If you were on eBay's board of directors what changes would you make?

[james_cumbria]

What changes would you make if you sat on eBay's board of directors?  Top of my list would be to clamp down on business sellers trading on private accounts.  Why allow these sellers to benefit from free listings and heavily discounted FVFs?  Where is the financial benefit to eBay?  Surely turning a blind eye just reduces eBay's income, further erodes trust in the brand and alienates loyal business sellers that pay their fees yet are not given the opportunity to compete on a level playing field?

By way of example, in a moment of idleness today I reported a couple of such listings, both in categories I regularly sell in, both by sellers with 5000+ sales behind them and around 300 listings active listings, all professionally photographed, and with neither seller displaying business details or offering returns.  EBay's response?  'We looked into your report and didn't find the listing(s) to be a violation of our policy'.  

eBay used to be so much better than this.  So back to my question, given the opportunity what changes would you make?  Who knows, maybe people in high places occasionally read these discussion boards!   

[btr.style]

Too many changes to mention. 

As for the private business seller reporting thing. The reason why nothing is removed is because there isn't a reason to select when reporting those accounts. As I mentioned before, "business fails to display correct details" IS NOT business seller on private account. It's for reporting a business account that doesn't have their correct details on display (i.e 0799999999 number, mickeymouse@disneyland email address and "the north pole SAN TA1" as their address). That's what the agent is looking for when those listings are reported under that reason and when they see right away it's a private account that's reported which doesn't even need to show those details, the report is closed with no action taken. 

People should definitely stop reporting them that way and instead keep speaking out about no way to report private business sellers at current. 

So the first step would be to have a direct report reason "business seller selling on a private account". Fee promos significantly reduced ( to either every 6 months or limited to 10 fee promo listings a month). 

Introducing a 0% fee (or even low fee) package for businesses. So pay £5000 to have no selling fees again. Maybe that will create an unfair advantage for some too but it's probably the only way business sellers would have a chance at lower or no fees with eBay no longer giving them any fee promos. 

More customisation for businesses and the Storefront/listings (allow them to tweak stuff to make it look like their own website). 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Have you tried contacting support directly and reporting a seller that way, for using a private account for business?  Rather than through the reporting tool.

I've not yet, but it is something that may well be worth trying and am just curious if anyone has had a positive outcome on it?

[m25jet]

Okay, so here goes:

1.  Business sellers caught trading as private sellers to face a "Three Strikes And You're Out" policy.  The first step would be a warning to switch to a business seller account within a week of the seller being notified to do so.  If this is ignored then unless the seller is able to successfully prove that eBay have made a mistake and he/she is not a business seller, the second step would be a suspension of selling priveleges for a month.  If the first two steps are ignored and a business seller is subsequently caught masquerading as a private seller after that an indefinite selling ban comes into force.

2.  Overhaul the appeals process for sellers.  As many sellers will testify, eBay is heavily biased in favour of buyers to the point where sellers appear to be placed at a distinct disadvantage.  In instances whereby sellers feel that they can prove that eBay have made the wrong decision to close the case in the buyer's favour, then so long as they can provide eBay with strong evidence pointing to the fact that eBay did indeed make the wrong decision then the original decision gets overturned and the seller receives not just an apology, but also a refund of any monies lost as a result of the initial decision and the defects from the original verdict removed from the seller's account.

3.  Get rid of the useless staff members who seem to just enjoy changing the site for the sake of it without bringing about any noticeable improvements, especially in cases whereby the "site improvements" have made the site considerably worse for site users.  Weed out the useless staff gradually until they are all gone, replacing them with highly skilled people with significant IT experience who actually know what they are doing and can truthfully say that they know how to change the site for the better so as to bring about genuine improvements that benefit both buyers and sellers.  Employment to be reviewed regularly and any site developers who fail to bring about noticeable improvements to be dismissed.

4.  Both buyers and sellers to be consulted on proposed changes to the site to get the general consensus of opinion before major changes are implemented, thus allowing site users to have a say in the matter and giving eBay a far more accurate idea as to what buyers and sellers alike actually want to see with regards to site improvements.

5.  Reinstate PayPal as an option for sellers to receive payments, with the ability for sellers to choose between PayPal and eBay Managed Payments as their payment processor of choice with regards to money made from sales on the platform.

6.  Introduce a feature whereby buyers and sellers can customise their account to make it appear the way that they want it to appear, as opposed to how eBay want it to appear.  Possible options could include the option for buyers and sellers to reinstate the icons that were taken away that indicated when an item had been paid for, when feedback had been left and when feedback had been received, along with other things.

