Gift biz unwrapped episode 274.
Speaker:One of the main things that eBay gives you is eyeballs
Speaker:of millions of buyers across the globe,
Speaker:potentially on your list.
Speaker:Attention gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue.
Speaker:Well, and thanks for joining me here today.
Speaker:How is your summer going a little bit different than planned?
Speaker:I'm thinking me too,
Speaker:the weather's really nice here in Chicago,
Speaker:but I miss going out and eating Alfresco or hanging out
Speaker:with friends,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:all the carefree activities that the summer weather brings.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we can still do some of this,
Speaker:but it's so much more complicated with the masks,
Speaker:even though they're getting fun and colorful and sometimes you can
Speaker:even see people's mouth's now that's a little eerie,
Speaker:but we still have social distancing.
Speaker:The number of people who can be allocated when things are
Speaker:indoors, it used to be just so easy and we didn't
Speaker:even realize it,
Speaker:given that I'm so thankful that technology allows us to stay
Speaker:connected. Could you imagine going through social distancing without zoom,
Speaker:like in the olden days,
Speaker:I don't know what I could do the other day.
Speaker:I realized that I've been going live on Facebook for almost
Speaker:three months.
Speaker:Now that seems crazy to me.
Speaker:And that's also in addition to this podcast,
Speaker:did you know about that?
Speaker:Every Monday,
Speaker:Wednesday, and Friday in our group,
Speaker:gifted biz breeze,
Speaker:I'm going live at 11:00 AM central standard time.
Speaker:We talk about all sorts of things and have guests answer
Speaker:business questions and build relationships.
Speaker:If you're new here and you haven't heard about this before,
Speaker:why don't you join us?
Speaker:Just jump over to gift biz breeze on Facebook.
Speaker:It's a community full of fabulous creators of all sorts.
Speaker:There are lots of things happening over there too,
Speaker:which you can hear about all at the close of this
Speaker:podcast. I want to move on to what we're going to
Speaker:be talking about today.
Speaker:We're kicking off a brand new series,
Speaker:all about online selling platforms.
Speaker:There are so many out there and it can be a
Speaker:little confusing about which one you should choose from Etsy to
Speaker:Amazon handmade.
Speaker:And now the new Facebook shops.
Speaker:It's kind of like all the social media options gets completely
Speaker:overwhelming when making decisions well,
Speaker:this series is here.
Speaker:Make sense of all that today.
Speaker:We'll be talking about E-bay,
Speaker:you're going to learn why this platform attracts so many sellers,
Speaker:how things have changed over the years and all the tips,
Speaker:tricks, and tools for success.
Speaker:Today. I have such a treat for you.
Speaker:I want to introduce you to Christine DeMoz of E-bay.
Speaker:Christie is the senior manager of go to market strategy and
Speaker:operations at eBay in her role.
Speaker:She's responsible for updating their sellers and key programs and changes.
Speaker:Christine has been at eBay for over 18 years,
Speaker:working in a variety of roles from customer service to project
Speaker:management, to marketing.
Speaker:One of the main reasons she stayed so long is because
Speaker:she's passionate about the eBay mission.
Speaker:We exist to enable economic opportunity for individuals,
Speaker:entrepreneurs, businesses,
Speaker:and organizations of all sizes.
Speaker:Christine loves that they provide opportunity to anyone from college students
Speaker:to stay at home moms,
Speaker:to retirees and more all who want to start a business
Speaker:selling almost anything online.
Speaker:Christy, welcome to the gift biz on podcast.
Speaker:Sue, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:When I heard about your podcast and had an opportunity to
Speaker:listen to Psalm and hear the focus on small business.
Speaker:I was just thrilled at the opportunity to talk about it.
Speaker:I'm just so passionate about it and so excited to be
Speaker:here. Well,
Speaker:I'm thrilled that you're excited,
Speaker:but I'm just going to warn you.
Speaker:I have a whole list of questions,
Speaker:so get ready.
Speaker:I'm so ready.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Perfect. Before we start,
Speaker:I have a little bit of a tradition here and I
Speaker:know, you know it,
Speaker:since you've listened to some of the shows and that is
Speaker:for you to share with us who you are by way
Speaker:of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to describe that perfect candle that represents
Speaker:you, Christie,
Speaker:what color is it?
Speaker:And what type of quote or mantra would be on your
Speaker:candle? Yeah.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I love this.
Speaker:It's so fun.
Speaker:It made me really have to pause and think about myself
Speaker:and my family and kind of our goals and how we
Speaker:operate. And so for color,
Speaker:I think I'm kind of like a turquoise color and bright
Speaker:and hopefully warm and energetic.
Speaker:And then as far as the motivational quote,
Speaker:my family and I have been watching the last dance with
Speaker:sports being not on right now with everything happening.
Speaker:And my husband grew up watching and loving the late nineties
Speaker:bulls. And so one of the quotes that really has been
Speaker:sticking out to me is you must expect great things of
Speaker:yourself before you can do them.
Speaker:Some people want it to happen.
Speaker:Some wish it would happen and others make it happen.
Speaker:And that's of course by Michael Jordan.
Speaker:And I just love it because my kids sometimes I've noticed
Speaker:it, my boys,
Speaker:that they only want to do something that they're automatically good
Speaker:at. And so I just want them to know that you
Speaker:have to work really hard and it's great when things come
Speaker:easy, but in business and life and everywhere you go working
Speaker:hard gets results.
Speaker:I always say about myself,
Speaker:I'm never going to be the smartest in the room.
Speaker:I'm never going to be the most strategic.
Speaker:I'm never gonna know all the answers,
Speaker:but I'm sure going to work hard.
Speaker:And so I just try to instill that with the way
Speaker:I operate and then the way I operate with my family.
Speaker:And we also have a small business of our own.
Speaker:And so in the way we operate with that.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Well, you've got to tell us,
Speaker:cause we're all curious now what's the small business of your
Speaker:own. Yeah.
Speaker:So it's really,
Speaker:it's more so my husband's side.
Speaker:So like I mentioned,
Speaker:we're a sports family we're really into fitness and activity.
Speaker:So we actually just have a small gym here where we
Speaker:live. And so we have about few trainers that work with
Speaker:us and my husband does personal training and stuff.
Speaker:So unfortunately it's not anything we can sell online,
Speaker:but, but we're a good balance because I'm more of that
Speaker:constant. I like the consistency of having more of a corporate
Speaker:job, whereas he somewhat more creative and kind of where it
Speaker:finds where he can feel his passion by helping other people
Speaker:with their fitness goals.
Speaker:And so we kind of are a family of both sides
Speaker:of the entrepreneur side and then sort of the more official
Speaker:sort of corporate world.
Speaker:I love it Because you can have great conversations at home
Speaker:together. Absolutely Different,
Speaker:but you're still pretty much in line with each other.
Speaker:So that's cool.
Speaker:So Christie,
Speaker:I have to tell you something else,
Speaker:Michael Jordan,
Speaker:you still live like maybe five minutes from me.
Speaker:No. Where you went to my gym.
Speaker:Like the big thing for all the kids when they were
Speaker:younger was to try and trick or treat at his house
Speaker:so they could see him.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:That is amazing.
Speaker:I'm so jealous.
Speaker:Yeah. I just love him.
Speaker:I loved the last day.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:I just thought it was so inspirational.
Speaker:And another podcast I listened to,
Speaker:one of the girls said,
Speaker:she said,
Speaker:I don't know sports.
Speaker:I don't watch sports.
Speaker:But then I realized that it's about hard work and winning
Speaker:and I was in,
Speaker:so like,
Speaker:I just think it's so interesting because it really can apply
Speaker:to, like I said,
Speaker:like all facets of life,
Speaker:just that hard work and that kind of wish they,
Speaker:instead of just wishing to make it happen,
Speaker:working to make it happen.
Speaker:Absolutely. Totally agree with you there.
Speaker:Okay. So let's talk more about you for a second.
