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Ok, I can hear the former comments from the past discussions of the downside to cross listing on multiple platforms. But usually those comments were focused on selling the same item to two different customers at different times. The danger of forgetting and not deleting-removing a sold item off of the other platforms quick enough and the possibility of a different buyer purchasing an item that you have previously sold. But if I recall most SL members were willing to take the chance because the odds were low that two different buyers would be buying the same item, at the same time on both channels. What we did not discuss back in that thread was the scenario where a buyer may be looking for a larger quantity of the same item and would shop for as many look alikes of a specific item across multiple platforms and buying up as many as they can find. Such as filling out a collection, or buying for a large gathering.
Well, I had something different happen last night. I had the “SAME” buyer, obviously searching the internet, for some dishes. She obviously found them and they were ours. She purchased the same 2 pc. set of bowls from both our Ebay store AND our Etsy Store within minutes of each other. So now I have 2 orders showing, one on Ebay and one on Etsy for the same item.
Ok I am soliciting everyone’s thoughts on how to go about this. Obviously I can only fill one of the orders and will have to cancel and refund the other one.
I am thinking about filling the Ebay order because of the severity of the negative feedback and there is no excuse I can use to get it removed. Then draft a letter to the buyer [which is the same person] on Etsy with a short explanation of the advantages of the cross listing marketing method and that unfortunately this situation of the same buyer purchasing on both platforms is a first for us. Then do a complete refund plus an extra $10 over and above the total purchase price and invite her to revisit our “store[s} and maybe do another purchase or if not to keep the over refunded amount as our thank you for her patronage, purchase and for supporting American small business. Then just cross our fingers that we do not get a negative feedback.
My thoughts are is that Etsy buyers seem to be more civil, less angry types, and I don’t see a lot of negative feedback on Etsy as I do on Ebay. I also don’t think Etsy takes as such severe action against a seller for having a negative as Ebay does and by fullfilling the Ebay order, we won’t jepordize our TRS Plus status.
Looking for everyone’s thoughts on this situation and any possible methods or solutions to resolving this with the least amount of negative impact on us and both of our stores.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art.
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Yep, this has happened to us, especially when we had out store crosslisted to Bonanza. A buyer would buy the item on ebay, and then buy our same item on Bonanza. Like you, we shipped the eBay item since eBay has a more onerous cancellation policy.
Good news is that it happened very rarely so not a big deal. If it happened every week, then we’d rethink the strategy.
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As far as I know there are no negative conseqences to cancelling an order on etsy. (Other than the possiblility of negative feedback of course.) I’ve had to cancel a couple of etsy orders in the past and have not received any negative feedback, etsy buyers do seem to be more civil. I think your plan is a good one. I agree on cancelling the etsy order over the eBay one. I know as a buyer I would be very happy with the $10 and the explanation, I would find that solution generous.
The only possible problem I see is that the buyer needs 4 bowls and wouldn’t have bought just 2 if she hadn’t found 2 more to complete the set. Maybe contact the buyer first to make sure she wants just 2 since you only have 2?
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Just discussing at our morning production meeting. Our helper says the buyer may be either completing a set, wanting to start a set or could be buying for a special event and needs a quantity of the exact same items. That being said I think Vintage Treasures is right about contacting the buyer with a short letter of explanation and the “offer” on only shipping the two and giving the rebate along with the cancellation and then “ASK” if that is acceptable with the buyer and if only getting the two will suffice. AND IF SO, then we ship the two from Ebay AND IF NOT, we will cancel both orders.
Mike at MDCGFA
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Here is a question for those using WonderLister and SixBit – [Troy].
I see in SixBit “both” sales showing on both the sites. I wonder why didn’t the SixBit Software end the cross listed item as soon as the same was made on the Ebay site? My own thoughts may be that the 3rd party software apps only “ping” or “refresh” from most platforms at a ceratin timed interval. I believe WonderLister is every 10 minutes and I think I read where SixBit is every 15 minutes. I think Ebay restricts 3rd party apps from constantly “ping-refreshing” from there servers constantly. Evry second or two eats up resources just like an issue I had with one of my SSR readers pinging Scavengerlife a few years back. Ryanne emailed me and said their site web master saw a large amount of band width being used by constant pinging-accessing. So maybe Ebay and Etsy restricts the 3rd party guys to accessing their site to only every 10 or 15 miutes or so..
So in this case, if the buyer decided to make both purchases within a minute or two of each other, that quickness in buying on both platforms did not give SixBit enough time to record the first sale, and then synch with the second site and cancel that cross listed item off of that second platform. Just thinking out loud, but seems plausible.
I imagine that is what happened between Ebay and Bonanza in Jay’s case. It sold on one channel and again a second time BEFORE Ebay and Bonanza could synch. But Bonanza has always been a little buggy for us. We deleted our Bonanza account over a year ago for that reason plus only a sale or two per year wasn’t worth it.
mike at MDCGFA
I will contact the SixBit Support team and ask about that and if tht is a plausible reason.
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