eBay

happy_pigeon · ‎02-27-2018

Hi all,

As you’ve probably seen by now, the 2018 Spring Seller Update was released today. We’re sorry for the delay—we prefer to launch our pages as soon after the US pages as possible, but technical issues prevented us from launching the pages earlier.

Please use this thread for feedback and questions about this latest release. I have a good familiarity with the content (having diligently and painstakingly pecked the pages out with my beak), and should be able to either address any questions or clarifications as needed, or pass them on to the right person.

As always, feedback is welcome. I may not address your feedback directly, but I’ll be collecting the most salient points to pass along to the Seller Release team at large.

For my own purposes, I’d also love to hear back about how you find the structure of the update, from a Canadian perspective. Is it simple or challenging to differentiate between what’s available to Canada and what’s available to the US? Is the language plain and easily understandable? Is the information simple to navigate and digest? This type of feedback helps me make future Seller Updates better.

Here’s some supplemental reading to go with your morning coffee, for those interested. Some of it is linked from the Seller Update, but in case you missed it:

Structured Data: The types of structured data, how to use it, and how it interfaces with the eBay catalogue.
eBay catalogue: What the eBay catalogue is, when to use it, and detailed instructions on how to use it.
eBay Seller Protection Policy: A simplified view of how sellers are protected when they choose to offer free returns.

Sincerely,

Pigeon

momcqueen · ‎02-28-2018

Yes, there is a reciprocal agreement between ebay.ca and ebay.com that its sellers get an equal number of CAD and USD listings for their Stores subscription, or any listing allotment even outside of Stores. Some sellers routinely use all 1000 ebay.ca CAD listings plus all 1000 ebay.com USD listings every month. (This was part of the shock of having ebay.ca go exclusively CAD.) Sellers like me, however, have never used their USD allotment so I cannot say I'd much miss it unless I need to start duplicate* listing all my ebay.ca on ebay.com so that my products for sale show in Grouped Search.

*I don't mean 'duplicate' in that sense but making my ebay.ca listings CAD and ship-to Canada only while ebay.com becomes USD and the World. I cannot survive on ebay unless my listings actually index as part of the Grouped search results on ebay.com. I keep harping on this for a reason. Even many of my loyal Canadian customers shop from ebay.com.

happy_pigeon · ‎02-28-2018

@hlmacdon wrote:

@pjcdn2005wrote:

@hlmacdonwrote:
To clarify, if a Canadian seller lists on .com. what requirements do they need to meet to receive a fee discount?

———

The way that I understand it, if you have global trs status you will still receive the discount regardless if you list on .com or .ca and whether or not you meet US trs requirements Perhaps @happy_pigeon could confirm that.

But the only way to get the trs plus badge on listings on .com is is you have US TRS and your listings meet the trs plus requirements such as free returns.

Correct, what I am trying to understand is if there are any changes with the "Canadian" version of the Spring Seller update which will effect this. We have always had our exemptions carved out on the basis of the US requirements typically being driven by cost metrics (ie tracking is not a burdensome cost with USPS/couriers, many items can be shipped and hence returned at a very low cost) which are an apples to oranges situation when compared to comparable costs in Canada. At the moment we more or less have full flexibility to use .ca or .com without any real downside so you can choose what works best for your business in terms of listed currencies, visibility, etc.

Top Rated Plus is 100% a US program. Canadian sellers who list on .com and happen to meet requirements may participate in the program and receive the benefits of the program, but they will have to meet the same requirements set out for US sellers.

There are no allowances in the Top Rated Plus program for Canadian or other international sellers, regardless of which site they list on, because it is a program intended for US sellers and does not have a Canadian or global equivalent program.

hlmacdon · ‎02-28-2018

@momcqueenwrote:
New Grouped search results https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=disney+cars+frank&_prodsch=1&_dmd=1

Old results:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=disney+cars+frank

One of mine which is nowhere to be found under new Grouped Listings: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Disney-PIXAR-Cars-FRANK-the-COMBINE-diecast-RADIATOR-SPRINGS-Theme-11-14-DE...

