Value Added Resource Week In Review 8-25-24
Welcome to the Value Added Resource ecommerce news week in review!
eBay News
eBay has signed a multi-year deal with New York Times-owned The Athletic to provide exclusive sports trading card and memorabilia content promoting the eBay brand and items for sale on the site, prompting reader skepticism, questions about journalistic integrity and ethics, and media and regulatory capture concerns.
Liz Morton
A quiet addition to the agenda for the upcoming eBay Open seller conference, shows eBay has invited presenters from Meta to pitch sellers on using Instagram to grow their businesses.
Does CEO Jamie Iannone still not realize Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shopping are direct competitors to eBay?
Liz Morton
eBay appears to be testing a new placement for Promoted Display Cost Per Click Ads, stirring renewed seller complaints about competitor ads taking over view item page space and directing buyers way from their listings.
Liz Morton
US sellers are rejoicing at the launch of eBay's latest ad campaign focused on drawing Gen Z attention to rare, vintage and hard to find pre-loved fashion on the platform, ending with the tagline - eBay: Things. People. Love
Liz Morton
But that increased advertising may also come along with increased returns, with eBay sneaking in a stealth update to their refund policies to allow some buyers to get advance refunds before sellers receive returns as questions remain about existence of a Trusted Buyer program.
Liz Morton
As eBay implements messaging system changes announced in the Summer Seller Update, many sellers say the "new" text message style experience that has been in development since 2022 is still missing business critical functionality.
Liz Morton
Other Ecommerce News
Pre-loved fashion site ThredUp is testing a new Direct Listing option that will allow users to sell directly to other users in peer to peer business model shake up.
Liz Morton
Amazon is seeking suggestions for Ask Amazon events, asking the seller community what topics they would like to see broached in upcoming live Q&A discussions.
Liz Morton
Etsy's August update roundup contains some important tweaks and changes to Gift Mode features like teaser videos and messaging settings as sellers start prepping for Q4 holiday rush.
Liz Morton
Updates
The eBay return fraud continues and John Norman of MaxOptical says he is now being charged additional Service Metrics penalty fees.
Some items are private label branded and further investigation revealed fraudulent accounts copying listings dropshipping from Maxoptical - a violation of eBay policies.
Despite this policy violation and other clear evidence of fraud, not only does eBay continue to refuse to protect Norman's account from Service Metrics penalties, they've blacklisted him from support as well - if he tries to contact them, the chat or call is simply disconnected.
Liz Morton
eBay is once again struggling with delays in processing videos in listings with dozens of reports posted in the eBay community this week - is it a technical glitch or intentional load balancing to allocate speed resources for buyer experience rather than seller experience?
Liz Morton
eBay's post-purchase "You Might Also Like" pop up is back, but it appears they've at least taken dark pattern design concerns to heart by changing the text to make it more clear you are purchasing an additional item (not paying for the item you originally intended to buy) and making the app version a slider rather than a button to help avoid accidental tapping.
Liz Morton
Seller Hub Active Listings updates continue to roll out to more eBay sellers, with additional changes to the functionality that are even worse than initial reports had indicated.
Liz Morton
eBay's former campus in Draper, UT has found a new owner as The Canyons Board of Education has approved a ~$50 Million contract to purchase the 36-acre property to serve as the home for a new high-tech career-training center.
Liz Morton
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