eBay Open 2019 Essential Attendees Guide!

eBay Open 2019  essential attendees guide is here!

With eBay Open 2019 less than a month away, it means it’s time for sellers to start planning.  So, how will you make the most of your 3 days at this once-a-year opportunity? Get ready to get up close and personal with eBay executives, employees, and fellow eCommerce entrepreneurs!

How much you’ll get out of your time at eBay Open 2019 depends on how much effort you put into planning.

Plan your day for eBay OPEN 2019!

A few minutes spent planning your eBay Open 2019 day, maximizes your results!

Think now about how to best and most wisely utilize your time. Once you’re actually in Vegas, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the event. With the camaraderie of meeting up with old friends and making new ones, it’s so easy to realize on the last day that you’ve missed important workshops. And you haven’t talked with key eBay teams, and/or didn’t spend enough time in the Expo Hall.

Don’t be THAT attendee! Instead, do your planning now, and build in time for fun and spontaneity along the way.

What to bring to Las Vegas in July?

Here are some success strategies to keep in mind at eBay Open 2019, especially if you’re a first-time attendee:

  • Download the eBay Open 2019 App. Typically it’s released a few days before the event. Keep an eye on your emails from eBay Open. The app will have the daily agenda, surprise events and more.
  • Pack plenty of business cards. You’ll want them handy to enter vendor raffles and exchange with fellow sellers.
  • Yes, it’s VERY hot outside but bring a sweater or hoodie as meeting rooms can be chilly.
  • Wear your most comfortable shoes. There is a lot of walking from hotel rooms to the conference.
  • Hydrate! Remember, you’re in the desert, so bring along your favorite reusable water bottle Bonus points  for yo if it’s eBay branded,
  • Take plenty of notes. Many events are taped, but it helps your memory to be a note taker.

Last but not least, have fun!

Back again this year are the super popular  Biz Boosts! Want 1-1 time with an eBay Customer Service representative?! Biz Boost offer you that opportunity. Schedule a Biz Boost appointment to discuss your eBay business in detail. Get recommendations for growing and improving it. You should have received an email from eBay’s Biz Boost Appointment Team about this via (regular email, not through My Messages); click on the link in the email and follow its instructions.

The annual eBay Open Unofficial Meet & Greet is the perfect way to kick off your eBay Open conference experience.

Hosted by the Dallas Meet Up groups’s Stephanie Inge with the help of eBetsy, this year’s opener for Open takes place from 7pm-10pm on Monday, July 22, in the Skyfall Lounge, located in Mandalay Bay’s Delano Tower. No tickets are required. Just show up and enjoy mingling with your fellow eBay sellers. eBay staff  have been known to attend.

Arriving early before eBay Open officially kicks off on July 23? You can register early for the conference: 12pm-5pm Monday or 8am-12pm Tuesday at the eBay Open desk in the lobby of Mandalay Bay. Regular registration starts at 3pm Tuesday. Additionally, the Expo Hall opens from 5pm-7pm for the eBay Open Welcome Registration. This is your chance to scope out the Expo Hall, so be sure to do your homework well in advance:

Go to eBayOpen.com/Sponsors to see who’s going to be there; then click to “Learn more” about each of them.

Make a note of those that interest you most. You can’t cover them all, so it’s important to pick and choose — preferably ahead of time. It’s well worth to walk the sponsor/vendor area. Vendors offer an array of services that are worth knowing about.

Day One on July 23 begins with the opening of The Expo Hall and Reception!

At the Welcome Reception, you can check with vendors regarding special offers for Open attendees or getting a demonstration of their product. Additionally, you can score T-shirts, collector pins, and other nifty swag. Not to be missed:

  • BULQ, purveyors of liquidation goods by the pallet or case, will be offering you a chance to win a $500 BULQ case; just get your eBay Open attendee badge scanned by a BULQ team member and sign up for a BULQ account (if you don’t already have one).
  • StreetPricer will be giving live demos of their eBay repricing tool. Repricing tools give eBay sellers an edge. StreetPricer can keep an eye on your eBay listings. It can move prices up and down maximizing  your sales and profits! I use this tool and love it. I’ll be on hand (Kathy Terrill -I Love to Be Selling)  with the StreetPricer team to give you expert eBay advice.
  • Scotch ™/3M is a first time sponsor at eBay Open 2019. Stop by and learn all about their shipping innovation Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll. Here is a recent blog post all about it! My YouTube shows you Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping roll in action!

eBay Open 2019 Wednesday and Thursday are chock-full of general sessions, workshops, and seller panels!

