Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Summer Seller Update is Here
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MyCottage.
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05/22/2018 at 1:37 pm #40656
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/2018-Summer-Seller-Update/ba-p/28511766
Grab the torches and pitchforks and meet in the town square everyone! LOL Yep, the much anticipated Summer Seller Update is here, and, as always, there are far more unanswered questions than questions answered.
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05/22/2018 at 1:41 pm #40658
The only item that concerned me was the automatic shipping label. If we are Free Returns, not an issue anyway, but just something to watch for.
Nice side note was that we had a return on Free Returns about 2 weeks ago. He never shipped and eBay canceled for me. I never call to have them closed (as I don’t know what is going on in the buyer’s life), but it was nice for them to close for lack of buyer movement.
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05/22/2018 at 1:52 pm #40663
Yeah, lots of questions:
–“Starting July 2018, we will automate two steps in the returns process for buyers and sellers.”
What are these two automated steps?
–“Starting in August 2018, listings that have not been updated to one of the new returns policy options will automatically be updated.”
What are the new return policies sellers will be required to use?
–“Starting late May 2018, you will have the flexibility to set separate return policies for your international transactions”
huh, we turned on Free Returns already. Does it automatically apply to international orders?
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05/22/2018 at 1:54 pm #40664
Ah, more answers at the actual update: https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-summer/ebay-stores.html
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05/22/2018 at 1:59 pm #40665
This is interesting change for those of us in the “relist every 30 days vs “good till cancelled”.
Q. “If an item has automation rules that relists it after 30 days, do I have to wait another 14 days before I can mark down my price again?”
A. “Yes. A new item ID will be assigned to your item and you will need to wait 14 days before you can mark it down. If you create a Good ‘Til Cancelled listing, the item ID will not change and there will be no waiting period.”
So creating sales will be more time consuming if you manually relist items every 30 days.
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05/22/2018 at 2:01 pm #40667
Yeah…that ain’t fun…
I get why, because it is at the new listing number level, so the system can’t distinguish between new and relisted. That would mean that items that are 30 Day listings can only be on sale 50% of the time…
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05/22/2018 at 2:09 pm #40668
Since we’re “GTC for life”, our process wont change.
But for those of you who re-list a handful of items each day as new, how will sales work?
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05/22/2018 at 2:18 pm #40670
Jay: “But for those of you who re-list a handful of items each day as new, how will sales work?”
— Not well…
If an item has been relisted and I run a sale, it won’t be included in the sale for the first 14 days of the sale. This really hurts our Clearance Sale items as they could only be on deep discount (50%-75%) for 14 days at a time. Unless we move those items to GTC.
I’m not really sure why they are doing this requirement. It is like they are fixing something that isn’t a problem…
This makes me consider moving certain items to GTC if I plan to run sales. Which I don’t want to do because of the sales lift on Days 1 and 30 that I detailed a few weeks ago.
I’m so happy eBay has created a new hurdle for us to work around. Such is business, but I think Free Returns made more business sense than this change.
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05/22/2018 at 2:31 pm #40672
Agreed. I had no idea it was even an issue.
My guess is that eBay sees sellers pricing their items 20% more and then discounting by 20%. It’s a way to game the system?
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05/22/2018 at 3:01 pm #40678
“pricing transparency” is all they say…
I don’t know. Like when we see MSRP on products that are way marked up vs what a store has for sale?
How about working more on curing fraud and scam cases instead of “pricing transparency”?
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05/22/2018 at 2:28 pm #40671
Just wondering if you guys have looked at your store homepages lately? You do know ebay changed them, right? And this release is damn near silent on those changes. I think I can live with the changes themselves, but I’ve never read a Seller Release with LESS detail before.
Jay, yep as to GTC…I’ve been 30 days, but this may finally push me into GTC because I’ve been running markdown sales. But under stores they also say coming in June will be more, I think they said Merchandising opportunities, which I assume but don’t know might mean other types of promos we can run…so I might wait on that. But it sure would be nice if they gave us a hint as to what that they are talking about.
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05/22/2018 at 2:34 pm #40673
I’m looking at our homepage. What changes are you referring too?
Just looks more stripped down, but I honestly wonder how many people come to our items from our store page.
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05/22/2018 at 2:59 pm #40677
MyCottage: For us, we are still staying 30 Day. Only GTC for multi-quantity listings.
Veronica and I talked it over, and the boost on 30 Day listings is better that what we get on sales lift. Can’t win them all, but we will choose the path that has worked the most for us in the past…
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05/22/2018 at 2:46 pm #40675
try doing a search in your store from your store home page.
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05/22/2018 at 3:14 pm #40680
You guys are so coy and mysterious.
Okay, I did a search in my store. Items in my store associated with that search are shown.
Am I missing something bad that you guys are hinting at?
