eBay January 2023 Monthly Chat - Growth & Goals
UPDATE 1-12-22
Sellers showed up with growth questions, but Sarah from the Growth Advisor team was not prepared with many helpful answers for the kinds of issues sellers are facing.
Unfortunately, once again we were left with mostly "I'll pass that on to the appropriate team."
Here are some of the top issues sellers believe are hurting their growth or tools needed to help them continue to grow, and the answers they received:
Hello Sarah, I sell new replenishable office goods. I use the out of stock feature and I currently have 4000 active listings. Once a quarter I get 100 items that I sell at $4.99 each with free shipping. They sell very well and they usually sell out in 10-15 days.But for these 10-15 days the sales of my other 4000 items drop by 80%. This is a repeatable experiment. I have been doing this cycle for several years now. My question is, why does eBay limit my exposure (impressions) in one category when I start selling larger quantities in outer categories?
John Norman
eBay store Maxoptical
Thank you for your question. I am happy to reach out to the appropriate team and ask if there is more information they can provide on this, and if so, we can follow up with you.
Several sellers had pointed questions about the vertical focus strategy and what it brings to non-vertical sellers.
ebay is clearly very focused on the so-called Verticals....such as high end sneakers, luxury handbags and watches, etc. I do not sell in any of these categories. It seems clear, however, that sourcing and selling items in the Verticals can lead to growth, since ebay is so focued on them. I do not believe ebay added a single new Verticals in 2022.
Will ebay be adding any new Verticals this year?
And, if so, can you tell us which categories will get the Vertical treatment? If it is a category I can source , I can begin sourcing now, which would help me grow my business in 2023.
While there has been a focus on Verticals, all of our sellers are valuable. We want all of our sellers to feel support when selling our eBay. We have a team that works with small businesses and sellers to ensure visibility such as getting sellers into daily deals. I am not aware of any Verticals being added at this time, but we are always looking for more opportunities to assist our sellers with growth.
To help us grow........the one-offs/non "vertical" sellers...........does ebay have any plans for a massive ad campaign to introduce itself to those who have never known ebay?............In the last several years.........everything has been about shoes/luxury stuff......... just when recycle/reuse seem to be bywords. About all I see/hear is about that is "refurbish". Many of us sellers feel totally left out of any kind of ebay promotions........do you know we are still around?
We definitely want all of our sellers to feel they have a place on our site. The Verticals were part of eBay’s focus, but our “non vertical” sellers are just as important. We have a team that has a focus on small business sellers to help ensure they are seen and have access to being a part of things like daily deal promotions.
The mention of the daily deals program is interesting - that program is typically for larger/higher volume sellers of multi-quantity consumer goods, not one of a kind or vintage collectible items.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
I believe many of us could grow our sales via Live Streaming, whether auction or fixed price. However, at present, ebay's Live Streaming service is available only to a handful of ebay sellers in a handful of categories, and so ebay sellers who want to livestream to grow their business most use other channels.
Will ebay be expanding livestreaming to all ebay sellers this year?
If not, just what are the 2023 plans for Livestreaming?
We have reached out to the correct team and they had this to share:
"We've been getting some really great feedback on our live beta tests. eBay Live is currently available for live selling in Collectibles and Luxury categories. Collectible items include sports trading cards, collectible toys, and comics. Luxury items include watches, handbags, and jewelry.
Please let us know if you’d like to experience eBay Live selling and we’ll notify you as soon as you’re eligible to start selling live by visiting www.ebay.com/eBayLive/Seller to sign up! Check out ebay.com/eBayLive to sign up for a reminder to join the scheduled shows."
It would appear eBay has no plans to scale eBay Live beyond the current carefully curated and controlled experience any time soon.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
I have long been a proponent of videos in listings, both for items with sound or motion, and for other items which can benefit from video. I have been pleased with ebay's video in the listing gallery, especially now that ebay appears to have reduced the time it takes for review. However, creating a video IS extra work, and while my video stands out when a buyer actually clicks through to my listing, ebay currently does nothing in SEARCH to highlight the fact that my item has a video ---which would be a way of distinguishing my listing from the competition.
In 2023, can we expect that ebay will add a search filter for video enabled listings, and/or provide a "video icon" directly in the search results?
I think the ability to stand out in this way would help me grow my business, and would provide incentive for sellers to use the video feature.
This is a great suggestion and definitely one I will be passing along to the team to look into. Thank you!
The 2.5% discount social sharing fee feature promised to sellers at eBay Open 2021 is still not available and I don't expect we'll be seeing it any time soon.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
One way to grow any online business is to make effective use of social media. A year or two ago, ebay indicated that we would be getting a new feature, which would provide a heavily reduced FVF for sales tracked to our social media referrals. I believe something similar is being beta tested in Australia. This would have a positive impact on my growth, as not only would I have a strong incentive to use social media, but if more ebay sellers use social media to direct buyers to the site, it would help us all.
Can we finally expect to see this here in 2023?
Let us dig into this, and we'll touch base once we get an answer.
And finally, I asked about eBay's plans to provide actionable reporting and data to help sellers grow their businesses now that the Listing Quality Report is being discontinued.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Hi sarah@ebay several sellers have expressed disappointment about the Listing Quality Report being discontinued and the lack of actionable reporting/insights for sellers in general.
What if anything is eBay planning to do to provide access to data and metrics that sellers can use to help their businesses grow?
Another seller chimed in that they would love to see reports with keyword search data.
If Sarah is taking requests - I would like to see keyword search data.
For example: are buyers finding listings because they typed in Christmas or Holiday - or are both terms equally relevant?
Help us button up our listing titles by providing buyer search terms that led to our listings. We will be able to eliminate redundancies in titles and create more targeted listings.
Unfortunately Sarah didn't have anything specific to tell us on the subject.
eBay is consistently looking at opportunities to improve the platform and reporting options for our sellers. Reporting options are being evaluated , at this time, to see what will best serve our community.
And that was it for another monthly chat that left most of the participants still looking for answers.
What issues do you face as a seller that are holding back your business growth and what tools would you like to see from eBay to help 2023 be your best year yet? Let us know in the comments below!
It looks like the eBay Community will be continuing with the monthly themed/limited topic chats in 2023 - the first one will be all about growth and goals with the eBay Growth Advisor team on January 11.
Hi Everyone! This month's chat you’ll have an opportunity to talk to specialists from our Growth Advisor Team. The theme of the chat is, “Focus on setting yourself up for success in the new year and setting goals”. Get all of your questions ready for the team, so we can make the most out of this month's monthly chat on January 11th at 1:00 pm PT!
It's a bit disappointing to the see the return to the limited discussion chats. I had hoped the increased seller participation in the December Open Topic chat might convince eBay to open the chat back up.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Restricting the topics to be discussed has had a very negative impact on participation, for example in the November chat about Promoted Listings, I was the only one to show up with questions!
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Other months were chaotic with the eBay teams tasked with answering questions failing to engage during the hour long window for open discussion.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
When the community team announced this shift from what had previously been a weekly open topic chat to a monthly limited chat, community members voiced concerns that it would lead to decreased transparency and engagement - and they were absolutely right.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
If they are going to insist on continuing with the limited topic format, I would hope they would at least seek community input on what topics might be of interest and which eBay teams community members would like to meet with.
That would avoid wasting the time of both community members and eBay teams on topics that are of very little interest to sellers, like the October chat about eBay Seller Capital.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
What topics and teams would you like to see in the eBay Community chat in 2023? Let us know in the comments below!
