eBay April Seller Check In
Note from Liz - this post is not meant to be an exhaustive synopsis of the March eBay Seller Check In. I've chosen to highlight sections I personally found interesting, but I always encourage watching for yourself to get the full experience.
Agenda
2:20 - 14:00 | Marketplace updates — Andrea Stairs, VP Seller Community and CMO, North America
14:01 - 20:53 | Introductions — Charis Marquez, VP, Fashion
20:55 - 23:23 | eBay Motors updates — Chris Prill, VP, eBay Motors North America
23:25 - 32:07 | Seller engagement updates — Rebecca Michals, Director, Seller Engagement and Community
32:07 - 50:35 | Seller experience enhancements — Harry Temkin, VP, Seller Experience
50:35 - 1:00:00 | Questions and answers
Marketplace updates — Andrea Stairs, VP Seller Community and CMO, North America
Andrea discussed Q1 2021 earnings results and seasonal moments. Not a lot new here, mostly very high level information. eBay continues its focused vertical strategy highlighting trading cards, sneakers, watches, and certified refurbished items.
More detailed info on Q1 results can be found from Jordan Sweetnam here and you can read my take on it here.
Introductions — Charis Marquez, VP, Fashion
Charis makes it clear eBay is fully invested and leaning into authentication in the sneakers and luxury watches, citing Q1 accelerated growth in these categories.
I wonder if she is aware that sneakers below the $150 minimum are showing in search for Authenticity Guarantee? I'd love to chat with Charis about my recent eBay sneaker buying experiences.
eBay Motors updates — Chris Prill, VP, eBay Motors North America
Motors is a bit of the silent work horse for eBay - you don't hear about this category too often but it represents a huge amount of eBay's business. Chris points out that the Parts & Accessories vertical is the largest category on eBay with over 120 million live listings.
2021 focus on increasing inventory and improving search and fitment functionality for eBay Motors.
Seller engagement updates — Rebecca Michals, Director, Seller Engagement and Community
Rebecca touched on eBay's social efforts, connecting sellers with tips and tricks, and featured Small Business Week seller stories.
Seller experience enhancements — Harry Temkin, VP, Seller Experience
Harry says the seller experience team is focused on three core principles for the seller experience - efficiency, conversion, and profitability.
Efficiency
Image Recognition Demo - eBay recently rolled out Scan and List with Image Recognition for Magic the Gathering trading cards.
Support for Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh cards will be coming later in May and they are looking to expand image recognition based listing experiences to sneakers and watches by the end of the year.
Here's a timestamped video of Harry's demo of this new feature.
Unified Listing Experience Update & Demo
Harry says they have taken a lot of feedback on this new listing experience and encourages sellers who opted out of the first version to give it another try.
It looks like they brought back a lot of the in line editing functions rather than click throughs and fly out menus. I'll do a full write up of the newest version of the unified listing experience soon.
Conversion & Profitability
Terapeak Product Research is now free for all Seller Hub users. The new Terapeak Sourcing Insights will be available to sellers with basic store subscriptions and above. Harry still forgot to mention that sellers will need to have a minimum of $1000 in sales in the last 90 days to use Terapeak Insights, so some smaller sellers may be out of luck even if they do have a store subscription.
Coded coupons - there's not a lot of new info here that wasn't covered in the March check in, but coded coupons are now live for sellers to access in the Promotions tab of Seller Hub.
Upcoming updates for coded coupons coming soon:
- Printed coupons on packing slips
- eBay's shipping supply partner will offer Thank You cards with printable side to include coupons in packages
- Social sharing options to make it easier to share coupons across social networks
- More targeting for specific buyers
- Repeat buyer indicators
- Automation rules
- Ability to manage and set coupons in mobile app coming by end of year
Timestamped video of Harry's demo for coded coupons
Launching Videos on View Item Page & Store
For the initial phase of videos in app, this feature will only be available to sellers through eBay APIs and select 3rd party providers - ChannelAdvisor, Codisto, SoldEazy and PushAuction.
Videos currently only available for eBay US through the mobile app, expanding to desktop by end of year.
Timestamped video of announcement about Videos on Item Pages and Stores
Q&A
"Is there a date where everyone's payments will be managed by eBay?"
Andrea Stairs
"I think we're on track to get the majority of sellers in the marketplace into Managed Payments by the end of the year."
"Are there Terapeak analytics for resale items like recycled apparel?"
Harry Temkin
"Terapeak covers all transactions on the platform so those transactions should be searchable."
Harry suggested to the seller asking that question to send specific examples if they had more questions. He gave out a special email address for sellers to provide feedback and ask specific questions or bring specific concerns to the seller experience team - askharry@ebay.com .
"Why can't I get funds the same day (in Managed Payments) and does eBay earn interest on funds before they're paid out to sellers?"
Andrea Stairs
"We aim to pay our sellers out as quickly as possible but we are dependent on the credit card brands and banks."
"In terms of earning interest, eBay does not earn interest on pending payments, payments scheduled for payout, or payments that are in the process of being paid out so hopefully that answers the question."
Andrea appeared to be reading that part directly from the policy pages, in line with eBay's very careful management of all messaging regarding Managed Payments.
I'll note that funds "on hold" are not specifically noted in that list and I personally have questions about where that fits into eBay's official answer to this question.