Where it should be but isn't.... Actually. None of these entires are correct, not even one. Some are loose, some are used, some are 'tributes' and not authorized copies, some are not 1:55 diecast by Mattel and might be Frank but playlets or bath toys. The closest ebay comes to getting the Item Specifics for this model correct is the one that collected a bunch of random items with the wrong headline associated. That's https://www.ebay.com/p/Disney-Pixar-Cars-D23-2011-Submarine-Finn-Ransburg-Top-Secret/2254433848?iid=....

In short, these Groupings are a Hot Mess and I'm still being left off from all of them. If I don't match any shouldn't I be left as one on my own at least?

Mine is Disney Cars brand, made by Mattel in 1:55 scale diecast which is New in package. These are the things people who are shopping for this item need to know.

The product/groupings are flawed. Mine is correct. And still I don't rank anywhere in the universe of ebay.com for this item.

Looking at how the results are working, this is basically an intermediate test for product based shopping.

What group similar listings appears to be doing:

If search results keywords result in x number of listings containing the same relevant product identifiers (UPC/MPN) then enable group similar listings filter
If group similar listings filter is "on" enable product based shopping product page when listing are clicked on
Product based shopping product page will show "best" (ie lowest) option for the buyer along with other listings that match those exact grouping product identifiers

Your listing isn't coming up in that view potentially due to how you have entered your product identifiers or another issue:

MPN: CDP52 ASST. Y00539 - try changing this to CDP52 and get rid of the rest. Things like this where MPN's denoted on packaging aren't always a clear simple one "word" value are going to cause issues with product based shopping pages.
UPC 8 87961 04763 9 - try eliminating white spaces in case they ebay hasn't considered that when parsing the data
Not being familiar with what your niche, it's possible there aren't enough other listings with the same product identifiers to use whatever x value threshold ebay has specified before it enables those listings in grouped view

As a former ecommerce product manager who has had to manage sites with millions of SKUS I can say this is going to be a hot mess moving forward.

momcqueen · ‎02-28-2018

Thanks, I’ll give that a shot and see what impact it has going forward. Before I started complaining about this, I checked it against other products I carry and I was also nowhere represented in Group results. Like with LEGO. Those are also not found with their Product groups but sometimes the UPCs for Canadian products are different than their USA counterparts.

hlmacdon · ‎02-28-2018

@happy_pigeonwrote:
@hlmacdonwrote:
@pjcdn2005wrote:
@hlmacdonwrote:
To clarify, if a Canadian seller lists on .com. what requirements do they need to meet to receive a fee discount?
———

The way that I understand it, if you have global trs status you will still receive the discount regardless if you list on .com or .ca and whether or not you meet US trs requirements Perhaps @happy_pigeon could confirm that.

But the only way to get the trs plus badge on listings on .com is is you have US TRS and your listings meet the trs plus requirements such as free returns.

Correct, what I am trying to understand is if there are any changes with the "Canadian" version of the Spring Seller update which will effect this. We have always had our exemptions carved out on the basis of the US requirements typically being driven by cost metrics (ie tracking is not a burdensome cost with USPS/couriers, many items can be shipped and hence returned at a very low cost) which are an apples to oranges situation when compared to comparable costs in Canada. At the moment we more or less have full flexibility to use .ca or .com without any real downside so you can choose what works best for your business in terms of listed currencies, visibility, etc.
Top Rated Plus is 100% a US program. Canadian sellers who list on .com and happen to meet requirements may participate in the program and receive the benefits of the program, but they will have to meet the same requirements set out for US sellers.

There are no allowances in the Top Rated Plus program for Canadian or other international sellers, regardless of which site they list on, because it is a program intended for US sellers and does not have a Canadian or global equivalent program.

Just to clarify, top rated plus is not what I am referring to and simply wish to know if there are any changes with the Spring Update that will effect a Canadian seller's ability to receive a fee discount, regardless of whatever program requirements they are currently qualifying under. I realize you are trying to be helpful and assist us, so I just wanted to make that distinction was clear 🙂 The US update introduces new criteria that effect discount rates, hence the interest in what the "Canadian" version, if any, of this would be.

hlmacdon · ‎02-28-2018

@momcqueenwrote:
Those are also not found with their Product groups but sometimes the UPCs for Canadian products are different than their USA counterparts.