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05/22/2018 at 4:02 pm #40689
LOL—where did you do the search from Jay? Your store home page? Where was the search block? It used to be within the store homepage…now it’s at the very top of the page, just like the general search on other pages.
Is your store displaying Best Match as the default search order? Is it grid or list view as default?
If you click on Manage My Store, you can set those to the default you want. But unless something changed since yesterday, it won’t matter, because ebay seems to have decided grid and best match will be the default regardless.
Now, maybe that’s a glitch. Maybe it’s a test. Maybe it’s a change, I don’t know. What I do know is the Seller Release is completely silent about the change to the design—it’s as if it didn’t happen at all.
I’m not really upset with the design, I’m just bamfoozled that the Seller Release is treating it is if they haven’t done anything. They first released it a week or two ago, and it was so buggy—stuff was appearing in French and german and God knows what—that they rolled it back. People have been asking questions about it, so I naturally assumed the Seller Release would answer them, but….nothing.
Just very odd to me
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05/22/2018 at 4:13 pm #40692
Now we’re talking. I like these questions.
“where did you do the search from Jay? Your store home page? Where was the search block? It used to be within the store homepage…now it’s at the very top of the page, just like the general search on other pages.”
Yeah, search in our store at the top of the page. Its like we have our own mini-eBay. I can see how buyers would be confused with results if they thought they were searching all of eBay.
“Is your store displaying Best Match as the default search order? Is it grid or list view as default?”
Best Match. List view.
“If you click on Manage My Store, you can set those to the default you want. But unless something changed since yesterday, it won’t matter, because ebay seems to have decided grid and best match will be the default regardless.”
Do you like one view more than the other? I agree that it should save the preference you want.
“Now, maybe that’s a glitch. Maybe it’s a test. Maybe it’s a change, I don’t know. What I do know is the Seller Release is completely silent about the change to the design—it’s as if it didn’t happen at all.”
Yeah, most eBay changes seem silent or, at best, very nebulous.
“I’m not really upset with the design, I’m just bamfoozled that the Seller Release is treating it is if they haven’t done anything. They first released it a week or two ago, and it was so buggy—stuff was appearing in French and german and God knows what—that they rolled it back. People have been asking questions about it, so I naturally assumed the Seller Release would answer them, but….nothing.”
eBay does itself no favors by releasing untested features. Totally agree. I guess we really dont even think of our “Store Page” very much. How many buyers do you think come to your items from your store?
I assume 99% of buyers do a search on eBay, click and buy our item, and have no idea it’s part of a “store”.
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05/22/2018 at 4:28 pm #40699
Jay, I agree that probably only a small percentage of buyers use the store home page. I’m not even sure the store home page can be found very easily by mobile buyers. So, yeah, it’s not terribly important to me…just seems odd that they make this change literally days before the Seller Release, they know people have been asking questions about it, and they provide absolutely nothing about it.
After all these years, I really should be used to it LOL
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05/22/2018 at 4:40 pm #40701
Without knowing the real answer, my bet its just different teams working on different projects…none of them talking to each other consistently…with no spokesman that has real knowledge of what’s happening.
I’ve always been an advocate for an eBay Changelog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changelog
Just one big list of updates as they happen. This way all info is in one place, and users (us) can go their to see if they recognize when an issue arises.-
This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
Jay.
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05/22/2018 at 5:14 pm #40705
Jay: QUADRUPLE AMEN ON THAT!!!
I would love a ticket system that when you log an issue, you get a ticket number that you can log into and see the status…but that would be too much to ask.
At least put a lot of these details out on what has changed. Apps do this all the time when you update them on your device…
Industry standard… 🙂
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
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05/22/2018 at 5:05 pm #40704
I would like to offer that it is REALLY important that each seller read the Summer 2018 update (which should be in your ebay messages)thoroughly and carefully. There is some really important information in there as to where things are headed and as to how that is going to effect you as a seller.
I would also like to offer that if you are rushing through listings, not taking into account and noting all details( especially any defects), and taking few pictures and/ or ones that do not fully reflect the condition of the item, the possibility for return increases.
According to the update, those with too many returns will have it counted against them with possible longer shipping times and possibly even more fees.-
This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
AdventureE.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
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05/22/2018 at 5:52 pm #40706
Jay, oh yeah, changelog would be great! And I agree, on ebay it seems right hand never knows what left hand is doing. It was only a few days ago the ebay return guy said sellers will be able to limit free return shipping to domestic at the end of June. I pointed out that TRS Plus was going to require free return shipping on June 1st—mentioned that it might make sense to have the two happen at the same time. He seemed kind of surprised and indicated they’d look at that.
So, until a few days ago, apparently the return team and the TRS PLus team had not coordinated about this, even though it had been announced in the Summer release.
