Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Jay, there’s a segment of ebay radio devoted to it, a couple weeks ago I think. You can find it in the ebay radio past shows section, Episode 715, Segment 7. Also, last week’s Weekly Chat was devoted to it, but I know you tend to avoid the ebay Community Boards like the plaque.
Jay, sorry—I see you DO need to register—although I think the registration is the same one used for all ebay webinars, so no big deal.
It’s something you can use or not. let’s say a buyer asks me a question about a dinner plate I’m selling. I answer, and I mention that I have other pieces in the same pattern (listed or unlisted)…would the buyer be interested in buying more than just the plate? If the buyer’s interested,and if we can come to an agreement, I can bundle the items together in one lot (including items I don’t even have listed yet on eBay—although in that case, I’d want to share photos and details in the ebay messages)—-I can send buyer an invoice and buyer can pay via payPal right from ebay messages.
Now, if upselling is something you have no interest in, then ignore all of this. But if you like the idea of taking what might have been a ten dollar sale and turning it into a $100 sale, it might be worth looking at this. There ARE more details, but I don’t have time to go into that right now. Have you watched the video?
Just going to throw this out there. I had posted this ebay video before, but at the time you needed to register to view it. it is now available here, without the need to register. As I stressed before, while the video is aimed at auto parts sellers, this tool can be used in ANY category:
JulieB, probably not what you want to hear, but offering free return shipping is likely to cut down on INAD claims
I don’t think ebay counts returns as “defects” anymore, but at the time they changed that policy I do think they said they would still be tracking returns and indicating situations where the return rate seems high.
I like to think I’m a helpful person, and so I’d be glad comply with your request and publicly shame you for only putting up one listing, but I got zero put up. So I don’t think I’m the person to do it! LOL (My excuse: I’m re-doing our inventory system)
I have about a dozen of them, all bought from that ebay seller—and I have usually waited till he’s running a Daily Deal or there’s an ebay store wide coupon, etc. I put the wheels on mine, because I have very limited space….this way I can set them cheek by jowl and roll them out to get access. I store a combination of file boxes and banana boxes on them, plus some have loose items, like framed paintings, etc. I also use some to store shipping supplies. I’ve never had a problem with this seller.
I’m not sure what the stated weight limits are, so far, I haven’t had any problems, and some of my boxes are filled with hard cover books, corning ware, etc….so some have some weight to them. But yeah, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Ryanne, I think shayward is referring to this thread’s conversation, where ebay sellers acknowledge basically “renting” items from Target etc to offer on ebay…if they don’t sell within the store’s return time limit, they return them for a refund. From Target’s perspective, how is that any different from an ebay buyer buying something from an ebay seller , say, a magazine, photocopying an article they want and then returning it? eBay sellers complain about that sort of thing all the time, but some ebay sellers think nothing of doing something very similar when they engage in retail arbitrage. When an ebay buyer does it to an ebay seller, they are a “bad” buyer, but when an ebay seller does it to Target, its just smart business?
At least, I think that’s the point shayward is raising.
Gompers, I guess what I’m saying is, that’s a non-issue for me. Doesn’t matter to me if ebay says this is a retail standard or simply: this is our new policy, we aren’t going to explain why we think it’s good, here it is. Either way, I need to focus on my business, the retail standard thing just becomes a distraction. I don’t care what Best Buy does, I care about what I think will work for me, and I’ve got to figure that out within the framework of whatever marketplace I’m on.
the way I look at it, it really doesn’t matter whether they are industry practice or not. what matters is : what are the pros and cons for me to implement a particular return policy? Same question I’d ask on ebay, Amazon, etsy or anywhere else.
here’s a link to my thread:
ChristineR, Yeah, I look at GD —for me—the same way I look at free return shipping: it’s low risk, low (to maybe high reward. Low risk because all I need to do is get the package out the door within my stated handling time and get the PO scan—and my track record and my local POs track record for doing that is excellent. But low reward because, with the likely exception of the Holidays, most of my buyers probably won’t use the filter. But the reward might be fairly high when they do, because many of my competitors probably won’t use GD.
About your verbiage encouraging multiple item purchases, I implore you to look at the thread I started about using the Reply with Offer button. Watch the video I link to. The video gives the WRONG impression that this works only with auto parts. But this works with any category. I never knew the “reply with Offer” button had such enormous potential as an upselling tool. AND you can encourage buyers to contact you—through ebay messages only, that’s important—to ask about bundling additional items. And get this, you can include items not currently listed in your ebay store in the bundle. (ebay will collect an FVF on the total sales price, but forgoes the listing fee on unlisted items.)
An example: you put verbiage in your description (or even pay for a subtitle) telling buyers you have more in the pattern , contact you through ebay messages. Buyer contacts you through a dinner plate listing, asks about the dessert plates and creamer you have listed…would you lot them together? And do you by any chance have a gravy boat too? Well, it so happens you do, just haven’t listed it yet….arrive at a price with the buyer, and right there in the messages you provide an ad hoc invoice…buyer can pay via PayPal, and you ship. You do have to manually take down the other listings that sold, but it sounds pretty simple. If sellers start using this, I think ebay will work to streamline it further. Let me know what you think once you’ve watched the video.
I wouldn’t want to live there, but I wish I had been invited to the parties that were thrown there
to me, under 3″ is skinny, 4″ or more is wide, classic is basically 3 1/2″ to 3 3/4″
Nope, store fees might be pretty important,especially to lend some stability, but it has been years since individual listing fees made up the bulk of ebays revenue…FVFs are the lion’s share. In the early days of ebay, ebay made most of its money from listing fees, which is why ebay didn’t care whether stuff sold or not….just keep relisting, sellers! But that changed years ago….FVFs are king now. I don’t have stats handy, and don’t have time to hunt for them, but if you want to, go ahead.
