PowerSellersForum.com Blog

A few days ago, eBay.com announced that Digital Delivery products such as ebooks, web templates, and information products, will only be permitted to be listed in a Classified Ads format, meaning that transactions take place outside of eBay, and are not eligible for feedback.

Hello…This is Brian Burke, Director Global Feedback Policy. Digital goods are often reproduced at little to no cost to the seller. On eBay, this creates the potential for Feedback Manipulation (both real and perceived). To preserve the integrity of the Feedback system, effective March 31 all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically must be listed using the Classified Ads format.

Using the Classified Ads format, sellers receive a 30-day ad at a fixed price. This solution enables sellers to continue to market their digital goods on eBay; however, because Classified Ad listings are a lead generation tool and do not result in transactions that go through eBay, Feedback cannot be exchanged between buyer and seller.

Sellers who wish to continue to offer digital goods can do so by selecting the Everything Else>Information Products category in the Sell Your Item form and choosing the Classified Ads format (not auction-style or fixed price)

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803271717582.html

I’ve been following this on various blogs and forums today, and the general consensus is that this is a good move - eBook/Digital media sellers that have a genuine product can now list for 30 days at one price, sell off-ebay with their own delivery methods, and there are no Final value Fees.It also knocks out the feedback farmers who indirectly contribute to the majority of seller scams on eBay.

I’ve been looking into classifieds ads, as it is not a selling format I have previously used, and found a great free eBook from  Brian McGregor about using classifieds as a lead generation tool. http://www.powersellersforum.com/articles/generating_leads.pdf

John Thornhill - Planet SMS guru, has already suggested moving the format to CD/DVD through the post, which may work for some, other suggestions are as above, using classified ads to drive traffic to your own ebook webstore. http://planetsmsblog.com/digital-items-banned-on-ebay/

Skip McGrath has also written a good article on how to use Classifieds to generate sales, however he has noticed that the system is still not yet up yet to list eBooks… http://blog.skipmcgrath.com/public/item/200270

There is a bit more specific information directly from eBay themsleves on the eBay Chatter Blog pages- http://www.ebaychatter.com/the_chatter/2008/03/digital-downloa.html

Question: I’ve seen some product listings where the seller advertises “free shipping” where it means “email delivery”. Will this be allowed?
Answer: No. As of March 31st, any product listing for downloadable digital items that implies or suggests that the item can be received electronically will be a violation.
Question: Do Classified Ad format listings show up in default Search results?
Answer: Yes, Classified Ad format listings show up in Search results and are denoted as a “classified ad.”
Question: Should sellers end these listings themselves if they have listings that will run past March 31st? What about Stores sellers who have Good ‘Til Cancelled listings for these items?
Answer: We will end these listings and credit their fees to these sellers.
Question: For those people who have never used the Classified Ads format, can you offer tips? What is the cost?
Answer: Select the Everything Else; informational Products category, then select the Classified Ads tab in the “Choose how you would like to sell your item” section of the Sell Your Item page. The cost of a Classified Ad is $9.95 per month.
Sellers can take advantage of the special benefits of using this format. For instance, you can combine multiple similar items in the same Classified Ad. If you sell standard listing templates, for example, you can include all your listing templates in the same ad. If you also sell eBooks on how to list, you must use a separate ad (you would likely do this anyway in order to target your buyers).

The change in policy may initially seem to be a very bold move, and one which would appear to penalise legitimate sellers of digital products, but upon reading articles from the experts, it is a new opportunity for selling and more importantly building traffic.

eBook authors by their very nature are generally exceptional copy writers, and therefore should not have any concern about creating an effective Classified Ad to sell a complete range of digital products, legitimately using outside links and promoting their wares. 30 day listings also give more opportunity for Search Engine Optimisation, enabling visitors to find the products from outside of eBay, as well as from regular on-eBay searches. The increased cost of listing should be easily offset by the removal of Final Value Fees.

It may seem like the policy change has been perceived as “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”, but in reality the move is a great benefit to the genuine sellers.

