Economic realities for Canadians selling on eBay are getting more difficult

[mandy]

Dear eBay Canada Community,

I am writing to you today as both the Managing Director of eBay Canada, and as an eBay seller myself. To me, and to everyone in our office, it becomes more evident every day that the economic realities for Canadians trying to sell on eBay are getting progressively more difficult.

With this in mind, I wanted to let you know we are committed to (and very serious about) doing whatever we can to improve the situation. "Seller profitability” is top of mind with me, and with the team in this office. You have my promise that an immediate and clear focus will be placed on making selling on eBay a more compelling and profitable endeavour for Canadians.

We recently took a look at our overall business priorities for the next year, and have adjusted them to include a strong focus on improving Canadian seller profitability. To jumpstart our initiatives, I want to share with you part of our information gathering action plan for the next 60 days:

  1. Canadian Seller Profitability email Box: An email address, sellereconomics@ebay.com, has been set up so that you can send your ideas, suggestions, and feedback directly to me and the Seller Profitability team.
  2. Seller Phone Interviews: As a seller, you will have the opportunity to arrange an interview, by telephone, with the Management team of eBay Canada. We have arranged a one-day "call-in” session for Canadian sellers to voice their ideas and suggestions in person. This one-day session will take place on Wednesday, September 6, 2006.
      Please click here to sign up for a designated timeslot. Note that spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.
  3. Seller Profitability - A Priority at eBay Canada: Given our increased focus on seller profitability, it is obvious this issue must be the primary job of a dedicated eBay Canada employee to address and analyze the issues and your suggestions. We are making the arrangements now to make this a reality.
  4. Selling on eBay Discussion Board Dedicated Thread: I will be reading all posts to this thread on the Selling on eBay discussion board each morning, and incorporating them into our seller profitability strategy.
  5. Canadian Seller Profitability Forum: A one-day Seller Profitability Forum will be conducted in September at the eBay Canada office in Toronto. We will invite 10 to 12 Canadian eBay sellers, made up of a cross-section of sellers from various categories, businesses, and locations.

Now, here's what you can do to help us work towards our goal of ensuring better seller profitability:

For starters, we would like Canadian sellers to give us their thoughts, comments, ideas and suggestions (as "pie in the sky” or "humble” as they may be) through the above communication channels on the following potential areas of change:

  1. PayPal fees
  2. Shipping costs
  3. eBay insertion fees
  4. eBay final value fees
  5. eBay subscription fees
  6. eBay feature fees

In closing, I want you to know how dedicated we are to working with you, the Canadian eBay selling Community, to do something (or many somethings!) to improve your profitability on eBay. To arrive at the best solution, we will need your feedback - as often as you want and for as long as you want. Together, I know we can come up with some immediate and creative solutions to the economic issues many Canadian sellers are facing.

Thank you. You'll be hearing more shortly.

Jordan Banks
Managing Director
eBay Canada

discussion on the eBay boards: http://forums.ebay.ca/thread.jspa?threadID=500012348&tstart=0