Speaker:So what was your life before eBay?
Speaker:Just walk us back.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Did I have a life before eBay?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:No. So I actually went to the university of Wyoming and
Speaker:so I had got my bachelor's and I at the time
Speaker:of managing a movie theater.
Speaker:And so one of our theaters in Colorado needed some help.
Speaker:So the summer after I graduated,
Speaker:I moved to Colorado and I was managing this movie theater,
Speaker:but always with the intent that I would probably move to
Speaker:salt Lake because my boyfriend at the time,
Speaker:which luckily now husband was there and then September 11th happened
Speaker:and I was still in Colorado and then September 11th happened
Speaker:and I felt like,
Speaker:well, I better get there and figure out what job I'm
Speaker:going to have.
Speaker:And like I mentioned,
Speaker:we're way into fitness.
Speaker:So my original education was actually an exercise science.
Speaker:I thought I would help people with their fitness goals or
Speaker:I thought I would help people after they had an injury
Speaker:or I thought maybe I would go into physical therapy.
Speaker:But after I moved to salt Lake,
Speaker:I looked for jobs a little bit and I wasn't finding
Speaker:any of those jobs.
Speaker:And so my mom and I had shopped on eBay and
Speaker:we thought it was cool.
Speaker:And I happened to see that they were hiring.
Speaker:And so I thought,
Speaker:well, I don't want to go too long without having a
Speaker:job. So I'll just go get a temporary job there.
Speaker:I find something that I want to do.
Speaker:And then what made you stay first off?
Speaker:What department then did you start in?
Speaker:So it was obviously entrance role,
Speaker:right? Yep,
Speaker:exactly. It was an entry level role.
Speaker:I really just started in customer service.
Speaker:so@thetimeebayhadacquiredalittlecompanycalledhalf.com. There are probably some book lovers out there who remember
Speaker:it. And so@thetimetheyweresortoftransitioningtheircustomerservicefromthehalf.com
Speaker:company to the eBay side.
Speaker:And so I helped answer half.com
Speaker:emails and I set up some new processes and really,
Speaker:I just immediately fell in love with the company and the
Speaker:opportunity it provided for both buyers and sellers all over the
Speaker:world. And then also for employees,
Speaker:like I had a lot of opportunity to constantly learn and
Speaker:challenge myself and then I just kept staying because of that.
Speaker:I loved our mission.
Speaker:And then I love that I had a chance to continue
Speaker:learning. I think a lot of corporate jobs,
Speaker:you have to do the same thing all the time.
Speaker:It gets exhausting and boring.
Speaker:And I just found that if I raise my hands and
Speaker:kind of go into uncomfortable situations and try to challenge myself
Speaker:that I was able to continue to learn and grow in
Speaker:new ways.
Speaker:So that just kind of has caused me to stay.
Speaker:You also have a really unique perspective because you came in
Speaker:when the company was so much smaller too.
Speaker:So you've been able to see the growth.
Speaker:That's been like a big investment for you also.
Speaker:Absolutely. It's yeah.
Speaker:It's, I mean,
Speaker:I've been through extreme growth,
Speaker:which was kind of like those early,
Speaker:early two thousands.
Speaker:And then of course we all know there was the economic
Speaker:downturn in the fall of 2008.
Speaker:So I was there through all of that.
Speaker:And so there's really been a lot of ups and downs
Speaker:and it's just neat to see that eBay has done a
Speaker:good job,
Speaker:sort of just staying relevant in some of these harder times
Speaker:because when people are in this case,
Speaker:stuck at home or they lost their job or whatever the
Speaker:case may be,
Speaker:if they have a passion and they have something that they're
Speaker:interested in and passionate about a lot of times they can
Speaker:make a great business with that on eBay.
Speaker:So it's been really interesting to watch all the different phases
Speaker:from like extreme growth to some less growth to economic challenges
Speaker:and things like that.
Speaker:So it's been such a learning experience.
Speaker:Like I say,
Speaker:I've been at one company for 18 years,
Speaker:but I've been through all of those changes and I've been
Speaker:through, I think I'm on my fourth or fifth CEO and
Speaker:I think I've had 10 jobs.
Speaker:And so even though it's one company,
Speaker:it feels like it's probably been five or six.
Speaker:You've gotta be so valuable because you have such a unique
Speaker:perspective just through all those experiences.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So E-bay,
Speaker:I'm thinking about my customers and from their mind,
Speaker:and to be honest,
Speaker:I think it's human nature that we all go for.
Speaker:Like the newest,
Speaker:biggest thing that's going on.
Speaker:Right. A lot of our creators,
Speaker:even those who are just starting are like,
Speaker:okay, what platform do I go on?
Speaker:And lots of different types of opportunities and where you can
Speaker:be have gone by the wayside because social media seems to
Speaker:be the place to be,
Speaker:even though they're not brand new,
Speaker:they're still the newest one on the block.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:So I'd love to hear from you as to who he
Speaker:bays for and why you think the strength is at eBay.
Speaker:Yeah. Oh my gosh.
Speaker:That is such an excellent questions.
Speaker:So E-bay is for everyone.
Speaker:So that's one of the things I love about it.
Speaker:And so me,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:being home eBay has moved us all to work from home.
Speaker:So of course,
Speaker:like most people,
Speaker:I have a corner of stuff that I need to get
Speaker:rid of that is either I didn't use it or it's
Speaker:old or whatever.
Speaker:So it applies to me like I can just easily list
Speaker:that and sell it on eBay as a side gig or
Speaker:side hustle.
Speaker:Sometimes we call it and then it also can apply it
Speaker:to like,
Speaker:I could apply to someone who has a big business and
Speaker:maybe they sell vases or something.
Speaker:Obviously they can come online too.
Speaker:So it applies to everyone.
Speaker:And I think one of the things that make it great
Speaker:is that we've been around for so long.
Speaker:Obviously it's still funny to say that a 20 year old
Speaker:company is really a baby,
Speaker:but actually we're coming up on 25 years.
Speaker:I shouldn't say that,
Speaker:but that's just a baby,
Speaker:but actually in e-commerce they started during the bubble and we'd
Speaker:been here throughout.
Speaker:And so we provide a lot of things that some of
Speaker:these new platforms don't always have.
Speaker:We provide great protection to our buyers and sellers.
Speaker:So I remember in the early two thousands,
Speaker:we didn't really have buyer protection.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:I was on the team that helped launch that in the
Speaker:later two thousands.
Speaker:And I was like one of my most exciting moments in
Speaker:my career because prior to that,
Speaker:when people would buy something on eBay and have a bad
Speaker:experience, they'd say,
Speaker:Oh, Chrissy,
Speaker:I did this happened and it didn't work out.
Speaker:What do I do?
Speaker:And it was kind of like,
Speaker:Oh, well,
Speaker:how did you pay?
Speaker:You should contact them and they'll help you.
Speaker:And then once I was able to say,
Speaker:Oh, well let me point you what to do.
Speaker:And we will protect you and you don't have to worry
Speaker:about anything.
Speaker:It felt so good.
Speaker:So just having had that experience,
Speaker:we have lots of protections for buyers and sellers,
Speaker:but you're not always going to find when you're kind of
Speaker:on the social platforms or in newer areas and things like
Speaker:that. And then the other thing is just our scale and
Speaker:our reach.
Speaker:We have millions and millions of buyers across the globe.
Speaker:So another great thing about eBay is that shipping internationally and
Speaker:selling internationally can be very scary and intimidating,
Speaker:but there's so much opportunity.
Speaker:And so eBay has a lot of different tools and resources
Speaker:to help sellers do that.
Speaker:And so if someone's doing great with their North America business,
Speaker:but they're ready to expand to the next thing,
Speaker:we have a lot of different programs to help with international
Speaker:shipping. We have a global shipping program where the seller only
Speaker:has to ship it to a special address in North America
Speaker:and then eBay takes care of the rest to get it
Speaker:to the international buyers.
