eBay summarized recent updates it made to Seller Initiated Offers over the last months during Thursday’s “Summer Marketing Tactics” webinar. eBay Senior Product Manager Evan Swanson kicked off the session, saying eBay was making it easier to send offers as soon as buyers show interest. He shared a slide showing the recent updates to seller offers:
- “Offer Integration in Messages: Negotiate in real-time and keep the conversation flowing.” Swanson said sellers can now see the full offer negotiation inside message threads.
- “Second Chance Offers: Buyers can now request a second offer if the first offer expired.” Swanson called it a small improvement, but said it was really helpful for buyers who missed out.
- “Buyer Counters 96 hours: Buyers now have 4 days to accept counter offers, helping drive more sales.” Swanson said buyers have more time to accept counter offers, with fewer deals falling through the cracks – he said eBay data shows the extended timeline is driving more sales.
Swanson said buyers are 10 times more likely to accept an offer if they messaged the seller first. He also said eBay would continue to make improvements in messaging and offers going forward, including improvements to eBay algorithms. He also pointed sellers to the automation settings in Seller Hub under Marketing – Offers.
He shared the following recommendations for sellers with regard to Seller Initiated Offers:
- Respond to buyer interest quickly, or automate offers.
- Send offers when buyers message sellers.
- Focus on quality over quantity.
- Pause offers 1-2 weeks before vacation.
eBay Pro-Seller Account Manager Alex Lobos then provided information about other eBay marketing tools, including: sales events; coupons; volume pricing; order discounts; and Store newsletters – all of which require a Store subscription (except for volume pricing).
eBay invited a seller to participate in the webinar by sharing their strategies, and former eBay executive Chuck Van Pelt, also a longtime seller, filled the role. During the Q&A portion, he shared a marketing technique he uses: he puts decals on every box he sends to customers that says “thank you for supporting my small business.”
“The problem I’m trying to solve with that is that I feel like a lot of buyers may not understand that they’re buying from an individual or a small business and not from a large corporation. And I think that is an important differentiator for us to make as sellers when we are small businesses. I’d like to be given the benefit of the doubt and I like when people realize, oh, I’m dealing with a human, more personalized family business.”
Van Pelt said he has seen a change in the tone of buyers when they reach out to him – “it’s usually much more civil, and I really feel like those decals made a difference for me.”
Sellers who registered for the event can see the replay of the webinar on RingCentral; it’s possible eBay may also post the video on YouTube.
eBay will be hosting another seller webinar on July 16 on Seller Community, and on August 20 on the topic of Holiday Selling Prep.
“eBay Pro-Seller Account Manager Alex Lobos then provided information about other eBay marketing tools, including: sales events; coupons; volume pricing; order discounts; and Store newsletters – all of which require a Store subscription (except for volume pricing).”
So if eBay is such a great place to sell items with a giant customer base why one earth do you have to use any of this nonsense?
Because its a sinking ship – now with at least 25% less customers than its maximum. Of course even that figure is based on eBay numbers and they of course are compulsive liars.
Shopify overtook eBay as the #2 some time ago and that company specializes in online shops for people who want to leave eBay.
“he puts decals on every box he sends to customers that says “thank you for supporting my small business.”
What a waste of money and time. Packaging goes in the trash without the customer ever giving a hoot. You should NOT be marking your boxes with any eBay identification as increases the chances the box will be stolen. Its like painting a big target on your package. The customer would rather have you lower the cost of the item for what you wasted on labels and the labor putting them on. If you think customers are going to order from just for decals on boxes I have a bridge to sell you.
“The problem I’m trying to solve with that is that I feel like a lot of buyers may not understand that they’re buying from an individual or a small business and not from a large corporation.”
I wonder how many of these customers would buy on eBay at all if they knew just how much eBay had defrauded their sellers over the years who in turn have to pass these costs on customers without their knowledge.
Gee, who was it that came up with the idea of charging FVF on shipping under the guise it would reduce shipping costs and then telling sellers to charge customers the retail rate while paying the lower commercial rate to account for FVF on shipping as the customers will never know.
eBay management are 100% sociopaths.
As a collectibles seller who lives on repeat regular customers. I use the seller initiated “Send Offer” function daily, using all the offers eBay allows for me. That usually is 20-50 offers. I use it mainly as a tool to introduce new buyers to my store, hoping they become regular customers aka followers.
There are several glitches in this system. First eBay will send multiple offers to a single user who has been browsing my store. When they attempt to purchase several items, the eBay system won’t allow them to combine the order, creating an order (and charging individual postage costs and buyer fees) on each of these orders! The buyers get upset they were charged for shipping multiple times, so I wind up refunding all of that (every frickin day!) and absorbing the transaction costs.
I do replace the eBay canned “Here’s your chance to get this item at a great price!” message with my own, which tells them to ignore the 10% off offer if they want to buy multiple items, and to put the items at full price (and any other items from my store) into the shopping cart to receive a 15% discount via a special code I have for this purpose. Some buyers do this well, but a good number of customers are oblivious. This all needs to be fixed!
I would like to see some seller controls on the “Send Offers”:
+ Send offers to unique customers only Y/N
+ Do not send offers to International Customers Y/N
+ Do not send offers to Store Followers Y/N
+ Do not send offers to previous customers (give options of 30-60-90 days) Y/N