eBay January Community Chat Postponed, Winter 2024 Seller Update Coming Soon?
UPDATE 2-20-24
If today's eBay for Business Podcast is correct, we can expect to see the Winter 2024 Seller Update drop tomorrow, February 21 (though Griff may have misspoken and said March.)
Brian: Check the Announcement Board at ebay.com/announcements for up-to-date seller news every day.
Griff: And speaking of the announcement board, you'll want to check it tomorrow or your email or both. That's Wednesday, March 21st for some very important updates of interest to all sellers. Mm-Hmm.
UPDATE 1-11-24
The community team has updated the chat announcement with the new date and theme for this month's chat - “Starting 2024 off right and setting your business up for success in the new year.”
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, “Starting 2024 off right and setting your business up for success in the new year”. Get all of your questions ready for the team, so we can make the most out of this month's monthly chat on January 17th at 1:00 pm PT
The eBay community chat for January has been pushed back a week, raising questions about whether a Winter Update may be coming soon.
Sellers noticed today that the Monthly Chat section of the community had not been updated to provide details for those month, even though chats are typically held on the second Wednesday of the month, which would be tomorrow.
eBay community rep Devon replied that the chat was being postponed because of some people not being available for this week.
We will be announcing Monthly chat for the week of 15th here soon! We had to move it back due to some people not being available for this week.
He did not mention why some people would not be available, and of course it could be as simple as someone being out of the office, but it could also mean community still will be busy with something else that will need their time and attention.
Longtime community members know that chats are usually canceled or postponed when a Seller Update drops to allow eBay staff to coordinate the announcement and attend to specific community posts for questions about the update, so it always raises eyebrows whenever a chat is canceled or postponed.
Seller Updates also usually come with reports of glitches and tests for several weeks ahead of time as sellers often catch a glimpse of things to come or bugs are introduced into existing systems as eBay gets ready to launch new features and tools - and we've certainly been seeing a lot of glitches, tests, and unannounced changes in the last few weeks.
One big test stirring up a lot of buzz includes changes to the payment process for Offers and Auctions - buyers and sellers have tons of questions about what they are seeing happening live on the site, but so far eBay has not provided any public answers.
Liz Morton
We're also seeing changes related to shipping, with combined shipping being introduced for eBay International Shipping, a glitch changing sellers' working days & cutoff times without their knowledge and a stealth USPS shipping increase.
Liz Morton
eBay has also quietly unveiled the finalized first phase of the new View Item Page, which may have lead to an interesting bug that moved the placement of sellers' return policy information.
Liz Morton
Changes to Feedback continue to rollout as well, with pictures left in feedback now publicly visible to buyers.
Liz Morton
eBay Offsite Ads beta has been expanding, with fee discount promotions to try to entice sellers to try it out.
Liz Morton
And the Price Guide and Collections tool for trading cards has also recently gotten a major update.
Liz Morton
In previous years where eBay has had a Winter Seller update, it's typically been around the first week of February, so tomorrow may be a bit early - but we'll update as soon as any additional information about both the monthly chat and any seller updates is available!