Speaker:So that,
Speaker:and then just,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:like I said,
Speaker:our scale,
Speaker:there are millions of buyers shopping online on eBay every day.
Speaker:And so you can reach so many buyers with just using
Speaker:one website.
Speaker:So that's another huge opportunity.
Speaker:And then lastly,
Speaker:one thing I would just say is we'd never would compete
Speaker:with our sellers by see a lot of these companies that
Speaker:are coming on and around today that basically use the insights
Speaker:to say,
Speaker:what are buyers buying?
Speaker:And then sometimes they want to create that on their own.
Speaker:And we don't ever do that.
Speaker:And we will never do that.
Speaker:We'll never compete with our sellers.
Speaker:We want their success is our success.
Speaker:We wouldn't be anywhere without them.
Speaker:And so our plan is we would never compete with sellers.
Speaker:We would never try to like say,
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:It looks like XYZ item is selling a lot.
Speaker:We should try to create our own and sell that as
Speaker:well. So again,
Speaker:we don't have inventory,
Speaker:we rely strictly on our sellers for that.
Speaker:So those are a couple of reasons why I think it's
Speaker:a great place.
Speaker:Okay. So one of the things that I think of as
Speaker:I'm talking with different platforms to my clients would be not
Speaker:just the platform and everything that the platform has,
Speaker:but what's the level of ability to be visible on a
Speaker:platform. I mean,
Speaker:with all the different platforms,
Speaker:there are a lot more people coming on to every single
Speaker:platform right now.
Speaker:Right. So with E-bay in particular,
Speaker:what would you say in terms of someone coming on a
Speaker:new hour?
Speaker:I want to later,
Speaker:so give biz listeners stay tuned because we're going to take
Speaker:it from the start in a little bit,
Speaker:but how does somebody let's say they're already established in their,
Speaker:on with products?
Speaker:How do they make sure that their products get seen?
Speaker:Yes. Oh my gosh,
Speaker:that's so important.
Speaker:That's a huge part of it because you're investing time and
Speaker:resources and getting those listed.
Speaker:So you want them to see buyers.
Speaker:So as you can imagine,
Speaker:it really varies based on the category or the product that
Speaker:the person is selling.
Speaker:So example,
Speaker:if like someone was selling iPhone cables,
Speaker:that's going to be a pretty competitive area.
Speaker:And the best way that sellers are going to get visibility
Speaker:and something like that is potentially having a great price or
Speaker:a great photo or a great title.
Speaker:So there are a few different ways,
Speaker:but really,
Speaker:it depends again on the category.
Speaker:So say I know a lot of your users,
Speaker:they make their stuff and they often have customized things and
Speaker:whatnot. So that's a really great place to be because you're
Speaker:not necessarily competing with a lot of other people.
Speaker:So say that you make frames or something.
Speaker:We don't have millions and millions of sellers selling frames on
Speaker:the site is like we do at electronic type of items.
Speaker:So there's a few best practices we always say,
Speaker:which is generally,
Speaker:you want to have great photos because the buyer wants to
Speaker:know what they're getting.
Speaker:And especially in like a more unique and more custom way.
Speaker:And then also you want to have a great description and
Speaker:a great title.
Speaker:That's how they're going to find your item and look at
Speaker:it and whatnot.
Speaker:And then of course we have other tools that can help
Speaker:you as well.
Speaker:So we have a program called promoted listings,
Speaker:and this is basically like an ad program where you can
Speaker:say, you want to kind of increase the visibility on some
Speaker:items for a small fee.
Speaker:And then that way you'll be able to show up in
Speaker:more places across the site and sometimes more towards the top
Speaker:of the search funnel.
Speaker:And so those are just a few small things,
Speaker:but we have tons of tools and resources in our seller
Speaker:center to provide sellers with other things.
Speaker:And in fact,
Speaker:this month we're calling traffic month and we're telling sellers about
Speaker:all the ways that we bring traffic to their listings.
Speaker:And one thing that eBay does that a lot of other
Speaker:platforms don't do as part of what sellers pay in their
Speaker:fees, but we actually pay advertising dollars to Google.
Speaker:And so we basically work hard to make sure that if
Speaker:someone's starting their shopping journey on Google,
Speaker:that eBay sellers listings are showing up as often as possible.
Speaker:So that's automatic.
Speaker:It's part of what we do with sellers listings on the
Speaker:site. They don't have to pay extra,
Speaker:they don't have to do anything different.
Speaker:We just do that automatically.
Speaker:So we try to not only give their items visibility from
Speaker:when buyers start their shopping destination on eBay,
Speaker:but even when they're starting their shopping search outside of eBay,
Speaker:we still are working hard to make sure that you buy
Speaker:items are showing up in those areas as well.
Speaker:Okay. Is that then by people optimizing the different words that
Speaker:they would use in their products and descriptions,
Speaker:You are so good.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:You just want to use those kind of specific items,
Speaker:specifics that tell you exactly what it is.
Speaker:And the photos like funny enough,
Speaker:Google looks at photos when they're serving products.
Speaker:So if you have photos that have writing on them or
Speaker:weird backgrounds or anything like that,
Speaker:it gets less likely that Google will show that.
Speaker:And so we always say like a clean,
Speaker:crisp white background is ideal.
Speaker:And in fact,
Speaker:we, even this year,
Speaker:we launched a new tool in our apps where if you
Speaker:take a photo of something,
Speaker:like say you have a handbag that you take a photo
Speaker:of and you've have it on your carpet and you take
Speaker:a photo,
Speaker:you can actually,
Speaker:within the app,
Speaker:you can cut the background out and just make it a
Speaker:crisp white background,
Speaker:which really helps that product pop.
Speaker:And then again,
Speaker:more likely that it would show up in other search channels.
Speaker:Okay. So this is really important.
Speaker:And Christie you'll hear me explaining this for a second,
Speaker:but so gift biz listeners,
Speaker:just a few episodes ago,
Speaker:we talked about brand visibility.
Speaker:So you being the brand and photos for your product and
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:And we talked about having lifestyle photos,
Speaker:so someone wearing your product or having your product be part
Speaker:of some type of a lifestyle,
Speaker:like a cup on a table,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:Christie, what you're saying is for E-bay,
Speaker:you should do the opposite.
Speaker:It should be just a very clear image of the product
Speaker:period. Yeah,
Speaker:yeah. For sure.
Speaker:So the good news is I would say yes.
Speaker:And so to show up in those other search engines,
Speaker:it's great to have that crisp Y background,
Speaker:simple photo,
Speaker:but that's only to get the buyers to click on your
Speaker:listing. Then once they're in your listing,
Speaker:actually seeing more photos of the product in those lifestyle ways,
Speaker:wouldn't be negative again,
Speaker:say it was like a unique belt that you had painted
Speaker:or something that I've seen really cool popping up.
Speaker:I've seen it on a lot of TV shows.
Speaker:It's like denim jackets with cool hand painted things on the
Speaker:back. So you would want the crisp photo of the denim
Speaker:jacket on the white background,
Speaker:but then you have additional photos for free as part of
Speaker:your listing.
Speaker:So then you could add additional more lifestyle photos that would
Speaker:also help then convert the buyer.
Speaker:So you've shown up in Google search.
Speaker:Now a buyer's actually on your listing considering if they want
Speaker:to buy it or not.
Speaker:If there are additional photos that really sell it and sort
Speaker:of represent your brand,
Speaker:that certainly wouldn't be a bad thing.
Speaker:And I think that would actually help buyers instill that confidence
Speaker:and trust in what they're buying.
Speaker:And then also probably inspire them in some ways on how
Speaker:they might use a product like them.
Speaker:Perfect. That was a great explanation.
Speaker:So, and there's a way to designate which one is your
Speaker:lead photo versus the subsequent photos.
Speaker:Yep, exactly.
Speaker:So important to do that.
Speaker:If you're going to upload multiple photos,
Speaker:always have that single image as your lead photo.
Speaker:Absolutely. Yep.