There are several other things that I could think of that may well help to improve the site but there's not enough room here to include all of them, so I'll end this reply here.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I have to answer your third point here, as a former IT worker.

It really isn't as simple as just getting rid of "useless" staff.

You really should understand how these kind of changes are made.  It's not as simple as Joe Bloggs goes and changes such and such a feature and it's rubbish.....

These go through various stages, including planning with management, testing and then deployment.  And it's generally teams of staff involved, not just one or two people.

So though there may be "useless" members of staff, they wouldn't be responsble for these kind of things as a  whole anyway.

[pg_kicks]

I'd have dedicated lines for business accounts, customer service agents that dont need to stick to the scripts and know more than the average person off the street so you are not being passed around from Paul to Philip and then to Oliver as they dont actually understand the issue because they've not had any training beyond the simple tasks.

This one will upset a few but I'd have a new condition for private accounts, in sneakers you cant sell a pair if they have been tried on, they need to be listed as used so realistically if a private individual is selling an item it is pretty much always going to be used in eBays eyes if they take the sneakers definition. This will then stop a lot of the business on private accounts if they could only sell as Used (in packaging/with tags).

I'd stop the constant promos, its not DFS, if people are not willing to sell paying full listing/FVF prices then they need to either charge more or sell somewhere else, constantly giving out promos have resulted in people complaining if they dont get them and then flooding the site when they arrive. If people dont want to sell paying the full price I'd be more than happy to let them sell elsewhere.

Have open meetings with sellers, end of the day sellers are eBays customers and who give them the money, any changes should be ran by sellers, they should be finding out whats working and whats not, not just a weekly chat where its passed to a team and forgotten about, and never passed to anyone with any real power. If something is broken, fix it, I'd not create 10 pointless 'improvements' when something major like EDD is clearly broken, thats like painting your walls as the roof has a huge hole in it. I'd also join a weekly chat so I could see what my customers were complaining about, and try and fix those issues straight away.

@btr.style I'd happily pay a one off fee for the year or a monthly contract style, it would need to be more than £5k just going off my figures but in 2023 I paid ebay over £30k, if they said you'd be charged 2k a month but you had to sign up for a year at those rates they'd have me tied to them so even if I didnt sell they still got it but it would mean I was more likely to list and keep trying to find better stock, and then I'd be getting a discount as I've signed up for a 12 months eBay seller contract style. They could obviously change it for each account going off your last year figures and have levels so people giving them 100k got something a little bit better than some boxes.

[ojewellery]

There are so many bits of the inner workings and philosophy I'd love to know about before making changes - but as a small seller from the angle I'm looking this would be my list....

Common goal/ ethos of who eBay are and equally who they aren’t

Basic fundamentals of eBays purpose/ ethos beyond the obvious revenue generation.

Look at eBays current and historic strengths how these are future relevant.  To me, eBay was the original circular economy tool.  Now society is starting to see the relevance of avoiding fast fashion and disposal of goods like tech and even vehicles.  We’re seeing more and more legislation (particularly in parts of Europe like France) Using the evidence eBay and eBayers have been doing this for so long without the need for legislation and to be told we need to do this – selling the feel good factor, reminding people they’re doing this.  eBay to me has always had respect for all sellers whether a small occasional one, a business setting up, a more established business, a brand outlet or a brand.  I’d like that to continue to be a basic fundamental.

Assess all current programmes against the agreed fundamental purpose.

I’m not sure about the latest luxury apparel sales prep and listing being handled by eBay.com (in partnership) but to me that’s fundamentally what eBay hasn’t been, in competition with its sellers and feels too near the mark even if this is via a third-party.

Look at potential market gain opportunities in areas where there has been historically good online sales and improve ground/ local staff and local programmes like the roadshows.  Stop contracting, weather the storm and focus on efficiencies and being set for expansion and deflection of further market share loss.

Devolve more responsibility from corporate America to the local (international eBay sites)  America (.com) as one eBay location, UK another, Germany, Australia etc then have an eBay International looking at global growth opportunities between sites and working to harmonise and share learning and eBay corporate being based operationally separately to any of the individual eBay locations so overall corporate policy is influenced by global opportunity more than being blindsided by familiarity of domestic US market and domestic (US) commercial laws.  Maybe corporate roles being rotated around the international eBay seniors to ensure that global harmony and global growth is maintained.

Work with local law makers in each international location to simplify administration of online sales taxes from both sales and sellers income, probably via local third parties, but helping in the function creation – making selling on eBay more of a potential one stop shop for sellers and creating a positive trust situation for buyers knowing that eBay is a responsible marketplace respecting local taxation and contributing massively to the domestic economy.  Making that a big respect point that wouldn’t be easy for other marketplaces who typically don’t have domestic presence to emulate.