Before you head to Vegas, go to to eBayOpen.com/workshops to read up on the various workshops and seller panels to be offered, then prioritize them in order of their importance to you and your business. Note: Some sessions are offered more than once. Take time now to prioritize the session you don’t want to miss. Write down your questions, then check the workshop schedule to see who’s likely to have the answers for you.

Check out the speakers, too, for the general sessions as well as for the workshops and seller panels, at eBayOpen.com/speakers.

Typically the general sessions are headed by senior staff and executives. We’ll hear from eBay CEO Devin Wenig, eBay’s Chief Marking Officer Suzy Deering and more. Often after general session you’ll discover these chief executrices in the halls and reception areas of eBay Open. They are accessible to sellers, so walk up and introduce yourself.

eBay executives and staff love meeting sellers.

Bear in mind as well that in addition to the general sessions and workshops, Open offers pop-up mini-events. They all sound great, but you can only be in so many places at once, so be ruthless about sticking to your priorities: eBay search? Seller Hub? Shipping? Google?

Wednesday gets off to a relatively leisurely start, with breakfast offered from 7:30am-9am. After that it’s full-tilt boogie — with breaks for lunch and a snack — until Happy Hour in the Expo Hall winds down at 6:30pm.  Thursday gives you only an hour for breakfast but one additional snack break, wrapping up after a final General Session from 3pm-4pm. At some point, too, eBay will announce the winners of this year’s SHINE Awards. Voting for eBay’s SHINE award begins July 15. be sure to vote!

Then it will be time to get ready for the closing party, 6pm-10pm at Las Vegas’ House of Blues.

Between those 2 days, you could attend a total of 10 workshops/seller panels altogether: 4 on Wednesday, 6 on Thursday. But remember, you also need to allow time for talking with vendors in the Expo Hall as well as for networking with eBay team members, executives, and customer service reps!

See why you need to start planning NOW for eBay Open 2019?

Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll’s Arrival!

I am bursting with excitement because I’ve got some very exciting news to share with you.

I am thrilled to announce that 3M  Scotch™ has selected me to be a Brand Partner with their Scotch ™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll!!!

Loved being a VIP guest of Scotch™ Brand at 3M Center corporate headquarters

You already know and love the Scotch™ brand. They are a trusted name for shipping supplies and adhesives.

To begin, in April, I enjoyed the privilege of traveling to where innovation happens.

I went to the 3M Center corporate headquarters, in St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of the Scotch ™ brand. It was exciting to be the company’s specially invited guest. There, I spent an entire day learning all about  the newest Scotch ™ shipping innovation: Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll. It’s so great, it may in fact be the only packing material you’ll ever need. (I’ll explain why in a minute.)

The team members behind this amazing new product personally demonstrated for me all the features that make Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping roll so incredibly useful.

In addition, I got to put their baby through some pretty strenuous hands-on testing. I even threw my wrapped packages across the room to challenge Scotch ™ Flex & Seal’s durability, so I can report from firsthand experience that it passed the Kathy Terrill throw test!

By now you’re no doubt thinking, “Kathy, just what is Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping roll?”

Scotch ™ Flex & Seal Shipping roll is a shipping innovation for eBay sellers!

Simply put, it’s the future of shipping. The brand-new Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll can replace boxes and polyvinyl or manila mailers. It’s an innovative way to ship relatively small to medium-size non-fragile items. Furthermore, it can save you up to 50% in time, shipping supplies, and storage space for those supplies. It’s recyclable, too! Here’s the skinny: it is a miraculous 3-ply shipping material that comes in 15-inch wide, 10 and 20-foot-long rolls.

The sturdy outer layer is both water and tear resistant.

The middle layer is a built-in cushion to protect your shipped item. Finally, the inner layer utilizes a very cool new adhesive technology that makes it stick securely to itself, but never to your item. Packing and shipping  is literally as easy as 1-2-3. All you need to do it: 1. Cut a piece of Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll to the appropriate size. 2. Fold it around your item (think calzone, not gift wrap). 3. Press around the edges to seal it tightly Then just slap on a shipping label, and voilà! Your custom-sized package is good to go, with nary an inch of wasted space. You don’t even need tape. Best of all, it’s recyclable as plastic.

New Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll revolutionizes packing and shipping for online sellers.

No more searching for the right box for shipping! Scotch ™ Flex & Seal saves eBay seller’s precious time!