Speaker:Nailed it.
Speaker:Okay, perfect.
Speaker:And so let's talk a little bit about search terms.
Speaker:You want to pretend like your,
Speaker:the person going to eBay who is going to buy your
Speaker:product and what the words are that they would be using.
Speaker:Right. So not the fancy words,
Speaker:but more basic detailed words specifically of the product.
Speaker:Am I right?
Speaker:Yep. Yep.
Speaker:Exactly. Pretty much.
Speaker:So obviously we've already talked about Michael Jordan.
Speaker:So staying on that trend,
Speaker:as you can imagine,
Speaker:sneakers are all the rage right now,
Speaker:especially after the last dance.
Speaker:So sneakers and the example of sneakers is you would want
Speaker:to use the specific product.
Speaker:Like, are they the air Jordan retro one Royal toe or
Speaker:whatever. So you want to be as specific as possible,
Speaker:but then you wouldn't include things like a lot of former
Speaker:eBay sellers have kind of short terms that they used to
Speaker:use back in the day to describe new inbox and IB,
Speaker:you wouldn't do that today because Google isn't going to look
Speaker:for nib.
Speaker:They don't know what that is.
Speaker:And so the nice thing is you have your title to
Speaker:add those terms.
Speaker:And then you also have your item specifics.
Speaker:So like in the case of the Jordan shoes,
Speaker:you would have the brand which is Jordan.
Speaker:Then you'd have the type and you'd have the style and
Speaker:then you'd have the size and then you'd have the color.
Speaker:So there's a lot of opportunities to add details and really
Speaker:your title should be pretty Chris,
Speaker:but it should have detail.
Speaker:And then if you have more information in those items,
Speaker:specifics, all other search engines also look at those items,
Speaker:specifics and sellers also filter down using those.
Speaker:So for example,
Speaker:if you are searching for what the Jordan retro one Royal
Speaker:blue toe,
Speaker:and you searched that on eBay,
Speaker:you probably are only interested in one side.
Speaker:So there's ways that you can filter down on the left
Speaker:hand side of the page to get to those.
Speaker:So that's a great way.
Speaker:Again, you want to have those details in the items specific
Speaker:so that if someone's searching for a size 11 and you
Speaker:haven't put that in your item specific,
Speaker:you won't get lost in the results.
Speaker:If someone filters down using size.
Speaker:Okay. Got it.
Speaker:So it really sounds like not just putting a photo up,
Speaker:doing a very basic description and calling it a day,
Speaker:but really spending time on having good quality photo.
Speaker:And maybe I'm almost thinking of it like a book cover
Speaker:and then the insides,
Speaker:the base,
Speaker:the product,
Speaker:and then like the other detail of it through way of
Speaker:imagery. And then also the title,
Speaker:the description,
Speaker:all of that,
Speaker:like really spending some time there,
Speaker:because that way you're more likely to be found and let's
Speaker:face it.
Speaker:If you're not found,
Speaker:no one can buy it from you Period.
Speaker:Exactly. The nice thing is it sounds like a lot of
Speaker:work and it is like,
Speaker:I don't want it to say it's not work,
Speaker:but we've actually have a bunch of cool tools that we've
Speaker:launched this year to kind of even tell sellers,
Speaker:they'll give you again,
Speaker:listing those Jordan retros and you haven't included that you'll get
Speaker:a little alert in your selling page that says,
Speaker:Hey, these are some recommended items,
Speaker:specifics, that'll help you.
Speaker:The nice thing is we have lots of tools and resources
Speaker:along the way to teach and show sellers because of course,
Speaker:if you're new to the site and you've never listed before,
Speaker:you don't know all these things.
Speaker:So we have lots of different ways that we help guide
Speaker:sellers and give feedback and things to try to make their
Speaker:items more visible to buyers.
Speaker:Okay. And so a lot of our listeners also,
Speaker:they make one of a kind items for sure.
Speaker:But then there are also people who make candles and so
Speaker:they will be selling maybe 50 of their candles or they're
Speaker:available for 50 candles.
Speaker:Do they list each one individually?
Speaker:Or how would that work?
Speaker:Yeah, great question.
Speaker:There's a multiple way they can do it.
Speaker:So candles is a great example.
Speaker:So say you had like a specific jar candle,
Speaker:but you had different colors or different sense.
Speaker:You can create one listing.
Speaker:Like imagine if you search for it,
Speaker:you can say,
Speaker:I have these different scents or these different colors.
Speaker:And then the buyer can just sort through those in check,
Speaker:but say that you have like,
Speaker:they all look very,
Speaker:very different and you want them to have individual listings.
Speaker:You can also create individual listings.
Speaker:So it's really up to the business person to kind of
Speaker:decide what might be best for them.
Speaker:But if it's easier to just create one listing and then
Speaker:have a list of all the different sense or colors,
Speaker:that's another easy way to do it.
Speaker:We just call it item variations.
Speaker:And so you can easily set that up in your listing
Speaker:as you create it.
Speaker:We'll bring it down to a smaller number.
Speaker:Let's say I have seven,
Speaker:I'm looking at something yellow here.
Speaker:So I'm going to say it's a pineapple.
Speaker:You might've thought I was going to say lemon,
Speaker:but I didn't.
Speaker:It's a pineapple scented candle and there's seven but only seven.
Speaker:So how do I make sure there aren't eight purchases?
Speaker:Yes. Oh my gosh.
Speaker:That's so important because we know it's quite a negative experience
Speaker:if they oversell and then you have to cancel or something,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:You could easily just set the quantity.
Speaker:So like once you lift it,
Speaker:so say for example,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you have your seven,
Speaker:you take your photos,
Speaker:you upload it,
Speaker:you can just set your quantity to seven and then it
Speaker:automatically removes them as they get purchased.
Speaker:And so the one thing is we're not blind.
Speaker:Like there are a lot of sellers who sell multichannel.
Speaker:So say for example,
Speaker:you also have those listed on another platform.
Speaker:That's totally fine.
Speaker:There are actually a lot of third parties and tools out
Speaker:there that help you sort of manage that and look at
Speaker:all of the different quantities.
Speaker:And they might say like,
Speaker:Oh, this sold on XYZ platform.
Speaker:So we'll remove it from eBay.
Speaker:So there are a lot of third parties that can help
Speaker:with that,
Speaker:but otherwise you could always just go in and automatically remove
Speaker:it if it's a smaller scale.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:you just set that quantity and you're good to go.
Speaker:Perfect. Okay.
Speaker:So since you've mentioned other tools to integrate the different platforms,
Speaker:is there one that you would suggest,
Speaker:Oh, good question.
Speaker:We have a lot of awesome partners actually.
Speaker:So channel advisors,
Speaker:one of our old standbys,
Speaker:a lot of folks use them.
Speaker:They help you kind of do multichannel.
Speaker:Gosh, there's so many out there.
Speaker:So it kind of depends on what you're solving for.
Speaker:Like another one that we've been piloting with is one called
Speaker:street pricer.
Speaker:And it's one where basically it helps the seller find the
Speaker:right price for their item.
Speaker:Cause that's another important thing.
Speaker:If you aren't pricing your items,
Speaker:right, again,
Speaker:you might not get found and buyers might not buy them.
Speaker:So it kind of depends on what part of your business
Speaker:you're solving for.
Speaker:But I think we have pages out there that tell you
Speaker:all the different tools and resources that can help.
Speaker:And then of course,
Speaker:just within eBay itself,
Speaker:we also have a ton of different tools and resources to
Speaker:help. So,
Speaker:yeah. Okay,
Speaker:perfect. So I love the fact that you brought up that
Speaker:you might have products that would be selling on other platforms
Speaker:because I don't think it's bad to have things in different
Speaker:places when you're trying to sell your product.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:different people let's face,
Speaker:it are going to gravitate to different places.
Speaker:I love this conversation so far because it sounds very user
Speaker:friendly. It doesn't sound that hard.