Yep, which is why this is going to be a bit of a mess. In the US it is often worse as many brands will employ strategies where major retailers will get their own MPN and UPC for exactly the same item, or where there are variants based on the language of the packing (ie bilingual, trilingual, multilingual). This is precisely why product based shopping is not the panacea that ebay thinks it is in terms of user experience, but I suspect that is of far less concern than increasing conversion rates by compressing seller margins.

happy_pigeon · ‎02-28-2018

Ah... my apologies!

There are no changes to the TRS program as a result of this announcement that would affect Canadians participating in that program. As part of program changes I also update the corresponding help pages, and the TRP pages have not needed to be updated since the final value fee benefit changed to 10% last year. So everything is still the same for TRP

hlmacdon · ‎02-28-2018

@happy_pigeonwrote:
Ah... my apologies!

There are no changes to the TRS program as a result of this announcement that would affect Canadians participating in that program. As part of program changes I also update the corresponding help pages, and the TRP pages have not needed to be updated since the final value fee benefit changed to 10% last year. So everything is still the same for TRP

Thank you for clarifying. It is good to know that someone will be updating the help pages to bring them up to current state as that can be a bit bewildering for sellers new and old at times.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-28-2018

@happy_pigeonwrote:
@pjcdn2005wrote:
@@ypdc_denniwrote:

Current requirements:
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/top-rated.html
Canadian sellers can qualify to be Top-rated in two separate programs. They can qualify for the Global program, which measures performance according to sales made to any buyer, and they can qualify for the US program, which measures performance only on sales made to buyers located in the United States. Qualifying for either Global or the USA makes you eligible for the 10% discount.
...
To become a US Top-rated seller you need to meet the following performance requirements:
Have an eBay account that's been active for at least 90 days
Have a positive Feedback rating of at least 98%
Have at least 100 transactions and $1,000 in sales with US buyers during the last 12 months
Upload tracking to your buyer's My eBay within your promised handling time for at least 90% of your transactions with US buyers in the last 3 months.
@happy_pigeon Shouldn’t the last item in the post above...upload tracking....be taken off that list? I didn’t think that Canadian sellers needed to meet that requirement to be a US trs.

Also,in your first post you provided some different .ca links including one for seller protection. That page describes the trs grace period but it refers to US trs instead of global trs. Plus, the title of your link suggests that the seller protection policy described in that link is just for sellers offering free returns but other than one small section, that policy applies to all sellers...correct?

Yes, the material I posted referred to the US Top Rated program specifically. The Global Top Rated Program, as you've correctly pointed out, does not require tracking.

1. I realize that the global trs does not require tracking but I was not referring to that program. I was referring to the standards that Canadians need to meet the US trs program. Some history.......When the uploading tracking become required for US sellers in order to have TRS status, Canadians were exempt from that particular rule because of the cost of tracking here.

That meant that we could have US trs and as mentioned in another post I had US trs until October 2017 when I went below the 100 US buyers metric and I had never ever met the 90 or 95% uploading tracking metric.

When the trs badge was taken off of .com listings and the trs plus badge came into existence, Canadian sellers were still allowed to be US trs without meeting the tracking requirements. Of course we couldn't qualify for the trs plus badge unless our listings met all of the requirements but we were still able to keep the US trs status. Perhaps you are aware of all of that already but I wanted to explain it so that you understand the context of my comments.

Keeping that in mind, the uploading tracking line that ypdc_dennis quoted near the beginning of this post shouldn't be there as Canadian sellers have never had to meet that requirement in order to receive US trs status. That page is information for Canadian sellers and the tracking metric is not required so to have it on that page is just confusing people.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-28-2018

@happy_pigeon

In another post I mentioned one of the links that you posted in your first post in this thread:

eBay Seller Protection Policy: A simplified view of how sellers are protected when they choose to offer free returns. On the page that it links to the trs grace policy is mentioned and explained BUT all the information in that section refers to US sellers. For example:

You're eligible for the grace period if you fall below Top Rated Seller standards due to any of the following:

You have fewer than 100 transactions with US buyers over the most recent 12-month period.
You have less than $1,000 in sales with US buyers over the most recent 12-month period
You've uploaded shipment tracking within your promised handling time for less than 95% (but not less than 90%) of transactions with US buyers in the last 3 months.