No more searching for a box that’s just the right size, and no need to keep bulky assortments of boxes, envelopes, and filler on hand. Think how much space this will free up in your shipping station! (I already know how much space it’s freed up in mine.) To see new Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping roll in action, Check out my YouTube video “eBay Shipping Just Got a Whole Lot Easier”.

HERE is my affiliate link to purchase your own Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping Roll. Give it a try for yourself, then let me know what you think of Scotch™ Brand’s newest shipping innovation.

eBay sellers, simply cut, fold & press the Scotch™ Flex & Seal Shipping roll!

As Scotch™ Partner, I look forward to hearing your feedback!

Summer Selling Pain Relief Arrives eBay Sellers!

There is selling pain at times for most eBay sellers.

There is too much to do, in too little time. Your home or office is full of unlisted inventory. Furthermore, shipping takes too long. Social media is time consuming. Additionally,how do you sort out what needs to done each day? What’s a seller to do?

The pain from struggling with time management is ongoing! Even here in NYC the city that never sleeps, it can seem as if there are not enough hours in the day. So what’s a busy seller to do? What really works?

Here are my top 3 tips to remove selling pain:

First of all, figure out where your time is going. You can’t begin to manage your time until you know what you’re doing with it. For one week, track what you do with your time each day.

Grab my complimentary time trackers. I’ve developed these exclusively for you, my eBay seller friend.

Relieve eBay selling pain with complimentary time trackers, just for sellers!

Be ruthlessly honest in this initial assessment.  Here are the Top Five Time Wasters eBay Sellers Face.The whole point is to figure out where you are wasting or otherwise making inefficient use of your time. Just remember that nobody works at maximum productivity every minute of every day, and you’re allowed to take breaks. So, don’t be too hard on yourself at this point! There is enough selling pain without adding to it!

Second, review your week-long timeline.

Now you can be judgmental: Is your time being spent where you’d like it to be? Is it being spent on the right things? Is your timeline aligning with your priorities?

Chances are you’ll find room for improvement. For example, could you spend 30 less minutes per day on Facebook and instead use that half-hour to take photos of items to be listed? What other bits and pieces of your day are being frittered away that could instead be devoted to getting something done?

Lost seconds add up to minutes, add up to hours, faster than you might think!

But still, don’t be too hard on yourself. Sure, we could all probably benefit from a little more self discipline; however, it’s equally likely that we could all probably benefit from scaling back what we expect of ourselves. Because when all is said and done, there are only so many hours in each day…and probably something not yet done by the end of every one of them! So, try to be realistic when you plan how to more effectively utilize your time. Additionally, streamlining choices, and getting 30 minutes back each day is a HUGE win. 30 minutes is a lot time for shipping or listing!

Third, set and write down 3 goals for your week. For instance:

  1. List 120 items
  2. Clean out storage closet
  3. 1 product-sourcing trip

Look at your calendar and figure out when and how you can accomplish those 3 things. Then go forth and do them!

At the end of the week (or the beginning of the next week; whichever works for you), take a few minutes to assess: Did you meet your 3 goals? Maybe 2 out of the 3? Maybe only 1? Yes or no? Again, be ruthlessly honest, but stop short of beating yourself up for any shortfalls. If you didn’t get everything done, then you just need to re-tweak your initial plan.

Without looking at what is working and what isn’t, you’ll go in endless circles, repeating the same errors or bad choices.

Maybe you really love Facebook, and it’s a bit of a mental health break for you as well as a marketing opportunity. So give up just 15 minutes, not 30. Furthermore, scale back your listing quota for the week to 100 items instead of 120. It’s important to succeed. You get MORE done that way.

Or say you love product sourcing, but personal and/or household errands are falling by the wayside. How can you bundle errands with sourcing? Is your grocery store close to a favorite thrift store or outlet mall? You get the idea!

So there you have it. Time management can be as simple and easy as 1-2-3. It reduces selling pain!

Complimentary time trackers to end eBay selling pain!

  1. Honestly assess how you spend your time.
  2. Set goals for using your time most productively.
  3. Take action; then reassess; and repeat.

Just remember when you’re setting your priorities that sleep is essential, as is eating, LOL. In addition, be sure to carve out time to spend with family and friends as well as give yourself some time to pause and smell the flowers along the way.

In the long run, you’ll not only get more done, you’ll also be happier doing it.

eBay Sales Slump Solution ShelfTrend!

Have your eBay sales slumped recently?