Speaker:Oh, hero's my question.
Speaker:I knew it would come back to me if I have
Speaker:those yellow candles,
Speaker:but then I also have,
Speaker:and I'm going to list them just the yellow ones separately
Speaker:from the blue ones from,
Speaker:okay. Is it okay to take the same wording and just
Speaker:switch out the color and the scent?
Speaker:Yep, absolutely.
Speaker:Or should we switch up the whole wording in our descriptions?
Speaker:No needs.
Speaker:Let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsor.
Speaker:And when we jump back in,
Speaker:we're going to hear all about the eBay mobile app.
Speaker:Yes. It's possible increase your sales without adding a single customer.
Speaker:How you ask by offering personalization with your products,
Speaker:wrap a cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday,
Speaker:Annie, or at a special message and date to wedding or
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Speaker:Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name
Speaker:or find packaging?
Speaker:That includes a saying whose meaning is known to a select
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Speaker:touches. They'll tell their friends and word will spread about your
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Speaker:perfect for branding or adding ingredient and flavor labels to for
Speaker:more information,
Speaker:go to the ribbon print company.com.
Speaker:So if you're an individual seller listing your own inventory using
Speaker:our mobile app is so fast and easy.
Speaker:So you can literally list an item from end to end
Speaker:without ever having to hit your PC.
Speaker:So you can you list it all through the app and
Speaker:then say,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:you've created your yellow candle lifting.
Speaker:There's actually a way where you can say duplicate the listing
Speaker:and then just change some details.
Speaker:And that's totally fine because you've already invested the time and
Speaker:thought to get the right details in there.
Speaker:So that's totally fine because you've already know the good stuff.
Speaker:So no reason not to reuse it.
Speaker:Yeah. So put your time in up front to get it
Speaker:really sounding perfect.
Speaker:Then it's easier from there.
Speaker:Exactly. Yup.
Speaker:And I'm guessing,
Speaker:let's say a product isn't moving.
Speaker:Okay. One facet of that could be price.
Speaker:We get that,
Speaker:but it also could be descriptions.
Speaker:So maybe if you see a product that's not moving,
Speaker:maybe tell me if this is an idea or not.
Speaker:Okay. Christie,
Speaker:maybe you take the same product and you list it with
Speaker:a different description.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:And see if it moves better,
Speaker:maybe you take half the inventory and put it into a
Speaker:different description or something.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:And that's the nice thing again,
Speaker:like, so in both our seller hub and our,
Speaker:my eBay will sometimes provide feedback recently,
Speaker:as an Example,
Speaker:I mentioned a couple of times I have two boys and
Speaker:they, my oldest used to love Disney cars.
Speaker:And so whenever I was out shopping,
Speaker:if I saw any car,
Speaker:I thought that he didn't have,
Speaker:I would buy it.
Speaker:And in effect,
Speaker:I ended up with extra.
Speaker:So I've been selling those on the site and I had
Speaker:one that was listed for quite a long time.
Speaker:And it gave me a little alert.
Speaker:Like this listing has been here a long time.
Speaker:Maybe you want to refresh it.
Speaker:And so you can refresh to your point,
Speaker:you can refresh the description,
Speaker:the photos,
Speaker:the price,
Speaker:there are lots of different ways and we'll provide those little
Speaker:tips and tricks right there on the site.
Speaker:Cause really,
Speaker:If you think about it,
Speaker:the success of E-bay is having product moving.
Speaker:Yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker:Yep, yep.
Speaker:Yep. That's what we want.
Speaker:Because again,
Speaker:buyers, aren't coming to the site and finding the good stuff,
Speaker:then we won't have buyers coming,
Speaker:so we definitely want sellers to convert and for them to
Speaker:make sales.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:So now let's back it up to the front.
Speaker:Okay. I wanted people to hear and get a little bit
Speaker:excited about eBay and boy,
Speaker:maybe I need to check this out and this sounds good.
Speaker:And all of that,
Speaker:how does someone get started?
Speaker:Walk us through like really easy someone who's interested now.
Speaker:Maybe as soon as they're done listening,
Speaker:they're going to jump on their computer and check everything out.
Speaker:How would they create an account and get going?
Speaker:So great.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:I'm so glad you asked.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:we've seen so many small businesses who want to be able
Speaker:to get up and running online because they've just had a
Speaker:brick and mortar that they've had great success with.
Speaker:But now with all these stay at home orders and potential
Speaker:longterm challenges that we'll be facing with COVID-19.
Speaker:So we have a lot of different ways for sellers to
Speaker:get started.
Speaker:So they can go to ebay.com
Speaker:flash up and running.
Speaker:And this provides them immediately with basically tools and resources they
Speaker:need to get started.
Speaker:But it's so easy.
Speaker:Really. You just create an account and it's free.
Speaker:You will have to sign up for a way to get
Speaker:paid. So you'll be prompted to sign up for our payment
Speaker:system, which allows you to have buyers pay you right there
Speaker:on the site.
Speaker:You don't even have to have a PayPal account or anything.
Speaker:So all payments go through your school First.
Speaker:So yes.
Speaker:Okay. So great.
Speaker:If you aren't set up with shopping cards on your platform
Speaker:With eBay,
Speaker:you don't need that.
Speaker:It integrates in.
Speaker:Yeah, Right?
Speaker:Yep. Exactly.
Speaker:Okay. We're currently launching it right now,
Speaker:but by about mid July,
Speaker:when we're all chatting with all of you guys,
Speaker:this will be where any new accounts coming on,
Speaker:we'll just go straight into our new payment platform system that
Speaker:does all of this for you.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:So we're so excited not to talk too much about payments.
Speaker:So just while we're on it,
Speaker:it's something we've just been launching over the past couple years.
Speaker:And we're basically about to fully go live with it in
Speaker:the middle of July.
Speaker:And the reason it's so big for eBay and so important
Speaker:for sellers is it gives buyers all of the options to
Speaker:pay. So as we all know,
Speaker:everyone has a different way that they want to pay.
Speaker:Some people have Apple pay.
Speaker:Some people have Google pay.
Speaker:Some people only are comfortable using their credit card.
Speaker:Some people love PayPal.
Speaker:So with our new payment platform,
Speaker:buyers can pay you any way that they like and we
Speaker:handle the payment.
Speaker:And then the money comes to you.
Speaker:The idea is that in case a buyer shopping online and
Speaker:they reach eBay and they're like,
Speaker:Oh, I don't have a PayPal account.
Speaker:That sounds like a hassle.
Speaker:That's all gone starting in the middle of July.
Speaker:So buyers will then be able to pay on most listings,
Speaker:all kinds of different ways from Google pay to Apple pay
Speaker:to credit card.
Speaker:I also liked that.
Speaker:Cause it seems to me,
Speaker:I'm making an assumption here so you can correct me if
Speaker:I'm wrong,
Speaker:but it seems to me then when it funnels into your
Speaker:account, you'll know that it's coming from eBay.
Speaker:So that's a nice way to be able to separate and
Speaker:see what's performing for you.
Speaker:Absolutely. Yep.
Speaker:That's such a good call out.
Speaker:You'll see it come straight from eBay and go,
Speaker:as we were talking about before,
Speaker:the other nice thing is like,
Speaker:we have lots of different reports you can download.
Speaker:If you end up signing up as a business and you
Speaker:have access to our seller hub,
Speaker:there's graphs and charts and things that show you how you're
Speaker:doing this month versus last month and things like that.
Speaker:So you can track your performance and find opportunities where you
Speaker:might want to change things or mix it up.
Speaker:Oh, I love that because we all talk business here.
Speaker:We are talking as if it's a business.
Speaker:Okay. So they come in,
Speaker:they create the free account.
Speaker:They connect to however they want payments.
Speaker:So that I'm assuming that's probably a business checking account.
Speaker:You guys not your personal account business checking.
Speaker:Cause you want to keep your fund separate.