Global trs does not require `100 transactions with US buyers and it doesn't require uploading any tracking. Perhaps the information on that page could be about the Global trs grace perios, not the US??

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-28-2018

@happy_pigeon

1. In another post I mentioned one of the links that you posted in your first post in this thread:

eBay Seller Protection Policy On the page that it links to the trs grace policy is mentioned and explains how it works. BUT all the information in that section is for US sellers and US trs. For example:

You're eligible for the grace period if you fall below Top Rated Seller standards due to any of the following:

You have fewer than 100 transactions with US buyers over the most recent 12-month period.
You have less than $1,000 in sales with US buyers over the most recent 12-month period
You've uploaded shipment tracking within your promised handling time for less than 95% (but not less than 90%) of transactions with US buyers in the last 3 months.

Global trs does not require `100 transactions with US buyers and it doesn't require uploading any tracking. Perhaps the information on that page could be changed so that it is about the Global trs grace period??

2. I would appreciate if you could clarify this.....In your first post of this thread you describe the link to the seller protection page as A simplified view of how sellers are protected when they choose to offer free returns. To me that suggests that all of those seller protection items on that page are only for sellers who offer free returns. But other than the section titled "A returned item has been opened, used or damaged' that sellers protection page applies to all sellers, regardless of their return policy....is that correct?

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-28-2018

@happy_pigeonwrote:
Ah... my apologies!

There are no changes to the TRS program as a result of this announcement that would affect Canadians participating in that program. As part of program changes I also update the corresponding help pages, and the TRP pages have not needed to be updated since the final value fee benefit changed to 10% last year. So everything is still the same for TRP

Actually there are quite a few things on the current global trs page that out of date or incorrect but perhaps I could send a message to you via the community message system rather than list it here?

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-28-2018

sorry, mispost

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-28-2018

@momcqueenwrote:
My Seller Dashboard says:

For this requirement, we look at your transactions during the past 3 months. To be a Top Rated Seller, 95.00% of your transactions must have tracking uploaded within your stated handling time, in addition to receiving a carrier scan.

Top Rated Sellers in Canada don't have to meet this requirement.

Does that mean TopRated sellers located in Canada selling to Canada?

No. It is on the US region trs page which refers to Canadian sellers /US buyers.

Or does it mean Top Rated Sellers selling in Canada to the USA?

I'm looking at my USA totals.

I take it to mean that you can be a TRS in Canada without needing to hit that 95 per cent mark but that it was necessary to be at 95 per cent and higher to make TRS in the USA. At least, that's what was reflected on my Dashboard at one time; I had all the numbers in terms of quantity of number of sales (100) and total dollar amount ($1000 USD) but failed at tracking being at 90 per cent* or higher, therefore I was TRS in Canada but not TRS in USA.

I don't know why you wouldn't have had US trs status if you met all of the other numbers as Canadians have always been exempted from having to upload tracking to be US trs. I had it for a long time and I know many others did as well. Are you sure that at the top of the screen it did not say that you are top rated on that US region page? I'm wondering if you think that you didn't have US trs just because you didn't have the badge on .com? A Canadian can still be US trs and not meet the tracking requirement but in order to get the trs plus badge on a listing, you have to meet all of the US trs requirements as well as the requirements for trs plus listings. (one or same day handling, 30 day returns etc.)

US trs status isn't all that useful for us anyway. It supposedly gives slightly better listing placement but if there is a boost, I doubt that it is much of a boost.

momcqueen · ‎02-28-2018

“I'm wondering if you think that you didn't have US trs just because you didn't have the badge on .com?”

Yes. I didn’t have TRS status so neither did I have the badge for it; the time to which I’m referring predates the Top Rated Plus Program For eBay.com. I’m quite certain I’m correct in my recollection despite that it refers to 5.5 years ago because I was new to selling and it was a big deal to me to make (or not) TRS then. The Top Rated Seller Plus Program came after this time to which I’m referring. I no doubt have screenshots of it saved in the nether regions of my computer hard drive archive files but it would take me the next 5.5 years to find them for you.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-01-2018

Ok, then I have no idea why you didn’t have trs because if you had all of the qualification as you said you did then you should have had it.

