topic Re: New Seller features in Selling

New Seller features

bigbrickshop — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 07:57:54 GMT

I was reading some Announcements on the US boards (as they never seem to make any announcements here) and eBay US is trialling a couple of new seller features. I would love to see both!

Two new features are rolling out this week in Seller Hub.

Edit Price, Quantity & Custom Labels

You’ve asked for the ability to edit listings directly from the active listings page in Seller Hub for awhile now. Good news. We’re rolling out a staggered release of this feature, one that will allow you to edit price, quantity, and custom labels for all listings right from the active listings page. We plan to introduce this time-saving feature to additional sellers in the coming months.

To try out our new feature, hover over price, quantity, or custom label fields and click the pencil icon to add or edit. Your listing will be updated when you save.

Make Offers to Watchers

Sellers have also reached out to us asking for the ability to make offers to Watchers, AKA potential buyers who are watching their items. We heard you, and we’re making it happen. With this new feature, you’ll have another tool to help close potential sales.

Like our other new feature, we’re testing this one out with a small group of sellers to ensure a great experience for everyone involved. If testing goes well, we plan to make this feature available to all sellers in the coming months.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Seller-Hub-Updates-for-Active-Listings/ba-p/29158673

Re: New Seller features

davewil1964 — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 08:26:06 GMT

On my Active Listings page in Seller Hub (which I prefer not to use) I have -

Top right - an Edit Mode' button, which allows Custom Labels to be edited, and

To the left of each listing - an Edit option.

I am not sure what the US is offering that is different or better than those.

My prices are what I want and expect for my items, so I don't generally offer 'Make an Offer'. I am certainly not interested in offering deals to watchers.

For me, neither of the new US features is of value.

Re: New Seller features

the4masters2013 — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 20:07:01 GMT

Almost feel sorry for the buyers who may have quite a number of items on their watch lists.

I certainly wouldn't be buying anything if I kept getting floods of emails from sellers wanting to make a sale.

I also wouldn't be contacting the buyer with an offer...if they want the item, they will buy it. If they want to make an offer, I will soon hear from them!

Re: New Seller features

wide-world-of-stamps — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 21:32:54 GMT

We're happy with the current edit function in selller hub which allows us to edit (or bulk edit) items and we don't use custom labels.

As many watchers (in our category at least) are probably sellers with similar items, the make an offer would only annoy them.

Re: New Seller features

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 06:39:06 GMT

I do hope you will be able to 'see' who is watching your listings.

If you don't want to be flooded with offers then the remedy is as easy as taking the item off your watch list.

I don't see anything wrong with make a watcher an offer. If they are not spying then a watcher might like

to receive an offer rather than pushing the Make an Offer button.

Re: New Seller features

countessalmirena — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 14:36:57 GMT

Oh lord!

I watch items for all sorts of reasons, only one of them being that I may possibly at some point be interested in buying the item.

Were I to be inundated with offers from sellers re any item that I'm watching, it would make me feel as though slugs were sliming over my skin, or as though voyeurs were twitching away the curtain while I was expecting privacy.

Re: New Seller features

springyzone — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 22:19:59 GMT

As a buyer, I'd prefer to remain anonymous if I am watching an item.

But that doesn't mean I might not welcome an offer. If sellers could somehow send a private message/offer to all those on their watch list, without the process necessarily revealing actual ID's, then I would be okay with it.

Of course ID would show up if a watcher responded but that's okay, that's different, it's a sale.

If it became too common though that sellers sent offers to watchers, I am just wondering if that could stop some people bidding or buying immediately? Might you get some people who put things in watch lists, hoping to see if they can get a better deal?

If ebay does introduce it, it might be best if limited to those items that are actually listed with 'make an offer'.

Re: New Seller features

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 22:28:51 GMT

If my watchers are not interested in buying then I love the idea of

putting slugs on their skin...lol
I mainly watch competitors or items I have purchased ( so that it's

easier to return for a repeat purchase later ).

If buyers interested in your item get the idea that watching might

result in direct offer being made to them then all the better.

Re: New Seller features

digital*ghost — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 23:21:45 GMT

I can almost guarantee seller's will not know who is watching their items or have the opportuity to message them directly. Etsy has a similar feature, where you can set up a coupon code and have it sent to people who have your items in their cart, or who favourited items, but you don't know who it gets sent to (unless they use the code).

It's not a feature I would ever use, because if I was prepared to have offers on my items, I would have offers on my items. It also feels spammy and intrusive to me, especially if buyers are not given the opportunity to opt in / out of receiving seller offers. People are already sick of all the spam eBay send about the items they looked at, watched or have in their carts. The converse of that is also the effect of buyers learning that watching items instead of buying them means they might get a cheaper price.

Re: New Seller features

countessalmirena — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 23:41:21 GMT

That's exactly it, digital*ghost.

I'd be looking for the e-equivalent of the Do Not Call register and No Hawkers, Please - Salespeople, Please Note, No Unsolicited Offers sign.

Re: New Seller features

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 23:48:10 GMT

"The converse of that is also the effect of buyers learning that watching items instead of buying them means they might get a cheaper price."

