Transcription
What's going on, everybody?
It is Thursday, and I like to put out a quick hitter on Thursday—straight to the point and very concise.
World domination flea market videos are on Monday, Wednesday we do the lives, and Friday we have the podcast. But Thursday, I just like to come real quick with a helpful video, a tip that can help you and your business.
We did talk about this brand new policy last week on Wednesday, which is the Q&A. It's one hour long, and a lot of people don’t have one hour. I did open it up to other members of the community live, and we had some discourse between us—some conversation, good, bad, and ugly—on what they think the impact of this policy is going to be.
It's going to change the landscape for clothing sellers, and I think this policy is going to roll out to even more categories. So let's get into it, and then I'll share your thoughts.
Like I said, we've been discussing this in the group for almost two weeks. We discussed it last week on the live, so let's get into it.
Dear seller,
We wanted to update you on some upcoming changes designed to improve transparency in our rapidly growing pre-loved apparel vertical. These changes aim to enhance the quality of information on pre-loved items and strengthen trust in the platform for buyers.
We have to take every single sentence and dissect it to figure out why they're doing it and how we can greatly benefit from what's going on. This could help reduce the risk of returns for sellers and improve customer satisfaction scores. So this is exactly why they're doing it.
If they have this new category breakdown, it's yet another piece of information that the buyer can use to make informed buying decisions as they do their due diligence. We have condition notes, we have photos, we have descriptions, and we have three places where we can outline the condition of the item. This is going to be a fourth place where it will be even more streamlined and more defined.
Right now, there are only three options: you have new, new without tags, and pre-owned. Pre-owned could be like new all the way to you changed your oil in this shirt a hundred times. It could have a hole the size of an avocado and be missing one sleeve. That is pre-owned, just as is. Like new, it's all the same right now.
So what they're trying to do is cut down on the returns, which cost eBay money, U.S. money, the customer money, and time. I did get some communication from eBay a long time ago; it was in an email that was sent out to everybody probably ten years ago. They did a study that when a customer leaves negative feedback, the odds are they do not come back to the platform. If their last feedback is negative, you'll never see them again.
The frustration with customers, due to either how eBay is set up or due to partially our responsibility as eBay sellers, is very high. When we're trying to scroll through thousands of listings, you click on one that appears to be the condition you're looking for, but when you click on it, it has a hole, a stain, a rip, and a tear. That's not what the customer is searching for.
So, the improved customer satisfaction score aims to streamline or break down the resistance—the walls—between acquiring a customer and showing them exactly what they're looking for, rather than having them go through this maze to find an item that they're actually looking for.
So what's changing?
Starting on January 23rd, 2025, in Australia, and February 4th, 2025, globally, eBay will replace the current single pre-owned condition with the following new values: pre-owned fair, pre-owned good, and pre-owned excellent.
All existing live listings with the pre-owned condition—meaning every single listing on eBay right now in select categories—will automatically transition to the new pre-owned good value on the launch dates mentioned.
What does this mean?
This means out of the bajillion listings that are on eBay right now, every single one of them is moving into pre-owned good. We've been talking about this in the group for a couple of weeks. Just like when they changed item specifics, I was the first one to get all of my listings changed over in item specifics, and I got the bag because there was no competition.
When people were clicking left-hand navigation, if you can get your store, if you can get your listings into the excellent condition category, there's going to be nobody there. The competition's going to be low, and you can get so much money in the interim during this transitionary time.
We've been working towards this, figuring out ways to edit our entire store so we could be the first ones in excellent condition. When this date comes and eBay transitions everything to good, there will be a bajillion listings in good—highly saturated.
When the customer uses left-hand navigation and selects excellent, and there are four items there, and you're one of the four, your conversion rate will go through the roof. You're going to get the money.
There will be a short-term opportunity to get a lot of money because there's not going to be a lot of competition in excellent. Inside of the group, we're working on ways to make the most money during this transition and take advantage of what's going on.
So please review the updated condition descriptions below:
- **New with tags**: Brand new, unworn, with tag attached or in original packaging.
- **New without tags**: Brand new and unworn without tags or original packaging.
- **New with imperfections**: Unworn but with visible flaws.
- **Pre-owned excellent**: Like new, no visible flaws or signs of wear.
- **Pre-owned good**: Gently used with light signs of wear and/or visible flaws.
- **Pre-owned fair**: Significantly visible flaws, heavy signs of wear, and/or missing or damaged components.
This is the definition for these category selections now, and this is what's going to show up when the buyer clicks the little question mark next to what this means.
eBay is going to train the buyer; the box is going to pop up, and they're going to educate the buyer on this change. So they're going to have the opportunity to click an information button, and it's going to come up with this.
If your listing doesn't match this, the buyer's leaving. If your listing doesn't match this, the buyer may report the listing, which may open you up to a policy violation.
To help decide which condition grade to use, here's a quick reference:
- **Pre-owned excellent**: No missing or broken accessories, no discoloration, no yellowing, no aging, no visible signs of wear or fabric pilling, no cuts, no rips, no tears, no marks, no stains, no blemishes.
- **Pre-owned good**: Minimal missing or broken accessories, minimal discoloration, yellowing, aging, minimal visible signs of wear or fabric pilling, minimal cuts, rips, or tears, minimal marks, stains, or blemishes.
And this is where it gets a little bit muddy.