Speaker:If you're running this as your business,
Speaker:is there a place where we should be putting in information
Speaker:and like a description of our company or more information on
Speaker:the seller?
Speaker:Oh good.
Speaker:I'm so glad you asked.
Speaker:So when you register,
Speaker:we don't do a great job of showing this,
Speaker:but we actually have a business specific registration.
Speaker:And so when you go to ebay.com
Speaker:and you go to register,
Speaker:if you just register regularly,
Speaker:right there,
Speaker:you're registering as an individual,
Speaker:but there's a little link at top that says register your
Speaker:business. And so,
Speaker:yes, I totally recommend for all of you out there who
Speaker:are running a business,
Speaker:which is most of you,
Speaker:listeners is definitely register as a business because then it helps
Speaker:us know that you are an actual business and it helps
Speaker:us give you the right information,
Speaker:helps us give you the right promotions,
Speaker:helps us know who you are and potentially even allow you
Speaker:to list more.
Speaker:Because as you can imagine,
Speaker:when someone's just coming on the site to start out,
Speaker:we don't let them list as many things as they want,
Speaker:just because we have to protect our buyers that like someone
Speaker:isn't coming on and listing stuff they don't have.
Speaker:But if you register as a business,
Speaker:you'll get more what we call limits straight away,
Speaker:because we know you're a business,
Speaker:we've got the information about that.
Speaker:So definitely look for that little register as a business link
Speaker:when you're registering on ebay.com.
Speaker:Okay. And does that give you an opportunity to share more
Speaker:of who you are as a business?
Speaker:Just for credibility purposes?
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Okay, perfect.
Speaker:So I'm assuming it's pretty easy.
Speaker:You just follow the prompts,
Speaker:fill in the information.
Speaker:And I really advise you guys,
Speaker:if there's a space for you to fill in something,
Speaker:fill in something,
Speaker:because that just gives more value to your account.
Speaker:Any platform that you're on,
Speaker:make sure you're filling in all the spaces.
Speaker:Don't just leave them blank,
Speaker:like business name and that's it,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if there's descriptions,
Speaker:whatever. Exactly.
Speaker:Okay. So let's say it didn't matter how many products,
Speaker:but what would you suggest a business should do in terms
Speaker:of the number of products that they should start with?
Speaker:Yeah. Good question.
Speaker:So what I would suggest would be like,
Speaker:whatever is most manageable.
Speaker:One important thing I guess I would say is that when
Speaker:you set up your account,
Speaker:you get to pick your handling time.
Speaker:So you can say like you're going to ship same day
Speaker:or you're going to ship in three or four days.
Speaker:So my best recommendation would be to set that up and
Speaker:the amount that you can handle.
Speaker:So if you can handle shipping a bunch of items in
Speaker:a row or in a certain amount of time,
Speaker:setting that up is honestly even more important because that when
Speaker:the buyers are searching based on what you said is your
Speaker:handling time.
Speaker:And then based on where they're located and based on the
Speaker:shipping services you're providing,
Speaker:it's gives the buyer an idea of when to expect the
Speaker:item. And so your listeners might be creating unique items that
Speaker:might be gifts and things like that.
Speaker:So a lot of times buyers are going to be really
Speaker:interested in,
Speaker:when am I getting this?
Speaker:So I think really it's whatever you can manage.
Speaker:So I would say sometimes it's better to start small and
Speaker:test it out,
Speaker:but on sometimes if you're ready and you know what you
Speaker:have and you want to get it solid,
Speaker:there's no reason not to go bigger.
Speaker:As long as you can fulfill the orders that you might
Speaker:get. That's a really good point.
Speaker:Yeah. It really just is individual based on their operation and
Speaker:the product and things like that.
Speaker:But you shouldn't only list one product.
Speaker:Like I'm just gonna just tell you that,
Speaker:like, that doesn't look well,
Speaker:I guess it doesn't matter with eBay,
Speaker:does it because they don't necessarily see a whole store unless
Speaker:I click that way.
Speaker:Right. That's true.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:I think that's a good advice as you have more products
Speaker:to list.
Speaker:Definitely certainly can't hurt,
Speaker:but you're right.
Speaker:Like you probably won't have a lot of feedback to start.
Speaker:So the nice thing is you are listing more products and
Speaker:getting more purchases.
Speaker:You'll build your feedback a little bit faster,
Speaker:which it can be good,
Speaker:but also it's not necessarily required by any means.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:it's just one of those things it's like really based on
Speaker:the individual business needs and what they're able to do.
Speaker:No, I'm kind of going back and forth on that because
Speaker:let's stick with my yellow candle.
Speaker:If I liked that yellow candle,
Speaker:I might want to see what else they have.
Speaker:Like maybe there are some other types of candles I want,
Speaker:so I might go look at other things by that seller.
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:But then if there's nothing else I might say,
Speaker:Oh, you know what?
Speaker:There's nothing like how credible is the seller.
Speaker:If all they have is this one candle True?
Speaker:I think that's a great call.
Speaker:And the other nice thing,
Speaker:like just hearing you describe our candle,
Speaker:it reminded me of a couple other cool things that we
Speaker:have is like,
Speaker:we have what we call,
Speaker:how do we,
Speaker:how do we call it?
Speaker:It's basically a way where you can offer.
Speaker:If they buy more than one,
Speaker:you can get it at a discount.
Speaker:So like a lot of times,
Speaker:if you have again,
Speaker:we'll do your candle example.
Speaker:If you have them all in one listing with the different
Speaker:flavors, if someone buys like pineapple and mango and guava,
Speaker:maybe they get 5% off each additional one.
Speaker:So we have tools that can allow you to set that
Speaker:up, which allow buyers to sort of be incented to buy
Speaker:more and get a discount,
Speaker:which can be really cool.
Speaker:And then same with shipping.
Speaker:We have lots of ways where like,
Speaker:if you buy X amount,
Speaker:you can get a shipping discount and things like that.
Speaker:So I think with all that said,
Speaker:if you have more inventory,
Speaker:it's probably to your point earlier.
Speaker:So to definitely start with at least a few products and
Speaker:you can again,
Speaker:maybe use some of those tools and resources to get more
Speaker:buyers converting on those,
Speaker:if they're kind of related and they're a product that someone
Speaker:might want to buy a couple of.
Speaker:Okay. And so then how does the cost structure work?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:obviously there's a price to listing and Sally and,
Speaker:and all of that.
Speaker:So how does this work with eBay?
Speaker:Yep. Yep,
Speaker:totally. So this one's of course,
Speaker:a little bit more complicated,
Speaker:but not too bad.
Speaker:Just started from like the beginner person.
Speaker:There are two,
Speaker:really two main we'll call it fees you might pay.
Speaker:So you might pay an insertion fee,
Speaker:which would be just a small fee to list the item.
Speaker:But actually for new businesses,
Speaker:we regularly have great promotions where they're very little insertion fee,
Speaker:so be aware of it.
Speaker:But typically we offer lots of free insertion fees for new
Speaker:sellers And fee.
Speaker:That means actually putting the product on the site.
Speaker:Yep, exactly.
Speaker:Again, this is a fairly small amount of what you'll pay.
Speaker:And a lot of times there's free ones.
Speaker:Like we always have different promotions going on where we want
Speaker:to provide people with free listings because we of course want
Speaker:them to be able to list their products with as little
Speaker:risk as possible.
Speaker:So the main fee that you need to be aware of
Speaker:is what we call our final value fee.
Speaker:And so this basically is your item sells.
Speaker:And then obviously we take a commission.
Speaker:This can vary based on the category.
Speaker:And so depending on which category you're listing and the final
Speaker:dive may be different.
Speaker:And so the best thing is,
Speaker:make sure you're thinking about that in your margins.
Speaker:Obviously you want to price it,
Speaker:right, but you don't want to sell it and then go,
Speaker:Oh geez.
Speaker:I didn't know there was going to be a final value
Speaker:fee and now I've lost all my profit.