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As if DSR scoring is not flawed enough already, ebay.com are now offering coupons to US buyers who leave low DSR ratings for their purchases.

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/3/1206374629.html

At first rumours were that it was scaremongering or an April fool of some sorts, but AuctionBytes has more integrity than that, but after the story exploded on the eBay boards both sides of the Atlantic, eBay were forced to come clean about it.

Hi everyone,

We appreciate your input, and we’ve passed along your comments and concerns to the teams. I also wanted to share a little bit of background about the coupons.

As you know the company is focused on retaining eBay buyers. In the case of coupons, we want to give our best buyers a special incentive to come back and shop on the site. We’ve been testing a variety of ways to use coupons to drive buyer loyalty, and in this case we’ve provided coupons to a few buyers who’ve had a bad experience. This is comparable to what other businesses might do for a customer who they feel has not been 100% satisfied — it’s not an admission of wrong on the seller’s part, but it does send a message to an important customer of the marketplace that their business is important to us and that we hope they keep spending their money with all the sellers on eBay.

Regarding the concern that some buyers could try to “game’ the system by leaving poor feedback intentionally just to get a coupon — that’s a legitimate concern and we have safeguards in place to ensure this doesn’t become a loophole that the unscrupulous few can exploit. For example, giving a bad score definitely doesn’t mean that you’ll get a coupon. Plus, people who show a pattern of complaints aren’t eligible at all.

In general, these coupons are being sent to buyers with established track records — these are some of our top buyers who have been good trading partners and who may have hit a bump in the road. We want to tell them we appreciate their business and that we want them back.

Increasing buyer loyalty is a win for everyone involved, and will continually evolve these types of programs to make them more effective.

I hope this helps clear things up a little.
Jeff K. | Community Development | eBay

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000671982&tstart=0&mod=1206641168752

“Safeguards are in place” makes me feel very comfortable - in the same way that safeguards against shilling are in place.

Regardless of whether it is selected buyers only, it is now going to lead to buyers trying their luck in a competition, with as many entries as they like, for no cost to them.

The only commnent from the UK ebay staff, was from Richard Ambrose, head of Trust and Safety, and more usually seen as the “talking head” that eBay roll out for TV interviews. Unprofessional and dismissive to does not come close to describe his comments. A personal snidy remark against another board contributor was totally unnecessary.

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Introducing an exclusive offer for eBay PowerSellers – free expanded seller protection for items sold on eBay. You’ll have the same coverage as with the Seller Protection Policy, and more.

What’s improved?

No more confirmed addresses. Your customers can choose any shipping address, which makes checkout easier.

No more coverage limit. The coverage limit under the Seller Protection Policy is $5,000 per year. Expanded seller protection has no annual limit.

Coverage in more places around the world. Coverage is now extended to 190 countries, so you can ship to buyers wherever they are.

What’s not covered?

- Local pickups or deliveries made in person.
- Virtual Terminal or Direct Payment transactions.
- Digital goods, services, or intangible items.

https://www.paypal.com/expandedsellerprotection

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We recently announced substantial changes to the eBay marketplace for 2008. These changes are designed to provide clear incentives and rewards for sellers to continue offering good service, and give buyers even greater confidence to come back more.Since we announced our Final Value Fee (FVF) discount scheme for high volume sellers who offer great customer service, we’ve been encouraged by the intense focus that our seller community have placed on improving their own Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs). To support this effort, sellers will be excited to hear that we’ve set up an extra bonus discount for Final Value Fees recorded in March.If your 30-day DSRs score is higher than 4.6 across all four DSRs at the end of March, eBay will reward you with an extra 20-40% discount on your Final Value Fees for your selling activity in March. That means that sellers could earn up to 80% off Final Value Fees in March.
 
 

This offer is open to all business sellers who are currently eligible for FVF discounts on the UK or IE site, and is applicable to all formats. Items must be listed on either eBay.co.uk or eBay.ie. Bonus discounts will be paid as a credit in your May invoice.