Ever wonder whether you’re the only seller experiencing a drop in eBay sales? Well, wonder no longer…because ShelfTrend’s new Recent Sales Report can help you get to the bottom of why your sales seem to be bottoming out!

There are lots of reasons for a slowdown in eBay sales.

It’s important to dive in and find out what is going on. Maybe there are just less buyers on eBay for your product right now. Maybe there was a change to eBay’s Best Match algorithm, so not as many buyers are finding your listing. Perhaps your price is too high. Or (worse yet), perhaps your product is losing its appeal.

It all adds up to lots of lost sleep while you fret and fume over the question of what’s causing eBay sales to drop.

But ShelfTrend subtracts those worries from the equation. All you have to do is search by keyword, category, competitor, or product identifier. Then ShelfTrend’s Recent Sales Report will show you the Last 7 Days, Last 30 days, and Month to Date sales for the Top 100 Listings as ranked by Best Match: number of items sold, revenue, and pricing.

ShelfTrend‘s eBay sales data is super-easy to use and understand, too.

Using ShelfTrend’s eBay data is super easy and helps you know why your eBay sales have slowed down!

ShelfTrend boils down the complexities first, doing the analysis for you and presenting you with the results. You don’t even need a spreadsheet!

The information in this report is extremely revealing. ShelfTrend’s Recent Sales Report makes it as easy as 1-2-3 for you to:

  1. Compare your own eBay sales to those of your competitors.

Learn how you could improve your listing, pricing, or even your product to regain lost sales.

  1. Identify who and what is dominating search results and sales. Detailed sales analytics for brands, products, and competitors give you an idea of emerging trends and what’s hot on eBay right now.
  2. Evaluate the overall market.

Use the interactive chart — which charts sales volume, sales revenue, and median price — to understand whether the market is experiencing growth, or if everyone is in the same boat with having a drop in sales.

You can search, sort, and filter — e.g., by listing format or condition — to drill down further.

This enables you to uncover critical insights that could change the way you source, price, and sell.

You can also download Recent Sales data as an Excel spreadsheet to glean even more detailed metrics, including item specifics, buyer location, and — soon — product variant. It’s an invaluable tool for assessing the performance of your products and your competitors.

But wait, there’s more! When you sign up for ShelfTrend and run the Recent Sales Report, you also get ShelfTrend’s other reports:

  • Top 500 Live Listings Report
  • New Listings Report
  • Supply Demand Report

When you run these reports together for the same keyword search, category, or competitor, you get a wonderfully well-rounded, real-time perspective on what’s really happening on eBay — not what you guess or hear rumors is happening.

The story behind this ecommerce market data company is both interesting and inspiring.

ShelfTrend was founded by former eBay executives Anojan Abel and Lisa Wong, who worked closely with sellers. Between the 2 of them, they had nearly 20 years of experience with the platform. Their epiphany came when they were asked to figure out why one seller had seen a recent decline in sales over recent weeks, despite not changing anything about their listings.

The seller suspected that the drop in sales might be due to a change in eBay’s Best Match search algorithm.

If your eBay sales have slowed, do you know why?

But a closer analysis of sales data revealed that in fact, a competitor had snuck in and begun listing similar products at lower prices. Because the seller had no easy way to spot this change in the marketplace, they missed critical activity within their category. The result? A huge disruption of their business!

Realizing that even the most seasoned sellers could be caught off-guard when they’re flying blind, Anojan and Lisa created ShelfTrend to help sellers stay on top of their sales.

They’ve got live marketplace data for more than a billion listings in thousands of categories from over 20 eBay countries. Their goal is to arm sellers with the analytics they need to make data-driven decisions about listing and selling on eBay — and to help them stay ahead of their competition.

Now, thanks to ShelfTrend’s suite of marketplace reports, you can identify, research, and monitor your competitors and their selling activity.

You can also analyze market movements to uncover emerging new products and competitors or gauge shifts in demand.

In addition, ShelfTrend lets you benchmark your business. You’ll know where you stand among sellers of similar products, and you can look for opportunities to improve your search ranking, drops in listings, or price changes.

Furthermore, ShelfTrend helps you find profitable niches by highlighting supply gaps vs. buyer demand.

ShelfTrend quickly identifies what IS selling on eBay!

Look at it this way: You can spend hours on eBay marketplace research and not be able to see the forest for the trees. Or you can let ShelfTrend do the work for you and get actionable results, including their new Recent Sales Report. Try ShelfTrend’s Basic Plan for free at ShelfTrend.com.

