Special Announcements From eBay

Well, the reason for this super SPECIAL blog post is because of eBay’s big announcements that just occurred today, September 10^th at 2:30 pm Pacific. I was fortunate to be chosen as an eBay “influencer” and because of this I was able to learn about these exciting changes early and have this article all ready to send to you the moment the “official” word hit the street from eBay’s 20^th Birthday Celebration! Let’s jump right into eBay’s Announcements which are great NEWS for SELLERS.  Yay!The Announcements are broken down into three main subjects.

1. RETURNS
2. SELLER HUB
3. STANDARDS

I will discuss each one in detail and then give you my take on it with pros and cons.  I must admit that the majority of these changes are HUGE PROS!  Thank you eBay!

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1.  RETURNS ***************************

Current Stats for eBay

• *88% of Listings offer a Return Policy
• *A Return is Initiated on eBay every 4 Seconds
• *It Takes 9 days on average to Return the Item and issue a Refund

eBay has listened to us as sellers and are announcing that Returns which are handled well will NOT affect our DSRs.  Hallelujah! What this means is that even though a Return is initiated through the eBay system, it does not automatically count toward our Defect Rate.  But more on that later in Section 3.

There will still be a continuum of ways to handle returns.  It will not be just one way or the highway J.  Sellers can still continue to handle returns their own way or use the eBay automated return program.  Whatever works best for YOU!

The 6 Major Changes to Improve Returns:

1. Restocking Fee can be added within the listing flow—up to 20% max.
2. There are 11 New Reason Codes for Returns
3. Your Return Preferences can be set within your Automation Rules
4. An RA number can be added to returns
5. Seller can provide their own Return Label
6. Sellers will be able to privately report a problem with a buyer (for example…if a buyer returns an item in a condition that was not the way you shipped it you now have an opportunity to let eBay know and they do CARE)

The bottom line to all of this is that the Return process and power will be placed back where it should be…in the seller’s hands.

Pros:
The majority of the return process changes are a PRO to me.  The biggest PRO is that a return which is handled satisfactorily will not count as a defect.

I was concerned about the 11 different reasons for the return, thinking that eBay would put SNAD (Significantly Not as Described) as the first choice.  This is NOT the case and I was told that we will be able to put the 11 in whatever order we desire.  This new simplified process should make both buyers and sellers happy J!

Cons:
None that I can see.  If I am missing something please let me know by posting your comments here or on one of my other social media pages.

• https://twitter.com/Lynn_Dralle
• https://instagram.com/lynndralle/
• https://www.facebook.com/lynn.dralle/

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2.  SELLER HUB ***************************

The goal of the new seller hub is to simplify our selling process by having everything in one place.  Another goal is to give us data we need to increase our sales and profits!

The new eBay Seller Hub will be rolled out to all users on October 20^th, 2015.  Beginning today (September 10^th) you may sign up to be on the TEST waitlist here http://ebay.com/sellerhub.

The New Seller Hub is Divided into Six Tabs:

1. Overview—Snapshot of Performance and Your Action Items like Questions & Shipping
2. Orders—Check Orders, Cancellations and Returns on one page
3. Listings—Get Competitive Insights that Can Help you Optimize Your Listings
4. Marketing—Available to Store Subscribers Only (Use this hub for Marketing & Promotions…i.e. Markdown Manager)
5. Performance—Review Your Data which includes eBay Selling Fees and Page Views
6. Growth—Improve your Listings…Add Product Identifiers and Item Specific Recommendations

Pros:
A lot of great data that is very nicely organized and easy to find.  I LOVE the item specific recommendations that show you a single SKU by what you own in $’s and at what % your current sell through rate is trending.  This will be great for commodity sellers.  The promotional tools seem to be set up in an easier to use format and we will be able to track results quickly.  Kudos to eBay!

Cons:
I am afraid it is too much data and may scare away our selling newbies.  It may even discourage new sellers to sign up to sell on the site.

I also see problems with some of our more analytical sellers spending hours on the statistics when what they really should be doing is listing.  I think it may be overwhelming for some.

I am not sure if the old “Selling Manager Pro” will be discontinued but I am a creature of habit and don’t like change.  I really rely on my “Selling Manager Pro” page for my daily actionable items which include 1.  Answering questions 2. Reviewing Best Offers and  3. Shipping (although I use Auctane for this more than eBay).  I didn’t see that these 3 key features were available on one page, but I may be mistaken.

I will definitely need to spend some time using the New Seller Hub before I give you my final thoughts on it.  Please watch for my upcoming ezine on 9/17/15 for more info.  If you don’t subscribe to my free newsletter please sign up here www.thequeenofauctions.com

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3.  STANDARDS ***************************

The overall theme of this announcement was all about Returns! What the Standard Team had been hearing from us as Sellers…

• Standards are Unfair
• Why Bother Doing Returns
• Buyers are Abusing SNAD (Significantly Not as Described)

And the Standard Team ACTUALLY HEARD US!  YIPPPPPEEEEE!