Source

“Higher than 4.6″? so is that 4.7 and above?? If eBay are going to make significant announcements like this, a bit of clarity would not go amiss.

Perhaps it is a clue to the function of the forthcoming Seller DSR dashboards, where we can monitor DSR performance on a daily basis - reading between the lines, it could mean 4.61 and above. These dashboards are due to be rolled out “towards the end of the month” claim ebay in their usual vague announcements.

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Reflectoporn is when a reflection of a naked photographer is visible on the item being shot. It is debateable as to how many of these are deliberate, and how many are genuine oversights in composition.

 One of the earliest documented occurances of this phenomena was the now infamous “Kettle” picture, that appeared on eBay in 2001.

Since then, various other incidents of reflectoporn have been appearing on eBay listings, some are more subtle than others, but the “wing mirror” has a certain photoshop quality about it.

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A piece of racing history created for the activity of “Faces for Charity”: A replica of David Coulthard’s Formula 1 race car from Silverstone (GP Britain 2007). Both Red Bull Racing cars (Mark Webber and David Coulthard) were involved in this initiative. The design of one car features about 21.000 small pictures that people were able to upload for £ 10. A total of one million dollars was collected through this charity activity donated to Wings for Life. The buyer can choose the design of the replica racing car – delivered without engine: Red Bull Racing or Faces for Charity

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290211404617

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Recently ebay have been making more and more default searches as “Best Match” rather than ending soonest, or lowest price first. This means that ebay will decide in which order to display listings to the user, and takes into account low seller ratings and miscategorised items. This has not posed too many problems in itself, as it is easy to revert back to the previous preferred results order - mainly ending soonest.

Over the last few days, ebay has been trialling a complete new look to the search results, and this has caused a number of concerns from sellers over lack of visibility, and from buyers as it is now not user friendly.

It also seems to go against the current drive against sellers with low DSR scores for low DSR P&P scores. The first search I put in was for a 4GB memory card, but not only did it pull up 1GB memory cards, one of the first to be displayed was charging £5.99 for P&P on the 1GB memory card.

In a move that does not impress eBay Store owners is that the small list of matching shops has now been pushed further down the left hand navigation bar - well underneath the now commonplace “sponsored links”. This shot also shows how it is now more difficult to filter further choices, such as Auction or BIN only, item condition, and seller location. Nor is there any indicator of seller feedback, which is not only useful when browsing listings, but also allows other sellers to quickly spot their competitors, or buyers to avoid particular sellers without having to view the entire listing.

There is a small link to customise the search though which will display more information, but sellers can not rely on buyers to making these changes, and indeed it’s hard enough to explain the basics to some ebay members, let alone explain the variations in search parameters…

Another view shows a slightly more familiar list view -

And also a Gallery view -

Judging by the feedback on other discussion groups, nobody involved in the trial is enjoying this, and posing as a newbie to eBay myself, I can not see how this layout would entice me to buy, or even to stick around and try to find what I wanted.

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vzaar today announced the launch of its free video service for eBay listings in the United States. Using vzaar, eBay sellers can quickly and easily add video to their eBay listings to showcase their products and gain a competitive edge. The core service is available to all users for no charge. Special features tailored to the needs of PowerSellers are available for a low monthly fee.
 
Introducing Video for Commerce
Unlike other video services, vzaar’s video player has been designed specifically to aid commerce. For the first time vital information, such as seller feedback and bidding time left on the auction is automatically displayed at the end of every video. 
 
vzaar enables buyers to get a clear look at what they are purchasing and watch it in action. vzaar makes it easy for sellers to add video into their listings, drive bids and move more inventory. And unlike still images or slideshows, videos have audio, enabling sellers to communicate more effectively, describe their services and inspire trust.
 
vzaar has helped sellers in the beta program sell items ranging from a backhoe to jet skis, diamonds to art, and guitars to comics. vzaar was the first company to enable video listings on eBay UK.
  
vzaar is the brainchild of Ken Moss, a serial entrepreneur with 20 years of IT experience, and Adrian Sevitz, formerly of eBay and Accenture. Also on the team are eBay veterans Dan Wilson and Jamie Parkins. Wilson was part of the team that founded eBay.co.uk in 1999 and is the bestselling author of Make Serious Money on eBay UK. Parkins managed eBay.co.uk’s PowerSeller program and led the Top Seller team. vzaar is an accredited eBay Developer, approved video service provider and makes use of eBay’s API.