Speaker:So definitely research the fee for the category that you're going
Speaker:to be selling in and make sure you've sort of built
Speaker:that into your cost.
Speaker:And then the other thing is we have a few different
Speaker:what we call stores.
Speaker:And so each store comes with a different set of benefits.
Speaker:As you can imagine,
Speaker:we have a starter store,
Speaker:which is for like the very basic person just starting out.
Speaker:It kind of gives them some basic tools and resources.
Speaker:And then it goes all the way up to enterprise level.
Speaker:And each store tier kind of comes with a different amount
Speaker:of free insertion fees.
Speaker:It might come with a different other benefits like in some
Speaker:stores I think are basic and above you actually get a
Speaker:coupon and a credit for shipping supplies.
Speaker:So we love doing sellers,
Speaker:use our eBay boxes and eBay tape and stuff.
Speaker:So regularly sellers get credits and coupons to buy those shipping
Speaker:supplies and things like that.
Speaker:So each store tier sort of has a different benefit.
Speaker:So starter would probably good be for a lot of us,
Speaker:we'll just be starting out it's for that exact reason,
Speaker:just kind of a starter store to get people going.
Speaker:And then if things are going well,
Speaker:you can always upgrade to like a basic or premium and
Speaker:so on.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:it's complicated,
Speaker:but not too bad.
Speaker:The benefits make sense because they're probably aligned to what you
Speaker:need at that point of your business development.
Speaker:So that all makes sense to me.
Speaker:Why are there different commissions per category?
Speaker:So it's not too to Denver category,
Speaker:I guess ultimately like we want to be competitive in whatever
Speaker:that market is.
Speaker:So one of our big strategies this year is trying to
Speaker:provide those more vertical,
Speaker:specific experiences.
Speaker:So as an example,
Speaker:again, sneakers,
Speaker:even before the last dance came out,
Speaker:we knew that sneakers were a very,
Speaker:very popular item and we felt like we wanted to have
Speaker:the best inventory on the web.
Speaker:And so last December,
Speaker:we actually created a brand new fee structure for sneakers over
Speaker:a hundred dollars where there's actually zero final buyer fees.
Speaker:And so just because of the landscape of sneakers themselves,
Speaker:we actually found that that was the right business decision to
Speaker:make for right now.
Speaker:Because again,
Speaker:that allows us to get the right inventory and the right
Speaker:buyers to the site.
Speaker:And so basically our strategy is to look at each individual
Speaker:vertical, almost like its own business.
Speaker:As you can imagine,
Speaker:we have thousands of people working at eBay,
Speaker:not each but many verticals have their own,
Speaker:what we call GM.
Speaker:And then their goal is to look at the competitive landscape
Speaker:and make sure that selling on eBay is one of the
Speaker:best places to sell.
Speaker:And so say for example,
Speaker:you're selling guitars.
Speaker:And so if you're looking at what's the cost of selling
Speaker:its guitar on eBay versus reverb or something in that vertical,
Speaker:in that category,
Speaker:we want to be competitive as possible.
Speaker:And so that's sort of why it varies across the different
Speaker:categories is just each business is honestly really different.
Speaker:And we just want to try to be competitive and be
Speaker:a great place to sell for all the different verticals.
Speaker:You're talking about this.
Speaker:I go back to the fact that it doesn't even matter
Speaker:what the cost is.
Speaker:If the product just sits there,
Speaker:you could put your product on a platform that doesn't cost
Speaker:a lot in terms of pulling commissions.
Speaker:But if it's just sitting there,
Speaker:what's the point.
Speaker:Yeah. It's the flow through of the product more than the
Speaker:investment. I mean,
Speaker:yes. As you were saying earlier,
Speaker:Christie, I mean a seller has to walk away with some
Speaker:profit. That's why we're in business.
Speaker:But if you've got that in line,
Speaker:I think it's less important what the commissions are not totally,
Speaker:but a little bit less than is your product actually moving.
Speaker:Exactly. That's so important because that's,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:one of the main things that eBay gives you is your
Speaker:eyeballs of millions of buyers across the globe,
Speaker:potentially on your listings.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:so you sort of have to look at like the value
Speaker:of the platform.
Speaker:So like you said,
Speaker:it fees may be different across platforms,
Speaker:but just thinking of the end to end value of all
Speaker:of the buyers,
Speaker:they get to see your items when you list on eBay.
Speaker:So couldn't agree more.
Speaker:Okay. One more question.
Speaker:And then I know I have two more questions actually.
Speaker:So someone buys a product.
Speaker:What information on that buyer comes down to meme the candle
Speaker:maker. Oh,
Speaker:great. Good question.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:so essentially you get notified that you got paid and to
Speaker:shift, so you basically get their name and their address and
Speaker:their shipping information.
Speaker:And then the nice thing is that's one of the things
Speaker:I'm kind of going off the rails of your question,
Speaker:but just talking about what you get.
Speaker:That's like my mom,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:she has a lot of things she wants to sell on
Speaker:eBay and she was so intimidated by shipping.
Speaker:She just was like,
Speaker:how would I know?
Speaker:Like what's the cost?
Speaker:Like, what do I do?
Speaker:And so we know that's one of the biggest sort of
Speaker:concerns and barriers for new people starting out if they're not
Speaker:used to shipping their products.
Speaker:And so yet again,
Speaker:we have of course,
Speaker:a bunch of tools and resources,
Speaker:but actually like when you sell something,
Speaker:it'll basically fill in what they think they know about the
Speaker:product. So if you're selling shoes,
Speaker:they pretty much know the size of the box.
Speaker:They pretty much know the weight and they can pretty much
Speaker:estimate what the shipping will be.
Speaker:So the nice thing is you can print the label right
Speaker:through eBay.
Speaker:So you get the buyer's address and whatnot,
Speaker:but you don't even really have to worry about it.
Speaker:You just go to your,
Speaker:in your seller hub and you say,
Speaker:I got paid print the label,
Speaker:you click through the steps and you print the label and
Speaker:slap it on the box and you can even call USBs
Speaker:to come pick it up.
Speaker:So you don't get a ton of information on the buyer,
Speaker:but you get exactly what you need and we make it
Speaker:really streamlined and simple for you to just ship that item
Speaker:out to them right away.
Speaker:And of course,
Speaker:if you have your own shipping,
Speaker:if you're already selling a lot online and you have your
Speaker:own way that you print and do labels,
Speaker:that's okay too.
Speaker:You don't have to use the eBay labels.
Speaker:But if,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:you say you're a skateboard shop and you're just starting out.
Speaker:You had a brick and mortar and you've just now started
Speaker:selling online when you're not,
Speaker:you don't have a way to ship easily.
Speaker:You can again,
Speaker:print those labels directly through eBay and you actually get a
Speaker:discount because of our volume with the different partners and stuff.
Speaker:Okay. Alright.
Speaker:And then any questions back and forth between seller and buyer
Speaker:go through the eBay communication system.
Speaker:So you don't get an email or anything.
Speaker:Yep. That's right.
Speaker:Exactly. Okay.
Speaker:But you still have that communication link there available.
Speaker:Yep. Always so that you can reach out to them.
Speaker:They can reach out to you.
Speaker:We never want to like stifle the communication,
Speaker:especially we know in custom items,
Speaker:sometimes the buyer,
Speaker:you have to say like,
Speaker:Oh, this is a sign for my boat.
Speaker:And I want it to say like Christie's boat or whatever.
Speaker:So you can,
Speaker:of course the buyer and seller can message each other back
Speaker:and forth about that.
Speaker:And that's no problem at all.
Speaker:What would you say?
Speaker:This is my final question.
Speaker:What would you say are the most common two or three
Speaker:mistakes that you see that you could advise everybody about before
Speaker:they get started?
Speaker:Oh, for sure.
Speaker:That's such a great question.
Speaker:So you won't be surprised.
Speaker:It kind of goes back to what we've talked about,
Speaker:which is having that great listing.
Speaker:So there's the infamous picture of the guy selling the teapot,
Speaker:where the reflection was himself and the reflection.