Starting February 20, 2016 The Following will no longer Impact Your Defect Rate:

1. Buyer Feedback
2. Some of the DSR’s (Detailed Seller Ratings which is currently made up of 4 things—Item as Described, Shipping Time**, Neutral or Negative Feedback, Cancelled Transaction**)
3. Return Requests that are Successfully Resolved
4. Items not Received Requests that are Successfully Resolved (These will STILL count towards a Defect)
5. Seller Cancelled Transactions for OUT OF STOCK situations…Not When Buyer Requests a Cancellation
6. The DSR for Shipping Time** Now called the ON TIME SHIPPING METRIC
7. When eBay has to Step in and Resolve a Case

The new ON Time Metric is tricky and may make some of you concerned…you will NOT get a defect for on Time if one of these two things occurs:

1. The package is scanned within your handling time (which means if you have 1 day handling and a buyer pays on a Tuesday during business hours you will need to have that package scanned by your carrier by Wednesday)

…OR…

2. It shows as an on time delivery by eBay.  eBay calculates this date by considering the date the item was paid and then adding on the max days from your range of shipping days that was chosen when you listed your item.

When you list on eBay you must choose a shipping method and they all show a range of days.

This is why I ALWAYS choose ECONOMY Shipping (1-10) days to describe my service.  Other choices of the GENERIC methods are STANDARD Shipping (1-6) days and EXPEDITED Shipping (1-4) days.

The NEW Standards for TRS which will roll out on FEBRUARY 20, 2016  are as follows:

MAXIMUM  ALLOWED	TRS	All Seller
Seller Cancelled Transactions & Closed Cases w/o Seller Resolution	0.5%	2%
Late Shipments	3%	7%

To Be Eligible For Top Rated Plus Sellers Must offer a 30 day return policy with money back and 1 day or same day handling by 3/1/2016.

Pros:
I LOVE that returns will not count against us and I must be honest, I will handle my returns much more quickly and happily.  Before it was seriously like “Why bother and do this quickly when I already got a defect for it?”.  Sad but true.

I am also happy that low feedback ratings for item as described and any neutral or negative feedback will not count against us.  YAYA!

I just checked my TRS dashboard and as of today and I have 2.04% in defects which means I lost TRS by .04%.  Seriously eBay?  Couldn’t you have rounded down J.  I will share a copy of that screen in my ezine next week…but the good news……I have 0 seller cancelled transactions and 0 cases when eBay had to step into resolve a case so I will pass the first requirement for TRS under the new requirements with flying colors.

Cons:
As far as the 2^nd requirement (EITHER tracking scanned by carrier within your handling time OR shipment arrived on time) here is what my DSR screen says now…. 94.99% of my transactions had tracking uploaded within handling time and validated by carrier.

But here is the rub.  That 94.99% doesn’t show if the item arrived on time and it was ONLY validated by the Carrier AT SOME POINT in the journey.  This is changing to being scanned by the CARRIER within that 1 day handling period.  This is RIDICULOUS and almost impossible to achieve.

The problem is that USPS (and other carriers) can NOT be relied upon whatsoever to scan your package.  Many times it isn’t even scanned by the time it arrives.

But the GOOD NEWS is that since we can’t rely on our carriers to scan the item….as long as it arrives within our stated handling time…we will NOT get a defect.

So my advice is to start changing your stated shipping service to either ECONOMY (1-10) days or STANDARD (1-6) days.  I recommend Economy since it gives us a 10 day cushion for bad weather etc.

This new defect can only be at 3% to maintain TRS and hopefully by choosing Economy we can attain that.  HOWEVER, I never thought about it until now, the “economy” shipping that I choose to protect my TRS may be hurting my sales.  What if another seller has my same item but is offering Expedited (1-4) days because they don’t care about TRS, am I losing a sale?  I ask you all, is it more important to attain TRS or make the sale?  Or does the stated shipping time in the listing matter to the buyer?

One last con, I do NOT like that 30 day returns are required for Top Rated Seller Plus.  The benefits to TRSP are awesome….the icon in your listings, the 20% final value fee refund and lower commercial shipping prices.  I feel like 14 days was a big enough return window and by requiring 30 days we are allowing buyers to basically “rent” our products.

However, even if we state a 14 day return policy, buyers can still return an item for up to 45 to 90 days using Paypal’s liberal “dispute a transaction policy”.  So, the 30 day return policy on eBay is really a mute point.  Overall, I think we need to focus on the positive.  eBay is not punishing us for open cases anymore…only for cases not resolved to both buyer and seller satisfaction.  Way to GO!

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In conclusion, I think these new eBay announcements were well worth the wait!  eBay is really listening to the sellers and is making the changes that we have requested.  TRS should be easier to attain and maintain (as long as we have a big delivery window), the extra data in the Seller Hub will be extremely valuable to most commodity sellers and some smaller OOAK sellers and the entire Return process has been revamped to help us.  So a BIG SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to eBay!

for more information from eBay please go here eBay.com/Fall2015.

PLEASE COMMENT!! I would love to hear what you all think. Please comment right in this post below or on any of my social media accounts as eBay corporate would like feedback on all of these announcements. Comment right in this post below https://twitter.com/Lynn_Dralle https://instagram.com/lynndralle/ https://www.facebook.com/lynn.dralle/