How to improve eBay.au for sellers

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

I wanted to start a thread where members could suggest things that would improve the selling experience for sellers.  I want this to be a constructive thread and not one that disintegrates into posters having a go at eachother or denigrating suggestions.

We have all seen the multitude of "negs for buyers" threads and I don't want this thread to get into a to-and-fro between those that are for and against negs for buyers and same old arguments repeated all over again.

Most of the suggestions that get posted have probably been posted before, but probably not on a single thread.  If really good proactive suggestions are made then next time eBay send any of us a survey asking "How can we improve?" then we can list the best ideas that are posted here.

I'll kick it off with the next two posts as I would like each post to contain a single concise suggestion without having to be explained too much. After all . . . . . if it has to be explained in detail then it isn't really a simple idea for improving eBay selling.

Readers can give Kudos to those suggestions that they agree with.

[thecatspjs · Accepted solution]

I'd like to see more threads in the spirit of the OP, where posters could just brainstorm high level concepts, ideas and opportunities without getting bogged down in details, they can be discussed in other threads if desired.

[digital*ghost]

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@*crikey*mate* wrote:

OK, so how does an automated system determine how much and what type of packaging is used?

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The computer doesn't...

The seller works these things out. Like I said, it is a matter of measuring the packed weight and volume of an item, and then giving those measurements some parameters. It is actually a very simple system. Trust me. 😉 

[*crikey*mate*]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@englishrosegardens wrote:

I've bought a lot of stock from websites that don't calculate the postage when I buy.  They over-estimate the postage and charge me that amount if I use paypal, then they manually refund the excess through paypal when they do the order (same as I used to do if someone paid straight away before ebay started charging fees on postage).  If I pay by credit card they put the correct postage amount in when they process the order and charge it to my card. 

Some are able to get the actual cost pretty close but a lot don't.  For a really large order they may change the type of packaging they use, but they won't know this until they actually pack the order.  Sometimes items may be the same general size but take up less space.  As an example, imagine trying to work out how many dresses fit in a certain sized satchel - they may all be the same size generally, but some could be lighter and bulkier than others and less would fit.  Sometimes it just isn't worth a seller's time to try and work out all the different combinations for posting.

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I do understand all that, but sometimes it's more a case of the limitations of the carts they're using than what they are or are not prepared to do, and once the basic metrics are implemented, every time a seller adds a new product, they would only need to get the packed weight and volume once for each product, so it would be a matter of determining wether doing that and eliminating the after-sale processes of finding what size packages are required, what to charge etc invoicing and/or refunding overages is worth the time spent on assessing the products up front. 

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Dig - it has now been 2 weeks since the eBay 15% off sale, and they still haven't worked out all the stuff ups their system created with that - what hope have we got of them getting anything nmore complicated working well?

but I do disagree with the packaging rewquiremnets - as demonstrated above - the packaging can vary depending on the items selected

ie my statue - needed loads of packaging and space fillers if it were sent on its own, but a lot less if I could fill the gaps with other items - so packaging can be a variable, depending on what is purchased and combined.

might be different for manufacturer packaged items where the items come in a box with all the inserts etc - but it might blow out the costs too

[thecatspjs · Accepted solution]

Standardised eBay feedback comment for non payers ie non payment was recorded for this transaction and strike issued

[englishrosegardens]

A lot depends on the product being sold. Some are really easy to work out beforehand what the volume/weight will be, but with others it'd require more work than it'd be worth. I'm lucky because with one product I sell I'm able to have a postage table that covers just about all combinations, but I can't use ebay's postage calculator because it's based on parcels and I use large letters because they're so much cheaper.

Re the problem of buyers paying separately for several items, the solution to that is quite easy - abolish the 30c paypal surcharge and the fvf on postage! But ebay won't do that because they LOVE buyers who make several separate payments for the one order, and they even encourage them to do it that way by sticking a "pay now" message in front of them as soon as they commit to buy. The buyers think they're SUPPOSED to pay for each item immediately, and they mostly have no idea it's costing us extra money in fees.

[digital*ghost]

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@*crikey*mate* wrote:

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@digital*ghost wrote:

The final improvement to make such a system work would be the removal of the BIN button and only retain 'add to cart'. 

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I actually just wanted to put this up as a standalone request, regardless of any improvements to postage options (on the proviso all bugs and glitches currently affecting the cart system are resolved). 

I recently had a buyer purchase and checkout separately for more than 10 items, consequently paying an excessive amount of postage since I offer free postage on all additional items when one payment is made (not to mention increasing the FVF on P&H by more than 10X). This sort of thing is happening far too often to many sellers, and it can only be because buying all items they are interested in and making one payment is not intuitive for buyers, which is bad for everyone (even ebay, despite the extra revenue that it may generate in the short term). 

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see, I think iot would be very effective for the "free post" option - but to the detriment of buyers and sellers as you have shown it's tricky to combine post etc - but do we want to give ebay incentive to push free post even more?

They'll just say "well, we are now forcing everyone into free post cos you guys asked for a method of instant payment etc - so we are striving to make you happy, ya know? and make your eBay experience everything you dreamed of.

Don't get me wrong - I love the idea - and if it does come in, naturally I will adjust, but....,.

we do already have the choice of automatic BIN payment if we want it, and I use that on some items too - but I do like it as a choice, rather than mandatory iykwim

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This wasn't really about immediate payment, though, more about how buyers shop for multiple items in general. What I want is for buyers to get a very clear indication that they can continue to shop from me after committing to buy an item, so that they aren't encouraged or compelled to proceed directly to checkout then look buy another item. 

[thecatspjs · Accepted solution]

Feedback tally of non-payment shows on buyer feedback page, the same or similar to how bid retractions do now

[thecatspjs · Accepted solution]

Sellers with stores get an option to trade-in their free buy-it-nows for free auction listings - based on $$ value of same.

[thecatspjs · Accepted solution]

eBay customer service staff are trained in basic eBay policy.

[thecatspjs · Accepted solution]

Australian eBay staff participate in the discussion board by posting a discussion topic for a defined time ( an hour or so) on aspects of eBay on a regular basis as they do in the US.