
Despite facing a host of problems, eBay will proceed with its annual seller conference in July, and there are some tangible benefits to attending the event. In
2017, eBay invited all attendees into its special Concierge customer service program. And in
2018, eBay provided information about Managed Payments exclusively to eBay Open attendees.
This year, eBay Open will take place on July 23-25, 2019 at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. The cost is $499 per attendee, a $100 increase from 2018 rates. The early bird rate is $350 for those who register by April 11, 2019. (In 2016, the regular registration fee was $199, and in 2017, it was $249.)
The event is a chance for sellers to meet with eBay staff face-to-face and attend workshops. About 2,000 sellers attended last year's eBay Open, with eBay reporting that over 60% of them were first-time sellers.
Last year, eBay also held its annual Top Seller Summit directly preceding the conference, which attracted 300 eBay top sellers representing more than $2B in GMV. (eBay defines Top Sellers as "large, merchant-size businesses with annual sales of $1 million-plus.")
During Devin Wenig's 2018 eBay Open keynote, the CEO told attendees he had a goal of increasing eBay's buyer base from 175 million to half a billion, and he said eBay would have to do the following: modernize the platform; get better at customer service; and get quality sellers and inventory on to the platform.
A lot has happened in the 8 months since the 2018 event, including the departure of some high-profile executives such as Scott Cutler, Bob Kupbens, Laura Chambers, and Dan Tarman - and of course, the attack by activist investors to which eBay recently capitulated.