w~~_7.JPG "pjcdn2005"){kind=avatar}
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Hi 'pj' -- I finally got some clarification from Raphael in a message after the Wed. session, and I now understand that there is no "fix" in the offing. What many of us didn't understand is that eBay never intended carts to be universal, i.e. to be able to "talk" to each other across sites, and that that is unlikely to ever happen.
Although I appreciate Raphael's situation, the problem I was having with the eBay.ca reps. is that they have been beating around the bush for months, rather than simply being clear that there will probably never be a seamless cart experience throughout eBay sites -- it is apparently a practical impossibility at this point in eBay's history.
My point now is that, OK, if we can't expect one workable cart for all eBay sites, there are enough Canadian sellers relying on U.S. sales that the Canadian cart should be dropped completely until such time as the U.S. cart can be re-tooled to be workable with .ca (if ever).
Things were working just fine for me at least before the cart was introduced on .ca -- as usual with eBay, it seems they put the cart before the horse (
), the "horse" being the U.S. market.
" Amazon, Sears, etc. etc. etc. who have done it"
I am not familiar with those carts and I am curious: do they really work when the items purchased are priced in different currencies?
As stated earlier, my customers do not seem to have any major problem with the "shopping cart", although personally I think the concept of a "shopping cart" on eBay was and remains ill advised.
Why? Because buyers regularly abandon their "shopping cart". There have been hundreds of studies on the subject and everyone of them - without exception - show large percentage of abandonment.
http://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
eBay tried a "shopping cart" concept about eight years ago (eBay Express). It failed to attract sufficient interest to cover the cost of operations. They started the new "shopping cart" about three years ago and - as far as I am concerned - it is a failure as it has not helped eBay increase sales. The growth experienced by eBay over the last few years has been more or less in line with its previous growth rate and below the overall online market.
In conclusion - having or not having a "shopping cart" on eBay has not helped the average seller sell more. Why bother?
One reason my customers have no problem with it may be that all my listings offered "free shipping" worldwide (we are moving and all have been ended until I re-open my eBay store in April or May).
As we know more than half all listings on eBay offer "free shipping" although I realize it is a lot more difficult for Canadian sellers to do so due to higher shipping costs from Canada.
Until I ended my listings, 25% were listed on eBay.com in US$ and 75% listed on eBay.ca in Cdn$.
Yes there were the odd instances - as Frank Sinatra would say "too few to remember" - where a buyer would purchase from both sites in both currencies. It did not matter to the buyer since I paid all shipping regardless.
"So it makes more sense if someone buy multiple items to process each one separately, pay separate transactions fees, separate each purchase and have to locate each one if there is an issue with the combined order"
???
Nobody is suggesting that!
You have been on eBay for more than ten years. You know how the system worked before eBay came up with the shopping cart. Buyers would buy as many items as they wanted and the seller would send a "combined invoice" with one shipping charge resulting in one payment.
A combined invoice could accommodate up to 40 listings (still does). When buyers purchased items from more than 40 listings, two invoices would be needed.
