Value Added Resource Week In Review 9-3-23

Welcome to the Value Added Resource ecommerce news week in review!

eBay News

Today in history: eBay originally founded as AuctionWeb by Pierre Omidyar on September 3, 1995.

Happy 28th Birthday eBay!

Buyers will have to work hard to find real deals in this year's Labor Day sale with confusing terms and limitations, rampant strikethrough price manipulation showing fake discounts, and some less than trustworthy sellers using tricks to get around eBay's Money Back Guarantee.

eBay Labor Day Sale Marred By Fake Discounts & Anti-Union Activity

Will fake discounts, sketchy sellers & anti-union activities dissuade buyers from shopping on eBay this Labor Day?

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Of course Labor Day is not just a day for discounts on consumer goods -according to the US Department of Labor, this holiday "celebrates the social and economic achievements of American workers."

2023 marks the first Labor Day for eBay's historic first union at TCGPlayer, which makes it a particularly interesting time for eBay to have edited their Human Rights Policy statement to remove any mention of respecting workers' rights to unionize and committing to bargain in good faith.

What does this mean for TCGUnion-CWA and workers at eBay's other labor-centric operations?

eBay Hiring Labor Relations Director In Wake Of TCGUnion Win

eBay hiring Labor Relations Director after TCGUnion win as PR campaign downplays unioni risk at other labor-centric ops.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

eBay has released a new feature that will allow sellers with a Store subscription to view traffic stats for visits to their store pages, rather than just individual listing pages - available now in Seller Hub!

eBay Store Traffic Reporting Now Available In Seller Hub

eBay Store traffic reports now available in Seller Hub, showing paid & organic visits to storefronts.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

UPDATE: the eBay Buyer Experience team has answered questions and provided more details about current testing that displays seller message response times in feedback.

eBay Testing Displaying Seller Response Time In Feedback

eBay continues testing elements of View Item page, now showing average response times for some sellers in Feedback module.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

eBay Australia looks to appeal to enthusiast buyers with Everyone Has A Thing ad campaign, reimagining My Favorite Things for a new generation.

eBay Australia Targets Enthusiasts With “Everyone Has A Thing” Ad Campaign

eBay Australia targets enthusiast buyers with Everyone Has A Thing ads reimagining My Favorite Things for a new generation.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Lucrative tax sharing agreements are receiving new scrutiny as the League of California Cities pushes for fairer tax distribution and Silicon Valley lawmakers push back - could eBay lose ~$150 Million deal with San Jose?

And once again heading into a major retail holiday weekend, eBay is suffering significant business impacting technical issues.

Sellers have been unable to add items to existing markdown sales for weeks.

eBay Sellers Can’t Add Items To Existing Markdown Sales

eBay sellers struggling with tech issue preventing adding new items to existing markdown sale promotions.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Buyers and sellers both are being stopped in their tracks as sensitive security settings incorrectly flag them as bots, preventing access to the site.

eBay Bot Detection Goes Awry, Stops Users From Accessing Site

eBay users stopped in their tracks by pardon our interruption message as security setting incorrectly flags them as bots.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

And sellers experienced an array of technical problems this week, like being repeatedly forced to log in, shipping page showing no services available, and payments page not showing any payment details.

eBay Log In Problems, Shipping & Payments Page Down 9-1-23

eBay sellers report array of tech issues - repeatedly forced to log in, no shipping services available & payment page blank.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Other Ecommerce News

Shopify and Amazon have finally buried the hatchet, finding a way to allow Amazon Buy With Prime to be integrated into Shopify stores and ending a year long stalemate between the companies.

Shopify & Amazon Finally Make Up Over Buy With Prime

Shopify & Amazon have finally buried the hatchet, officially allowing Buy With Prime to be integrated into Shopify stores.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Amazon's AI-powered tool to help sellers generate listing content is making its way out of early access limited preview and into the hands of sellers in the wild.

Amazon AI Tool To Generate Listing Content Seen In The Wild

Amazon’s new AI-powered tool to help sellers generate listing content spotted in the wild as feature rolls out to more sellers.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Sellers are wondering if more automated bot takedowns could be on the way after seeing a new banner reminder about Etsy's policies on stock photos or mock ups.

Etsy Sellers Puzzled By Warning About Stock Photos

Etsy sellers wonder if more AI bot takedowns are on the way after seeing banner reminder about stock photo policies.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Etsy continues to test and tweak the user experience, bringing many sellers to the breaking point as they constantly wonder if changes are a test or a glitch.

Descriptions have once again been moved to the bottom of the listing page below reviews and now Etsy is also cutting off some titles that include punctuation.

Sellers Struggle As Etsy Testing Moves Descriptions, Cuts Off Titles

Etsy sellers are reaching a breaking point as continued testing interferes with sales & support is nowhere to be found.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Sellers are also struggling with an issue that is scrambling thumbnails, causing the wrong images to be displayed in search.

Etsy Scrambles Thumbnails In Search, Shows Images Out Of Order

Etsy sellers frustrated as thumbnails are scrambled & out of order, showing the wrong image in search results.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

FedEx has released an update to their Peak surcharges, rebranding them as "Demand" surcharges, in preparation for holiday season shipping.

The added fees will apply to large, bulky packages or those that require additional handling. FedEx will also add surcharges for FedEx Ground Economy services and for high-volume customers that ship more during peak season.

FedEx Releases Peak “Demand” Surcharges For 2023 Holiday Season

FedEx has released Peak surcharge update, rebranding as “Demand” surcharges, in preparation for holiday season shipping.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

And finally, live selling tech company CommentSold has announced new integrations with Shopify and TikTok for live commerce capability.

CommentSold Partners With Shopify & TikTok For Live Commerce

Live selling tech company CommentSold announces new integrations with Shopify & TikTok for live commerce capability.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

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