Looks like they managed to get it squared away in time for this release, but it’s just amazing how much of a disconnect seems to exist at corporate LOL
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05/22/2018 at 7:28 pm #40720
I’m still curious what this means:
–“Starting July 2018, we will automate two steps in the returns process for buyers and sellers.”
What two steps will they automate in the return process?
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05/22/2018 at 7:53 pm #40724
Jay,
They are taking return labels out of our hands if the return request is Buyer Paid:remorse and giving an immediate label instead of the buyer having to wait. They are also doing an immediate label (instead of having a 3 day turn around) if it is Seller Paid: (free returns)
Look at the chart under Simplified Returns
They are taking over and sending an immediate return label (right side of the box) when a return is requested.
The second change is that a refund will be automatically given if the seller does not provide it after 2 days. – Look toward the bottom where it says Automatic Refund.
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05/22/2018 at 8:19 pm #40726
I missed this page (eBay lays our these pages poorly).
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-summer/simplified-returns.htmlSo actually eBay returns are changing. It’s strange Griff said they weren’t.
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05/22/2018 at 8:35 pm #40727
Jay,
These changes take approval out of the seller’s hands if the buyer is going to pay for return shipping. There is no need for discussion or ebay intervening at the point because ebay is laying down that it will happen and that if the seller does not accept/approve the return within 2 days, ebay will automatically give the buyer back their money. They are not focused on sellers here but instead the ebay platform and corporation. They say they are doing things based on market place standards. Let’s see what happens now that the top leader in ecommerce (Amazon) is closing accounts of those who have too many returns. -
05/23/2018 at 7:24 am #40778
This seems like the first update in a long time that’s nbd. Simplified returns just seems to be catching up with Amazon’s return system. You ask to return something, Ebay will just send them a label. Before that on Ebay, you had to create a return label in your shipping program and email it to them. Agh.
30 day returns should not cause a flood of returns. I bet most people assumed that there were already 30 day returns for most items on Ebay. 14 day returns was too short of a return period.
During Christmas, Amazon requires up close to 90 day returns for items ordered:
Items shipped by Amazon.com between November 1 and December 31 of this year, may be returned until January 31 of the following year for a full refund, subject to our other return guidelines listed below.
Ebay is nothing compared to that, ha.
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05/23/2018 at 7:39 am #40779
I have no problem with this since this is how we’ve done returns for a long time now. You don’t want it. Send it back. 30 day returns. No questions asked.
My only concern is if eBay adopts Amazon’s reputation that a buyer can say an item is “not as described” to get a full refund including shipping.
I know there’s that article where Amazon is supposedly cracking down on abusive buyers, but that’s only because they created an atmosphere where buyers knew they could abuse the system.
We’ve really appreciated that an eBay rep would get involved if the reason for return was obviously “buyer’s remorse”.
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05/23/2018 at 8:25 am #40791
I don’t like that buyers can say they like or want an item and get a return on it, but at this point in history I believe that it is just a cost of doing business. A lot of buyers expect both of their shipping costs to be refunded, as well as the item cost for items that have absolutely nothing wrong with them. In some cases, it could be a customer fishing for an outright refund if the iten is cheap and it will cost more to refund all 3 aspects of what they are buying.
It is painful, but there is really nothing you can do about it with current expectations put in customers heads.
Most sellers should have money set aside in the event that someone will pull such a stunt. That’s about all you can do.
Amazon at least doesn’t force you to take back textbooks at the end of the semester, thank god. Every semester I have a few students trying to return books they bought 4 or 5 months previously with the excuse “no longer wanted.” Nope!
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05/23/2018 at 9:56 am #40799
Perhaps a way to engage Ebay on this issue is to bring up the additional burden on shipping/return costs this would place on sellers and ask for a deeper discount provided by Ebay specifically for “buyer’s remorse” returns of larger items. Since this is Ebay’s policy, maybe they could throw in 50% of the return costs, or figure out some way they could compensate sellers for dealing with these returns on larger items?
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05/23/2018 at 9:19 am #40796
almasty, ebay actually tried something like that one Holiday season. I think I may have been the only person who thought it was a good idea (in order to be competitive) It was a complete flop from the seller side. It was voluntary, and was called Extended Holiday Returns. The way it worked was: Seller enters program. Beginning Nov 1, his returns are changed (by ebay) to be valid through Jan 31st. Sellers screamed they would never do 90 day returns, but of course, if you listed an item on Jan 1, this was effectively a 30 day return. The only time it was actually 90 days was for Nov 1st listings.
