016/0301/List50KFree.html

NOTE: Erroneously in the terms and conditions of the .com one it says the listing must be in Canadian currency, but I just tested it with a USD listing (the only currency available on .com obviously) and it worked, so that's good news!

Anonymous · ‎03-22-2016

Why does eBay felt they need to take POWER over us forcing us to list in CAN currency.

I sell over 95% to US buyers, therefore I should be able to list in US currency on eBay.ca. I have over 500 items on eBay.com already but want to list them in US currency on eBay.ca as well. It should be OUR CHOICE not eBay!

If I list items for $15.99 CAN, US would be $9.99, I would be losing as it should be $15.99 US. I only have about 4-5% Canadian buyers, so what is the point in taking POWER over us????????? It should be OUR CHOICE, period!! Shame on eBay!

mmmcross · ‎03-22-2016

Did you get the promo for USD listings? It's apparently shorter than the CAD promo but it's still a good one.

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/2016/0301/List50KFree.html

momcqueen · ‎03-22-2016

With all due respect, if virtually none of your buyers are Canadian, why do you use ebay.ca as your platform? Just to get the free double allotment? ebay.ca is the only ebay in the world to allow listing in two different currencies.

If most of my buyers were in the USA on ebay.com looking for USD, then for the sake of the Shopping Cart functioning, I certainly would want to stick to listing on ebay.com. For me, they are not, so CAD is best, as I would expect on an ecommerce site that is inherently Canadian. I don't buy from any seller listing in USD on any other Canadian ecommerce site, ebay or otherwise.

bruno_1111 · ‎03-22-2016

Why, because eBay.com doesn't allow to charge sales taxes to Canadian provinces.

pierrelebel · ‎03-22-2016

"Why, because eBay.com doesn't allow to charge sales taxes to Canadian provinces."

Are you sure about that? My understanding is that the correct tax rate will be charged to your Canadian buyers even if listed on eBay.com as long as you have the correct tax table filled on eBay.ca

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/pay/checkout-tax-table.html

momcqueen · ‎03-22-2016

http://announcements.ebay.ca/2016/03/22/7748/

Since launch, eBay.ca has allowed sellers to select their listing currency – US dollars (USD) or Canadian dollars (CAD) – but starting this spring, (CAD) will become the sole listing currency on eBay.ca. Starting June 1st, sellers will need to use CAD when listing or relisting on eBay.ca. All remaining USD listings on eBay.ca (including Good ‘Til Cancelled) will need to be converted to CAD by August. Sellers who wish to continue to list in USD will need to move their listings to eBay.com. - See more at: http://announcements.ebay.ca/2016/03/22/7748/#sthash.SeRGucb4.dpuf

hlmacdon · ‎03-22-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:
With all due respect, if virtually none of your buyers are Canadian, why do you use ebay.ca as your platform? Just to get the free double allotment? ebay.ca is the only ebay in the world to allow listing in two different currencies.

If most of my buyers were in the USA on ebay.com looking for USD, then for the sake of the Shopping Cart functioning, I certainly would want to stick to listing on ebay.com. For me, they are not, so CAD is best, as I would expect on an ecommerce site that is inherently Canadian. I don't buy from any seller listing in USD on any other Canadian ecommerce site, ebay or otherwise.

I haven't looked into it too much myself, but if a Canadian TRS lists on .com are they bound by the US TRS requirements, ie 30 day returns if they wish to receive their TRS discount? Also listing on .com eliminates access to the Canada Post API, which is a serious consideration.

pierrelebel · ‎03-22-2016

"are they bound by the TRS requirements,"

NO

As a Canadian seller selling on both sites, I get my full 20% rebate as a TRS on sales made on eBay.ca and eBay.com as long as I meet the eBay.ca Global requirements,