eBay Vice President of Seller Operations and Engagement Marni Levine did her third live-stream video “seller check-in” on Monday, a practice she started as the coronavirus outbreak began disrupting everyday operations for eBay employees and sellers.
Levine broadcast yesterday’s video from home live on the eBay for Business Facebook page in which she discussed upcoming seller promotions, what products are hot on eBay right now, and a refresher on what eBay has done for sellers thusfar.
She also said eBay’s Government Relations team would be doing a broadcast to explain some of the initiatives federal and state governments have done to help small businesses.
eBay will run promotions for non-Store subscribers and consumer sellers, she said (eBay is already running a promotion for Store subscribers). eBay is also looking at ways to bring on “a lot of the struggling brick-and-mortar stores online to eBay through special programs.”
“We are seeing sales in certain categories continue to rise,” and she specifically mentioned items in the Games category, home gym equipment, and office equipment.
Levine also said she’s heard from sellers about shipping challenges and said the USPS offers pickup at most locations around the country, and she also advised sellers to ask friends and people in the community for help if needed. She touted eBay’s new Multi User Account Access feature (MUAA) that allows a seller to give permissions to employees to do certain tasks on their behalf.
She began her webcast by summarizing some of the things eBay has done for sellers to date. The highlights of her “refresher” follows:
1) Seller protections have been put in place for 90 days.
2) eBay is “working day and night” on price gouging, a reference to products essential in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.
3) eBay is giving Store subscribers 100,000 additional free listings (50,000 free fixed-price listings in March, 50,000 in April).
4) eBay updated its policies around out-of-stock durations for multi-quantity listings, giving sellers 180 days (instead of 90 days) before it deletes out-of-stock listings – done in order to keep the listing’s selling history, which is beneficial to search visibility.
5) Fee deferral program in which many sellers can apply for a fee deferral to help with cash flow.
Levine asked sellers to stay safe and healthy and to keep listing on eBay. “The best thing you can do is sell more product and support your family during this time.”
You can watch Levine in this EcommerceBytes Blog post as well as last week’s seller check-in by eBay executive Jordan Sweetnam where he discussed eBay’s current lack of phone support and revealed who’s left on the eBay headquarters campus in San Jose, California.
Just more ebay smoke and mirrors. They aren’t following thru with price gougers of face masks and gloves. Nothing about customer service. What a joke they have become. And who has just 50000 items laying around that need to be listed besides the chinese and their junk.
I found out, after being approved for the payment deferral, that I was charged the full amount of my Invoice on March 30th. What gives eBay. Why would you make such an offer and not follow up appropriately? Another failed program.