eBay sellers have reason for concern. From yesterday's Wall Street Journal article titled, "How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results":

"An eBay spokesperson said in a statement, "We've experienced significant and consistent drops in Google SEO for many years, which has been disproportionally detrimental to those small businesses that we support."" The newspaper said Google declined to comment regarding eBay.

eBay has been experiencing flat-to-negative growth in GMV - a measure of dollar sales that take place on its site - and many sellers feel it. Hearing from eBay that it continues to struggle for ... Read More

eBay's Vice President of Seller Experience appeared in a video published on YouTube yesterday where he answered questions about the ongoing glitch that began October 15 that impacted sellers in the Clothing Shoes & Accessories category particularly hard.

"We have been on this since Oct. 15 every single day, 24/7," Harry Temkin said from the floor of a November 6th eBay event in New York. However, he seemed to downplay the impact of the Item Specifics glitch, which eBay is continuing to work to resolve. Listings were always visible in search, he said.

On October 17, eBay explained the ... Read More

Shipping carriers are reportedly giving online marketplaces like Etsy a discount in exchange for making them the default shipping method on their platform. But are those marketplaces passing along the discounts to sellers, or keeping it for themselves?

If not, it's shortsightedness on the part of both parties at best - low shipping costs should help conversion rates. At worst, it's a money-grab at a time when those marketplaces are taking a commission fee on shipping costs.

Wall Street firm K. Liu & Company LLC wrote about an agreement (Negotiated Service Agreement, or NSA) between USPS and what it believes is Etsy. 

USPS agreements are usually confidential, ... Read More

Buy or else we'll call you! That's one takeaway from a practice reportedly employed by some companies including eBay Inc. and Wayfair that CNBC described in, "How brands get your phone number and call after they see you on their website."

CNBC said a fan who added tickets to his StubHub shopping cart but closed the app without buying them was surprised to get a phone call from StubHub enticing him with a discount if he bought the tickets immediately over the phone - he didn't even know StubHub knew his telephone number.

A spokesperson for StubHub admitted the company, owned by eBay, ... Read More

eBay executive Jordan Sweetnam returned to the eBay Seller Announcement Board today with another message for sellers. The head of eBay Americas rejoined the company in July after a 3-year stint at Walmart, and we covered his initial September 30th post where he addressed the change in top leadership and said eBay wanted to hear from sellers to ensure their success.

In today's post, Sweetnam announced that his colleague Marni Levine, Vice President of Merchandising, was now Vice President of Seller Operations and Engagement: