eBay For Business Facebook Page Shuts Down, Redirects To Main eBay Profile
eBay announced during the Summer 2024 Seller Check In that the dedicated eBay For Business seller support page on Facebook will be shut down, with support functionality directed to the main eBay profile instead.
Director Seller Community & Engagement Rebecca Michals made the announcement, personally promising sellers that they will experience the same level of support on the main eBay profile as they are used to from eBay For Business.
so we love to connect with sellers in many ways, that's the work that my team does in seller community and engagement and I want to talk today about eBay for Business on Facebook which I know is a channel that a a lot of you use.
I'm really excited to share that we are actually going to be combining the eBay for business Facebook page and the eBay Facebook page.
What does that mean? It means that we are going to be bringing the resources that you rely on for managing and growing your business on eBay and the information that you get on Facebook but now you're also going to be able to see how we're reaching buyers in different ways and just be a part of the wider eBay conversation on social.
Now I want to promise you are going to get the same continued customer service support on the eBay page as you have been used to getting on the eBay for Business page that's a promise from me. Let me know personally if you feel like you're notgetting that same level of support.
That assurance didn't go far with sellers who have posted over 60 comments so far on the official notice on the eBay For Business Facebook page.
So we will be lumped in with buyers ? This is the only way I’ve ever been able to get actual help with issues 😩
Well, I am really sorry that you will be in the ranks of the unemployed soon and are being replaced. There will be no one to handle our questions. Monitoring will be done with AI, however, the last couple of times I have had a problem you all just say your turning it over to the tech team anyway. There are nice suits on ebay for your future interviews and have your resume ready. The writing is on the wall.
You know that question that you put on EVERY Seller Survey after Seller Events; Do you feel supported by eBay? I guess I'm changing my answer. You just took away something that was special for just Sellers.
Several sellers noted that they've had trouble accessing US support and that store sellers were not getting the service they are paying for - which is ironic timing considering eBay appears to also be experiencing "call routing issues" today.
Liz Morton
It seems like those of us with stores are getting less & less for services. Are our store fees going down?
Where is US customer service, I haven't been directed to overseas for 10 years, now no seller is connected to US CS, what's going on, most of these idiots don't even speak English, you can't call Utah or Texas, you can only request call back, Has Ebay Been Completely Taken Over by AI?
One seller raised privacy questions and also asked whether eBay is really sure they want buyers to be exposed to all of the issues sellers may air publicly on a daily basis.
When I post on a public page my response is shown on friends’s Fb feed. I have many friends that like the eBay page. I really don’t care for local ppl to know I sell on eBay. Esp if sourcing from Fb marketplace. It’s a shame that we are losing our page and being lumped in with buyers. Do you really want buyers to know of the problems sellers have???
Ironically, this seller also mentioned sourcing from Facebook Marketplace - a reminder that eBay continues to blindly direct their seller customers to engage with them on a website that operates in direct competition with eBay.
Liz Morton
Just in case CEO Jamie Iannone still doesn't get it - a recent Benzinga report shows that Facebook Marketplace has been quietly growing their ecommerce operations, amassing users at an impressive rate.
According to Fortune, Marketplace had more than 15 times more monthly active users (MAUs) than Craigslist in 2017 — 800 million versus 55 million. According to a report from Capital One Shopping, that rose to 1.2 billion today.
On the other hand, the e-commerce giant Amazon had 310 million monthly users in 2023, and eBay had 132 million active buyers worldwide. Regarding active users, Zuckerberg’s Marketplace undoubtedly overshadows them as it has experienced rapid growth and now has tremendous reach.
Meanwhile, eBay continues to sabotage and neglect their own community forum full of dedicated, active, and enthusiastic long time buyers and sellers.
Liz Morton
Interestingly, eBay continues to downplay and ignore their @askeBay support channel via Twitter/X, which was not even mentioned as another avenue to contact support during the Seller Check In.
I've suspected there may be a preference toward Facebook because customer issues may be less obviously visible to the public and less likely to be scrutinized there vs Twitter, but given the fact that Twitter is not (yet) a direct competitor to eBay in the same way that Facebook is, one has to wonder about the priorities involved if that is the case.
You would think the CEO of an ecommerce company that has had less buyers than in 2018 for 8 quarters in a row and is clearly struggling to retain their seller base too would understand the last thing in the world you should want is for your customers to spend even one extra minute on a competitor's site, but apparently Jamie still hasn't gotten that message.
eBay is currently in the process of a major strategy shift, pivoting back to a consumer to consumer focus and hoping that turning more buyers in to sellers can help them meet their goals of returning to GMV growth by Q3 or Q4 of this year.
As part of these efforts, dedicated social pages for eBay Sneakers, Watches and other "focus vertical" categories were shuttered and also directed back to the main eBay profiles.
Liz Morton
The social media consolidation may be a cost cutting maneuver as eBay tries to get by with a smaller team after the latest round of layoffs earlier this year, but it could also be an intentional play to try to appeal to more casual, consumer sellers and/or buyers who also seller who may have been put off by the eBay For Business branding thinking it was too formal or only for higher volume professional sellers.
If that's the case, then continuing to direct users to engage on Facebook rather than eBay's own community is even more short sighted as Facebook Marketplace is directly aimed at taking a big bite out of that casual, consumer to consumer selling pie and is gaining ground with the coveted Gen-Z cohort that eBay is desperately trying to win over.
What do you think of eBay For Business being folded into the main eBay Facebook page? Are you still getting the same level of support from eBay after the change? Let us know in the comments below!
