Ecommerce Marketplace News Week In Review 4-17-22

Welcome to the Value Added Resource ecommerce marketplace news week in review!

The Etsy Seller Strike wraps up tomorrow. After a week long media blitz and a surprise Tweet of support from Etsy founder Rob Kalin - where will they go from here?

Is The Etsy Strike Really Having An Impact?

Etsy Seller Strike kicked off yesterday with a whirlwind of media attention, but can it have an impact for the long haul?

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

It will be very interesting to see if Etsy CEO Josh Silverman faces any tough questions about the strike during the Q1 2022 earnings call scheduled for May 4th at 5 PM Eastern.

In a move that smells just a little desperate, a day after the Etsy call announcement, eBay quietly scheduled their Q1 2022 earnings call also for May 4th, with an overlapping timeframe starting at 5:30 PM. There was no press release, just an event added to the eBay Investors page.

Is CEO Jamie Iannone hoping everyone will be too distracted by the Etsy call and media attention about the strike to pay close attention to eBay's Q1 performance?

eBay & Etsy Q1 2022 Earnings Calls Scheduled for May 4th

eBay and Etsy are both set to present Q 1 2022 earnings on May 4th 2022.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

eBay Spring Seller Update

Value Added Resource broke the news a day early with a heads up about the eBay Spring Seller Update this week.

eBay Dropping Surprise Seller Update April 13th

eBay plans to drop a seller update April 13th with updates to payments, best offers, & other product enhancements.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Of course there were the inevitable item specifics and category updates that sellers have come to dread from every recent update.

eBay Spring Seller Update 2022 - Categories & Item Specifics

Take a look at the most recent category & item specifics mandates from eBay’s Spring 2022 Seller Update.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

As predicted, they're finally making official announcements about eBay Wallet on demand payouts and spendable funds that were first introduced last month at Investor Day and the Spring Seller Check In.

Phase one of on demand payouts is not immediate - it simply allows those on the weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly schedules to request a payout to their bank at any time, but is still subject to the 1-3 business day processing time.

However, "instant" payouts on demand are still supposedly on the roadmap - during her Investor day segment, Chief Growth Officer Julie Loeger said "later this year sellers in a rush will have the option to send available funds directly to their debit card within 30 minutes for a fee."

eBay Spring Seller Update 2022 - Fees & Financials

Spring 2022 eBay Seller Update Fees & Financials -on demand payouts & spendable funds.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

And finally, as part of this update, eBay will be changing the way page views are counted to exclude "non-human" bot generated views and will also be expanding on the immediate payment required for offers pilot program launched last year.

eBay Spring Seller Update 2022 - Unpaid Items & Page Views

eBay’s Spring 2022 Seller Update is here! First, let’s take a look at unpaid items, listing page views, & messaging.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Sellers in the eBay community and across social media have been discussing the problem of unpaid items a lot lately, noting that there is still a huge problem with auctions going unpaid.

This hits categories like trading cards especially hard due to the sometimes volatile nature of the market - by the time the 4 day waiting period to file an unpaid item claim and relist happens, the value of a particular card could change significantly.

Is eBay Doing Enough About Unpaid Items?

eBay says they are working to eliminate unpaid items on the platform, but is change happening fast enough?

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Other eBay News

The eBay Ads team announced some very small updates to the Promoted Listings Standard simple campaign creation experience.

eBay Promoted Listings Standard Updated

eBay has enhanced Promoted Listings Standard simple campaign creation with new filters & sorting capability.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

eBay announced this week that Eddie Garcia will be replacing Pete Thompson as Chief Product Officer this month.

Garcia is another in a long line of eBay rehires - he was previously at eBay from 2003-2014 rising to Director Marketplaces Business Incubation, later became CPO at Sam's Club and most recently was Head of Commerce at Facebook/Meta.

eBay Appoints Eddie Garcia As Next Chief Product Officer

eBay has announced a replacement for Pete Thompson, naming Eddie Garcia as his successor.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

eBay also quietly brought in a new Head of Customer Experience in December. Nancy Vega brings a lot of customer experience experience to the table, but I have to wonder how one can hope to be an effective Voice of the Customer if the customer doesn't even know you exist.

If it's true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...I am very flattered by Nancy's choice of LinkedIn background image. 😉

eBay Has A New Head Of Customer Experience

Nancy Vega is the new Head of Customer Experience at eBay, quietly taking on the role back in December.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

Speaking of Customer Experience - Nancy might want to do a temperature check on the new account verification process being used for eBay's social support channels on Facebook and Twitter.

Users have expressed privacy and security concerns and I don't blame them one bit!

Do You Trust eBay’s Verification Process For Social Support?

Users express privacy & security concerns about verification process on eBay’s social support channels.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton ~ Founder

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