copied from a ebay form town hall September 19

I copied this on store forum on ebay by dorthysew

Just one persons take and notes she does a great job for free.

Townhall 9/19/08
dorothysew (1172 ) View Listings | Report Sep-19-08 13:09 PDT
9/19/08
Steph is now leading North Am.

Christina, shipping
Eddie, finding
Lynda, T &S
Bryan ?
Monroe, paypal
John, T &S
Greg, vp buyer experience
Nate, seller team seller tools

Steph---1546 feedback, buy more than sell, sold 6 cars, dvds, coins, 4.9 dsr, joined co in 2001, ran motors, paypal, built merchant services in paypal. Biggest Challenge? Trying to improve buyer experience, but know it’s a lot of change. Inspired by personal stories.

11 yrs on ebay and love the new fixed pricing-anticipating best year-African art, ethnic items, one of a kind. Fix price lets me list and then they will buy.

I use actual wts and $3.00 handling for all. That won’t be allowed. What about lots? Use bulk lot category. Different limit applies. Took buyer satisfaction into consideration at different shipping rates. Above $4, buyers weren’t happy.

When is new listing page to be released? NOT planning to launch in 4th quarter. Merchandising from other sellers is causing consternation, but sellers can opt out.

Need to have new users confirm negative feedback a wk or so afterward, so a seller can have a chance to contact and make it good. New users don’t know to contact. Sellers won’t do anything if they get the neg/neutral. New policy will allow buyers to change feedback coming in Oct. But will take it back to the team.

How are paypal dealing with Washington Mutual? Card is WAMU, all the accounts are fine, the deposit insurance covers. Each is covered up to $100,000. Each is an individual account, not a total paypal account. Paypal just transfers the $.

What holiday marketing? Will market across internet, coupon incentive will be expanded. With the economy think that will help. Early in season marketing.

Make watchers # available to buyers, might spur buying because of the # of watchers.
(sellers would chose whether to show it or not). Will consider.

Approved payment policy---customer doesn’t want to use paypal, others want to use MO. Been hearing this. An existing customer, as long as seller doesn’t solicit, you won’t be in violation. Larger question is buyer who is afraid of online payment, reason is more sales and more demand, with secure payment, leading to higher trust. We will be communicating, sellers need to also, stressing the payment security and will be faster.

Sell courses with more than a few books. If selling non standard item, 2 choices use flat rate shipping, under the cap-may have to shift some shipping cost into price. Otherwise use calculator with real rate. (note said 5 # wouldn’t exceed cap. ???)

All the changes-tools inadequate. TL, make changes in bulk, bulk editing in selling manager-that has limitations, such as item specifics. Blackthorne and 3rd party. Will have a workshop soon.

FVF too high plus paypal fees. Why not elimate paypal fees since it’s the same company.
Total cost is usually lower than most other channels. Paypal actually lowest on the web, do provide a service. A merchant account would be more. If can reach highest levels, ebay fees can be lowered 40%. Don’t combine fees because want transparency.

NPB have pattern, inactive for several years, a kid will buy all 30 of an item. Could you require immediate payment for new buyers or inactive accounts? We are looking at problem with multiple quantity store listings. Will take suggestion back. We think electronic payment will help, less hassle.

With payment changes, will have Ebay checkout, they will pay on ebay, no reason to delay payment. Doesn’t exist anywhere else on internet to delay payment.

Large flat rate box on paypal when???? Hopefully Oct.

Instability of software. Many errors, TL, etc. Probably unique, contact NETTER.ebay.com

How does recent sales work? New factor as part of best match. # of unique buyers is taken into consideration. Just the sales, not the # of items. Limited window of time. Constantly refresh the listings. I list 10, I get a sale, get boosted, sell out. If you relist within 7 days, recent sales will carry over to new listing. Changing title, cat. Item condition, up price, on a relist will cause you to lose recent sales advanatage.

Free shipping would be included in price-buyer gets no break on shipping. How can I discount? Are working on program.

E checks-transparency needed. Buyers need to be informed will take days to clear and need to be informed when cleared. E checks are only 3-4%. Have cleaned it up and made it clear to buyers that the seller will need to take time to clear. This has been out since June. An instant bank transfer still takes days to get money to paypal, if have a good back up source will transfer instantly transfer to seller. (an expired credit card will make an instant bank transfer into an echeck).

Dsr buyer education. Had a buyer who didn’t believe in giving 5’s. Not typical, dsrs are going up overall. How can we address the fear? Below 4.3, halting sales until dsrs go back up, not suspended.

Gallery + price difference between auction and fixed priced .35 to $1.00. It’s more because of the increased duration of fixed price.

Labels on dsrs are misleading. What are you doing to fix this? Sellers who consistently receive 4s are delivering less satisfaction. Buyers who leave 5’s come back and buy more. Sellers below 4.3 have more 1,2,3 than 4’s.

80-100 hrs to edit checks out of listings. Why, once that’s done, how can I know that paypal won’t increase their fee? Fees are competitive or better than other providers. We intend to stay that way. Have increased coverage sellers get in Oct. Improvement for casual users coming (easier to get password). Caps will be improved.

Dsr shipping versus free shipping. Free shipping/actual shipping actually get less dsrs than low handling plus actual shipping. We show as shipping charges increase, dsrs decrease. Why not 5 stars for free shipping? Fear abuse. Adding Insurance or shipping cod. Average for free shipping is 4.8 dsr on shipping.

Why shipping included in figuring paypal fees. Paypal incurs a cost of transferring all funds, not just the item price. Credit cards are the same.

Are fixed price changes only til end of year. No. With the price changes, we did launch several promotions-the media for 5 cents and the incentives around shipping- those are only til end of year. If they work, they may be built in, but as of now only temporary.

Item specific changes in media, all switched to acceptable. Can’t use TL or blackthorne to change, because they either don’t have new info or doesn’t show when uploaded. Did you update? Unique problem, contact Netter.ebay.com

For stores, evaluate the demand for the item as to whether to use fixed price or store. Core is great for high or moderate demand. Store for lower demand. Stores need to evaluate for themselves.

Thanks for patience as we go thru the changes.
Page 1 of 1