What do you think of eBay’s new Seller Hub that was announced as part of the Fall 2015 Seller Release? David Bernstein wants to know. The Senior Product Manager at eBay who is focused on improving the selling experience for small to large businesses asked sellers to provide eBay with their feedback through a new board set up exclusively for discussing the new feature.
“For those of you who now have access to Seller Hub, our product team wants to hear your feedback. Please visit the Seller Hub discussion board. It’s a great place to share your comments, hear about the latest changes, and get tips on using Seller Hub,” he wrote.
eBay rolled out a beta version of Seller Hub in October to those who had opted in to test it. It plans to make the new tool available to international sellers next year. And note that while the Seller Hub is accessible via browsers on mobile devices, it is not integrated within eBay apps.
In announcing the new hub in the fall, eBay said it was ideally suited for professional sellers who used My eBay Selling, Selling Manager, or Selling Manager Pro. “Seller Hub puts all your listing and marketing tools – along with insights and selling recommendations – into one place. You’ll get a centralized overview of your listings and order activities, detailed sales information, access to marketing and promotional tools – and competitive listing guidance to help you grow your business.”
Unfortunately the new Seller Hub discussion board came at a cost. Bernstein closed the Seller Hub Group that had been originally set up to solicit feedback. “The old group is closed and one cannot even see the old topics,” wrote a seller. “So much information and suggestions and tips in that forum! Lost???? I almost believe it was closed for some other reason since it is all hidden now. Please move the topics over to this forum.”
However, Bernstein said there was no easy way to move the threads from the old Group to the new Board, which he set up to make it easier for sellers to read and participate in the discussions. “The Group required folks to sign in and become a member to even read messages. The Board allows everybody to read messages without being signed in; and, to post, while you must still sign in to the Community, you don’t have to become a Member.”
He suggested sellers re-post or start up the same discussions in the new board. But, the seller replied, “we cannot get into the old group and see the posts and copy them.”
When seller advocate Griff (Jim Griffith) said eBay could not move posts from a Group to a Discussion Board, the seller suggested eBay open the old group with the topics locked “so they can be seen and a pinned topic saying to continue the discussion in this forum. Then I and others can go in and see what was writien and copy here.”
Another seller wrote, “I can understand wanting to move to a board with broad reach and easy access. Just know that abandoning threads that were in mid-discussion and/or with unresolved, open items feels rather dismissive. It may be an unintended message but unfortunately that’s what’s been delivered.”
And another called the closure of the Group “maddening.”
Sellers were also vocal about the apparent lack of support for third-party widgets in the new Seller Hub.
eBay had said the Seller Hub should be available to all eBay.com sellers by the end of the year, we’ve got a question in to its PR team to see if it will become mandatory once it’s available to all sellers.
Unfortunately eBay’s blunder in ditching the comments and questions its beta testers had already provided the company may hurt its efforts to collect further feedback about the new tool.