This situation would have a positive side. It would indicate that a buyer stopped long enough and was interested enough

in the item to actually place your item on their watch list. Competitors aside I like the idea of sending an offer to an 'interested' buyer.
Getting a direct offer from a seller would be a consequence of 'watching' so our watchers could become a pool of 'interested' buyers
while other would for fear of being spammed.

Re: New Seller features

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 23:49:54 GMT

Should have read

....watchers could become a pool of 'interested' buyers
while others would delete the item from their watch list for fear of being spammed.

Re: New Seller features

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 00:09:27 GMT

Not quite sure why this uproar is occuring.

If I have an item on my watch list with a view to being interested in a purchase

then I would love to receive an offer.

I would know that the seller is prepared to let go of the item at the offered price.

If I am just spying on a competitor then too bad for me. If I don't like the 'spam'

I just remove the item from my watch list.

I am only sorry that there won't be means of identifying competitors and giving

them the boot for the sheer pleasure of it.

Re: New Seller features

digital*ghost — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 00:43:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Not quite sure why this uproar is occuring.

It's not an uproar, lol.

I didn't post "why all the love for such a ghastly feature?", I just posted that I wouldn't use it, why, and included some reasons why buyers might not like it, just like you posted why you would use it. It's just a different opinion.

Like I said, if I were prepared to have offers on my item, they would already be there, either through Best Offer, or promotions manager.

Why should I reward people who "watch", over anyone else?

Re: New Seller features

countessalmirena — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 00:49:43 GMT

Termalert, I am a buyer only. (Not a competitor.)

My objections include my view that what items I watch are my business... that if I wanted to buy now I'd be either offering or buying now... and I have far too many emails coming in as it is.

There are going to be buyers like me who will be put off, not enticed, by the seller making an offer when one hasn't indicated an interest in the item. ("Watching" is passive. It's not supposed to signal to a seller that one would buy that item if the seller contacted one with some sort of blandishments.)

Re: New Seller features

knewdoors — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 00:59:38 GMT

selling? what does that word mean??? one sale this month...the WORST EBay has ever been.. the only "new seller" features we are experiencing is little to ZERO sales...

Re: New Seller features

digital*ghost — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 01:29:16 GMT

@countessalmirena wrote:

There are going to be buyers like me who will be put off, not enticed, by the seller making an offer when one hasn't indicated an interest in the item. ("Watching" is passive. It's not supposed to signal to a seller that one would buy that item if the seller contacted one with some sort of blandishments.)

Sometimes I receive abandoned cart emails from websites where I was interested enough in buying to add things to my cart and see how much the total would be with postage ( a lot of sites force you to not only go to checkout, but enter an email and delivery address before postage quotes are provided, which I hate, but sometimes postage is the deciding factor, moreso when it comes to purchasing overseas).

Such emails ensure I never go back to the seller - I hate them. I also hate websites that have popups that intrude upon actually viewing their site, or that stop you from performing what should be simple functions because they're chasing you around with what amounts to pressure to buy. I was on one site recently where they had a pop-up as soon as you arrived, then all through the time I was browsing the site there were others that kept trying to entice me to buy or subscribe to their newsletter, and finally as I went to close the tab, another "before you go....!" pop up. The desperation was palpable, lol. And I will never revisit the site.

Plus, I really wouldn't feel right providing an exclusive offer to people who were interested but not enough to purchase. I'm sure many of my regulars have items on their watchlist for easy access as well, but if I'm offering a discount, I want it to be available to all as it seems unfair otherwise (I once had someone buy an item I was about to put on sale, I felt so bad I refunded them the amount they would have saved if they had bought the item half an hour later, lol ).

Re: New Seller features

countessalmirena — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 03:25:28 GMT

Oh, I hear you on the abandoned cart issue!

A few of the sellers whose goods I love have that, and it's one of my least favourite features. (A little like the satnav telling me to do a u-turn when it "knows" a better route but I know that the road ahead is closed because of roadworks.)

Re: New Seller features

davewil1964 — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 05:20:03 GMT

We used to use a satnav that thought footpaths were roads. Mind you, that was pushing 20 years ago.

Re: New Seller features

countessalmirena — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 06:41:02 GMT

I have had a satnav guide me up the side of a mountain, on a "road" that became narrower and more unmade as I drove, until it resembled a goat track and I fetched up against a locked metal gate with a forbidding sign on it.

I spent 15-20 minutes executing the tiniest of incremental movements back and forth, turning the steering wheel as I did so. Finally I had manoeuvred the car to face back down the track.

I've also had a satnav lose an entire suburb - the very one to which I was driving. It was a ferociously hot day, and as I drove over the Westgate Freeway my iPhone flashed distress signals and switched itself off. (I was trying to use the iPhone's map app as a backup satnav to find the vanished suburb.) That was in the day when iPhones ran hot and executed terrifying shut-down procedures in the heat.

Satnavs have also tried to guide me through streets with changed traffic conditions (no right turn, no through road, etc), and through savagely unmade roads where a precipitous drop on the left prevents moving over for any oncoming car, so that's a bit of a dance in itself...

I now have three satnavs, in case one of them wants to play games with me: inbuilt car satnav, voice-controlled satnav, and iPhone satnav (no longer likely to immolate itself).