Speaker:And so it was funny thing,
Speaker:but the photos make all the difference.
Speaker:So if you're selling like a dress,
Speaker:you don't want to have the dress laying on the bed
Speaker:and kind of like crumpled up.
Speaker:Ideally you would have the dress on a mannequin and then
Speaker:you would have a great photo of it with the crisp
Speaker:white background and things like that.
Speaker:So a lot of times you'll kind of flip through and
Speaker:see, Oh gosh,
Speaker:that doesn't instill confidence.
Speaker:When you see like the sneakers sitting on the dirty carpet
Speaker:or whatever.
Speaker:So all about those photos,
Speaker:they make such a difference.
Speaker:Both in having buyers find your item from anywhere from Google,
Speaker:through eBay direct.
Speaker:And then also when buyers convert.
Speaker:So when buyers see those,
Speaker:Chris, Chris photos,
Speaker:it instills confidence in them to make that purchase.
Speaker:So that's one and then two is not spending the time
Speaker:to do the I'm civics.
Speaker:It takes a little bit of time,
Speaker:like we talked about,
Speaker:but it helps so much in the visibility of your items.
Speaker:So sometimes people will be like,
Speaker:Oh, item specifics.
Speaker:I don't know what that is.
Speaker:I'll just skip it and seems not important.
Speaker:I'll just put it in the description and I'll put it
Speaker:in the title and I should be good and that's not
Speaker:bad. Like,
Speaker:that's certainly,
Speaker:you'll still probably get some eyeballs on it.
Speaker:But the more details you have,
Speaker:the more opportunity you have for buyers to find those items.
Speaker:So item specifics,
Speaker:you're meaning are like new what the size is color brand.
Speaker:Yep. The brand,
Speaker:the color.
Speaker:Exactly. Yep.
Speaker:Totally. And the other one would just be kind of that,
Speaker:what we talked about on the shipping and handling,
Speaker:make sure whatever you set it up to do that you
Speaker:can do that because the worst thing is you've set it
Speaker:up where you say you're going to ship the next day
Speaker:and then you weren't able to,
Speaker:and then you're not meeting buyer's expectations and then they're getting
Speaker:angry and then you're having a bad experience and your customers
Speaker:are having a bad experience.
Speaker:So kind of just making sure you're realistic about what you
Speaker:can do and when you can ship and whatnot so that
Speaker:it sets the customer's expectations correctly.
Speaker:Yeah. Because if your ratings go down,
Speaker:that's not going to help with future sale.
Speaker:Exactly. Exactly.
Speaker:And it will help with like you're being found and all
Speaker:of that.
Speaker:Yep, exactly.
Speaker:Right. Oh my gosh.
Speaker:So great.
Speaker:Wonderful. Thank you so much for all this information.
Speaker:Is there any final word that you would give in terms
Speaker:of the power of eBay?
Speaker:Just as a motivator for all of us to consider as
Speaker:we're looking at all the different platforms available to us?
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:That's such a good question.
Speaker:So the power of BB,
Speaker:I would just say that we are all about small business.
Speaker:Like that is our lifeblood.
Speaker:Like I said,
Speaker:in the beginning,
Speaker:it's like eBay is nothing without our sellers.
Speaker:So the one thing I hear a lot of times from
Speaker:our sellers is they also have a relationship with us.
Speaker:We have emotional connections,
Speaker:not only when you come and sell on the site,
Speaker:if you join our community boards,
Speaker:you might find other candle makers or candle enthusiasts,
Speaker:and you might become friends online or whatever.
Speaker:eBay is the original sort of social media,
Speaker:if you will,
Speaker:because we've had people connecting online for 25 years about their
Speaker:passions and about things that are important to them.
Speaker:So I would say if anything,
Speaker:like, hopefully if you do come and sell on eBay,
Speaker:you'll feel a connection to eBay.
Speaker:And you'll see that we feel that same connection back that
Speaker:we care so deeply about our sellers,
Speaker:our executives and our senior leadership team are regularly meeting with
Speaker:sellers. They're regularly out in our community boards,
Speaker:talking with sellers.
Speaker:They're regularly out in Facebook groups talking with sellers.
Speaker:And you just don't see that in all other platforms where
Speaker:we care so deeply about our sellers and the experience they
Speaker:have. And we want to make sure that eBay is the
Speaker:best marketplace to sell online.
Speaker:And we work really hard to try to do that.
Speaker:And we listened to our sellers.
Speaker:So when sellers reach out to our execs or our customer
Speaker:service team with concerns,
Speaker:we take that feedback very seriously and we try to adjust
Speaker:whenever we can.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:it's just a great place to be and we couldn't do
Speaker:it without our sellers.
Speaker:Yeah. I see the connection with the salary is represented throughout
Speaker:our whole talk.
Speaker:Right. Because from the 20 years,
Speaker:I'll call it 20,
Speaker:but I know it's over 18,
Speaker:but the time that you've been there,
Speaker:the company's continued to evolve and it's been evolving in alignment
Speaker:with what the sellers need and you've done so much towards
Speaker:that end.
Speaker:So that's the proof right there.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Well, thank you.
Speaker:That's so nice.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:thank you.
Speaker:I really appreciate all information.
Speaker:I've Got links over in the show notes page,
Speaker:you guys.
Speaker:So, so you can link directly to Kristi through LinkedIn,
Speaker:but then also just the information for eBay with business.
Speaker:Also the apps that she's mentioned,
Speaker:I'll have linked up there.
Speaker:If anyone has any further questions on this,
Speaker:where would you direct them to go?
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Great question.
Speaker:So there's a few different places.
Speaker:So like you said,
Speaker:I'm always happy to make new friends on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And so you're always welcome to reach out to me directly,
Speaker:but also I mentioned our community boards.
Speaker:If you just search eBay community online,
Speaker:or if you go to ebay.com/community,
Speaker:you can find a community of just about anything there.
Speaker:And our sellers love to help other sellers.
Speaker:We have so many sort of resellers out there.
Speaker:Their whole passion is helping other businesses come online.
Speaker:And then also like you mentioned,
Speaker:we're on Facebook so you can reach out there.
Speaker:And then of course we have regular customer support as well.
Speaker:We've mobilized everyone working from home,
Speaker:as you can imagine to be as safe as possible,
Speaker:but you can still reach us.
Speaker:My thing,
Speaker:if you're just on ebay.com,
Speaker:you'll see customer service and the top,
Speaker:and they can always reach out there.
Speaker:And then just in all the links you provided will provide
Speaker:a lot of great information there.
Speaker:And we would just love to have everybody come over and
Speaker:try it out.
Speaker:Great information.
Speaker:We covered so much in really a short time.
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:really appreciate you coming on and sharing everything about eBay with
Speaker:us today.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:It's my passion,
Speaker:like I mentioned,
Speaker:and I'm just so honored to have been here and been
Speaker:able to talk to you guys about it,
Speaker:To be honest,
Speaker:I haven't heard a lot of you talk about eBay in
Speaker:relation to selling your products.
Speaker:I really liked the idea Kristi presented in terms of using
Speaker:eBay in conjunction with other online platforms.
Speaker:And remember always in addition to your own website,
Speaker:perhaps I've gotten your wheels turning here by the time we're
Speaker:done with this series,
Speaker:you'll have resources to refer back to at your convenience and
Speaker:to do that,
Speaker:I have a great way for you to find what you're
Speaker:looking for.
Speaker:Have you ever listened to a podcast here knew you wanted
Speaker:to write something down,
Speaker:relisten it another time or come back to grab a resource
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Speaker:but for the life of you,
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Speaker:Well, now you can find it instantly.
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Speaker:Make sure to join us again next week,
Speaker:where we'll be covering everything you need to know about Amazon
Speaker:handmade. I can't wait for us to be together again then,
Speaker:and until that time be safe and be well,
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making my favorite post every single week,
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Speaker:Wait, what,
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