What I liked about it (besides the obvious fact that buyers buying Xmas gifts early (early meaning November) were basically assured that if they gave a gift on Xmas Day, the gift could be returned after Xmas. With my usual 30 day return policy, they’d have to wait till nearly December to buy—so it helped us compete during the all important Holiday season. The other thing I liked: I didn’t actually have to change my return policy. It would automatically revert to my 30 day policy when the period was over. The last few years, I’ve thought about going to 60 days for the Holidays at least because buyers want that assurance that gifts can be returned. Amazon isn’t the only business that has some version of this. To me, it’s just smart marketing. Yes, you could end up with an increase in returns, but it could also prompt an increase in sales.
Wouldn’t be surprised if we something similar in the NEXT seller release….
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05/23/2018 at 10:02 am #40800
The way I see these returns is just streamlining what should be good business practices. If you don’t want to accept returns at all (which is still accepting returns if it’s NAD), you can do that. If you want to accept returns, accept them for 30 days. If you have a 30 day return policy, have it fit in a certain framework of returns; don’t just have each seller creating their own return policy that doesn’t fit in with everyone else’s. It’s less confusing for the buyer, and the buyer is all that really matters in the case. A buyer should not have to read through a list of 50 rules to buy an item (which I have seen sellers do over the years, and it looks like you’re entering a formal marriage contract with the seller when you’re just trying to buy an item).
That’s interesting that Ebay tried that. I think it’s pretty evident from the number of storage units in this country that most people err to the side of keep rather than return, even with 90 day return policies.
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05/23/2018 at 8:18 am #40789
Hi Friends,
There are a couple of youtubers who I still subscribe to even though some of their characteristics are like nails on a chalkboard. This lady is one of them. She is very pro Ebay and does a good job of breaking down the updates and releasing same day videos (really you can just use as a podcast) without a lot of opinion. SKip to 1:55 to hop over her romper room greetings and annoying tagline.A big take away for me was to update Pottery and Glass category item specifics. I have a lot of older listings in that category. I find it kind of wrong that Ebay will flat out admit that you can have listings that will be charged fees but buyers will never see in search. There is a lot of discussion about returns.
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05/23/2018 at 8:36 am #40794
I’ve got some concerns with the Summer Seller Update. Here’s what I sent to eBay for Business. Wondering if anyone here has any sound answers to my questions:
I want to express my disagreement with the new Policy changes in regards to auto acceptance of returns when the Buyer selects INAD.
1. I have had very few return requests, and the ones I have had are often settled to the buyer’s satisfaction WITHOUT the return of the item. However, I still want to be able to decide to offer a refund without return or the opportunity to troubleshoot (many of my items are battery operated toys and most issues buyers have had after a sale are operator error that are quickly resolved…ie: describing where the on/off switch is) on a case by case basis. I am interpreting the new policy to mean I have to choose one or the other: Auto return label provided or business policies set up to refund without return, without the opportunity for communication with the buyer. If I set up RMA# requirements, will this provide me with the opportunity to address the customer’s issues before a return label is sent?
2. Why is “Item received damaged” a choice for generating an Auto return? If an item is damaged in transit, and it is returned to me, I am no longer eligible for a damage claim with the carrier.
3. We are required to upload Tracking info into eBay, the information is already there…Why are buyers allowed to open “item not received” cases when there is already Full Tracking proof of delivery to the buyer’s authorized address provided on the site? These cases should not be allowed to be opened against a buyer, since just re-stating the Tracking info already uploaded should result in the closing of the case in the seller’s favor. It is a waste of time. The dialog is always the same…check with family members, neighbors, your postal carrier, ask for the GPS tracking info from your local post office. Why can’t an automated message be sent to the buyer and then direct them to communicate with eBay (not the individual seller) if they are unsatisfied and want to pursue a courtesy “stolen from porch” credit?
I would appreciate thoughtful consideration of my concerns and responses to the questions I have asked. Thank you. -
05/23/2018 at 10:20 am #40802
Thank you ChristineR for the video.I am going in and checking my pottery for missing item specifics and finding a few.
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05/23/2018 at 10:28 am #40804
1. Beth, I don’t have time to hunt for it, but I think you are correct, use an RMA label to get around that.
2. I assume because it falls into the Item Not As Described bucket. My understanding is ebay will provide the buyer with the label, but I’m pretty sure the seller isn’t actually billed for the label until the buyer uses it. Keep in mind returning a broken item is a waste of the buyer’s time, so I suspect the buyer may very well contact the seller and ask if the seller wants it back before returning it.
Also, I think you can set your return policy to automatically refund (with no return) in certain situations. So (again, I haven’t checked this) you can say for items under $10 that arrive damaged, just refund.Buyers are NOT shown this upfront, but when they request refund it is triggered.
3.I assume this one is pretty much a rhetorical question. You already know ebay will say a buyer can open an INR even though delivery is shown because the item might be with a neighbor etc. You may win the claim by showing USPS delivery, but it will still be counted against you under the new returns standards. Yes, the whole process could be automated. Why isn’t it? I have no idea.
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