eBay Upfront NY Summary

I took the time to go to an eBay event called Upfront yesterday evening (11/7/19), and I thought I would note a few things I learned. The event consisted of a presentation on marketing, a presentation on current changes and plans for the future, and an interview of two long time sellers, followed by a period of time where you could go to different tables and ask eBay employees questions on different subjects.

For managed payments, they will be adding GSP sometime in the first half of next year. At that point, someone like me would be ready to move over. I could not get a more specific date. They are working with the new provider on how to deal with the currently restricted categories (like gold & silver bullion, fire arms, and so on). Apparently, they did not realize that there would be an issue with certain categories when eBay first signed the contract. Everyone will be over in 2021, but no exact date was given.

Managed payments will be similar to a virtual wallet like PayPal where you can pay for shipping & store fees, then move money over to your bank when you want. Money can be moved over as sales come in, or you can chose a time (every day, every week, etc). You can also pay your costs with a credit card.

They are currently testing out an interest page where someone can drop photos or other images on a page and software will match them with available listings. They are also testing out software that will make the background white for your photos to help with Google searches (the main photo is the important one).

You can currently make offers for items on watch lists and in carts, and they will be adding heavy browsing. So, you could send an offer to someone who clicks a link three times within a certain time period. They are also adding a counter-offer function.

You may have noticed a “buy again” menu at the top of the screen. They will be adding a subscription service for multi-quantity items (doesn’t really apply to most of us).

The multi-user function allows an employee to edit. That function will be expanded to invoicing, creating labels, etc. You will be able to select the functions you want to allow an employee to do.

They talked about the item specific issue that happened last month. The presenter said that the mistake was to make the size & size type mandatory, and that was what screwed everyone up. They changed it back to men’s size, women’s size, etc. rather than having a size type. When I asked, one of the eBay employees said that they do have a November 8 (tomorrow) moratorium on software updates, but that can be removed with a few high level signatures if it is deemed necessary. I suggested that they bring in that date closer to the beginning of forth quarter, but I don’t think that will get anywhere.

One of the sellers they interviewed said that she sells on many different platforms, and that she uses Shipping Easy (shippingeasy.com) to manage all the labels in one place and keep track of cross posted inventory.

In general, I thought the event was really nice and very motivational. They served refreshments and dessert, and we each received a bag of shipping goodies on the way out.

I’m just angry at Ms. Google Maps who routed me through Manhattan on the way back. Like that saved me time? I hate city driving. Brooklyn was bad enough on the way in 🙂 .

• This topic was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Sharyn.