Look at expanding sellers opportunities to have more visibility and be an on platform brand – more customisation and more joined up with social media – including simplified fee discounts for those bringing traffic to the platform. 

Bring more brands onto the platform whether as their outlets or not but to have a physical presence like they’d have at any physical big shopping centre.  My gut is that brands are less on a certain big other marketplace these days, I think there is opportunity to bring some of their revenue generation potential onto eBay.

Introduce tiered fees for support level.  Private sellers with free listings not having access to seller support services in the same way as a fee paying business seller.  Create more defined lines between what you’re getting at each level of site use.  Respect the small private seller – they can get a bit of help on the forums or upgrade if they want to be able to build a business (even a regular side hustle) and have support.

Have a transparent seller agreement/ comitment for sellers who generate over a certain amount of how issues will be handled, not deleting all listings, pausing listings, review periods and action plans.  A loyalty commitment.

Stop the blanket promos – use promos but enable it to be targeted to certain seller selected products rather than all stock.

[cobwebcottage]

Have a read of this as it may answer your question.

Solved: Re: Update on listing items - UK eBay Community

[btr.style]

"I''d happily pay a one off fee for the year or a monthly contract style, it would need to be more than £5k just going off my figures but in 2023 I paid ebay over £30k"

I was thinking more along the lines of it being 5k to have 0% fees for life rather than 5k off fees. Some sites do that (relatively unknown auction sites) where a set fee is paid up front to never have to pay any fees. 

I guess on 1 side it could mean eBay lose out (30,40,50k+ of fees because someone paid 5k for 0% fees for life) but they may gain if someone passes away not long after paying that money, leaves eBay or gives up before 5k of fees would have been paid at the standard rate. 

Maybe even a "top up" feature, so people could pay fees in advance and as sales comes in, fees are deducted from that, with of course a discount (1k paid = 10% fees, 5k paid = 8% fees). 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

No idea what your talking about, I didn't ask a question!

[cobwebcottage]

'Have you tried contacting support directly and reporting a seller that way, for using a private account for business?'

I was replying to this. 

[vintagewatchpart]

The general feel of Ebay as a company is that it is not focussed on the right type of growth, it would rather squeeze more from its existing customers rather than try and grow the number of users on the platform.

Ebay is incredible at trying to paint pretty pictures of its status and site functionality.

What would I change?

1) Be more open and honest with sellers and buyers - this is what's wrong, we can see that this is an issue, this is how it is going to be resolved. Many modern-day entreupeneurs who find great success do this, the ones who either lie or don't deal with or admit to any issues will always fail. 
Also communicate changes and provide reasons as to why, example being the new desktop design of an Ebay item and how images are displayed, surely this has been A/B split tested and shows a greater conversion or something or some reason for it being changed  - tell us about it, announce it, shout about it.

2) Encourage genuine growth. Lower the fees considerably across the board - then shout out about it - Look at us, we are the cheapest and largest marketplace to sell on in the world, we've made these changes to help our sellers and contribute to lower prices for our buyers. 
People would flock from other platforms to take advantage of this. It is likely Ebay would make more money that it is currently from the uplift in new sellers using the platform.

3) Actually do something about private sellers who are clearly businesses - it is quite obvious now that these individuals are being ignored and allowed to continue - the options are, tell them to register as a business and risk losing them paying at least some sort of fees or ignore them, allow them to continue and take the 80% off fees they are commonly paying. 
It would be easy to impliment AI or to pluck transactional data to identify all these accounts and send them a simple warning message and give them a time frame to convert, where would these accounts go to sell instead? in most instances I think they'd remain on Ebay.

4) Stop all fvf promotions, instead work out a percentage decrease in fees across the board to make the marketplace more competitive to sell on, this could work hand in hand with point 2.

Could think of a tonne more but they all pretty much link to points 1 and 2.

[magpiecorner1]

I'd be extremely surprised if they don't have dedicated lines for business accounts - at least for their big sellers.   Who probably don't bother them very much.  For the wee sellers, eBay has already begun the move to AI responses, annouced only recently, and there is zero chance of AI understanding the nuances of selling on eBay.  Heck, I've a brain that loves accounts and I don't have much idea!

I've a theory that the business fees are there to discourage, not encourage, small businesses.  So that eBay can concentrate on the big sellers, from whom they get most of their income and likely very little interaction.  Too many people selling the same stuff, makes sense to get behind the big sellers,  reduce the number of listings of new items by an odd few million, thus making it easier to find stuff, and keeping the second hand, vintage and antique, but only if their research tells them that this sort of listing encouranges buyers to come to eBay, and then buy new stuff - preferably from the big sellers. 