So, like a shirt with a minimal amount of cuts, rips, or tears, eBay says that is good condition.
- **Pre-owned acceptable**: Acceptable discoloration, yellowing, or aging; acceptable visual signs of wear or fabric pilling; few cuts, rips, or tears; acceptable marks, stains, or blemishes.
This is the gray area.
**Important dates**:
- February 23rd, 2025: New conditions go live in Australia.
- February 4th, 2025: New conditions live globally.
What you need to do:
Familiarize yourself with the new condition grades and descriptions. Get ready to set up your business to list items with the new conditions ahead of the January 2025 launch. Ensure all of your existing listings are updated to the new condition grades by March 31st.
This line here, I think we need to pay attention to. I'm not sure, but historically speaking, when eBay does make a change or transition to a category, they do allow us 30 to 60 days. This is what they're doing here to get all of our listings in compliance.
If they do not go into compliance, like they did with item specifics, they set a date. If your listing is not in compliance, they end the listing, and it goes into unsold.
There may be a time here—it might be March 31st, we don't know yet. They need to send out some clarification, which they will. If your listing is not brought up to compliance, they may end the listing, and you're going to have a bunch of listings ended, and they're sitting in your inventory, and you think they're for sale, and they're not.
We don't know yet, but this line here historically coincides with what they have said in item specifics when they made a category-wide change. You need to bring all of your listings up to par by this date; otherwise, they will be ended.
We'll have to wait and see on that.
Categories receiving the new condition grades include:
- Women's clothing
- Men's clothing
- Kids' clothing
- Unisex kids' clothing
- Baby and toddler clothing
- Men's vintage clothing
- Children's vintage clothing
- Fancy dress and period costume
- Wedding and formal occasion
- World and traditional clothing
Why is it important to update old listings into the new category condition grades?
- Ensure your listings are correctly displayed in search results for maximum visibility.
- Maximize the opportunity for reduced return rates and repeat buyers.
- The new condition grades will provide buyers with more detailed information, reducing the likelihood of significantly not as described claims.
We will send a more detailed announcement upon launch in January.
Thank you for your continued support as we work to improve the buying and selling experience.
Best regards,
The eBay Fashion Team
They also have this here:
We have pulled together the following recommendations on how to decide the condition of an item:
- Missing or broken accessories: None is pre-owned excellent; a minor amount is pre-owned good; a moderate amount is pre-owned fair.
- Discoloration, yellowing, and aging: None is excellent; minor is good; moderate is fair.
- Fabric visible signs of pilling or wear: None is excellent; minor or moderate is subjective.
- Cuts, rips, or tears: None is excellent; minor or moderate.
- Marks, stains, and blemishes: None is excellent; minor or moderate.
The above new condition grades will be implemented across the pre-loved fashion apparel experience, from listings to search.
So that is the update.
In my opinion, I think that this will be a net positive moving forward for the platform. There will be a little bit of nuance, like a Carhartt jacket—the more wear, the more value it is. We need to list that correctly.
A pair of jeans that has factory distressing, holes, things like that—we're going to have to see where that lands. I think for me personally, if it's a pair of jeans that was made with holes, rips, or tears, distressing, that would still go in the pre-owned excellent category because that's how it was made.
Even though by definition, if it has holes, maybe it goes into good or fair, I think that's how the item was made, so therefore it lands into excellence.
There’s going to be a little bit of leeway; there’s going to be a learning curve on this. But I think that we need to be honest with ourselves and with our product.
Do not mislead the buyers. Do not inflate the condition of your item because the buyer is going to have an expectation. If that expectation is not met, they're going to send it back for a refund.
This is the question that I leave everybody with:
Two questions:
How do you feel about this? Do you think it is a net positive?
There will be a learning curve. We are going to have to go back through and revise all the listings and bring them up to speed. But do you think in the long run—let's think long term because we're not in business for one day—there's going to be a little bit of pain in the beginning as we have to transfer our listings.
In the long run, is this an improvement for eBay? For me personally, I think it is. I think it was long coming.
I think it's very frustrating for a buyer to do a search, have a bajillion listings, and have no idea what they're clicking on. It could be in perfect condition or far from perfect condition. I don't have a lot of time; I'm going somewhere else.
So I think it's a net positive for the platform.
The million-dollar question—the big question on this video that I want to hear from you guys in the comments:
Does this hinder or hurt items that do now have a flaw? Will the buyer go to left-hand navigation and click pre-owned acceptable? Will they voluntarily do an eBay search and now click left-hand navigation to show me the worst that you got? Or is the excellent and the good going to reign supreme?
I don't know if I'm going to go on eBay and search for a Nike shirt and voluntarily click to show me the worst that you got.
So we need to ask ourselves what kind of items we are going to pick up. Do we have to step up our game? Is eBay now forcing us to step up our game?
No longer are the holes, rips, stains, and blemishes acceptable. The bar may have been raised, and if the bar has been raised, we also have to do a better job.
Something that we also have to consider: historically speaking, we've been able to do a search and look at sell-through—active versus sold. Now do we have to break down the sell-through on condition as well?
Do we have to go active good condition, sold good condition, or are we still going to look globally?
This all needs to work itself out. We need to see what happens, but I would like your thoughts on this.
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So thank you, everybody. I hope this video was helpful. As always, be great! Start off 2025 right. Let's go be great!