eBay

icantican · ‎09-21-2017

Hi,

I am looking at listing on eBay Canada (from the UK). What I am not sure on is whether I should be listing each item twice, once in english and then once in french? There doesn't seem to be much guidance on the help pages on this.

I know that there is the option to change languages on Ebay but from what I can see that does not change things like the titles of listings, hence why I am keen to list seperately in both languages.

Thanks for the help

Dave

rose-dee · ‎09-21-2017

@icantican wrote:

I am looking at listing on eBay Canada (from the UK). What I am not sure on is whether I should be listing each item twice, once in english and then once in french? There doesn't seem to be much guidance on the help pages on this.

I know that there is the option to change languages on Ebay but from what I can see that does not change things like the titles of listings, hence why I am keen to list seperately in both languages.

If you are listing exactly the same item twice, whatever language the listing is in, you'd be in violation of eBay's duplicate listings policy.

Are you referring to listing on eBay.cafr (the French eBay site) as well as eBay.ca (the English eBay site)? Or are you planning to simply translate the text of the wording and make two identical listings on eBay.ca, one in English and one in French? Either way, it's a duplicate listing, and will get you into trouble with eBay.

I'm curious as to why you feel the need to list in French as well as English. With eBay's (or Google's) available translation features, and the fact that a large proportion of people in Canada whose first language is French also understand at least enough English to get by, I don't see the necessity. By the way, not all French-speaking Canadians live in Québec. There are large populations of French speakers in other provinces (especially New Brunswick and Ontario), and generally speaking those people tend to be pretty much fully bilingual.

On the other hand, if you have items you think may particularly appeal to French-speaking Canadians, you could list just a few exclusively on the eBay.cafr site (in French). That would avoid the duplicate listing problem yet give you enough exposure in French to draw interest to your other items on the English site.

icantican · ‎09-21-2017

Hi,

Thankyou for the reply. It would be exactly the same item. I suspected it would be a violation of that policy but worth an ask.

With regards as to why I would like to list in both languages:
There are two main reasons I would like to do it
1. From my testing on ebay the titles do not appear to be translated either from French to English or English / French, as we know, the title is the main factor in discoverability and by not having one english and one french title, we are instantly ruled out on some keywords
2. Better buyer experience. We already have all of the content translated so that is covered. People are often prepared to shop in another language but they will always prefer to purchase using their native one.

I would be interested to hear what you think about those? For me the policy does not make sense for ebay, there would be a clear advantage to offering full listings in both languages (on separate sites).

I like your suggestion of listing some in French and some in English so as to cover both bases. This may be worth doing.

Kind regards,
Dave

pierrelebel · ‎09-21-2017

The rules are the rules and duplicate listings are NOT allowed.

" there would be a clear advantage to offering full listings in both languages"

Now, a seller can do that if listing on eBay.ca.fr where you can have the title in one language and the searchable sub-title in a different language. There is no charge on eBay.ca.fr for use of sub-title.

The description could then offer both languages if you take the time to properly translate the information. Do not trust a robot to do it.

For more information: http://pages.cafr.ebay.ca/help/sell/itemsubtitle.html

Good Luck

PS - I am now retired but had used eBay.ca.fr extensively for years, taking advantage of the free sub-title.

femmefan1946 · ‎09-21-2017

It's always been my understanding that Descriptions are included in Search, while, with the notable exception of dotCAFR, sub titles are not.

So having your Description in both languages could work.

Except....

mobiles are apparently used in over 50 % of transactions nowadays, and the Descriptions seen on mobiles is limited.

rose-dee · ‎09-21-2017

@femmefan1946 wrote:

So having your Description in both languages could work.

Except....
mobiles are apparently used in over 50 % of transactions nowadays, and the Descriptions seen on mobiles is limited.

Good point. Not only are mobile descriptions limited, but my understanding is that unless the seller has specifically set up the proper coding, eBay actually "summarizes" or picks and chooses what it displays, which in my view is even worse.

Mind you, with the proper coding, a seller has 800 characters to use in composing the "mobile-ready" description, so presumably the OP could split that into half English, half French.

icantican · ‎09-22-2017

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies. Very interesting conversation.

Regarding the description being searchable, in my experience this only really occurs when there are no / very few listings with the searched terms in the title. ebay will always rank listings with search terms in the title higher than anything else.

To check my understanding on listing to ebay.cafr - I can do a listing with an english title and a french subtitle, will this listing appear on ebay.ca or does it rely on people going to ebay.cafr? I am struggling to see where the divide is, particularly because you can switch between the two using the menu from within (what feels to me) as one ebay site.

Many thanks

pierrelebel · ‎09-22-2017

"will this listing appear on ebay.ca"

Yes.

It will also appear on eBay.com if USA is selected as a country where you ship and a shipping charge is indicated.

lady.stark · ‎09-22-2017

You can do as I do: one paragraph in English, one in French (and italic).

icantican · ‎09-22-2017

Thanks for the clarification.

So the question is; why isn't everyone doing listing via ebay.cafr and utilising the subtitle?

pierrelebel · ‎09-22-2017

Why?

Because so many Canadians do not know about it. Or some may not feel comfortable with the listing page in French. Or... or... or...

icantican · ‎09-22-2017

Here is what I am thinking;

I list to ebay.cafr using an English title and a french subtitle. I then either include an english & french description / just an english description.

My listing then appears on both .ca and .cafr and are optimized for both.

If buyers are browsing on .ca then then nothing will be in french (except possibly the french part of a description).

The theory sounds good to me but then why isn't it what everyone is doing? You can always rely on ebay sellers to find an edge

pierrelebel · ‎09-22-2017

" why isn't it what everyone is doing?"

Because.... at the end of the day .... eBay in North America is basically an English speaking site where both buyers and sellers are expected to understand and communicate in English. And that comment applies to the French minority located mostly in Quebec. When they come to buy online, they generally expect to transact in English.