“Video is the perfect medium to demonstrate the condition of our products. It allows us to show potential buyers a 360 degree view of the product, to hear the machines or motors we sell, and the opportunity to get a feel for who we are as a seller,” said eBay seller Jack Fitzgerald from Industry Recycles. “When we post with a vzaar video, our item gets more visits, more bids and a higher sales price. Viewing the videos, our buyers see and hear exactly what they are getting for their money, and that means a lower return rate.”
 
Pricing and Availability
The vzaar service is the easiest and quickest way for sellers to add video to their eBay listings. Their offerings are as follows:
 
Free Service
- Up to 30 videos/month
- Up to 1GB of total video. Each video can be up to two minutes long
- Video storage: 90 days
 
Plus Service—$10/month
- Up to 300 videos/month
- Up to 1GB of total video. Each video can be up to two minutes long
- Enhanced functionality: 
Users can search listings by seller name or item ID
Sellers can embed one video in multiple listings in one click
- Video storage: 180 days
 
Pro Service—$20/month
- Up to 3,000 videos/month
- Up to 2GB of total video. Each video can be up to three minutes long
- Enhanced functionality:
Users can search listings by seller name or item ID
Sellers can embed one video in multiple listings in one click
- Video storage: One year
 
About vzaar
vzaar is the leading provider of free video services for eBay sellers. Founded by IT and eBay veterans, the company created the first video service designed specifically for commerce. vzaar enables sellers to quickly and easily embed their videos in their eBay listings to show their products in action and help drive sales. For more information, visit www.vzaar.com.

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http://desktop.ebay.com 

eBay Desktop lets you take care of most of your normal eBay activity without having to use your web browser.

With eBay Desktop you can search and browse, watch, and bid on items, and use new features like feeds and popup alerts. The eBay Desktop interface is slick and easy to use, and we’ve even added a video tutorial to help you get started.

Search, bidding, browsing, watching… it’s all there, with a brand new interface
Be a Power eBayer - Search feeds, item reminders, and persistent filters put you ahead of the game 
Go Beyond the Browser - Recent item cache, outbid alerts, and no need to refresh

This application is aimed at buyers rather than sellers, but is still a useful tool if you have a dedicated buying account. Once installed, there is a small USA flag at the top of the screen, click on this and change the settings to UK if necessary. A few updates have been released already according to the product blog, but feedback by users so far suggests it is preferable to other browsing tools such as Firefox and ebay’s own toolbar.
 

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eBay have now launched the revised feedback display page across the whole UK site, and it has had a bit of a mixed reception. Although eBay is now crediting members with repeat feedback for transactions more than a week apart, the overall feedback number has been been reduced in size and page placement.

For anyone who’s not familiar with the repeat Feedback change…

Members are now able to affect each other’s Feedback Score by one point each week. To make sure that repeat Feedback is calculated in the Feedback Score, the transaction for which the members are leaving Feedback must have ended in a separate week. For Feedback, eBay defines a week as Monday to Sunday, Pacific Time. Also, in May/June, we will retroactively recalculate your Feedback score to include repeat activity prior to now.

What is annoying to many sellers is that although the total postive feedback is being buried, the lifetime negatives are still clearly indicated, even though, in the example below, not one neg has been received in the past 12 months.
 

The  other issue that has been discussed, although not visible on the above example, is that the shop logo’s that are normally displayed on a rectangular banner, are been squeezed into the small square and therefore distorting.

Given that there is a large empty space above the DSR stars, it would have made more sense for eBay to put the full sized logo there, instead of a half-hearted avatar on the left. Sellers spend a lot of time and effort on branding their eBay identity, it’s not fair to have that work distorted by poor application of web design.

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