A board director's responsibility it to the shareholders - and those same shareholders can remove him or reward him.    His job is to create sufficient profit to send dividends to shareholders as a reward for keeping their money in eBay shares, thus keeping the company finanacially healthy and keeping him in a job.  I doubt he would be interested in more than the big sellers - and all of the buyers, because buyers are the lifeblood of eBay and much time and effort will be spent on working out how to retain buyers and how to get new buyers. 

The little seller might be of some interest if research shows that they are also good eBay buyers - but beyond that I suspect we are rather like midges, if you want to sit in outside in Scotland on a summer's evening you have to put up with them, but for the most part, not even a consideration.

Depressing?  Nah - a lot to be said for ploughing your own furrow.  Just never ever make the error of thinking all sellers on eBay are of equal importance - or that we are of any importance at all!

[pg_kicks]

I dont think I was very clear tbh, I was agreeing with you, when I said going off my fees I was just meaning that me as a low/medium level seller my fees in 2023 were over £30k to eBay so I guess they'd need to charge more, but I 100% agree theyd win from some and loss from others, but theyd get a lot more listings from serious businesses who would see it as a chance to grow.

@magpiecorner1 100% the huge accounts will have account managers, I'd not want an account manager, but just a business account line who actually know the policies, there are staff in customer services who are great but its a lottery if you get them or you get Jamie in Philippines who sadly hasnt had enough training, but is great if you havent received an item and need to know what to do next, if you get him then you are passed around 2 or 3 call centres until you get the person who knows what they are talking about, would save eBay so much time having a good team just for business sellers.

[pg_kicks]

They just tell you to report, there is no option to report, ok then please just use an option thats close to your reason. I've had 2 accounts closed in over 2 years where I've basically had to email the head of eBays sneakers as the accounts were selling hundreds of pairs of fake Jordans but reporting kept saying they were not breaking any policies. So t can be done but customer services just ask you to report and ignore the constant proof that reporting doesnt currently work.

[*knight-rider*]

I'd get all board members together once a month, to discuss what they've read on these boards, ideas and concerns, from the very people who actually use the site and earn a living from it and probably know more than most staff.

[rainbowtrax]

Right now, I'd employ someone who knew that there were 29 days in February this year and 31 days in March every year. If they also knew the meaning of "one calendar month" then the job would definitely be theirs.

In general, far too many things to list but seeking the opinions of and then listening to their sellers would be a good way to start to fix the endless list of long-standing issues.

[rainbowtrax]

---

@therenewalworkshopltd wrote:

Have you tried contacting support directly and reporting a seller that way, for using a private account for business?  Rather than through the reporting tool.

I've not yet, but it is something that may well be worth trying and am just curious if anyone has had a positive outcome on it?

---

I'd advise not wasting your time as that doesn't work either.

[courtyardcollectables]

1. I would ask them to employ UK IT people to amend the programs, instead of bods in the US who have never sold an item on eBay, or reinstall the program from 10 years ago because it was much better and easier to use.

2. Their jewellery hub who can only identify gold by a UK hallmark? GET RID! If they are any good they would have a gold tester to identify any carat gold, whether UK or Italian etc. (A dubious seller could easily solder a UK  gold clasp onto a gold plated chain, just saying, because there's many for sale!) If I could, I did want to send something like this to myself to test this theory, and I wish I had. Also they add their leaflets to your buyer advertising their jewellery products with a % discount. I don't buy bread from one bakery to be offered a discount from another bakery!

3. Leave postage listings alone. I found out this weekend that you now have to complete a postage table so European and World can see your listing. Surely if we don't do this we and eBay lose money on foreign bids. Hours of amending some of the listings that hadn't already had bids.  Go back a few years and listing and selling were so easy, it's just now so Americanised and not for the good.

4. Vintage Dinner / Table knives are not a lethal weapon, nor are cake forks or chop sticks! Older people wanting to add to their cutlery can't buy because they have no credit card. Utterly stupid!

5. I could go on! 16 years of selling and now is the worst ever!

[roverviews]

Inaccurate Estimated Delivery Dates. End the AI generated Dynamic system, that is just not working, despite what they say. Apparently I have a parcel that is going to be delivered on Sunday or Easter Monday. Really!! It assumes.. is not good enough.

Listen to Sellers and the improvements they suggest. They are the ones that put the work in, take the risks and work with your framework and ultimately.. pay your wages.. They are the ones who know how it works, work with them. Pick at random 100 sellers, go and visit them and let them air their concearns directly. Then report your findings and ask others in the community to comment. Have a vote maybe. Then make the resulting changes.