The beauty of the eBay-PayPal relationship before the 2015 breakup was that buyers and sellers could park funds in PayPal to apply toward future purchases on eBay. That option no longer exists on eBay and Etsy now that those marketplaces have taken over payment processing. But Etsy seems to recognize the synergy that comes from having users be able to park funds in their accounts.

Etsy is testing a new option to give buyers the option of requesting their refunds via Etsy credit. In an announcement on Wednesday, Etsy said:

"We're experimenting with a new way for buyers to get an ... Read More

Some sellers panicked last month when Amazon displayed a banner warning them their accounts were at risk of deactivation, with no clear reason provided. It turned out it was meant as an advisory to sellers that they needed to go through the account verification process again as required by the Inform Act.

Sellers began seeing the alarming notice the week of April 8th; a month later, on May 7th, Amazon published a low key notice to sellers on the Seller Announcement board that, "Starting in April 2024, if you have 200 or more transactions or $5,000 or more in ... Read More

Amazon invited certain "strategic" sellers to an event being held in conjunction with its 5th annual Accelerate seller conference that's taking place this year on September 17-19 in Seattle. Service provider ASGTG, which also hosts events for Amazon sellers, obtained a copy of the invitation and published the following excerpt on Twitter:

A reader recently shared one of his pet peeves about eBay's customer service, and it had us wondering how the services of the major marketplaces compare.

"If you are lucky enough to get through to eBay's Customer Service line, why are they required to come back to the line EVERY 2 MINUTES to ask you to continue to hold," the seller wrote. "Isn't it more ANNOYING than REASSURING? Not to mention the actual time involved to do every two minutes?"

But his email conveyed a more concerning message - the difficulty in accessing eBay customer service in the first place. Conventional ... Read More

An Amazon seller shared a cautionary tale about a buyer who used social media to extort them, and it demonstrates a potential downside of using outside channels to promote marketplace accounts.

The seller explained that someone who purchased one of their items on Amazon sent them a threat via Instagram stating that if the seller didn't refund them twice the cost of the product they had purchased, they would leave a bad review on Amazon.

The buyer didn't communicate with the seller through Amazon's buyer/seller messaging because they knew Amazon would be able to see their threats, the seller explained.

When the seller ... Read More