Final eBay Community Chat 2021 - Loose Ends & Lingering Questions
Today's chat with eBay community staff was the last one for the year and sellers had a lot of questions about wrapping up end of the year loose ends like tools and features slated for 2021 that have not rolled out yet, lingering item specifics issues, marketing plans for 2022, and changes to 1099K tax requirements.
I asked about some of the overdue projects - 2.5% social sharing discount, Listing Quality Report updates, sending coupons to buyer groups, and Terapeak Sourcing Insights not working with eBay Motors.
Liz Morton
Tyler@ebay and Velvet@eBay did not have updates on any of these features.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques asked about a few other features as well
Recently, the camera search icon in the app ceased functioning and a little later was removed. This is a tool many sellers depend on, and yet there has been no announcement about this. Please try to find out what is going on with this---will it be returned? And if so, when?
Are there any plans to expand ebay standard envelope to other categories in 2022?
Any update on the status of video in listings for all sellers?
Please remind the Store Team that, while its nice to have the new store newsletter templates, it would be even more helpful if they provided easy sign up for the newsletter as previously promised. Any timeline for this?
with the renewed focus on stores, it would be nice if the Community Team gave us the option to either "see seller's other listings" OR go to the seller's store home page. Also, I notice the Promotions page---for Markdown Manager, etc---does not have a link back to our store home page. if ebay is going to start focusing on stores, it would help if people had easy access to the stores home page. And, related to that, how about Social Media links (similar to those on listing pages) for the Store Home Page and About Page?
Any update on the Voices: Collectibles Community Group? No new activity there in months.
Mostly the answers were there were no updates/timeframes but one answer from Tyler@ebay was interesting
there's no timeline that's been shared for this, but I know that the Stores team is eager to continue implementing projects and updates in the new year when our regular code freeze has ended.
That prompted questions about the "regular code freeze" which Tyler answered with
The exact dates fluctuate from year to year (and aren't shared with me) but in general the freeze is from late October/early November through the New Year. There are exceptions for regular maintenance or emergencies, but new product releases or rollouts shouldn't be released during that time frame.
My question was if they knew there would be a code freeze during Q4, why did they promise these features would be rolled out during this time?
Tyler clarified that previously approved projects would still be implemented during the freeze as an exception.
The freeze has a variable start date (it's not always in October), and there can be exceptions made for certain projects or initiatives. For example, a project that's been approved for implementation but gets briefly delayed and it hits 'code freeze' during that time could still be implemented as an exception.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques also asked about 2022 marketing plans.
I've brought this up before, here it is again: At the December Seller Check In we were given some general info about marketing campaigns for 2022, including TV ads, radio ads for ebay Motors featuring Ray from Car Talk....it would really be considerate if ebay shared these with the Community, maybe as Announcements...so we wouldn't have to hunt around online trying to find what our partner is doing to promote the site.
And they also gave kudos to eBay on the recent Image Guide for Stores.
Kudos to ebay for adding a page providing some info on third party tools (such as canva) which we can use to design store graphics.
gwzcomps suggested eBay should have employees get more hands on experience on the platform - sounds like a good New Year's resolution to me!
I found this recent article interesting regarding DoorDash. I think is is great despite how successful and profitable their company is they are making their employees understand how their services work. Since eBay likes to copy other companies rather than innovate maybe eBay should try copying this strategy.
I think it would be interesting if eBay employees were forced to buy and sell one item a month so they can see how miserable the site experience is.
easterbasset had concerns about the new 1099K requirements for 2022
Hi Tyler. Happy -not quite- New Year!
Thanks for sticking with us all through 2021. I am so grateful you are still with the Weekly Chat. You have continued to be a touchstone by your commitment to us sellers that look to you, and the others on the Chat team, for answers, ....or as a catalyst on issues that hit a wall elsewhere, .....or simply as an ear for us to voice concerns.That being said, sorry for the hard turn of this post to the not-so-nice.
On Dec 2oth, I had a Selling announcement about 1099 forms. I've carefully read info presented on the landing page for the the link given on my Seller Hub Overview page. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/New-1099-K-tax-reporting-requirements/ba-p/32556521A few days ago, a banner has appeared that contradicts what I read. In a ominously deep red colored alert, it is asking(? ) insisting(?) I now must divulge more personal data. I onboarded to MP in 2021. Reluctantly. I dragged my feet till I was given no choice but to finally onboard, because I didn't want to stop using Paypal for the all my eBay activity. Paypal provided a safe financial data barrier for my personal data, financial identity etc. It gave me a huge sense of trust. I had concerns then, but was cautiously relieved that eBay assured me at the time of onboarding, eBay was not asking for nor would ebay be managing such sensitive personal data. That wariness proved valid.
When I, and other sellers, share feelings of mistrust when policy change happens, it is these discrepancies of information that not be occurring.
And postcardcountry brought up lingering issues with item specifics
Could you get the item specifics team to take a look at ---- Postcards - Topographical - Canada
The country Canada appears as a drop down. No Canadian city is in the city drop down. I cannot find the regions of Canada in the drop down box.
