Is Walmart Coming For eBay? - Episode 20 

Great conversation!

Great great great insight and thoughts from Josh and Beard during the last 20 minutes of the show.

If Walmart creates a platform to sell used goods, I would definitely be down for that

You are off on how EBay should approach influencers. They don’t need to approach sellers to influence, they need to approach buyer/collector influencers. We want influencers that will help acquire buyers, not more sellers. Sellers will always migrate to the platforms that are paying them, buyers need the push from people they look up to.

100% agree what Jon said when it comes to shipping policies and travel. I do the same thing, lowering the ship days by 1 day each morning during trip until I return home. I did a 10 day cruise trip and came back with over 60 orders. Long night but kept business and money coming in. When it comes to 10-15% are top rated sellers vs how many people deal with bad sellers, I would think those top 15% are getting 50%+ of all sales on eBay and less than 50% are having possible "bad experiences" from a bad seller. If you are a bad seller, bad ratings or have bad items you probably do not get many sales.

If you complain about how you are treated as a seller on ebay and / or Amazon than just stay away from Walmart. The selling platform itself is straight up garbage, they have no app or reliable sales data and I have yet to have them check in my shipments correctly. The amount of time you spend fixing platform based issues is just not worth what sales you make. There is also a new scam going around with them where a buyer cancels an order AFTER it is shipped. They are automatically refunded without being required to return the item. You are also not made whole. Walmart allows this. In the past 10 days I'm about over $2k in product (Cogs, not sales) as a result of this. Walmart could care less. I've pulled everything off and won't go back until they fix their systems. I should have done this after the Q4 debacle with buyers claiming items not received even though tracking shows delivered. They were refunded and sellers were left holding the bag.

eBay should require sellers to go through a good buyer experience training and expectations. I agree with Beard, I pack better than Amazon does.

Not to defend eBay or WalMart but they are publicly traded companies with large shareholders. They have to be VERY careful about public comments, admitting problems, going into deep detail of their software/processes, etc.. they are MORE concerned and required to make the shareholders happy, not necessarily the sellers/buyers -unfortunately. If they say something or frame something the wrong way it could tank their stock. A PRIVATELY held company as big as an eBay would have no constraints and would probably WANT to be more engaging and transparent with their customer base.

I wish Ebay would hold another live, in-person Ebay Open. At a reasonable cost, NOT in the middle of summer in Vegas. Eat some of the cost if you have to. Show the sellers that you appreciate us!

i sell on walmart and the one big problem is customers saying they don't get the item. Even when the tracking shows it delivered to the customer they will force you to refund the buyer. We got over 20% of our orders being claimed as item not received and the vast majority of them had a tracking number showing delivered. The walmart buyer has figured out that they can get things free on walmart.

@27:40 that’s why I had to take the summer off from selling on eBay. I had so many buyer’s lying about my products. Then returning as defective items. It got so bad that I am seriously considering walking away from eBay. TBH I don’t need ebay, I can walk at any time and I will be fine. And here is the thing, I liked selling on eBay. I liked my small business and what I did. I was an expert in the small niche I sold in. I brought a lot of unique items to my category. I brought more unique items than the top seller in my niche. The top seller has little imagination, but he does churn a lot of items. And the funny thing is he started to copy some of the items I sell! But not sure I’ll go back to selling. Also, if I don’t sell on eBay there is ZERO reason for me to buy on eBay. And in the last several years I have spent multiple thousands of dollars buying. But if eBay is listening, if I’m not a seller on your platform, I won’t be a buyer either. And again I do like eBay, but like the guys say there is a lot of frustration about selling.

Influencers have zero responsibility to correct or babysit other resellers.

yeah i had similar with a case josh. Buyer open a item not received but it showed delivered. but after i summited the tracking. they opened a dispute with there bank. so ebay closed the case right away. Months later i did win the dispute, but the defect of item not received is on my metrics!!

I would love to see eBay comeuppance with level. Even if they charge extra fee each month for goo phone access.

Bullion Exchanges took down their eBay store listings (10+ years, 1 million + sales) like 2 months ago. Seems like they prefer being on Walmart website.

Congrats on your 20th episode!

We had the same problem. Went out for a week but seemed to take us about 2 or a bit more to start making the sales we are use to.

On the seller quality - Josh mentioned in his show that up to 80% of sellers are above standard. These aren't businesses. They're hobbyists. I would be happy to pay for a certified business storefront, so potential buyers can make that conscious choice. Beard has very valid points on options to Amazonifying eBay sellers.

25:00 customer definitely just mailed it to their buddy to show tracking as delivered then snap called ebay for the refund. You lost your outgoing postage via this scam too if that was due back to you.

James? Uh no. Have you seen the way that guy packs? I saw him package an item with what appeared to be rolled lint straight out of his dryer lint trap. Hard pass.😂

If you think Amazon is bad, Walmart is worse. They have something called "lost after delivery". Buyers know this and take full advantage: They keep the item and get a full refund. If they return a damaged item, the most the seller can get is 20% IF he wins the case. Customer service is far worse than Amazon and the catalog is horrible.

I tell you what I'm going to Walmart

Ebay getting influencers from the YT community would be a great idea but I can't even imagine how much drama it would create. Also, partnering with influencers isn't always good for the platform, good for the buyers, or good for other sellers. You can look at what's happening with nicole state on whatnot right now, and she had a contract with whatnot (not 100% sure if she still does). It's counterproductive to sign contracts with these people when they wind up driving buyers away.

Is Walmart for pre-owned also ?

I have to disagree on Alicia Silverstone. Any money spent on having her promote is a waste. She doesn't have a following, doesn't make movies, and has no real social media. Reach would have been better with niche youtube seller - pick the hobbies and bring those peeps in.

There are already ebay RU-vid influencers. When a channel is all sunshine and roses and I love to be selling on ebay and blocks you if you dare even make an attempt at constructive criticism, you know they are a shill for ebay. Ebay is both positive and negative and hiring people to sing the praises of ebay, when we all know that is only half the truth, is a lack of transparency. Are these creators going to disclose they are an ebay affiliate? Many creators even refuse to disclose that the links they are using are affiliate links even though it is required by both the affiliate and the FTC. How about ebay fixing the glitches and stopping useless tests aimed at dreaming up new ways to generate revenue on the backs of the sellers? Current ebay sellers would naturally talk positive about ebay if it is deserved.

Flirts

Just a little insight on a powerful company taking over a marketplace. Which is a very legitimate tactic since all consumers can choose what they want to purchase (there is no forced relationships) I worked at Coca-Cola. Gatorade had invented the hydrating drink and was on every sports field, every college, pro team, in every store. Coca-Cola invented Power Ade, and they systematically replaced their product on the playing field that MILLIONS of people watched. How? By offering free product to Universities, by promoting their teams, paying for shelf space at the local store etc. When I was first working there, we were in the vending machines at the University but the team still used Gatorade. Eventually after countless negotiations for pricing, promotions, etc including free product for ALL the teams for the sidelines or even everyday practices, it eventually infiltrates to the sidelines, which is broadcasted to millions. Since one of my jobs was charitable donations I was in charge of WEEKLY putting in orders for THOUSANDS of dollars worth of product to the football, basketball, baseball teams for free. Its a good product. They weren't selling them poison, they just used their influence to change the industry.