eBay Spring Seller Release

[michelleoz@ebay.com]

The place to post your comments or questions about Spring Seller Release.

[springyzone]

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@the4masters2013 wrote:

I received an email yesrerday outlining new policies.

Gotta love the guaranteed delivery times..within .2, 3, or 4 days.

If I can't get a letter sent from one side of town to the other side any quicker than 1 week, how does eBay excpect anyone to get an item delivered within that ridiculous time frame across Australia????

I can guarantee delivery. Just not sure when it will turn up. The item may sit in one of the "black holes" for a week.

This is one thing I won't be opting into.

I can just see  huge problems for sellers coming up.

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I see ebay as trying to turn their whole ship around.

Their preference seems to be that most sellers will offer 'free postage', guaranteed quick delivery and free returns.

When I log into ebay, I have lately been noticing ads for 'free returns on almost everything'. Or words to that effect.

I buy a lot of things online & let me just say that not a single one of them offers free postage unless the sales reach over a certain level. None of them have guaranteed delivery dates although they all do post out quickly. But if anything is delayed a day or so, too bad.

And free returns? no way. If the item is broken or defective & you provide evidence, then yes. They may either tell you to throw the broken item out or they may send through a postage label. But it certainly isn't a free for all.

I am not sure why ebay is pushing for things none of the other retailers promise. Especially given that ebay isn't one seller, it is a host of different sellers.

Admittedly most online sales places have improved out of sight in the last 3-4 years. I have noticed much faster post outs so i understand ebay trying to nail sellers down to a time frame of some sort. But free postage & free vouchers if items arrive a day late, free returns with postage paid by sellers-no need to do those things as no one else does.

[lane-ends]

Having free post and free returns means the items you are selling will need to have enough meat in the profit to occasionally absorb this. In short it makes selling low value items risky. Ergo a default way of encouraging sellers of higher price items where shipping is a smaller % of transaction value.

The buy in cost of many of my items are actually less than the value of one way postage. So it is financially unviable to even pay to get it back, faulty or not. Buyers will soon learn this requesting returns and hoping they are told to keep it.

Many enquire about returns, I ok it. Then they just dont bother. making it automatic and cost free will increase instances of completed returns.

[lyndal1838]

It is precisely because no-one else does it that ebay is trying to push it as a point of difference.

And it is because ebay is many different sellers that ebay is going all out to spend other people's money.   Single sellers know it is not feasible to offer all these financial enticements.

Just wait and see how often ebay hands over their money to fund these enticements....it will all be extorted from the sellers or it won't happen if you ask me.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

the policy changes state that where a free post item arrives after the last delivery date that the buyer can choose to take an eBay funded $10 eBay credit because of the 'late' delivery.

This may push more sellers into offering 'free postage'.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

[digital*ghost]

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@gec2002 wrote:

The trick with these gimicks is to have an idea of the "failure" rate so you can build the cost into your price. 

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I think most sellers, particularly those who take a business approach in one form or another, will employ that strategy for some of the costs they either do, or might, incur (eg self-insurancefor loss, damage or theft), so I definitely understand / appreciate taking that approach.

I'm still bothered by it, though (the notion in general for guaranteed delivery, not your post 🙂 ). For the most part, the percentage of my prices that cover average costings of things, are for things that are necessary / unavoidable, and I can't overcome my resistance to doing it for service standards that I consider premium, optional and (by and large) unnecessary. By which I mean, I like to keep my prices and services as fair as possible, and baulk at the idea of charging everyone X more so that just a few can take advantage of a benefit that's overly gratuitous (in my view).

Whether it's just my cycnicism at work, or what have you, I also worry that such gratuities become expectations, which leads to a sense of entitlement from sellers who aren't charging for such things. I know not every buyer would respond to those service standards that way, but I also know certain service standards / delivery guarantees on other sites have affected general expectations of buyers who frequently experience them. I'm the kind of buyer who is used to paying premiums for optional extras or upgrades when I order online - eg a lot of sites I buy from offer rush preparation for an extra fee, which I've always considered fair, the alternative would be to add that rush fee to everyone's order (in one way or another), and hire an extra staff member or two, but ultimately that tends to provide buyers with less choice, kinda like having to buy a pizza with the lot when you just want one with pepperoni.

If you don't mind me asking, do you have a website, and / or would you consider it a better strategy to provide uniform service standards / pricing at each avenue you sell, or have a variety (eg say on eBay you do the works - free express post, guaranteed delivery, free returns etc etc, but on your website you have all of those things as optional toppings add-ons). 

[snowbunnies2016]

By not opting in, listings won't get high visibility 👎🏼🙁

[bestbuyaus]

In essence we are being asked to act as Guarantor for Australia Post. If Australia Post fail to meet their stated delivery deadlines then Australia Post faces no penalty. (unless we use Express Post.) If standard post is used we pay for claims where Australia Post fails to perform as they undertake when they accept ouir parcels. At the end of the day sellers will have to include these claims as a business cost input and add it to the selling price, plus an amount to cover the extra GST and eBay/Paypal fees on the extra cost charged to buyers. In the end someone has to pay and as retail margins are shrinking the cost will be passed on to buyers.

[gec2002]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@gec2002 wrote:

The trick with these gimicks is to have an idea of the "failure" rate so you can build the cost into your price. 

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If you don't mind me asking, do you have a website, and / or would you consider it a better strategy to provide uniform service standards / pricing at each avenue you sell, or have a variety (eg say on eBay you do the works - free express post, guaranteed delivery, free returns etc etc, but on your website you have all of those things as optional toppings add-ons). 

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I did have a couple of websites, but not at the moment, and I also sell using a number of other sites.  In general I try not to have too much difference between sites, as if its picked up it makes me look like I am ripping buyers off at the most expensive site (eBay).  Lets be honest most buyers wouldn't have clue what it costs to sell on eBay, and why should they, they only want to buy things, so a big difference in price can look a bit odd at best.  My margins on eBay are lower, but this is compensated by selling more.

Rather than worrying about addons, free post etc right at the moment I am concentrating on my SEO.  I have worked hard on keywords, being mobile friendly, browser security standards, product identifiers, etc and its starting to pay off with increased sales even though I have removed free postage from probably 30% of my items.  I think this because my items are now showing up at higher rankings in Google searches for items on both eBay and other sites.  Many on the boards tut tut these as a waste of time, but it works for me, so I am going with it.

As for buyers expectations, I just had a buyer purchase a number of items, with about 3 of them having a small postage cost (what it would cost me), I then receive a demand (not a request) that I refund the postage costs as the other items were "Free Post"  Yeah Right.

[digital*ghost]

Cheers for the reply, I tend to think that unform pricing etc is the way to go as well, unless I go into wholesale or something. (One of the reasons I pondered it is because there are several business that I deal with that each have several sites, all selling the same thing, and all appealing to different markets. One site will have higher prices, lower quantities and faster turnaround, while another will have lower prices, higher quantities and extended handling times. On the former, if I buy something that turns out to be out of stock, they let me choose other items at 20% off, on the latter they just cancel and refund, so other service standards are different as well). 

BTW I had a buyer ask the exact same thing of me a couple of weeks ago. Only problem was... none of my items have free shipping, so that was a hard no.