Take action with ShelfTrend to reignite your eBay sales!

eBay’s Spring Seller Update Protections Promised?!

eBay’s Spring Seller Update for 2019 is live. And it contains lots of good news for sellers.

eBay’s Spring Seller Update 2019 is Live!

Here are some of the benefits in eBay’s Spring Seller Update:

  • Expanded seller protections
  • Continued expansion and rollout of Managed Payments
  • Enhancements to marketing tools
  • Marketplace improvements
  • Updates to inventory optimization

However, let’s take a closer look at eBay’s Spring Seller Update. We’ll start with eBay’s promise regarding added seller protections.

In this seller update, eBay speaks to implementing stronger measures against abusive buyers (such as those who claim an item is not as described in order to score a free return). However, they don’t explain how they plan to do so. More clarity on this would be appreciated.

Also eBay now makes it easier to report buyers for specific offenses. Furthermore, eBay will reduce search visibility for sellers who violate eBay’s drop-shipping policy by using another retailer to ship purchased items directly to buyers.

These are welcome improvements, but again, sellers need to know how they’ll translate into safeguards for good sellers. It will be nice to see how eBay adds to these somewhat vague promises of standing behind its sellers.  Sellers will continue to look for strong, clear and effective Seller Protections in future site updates.

I speak to this in my YouTube eBay Spring Seller Update 2019 – What Seller Protection?

Now, let’s move on to the continued roll out of Managed Payments.

Managed Payments adds revenue to eBay. This is cited in eBay’s 2019 1st quarter earnings report. Understandably, eBay is offering Managed Payments to more sellers as quickly as it can. Google Pay is available to shoppers through Managed Payments as of April 2019. Also Paypal is now launching on a test basis through Managed Payments. You can express your interest in Managed Payments here. Most sellers should be opted in by 2021.

In addition, new user-friendly order numbers will be introduced this summer to help you track and manage orders more efficiently.

Last but not least, starting this July, you’ll be able to refund a percentage of the order amount — up to 100% — from Seller Hub.

Now for some really good news.

For starters, Promoted Listings, eBay’s paid search, is now available to sellers whether you have an eBay store or not. Promoted Listings increases your listings visibility in eBay search results. You pay your chosen rate (percentage of the sale price) whenever a buyer clicks on your Promoted listing, then purchases that item within 30 days.

eBay provides guidance for choosing ad rates as well as detailed sales metrics. Sellers create a campaign from your Active Listings page in Seller Hub. Sales are monitored on your Manage Orders page. Learn all about Promoted Listings here.

More goodness for sellers. It’s all about Seller Hub. Starting May 2019, you can bulk-edit and filter Active Listings by Best Offer. Ditto for “Offer to Buyers”, which sends offers to watchers.

Furthermore, you can also edit Volume Pricing into or out of listings from a handy drop-down menu. Now available to all sellers, Volume Pricing lets you set discounts for multiple purchases of multi-quantity items. As of this update, it works with multi-variation listings, too.

Sellers score with more options to the successful tool Volume Pricing!

 

This will have you doing the Happy Dance sellers.

Starting in July of 2019, Good ‘Til Cancelled (GTC) listing fees will be billed by the calendar month instead of every 30 days!

In addition, in your eBay Seller Hub, you can customize your Active Listings page to add the “Start date” column. This will show you how long each GTC product listing has been active on the site. To see your GTC listings’ auto-renewal dates, add the “End date” column. Now, that’s easey peasey. Thanks eBay! While short term listings are not available in the fixed price format, you can create shorter duration listings for auction listings.

There is news for eBay inventory optimization standards.

Category and item specific updates will affect key categories. All the categories are listed here.Be sure to list your items in “best fit” categories as mandated by eBay.

All in all, the Spring Seller Update of 2019 has good news for sellers.

Seller tools continue to evolve with welcome additions to Best Offer and Volume Pricing. More sellers are being opted into eBay’s Managed Payments. Managed Payments offers more attractive check out choices to shoppers. Note Managed Payments for now does not include International Transactions.

The one disappointment is the “new” Seller Protections. It’s great hearing how eBay stands by its sellers. But there is no new program, or step by consequences laid out for bad buyers. eBay promises more consequences to bad buyers. Sellers will watch eBay, to see if they follow through with substance for these “promised” seller protections.

eBay sellers are looking for promised seller protections.

Meanwhile, read eBay’s 2019 Spring Seller Update here, then decide how to make these new initiatives work for your business.

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