The tracking requirement was announced in the 2012 spring update so that is about the time you are referring to.

http://announcements.ebay.ca/2012/02/28/7018/

Starting in June, to be eligible for US Top-rated seller status, tracking information needs to be uploaded to eBay within your stated handling time on 90% of transactions with US buyers. Because we recognize that shipping services with tracking are considerably more expensive when shipping from inside Canada, Canadian sellers do not need to meet this 90% tracking upload requirement in order to qualify for the US Top-rated seller badge, Final Value Fee discount, and the basic level of Top-rated search boost in Best Match searches on eBay.com.

momcqueen · ‎03-01-2018

“The tracking requirement was announced in the 2012 spring update so that is about the time you are referring to.”

Now THAT is curious. According to the information you’re providing, I should have had the TRS for USA at that point. I do know it kept telling me on the Dashboard that I hadn’t met tracking yet. I’ll never know the reason I didn’t now!

rose-dee · ‎03-01-2018

@pjcdn2005wrote:
Ok, then I have no idea why you didn’t have trs because if you had all of the qualification as you said you did then you should have had it.
The tracking requirement was announced in the 2012 spring update so that is about the time you are referring to.

Yes, I think many of us here had a TRS badge on .com prior to that point. I know I did, and I think you did too, if I recall. The tracking was the end of it for many Canadian sellers.

I'm surmising that it's possible the reason 'mj' didn't have that same badge was because she was relatively new to eBay at the time and her sales records hadn't accumulated sufficiently to qualify, whereas you and I had already been around here for a few years before 2012.

Anyway, sorry, completing off-topic now. 🙂

momcqueen · ‎03-01-2018

Well, my sales dollar totals and volumes were right at that point but maybe I hadn't passed the 'new seller' probationary period to qualify for TRS USA. I made TRS Global for Canada plus The World right promptly but something was off with USA; I recall it being the tracking where I fell into deficit. It's lost to time now, I'll never know. My dollars are there today and tracking close but I don't have the number of transactions required to make TRS and, probably, it's TRS+ that's more important anyway. If my items don't show in Grouped listings, it's all an irrelevant concern anyway, like worrying I don't have enough gravy to accompany my non-existant poutine.

rose-dee · ‎03-01-2018

Good afternoon happypigeon! I have a few comments and some feedback to add in reaction to the Spring Update:

1. Seller Hub: Hopefully we'll get all of the same features that have been included on .com, and please, please assure us that the two Seller Hubs will work seamlessly together. I've noticed in the past few months some gaps in communicating data between .ca and .com seller manager pages. This makes it difficult to list on the two sites and have confidence that sales, shipping, and other data will be simultaneously and accurately updated.

2. Shopify: This was a shocker to me! How is it, that after so many years of draconian measures to prevent external linking, eBay is now going to be facilitating direct linking of listings from outside (private) websites? I'm truly flabbergasted. Aside from being aghast at this sudden reversal of eBay's long-held principles, my concern is that eBay will use this as a means to exert control over listings on private websites. Otherwise, how will eBay keep a watch over duplicate listings or infractions of eBay policy? If this is merely a means to link eBay listings into private websites, sellers were already able to do so themselves before eBay made it "illegal". Presumably eBay is making money from Shopify in this scheme?

3. Store Fees: Will the rate for a Canadian "Basic" store be raised? If so, will this take effect immediately (i.e. next billing cycle), or upon the next subscription renewal?

4. Product grouping, UPCs, SKUs, etc.: My reaction to this is to wonder, with the commercial homogenization of eBay, what the effect will be on visibility and placement in searches for items that don't fit into the modern mass-produced product format? Surely there must still be many thousands of sellers like me who are listing OOAK, vintage, or unique items. A related concern: can those sellers still enter "does not apply" for the UPC field when listing, and will this have any negative effect on their listings?

Lastly, I have to echo 'mj's' comments concerning the timing of Seller Updates. It would be infinitely more helpful if eBay could decide on a set release date for each of these Updates, rather than suddenly dropping them on our heads, especially since it appears we're going to be getting three of them per year. Allowing us to be somewhat prepared in advance to set aside the time to deal with the Updates would be a real service to sellers. I'm sure we'd all be grateful if you could pass this suggestion on to HQ, for whatever good it might do.