I am Sharat Digumarti and I have recently taken charge of a very challenging role as Senior Manager - Marketplace Health for eBay India. Under this role, my team and I are responsible for enhancing both Trust and Safety and Seller Development and Growth.
Trust and Safety I will like to take this opportunity to have a look at the various TnS initiatives in the year gone by. Last year, we undertook various initiatives based on your feedback and requirements. Some of the key initiatives were:
Reduction in Genuine Seller Suspensions: Last year we introduced Enhanced Consequences Guidelines which, depending on the nature of a violation, warned sellers adequately before suspending them. This helped genuine sellers who were unintentionally violating policies to correct their mistakes. In addition, we also made it easier for good sellers to get a faster reinstatement. The introduction of ODR India on the eBay India site further helped sellers in resolving disputes. These initiatives helped us reduce unwarranted suspensions of genuine sellers.
Reduction in Unpaid items: Based on seller feedback, we took various initiatives to reduce unpaid items on eBay. In certain categories which are prone to a high UPI rate, we also initiated controlled buyer verification. This and other similar efforts helped us bring down UPI rates to some extent. However, we have a long way to go to achieve what we desire in this field.
Enhancing Buyer Experience: Our buyers often expressed their displeasure at excessive shipping charges charged by some sellers and bad browsing experience due to multiple listing of same product. We clamped down on high shipping charges and saw good results on the same. While the problem of excessive shipping charges is not yet eliminated, it has reduced significantly. Unfortunately, we were not able to replicate this success in reducing unnecessary multiple listings across the site. However, listing fees in Mobiles and Accessories category brought a significant improvement in improving finding and buying experience for buyers.
Proactive Action against Counterfeit and Infringing Items: In order to remove counterfeit listings from eBay, in addition to co-operating with Right Owners, we recently put stricter measures in place. For items reportedly favoured by counterfeiters, we’ve started requiring additional seller verification. We will continue to keep an eye on products which are prone to counterfeit and will take proactive action against those sellers
Success in Law Enforcement cases: Last year we did extensive outreach to law enforcement agencies and worked closely with them to solve cases against fraudsters who targeted eBay buyers which led to bad buying experiences. Though these buyers have been fully covered under our Buyer Protection Program we still actively supported and worked with various agencies to nab the fraudsters. Learning from these cases further helped us strengthen our filters to catch bad elements at the initial stages itself.
Increasing Transparency via Feedback System: The eBay Feedback system had pioneered the trust levels between complete strangers who transact on the Internet. With evolving times, we enhanced the transparency of the feedback system such that it will help buyers take more informed buying decisions and help identify good sellers. Some initiatives in this regard were the restriction in use of Private feedback by sellers, limitation in using Pre-approved bidder functionality, proactive action against feedback manipulation. The introduction of granular seller feedback will be another step in this direction.
All of the above will tell you about the change in Trust and Safety approach over the past. As my colleague Rob Chestnut mentioned in his message, TnS will be taking a proactive approach to increase trust on the site. I will like to discuss more on the next steps for TnS in my next Open House Discussion on 28th February 2007.
Seller Development Program Last year we also saw an encouraging increase in Power Sellers on the site. My congratulations to all the sellers who worked hard to achieve the status!
Meanwhile, the Power Seller team worked on various initiatives to increase the value of the Power Seller Program. Some such efforts were the Power Seller Recognition program, Power Seller interaction events in Delhi and Mumbai, Free Packaging Material for Power Sellers, dedicated marketing links for Power Seller products etc.
While I will be taking up this role, my focus will be on enhancing the seller development program to ensure that our sellers grow their eBay business. As we finalise the program details, I will request your inputs on how you think we can help you increase your eBay business. The suggestions could be in area of, but not necessarily restricted to, business development support, customer support, increased interaction with eBay team required by you. Your inputs on the above will help us build a robust program that would benefit everyone.
I will be present on the Community Boards for an Open House Session and encourage you to post your thoughts, comments and suggestion on this thread. I am looking forward towards this meeting and I hope to gather lot of useful feedback on the new role which encompasses both Trust and Safety and Seller Development.
See you on 28th for Open house discussion at 4-5 PM!
Regards, Sharat Digumarti Senior Manager Marketplace Health Team
Thanks for your post and I agree and as you might have seen my responses unpaid items ( UPI) is an area of focus and for high value items the chances of UPI could be higher. However there are lots of success stories in cars
It may also worth trying the www.kijiji.in site to list to car
Thanks for the post and share your concerns. As mentioned in my earlier post UPI is an area which we continue to focus
I know that for UPI items the seller also gets the credit on relisting the same item without additional feature fees. I am not sure about International Listing Fee and give your valuable feedback to my team who review fees on the site
Thanks the suggestion on showing UPI strikes against the Buyer ID and shall evaluate it
1.Immediate payment – our product team is working on it and over the next couple of months you would hear more on this topic
2. Verification – Last year we added landline phone verification and at this stage not sure whether one can say CC verification as foolproof especially in India
3. Listing Fees – We have introduced listing fees in mobiles category and reviewing our learning’s from it
Yes there were suggestion and different point of view on this topic and at this stage I will not be able to comment on the timelines/feasibility at this stage
As you would have noticed there are lots of feedback and suggestions or varied topics and based on the priority we need to address each one of them.
The open house was only for 1 have ur and posted my answers during session and responded to all the questions which came live during the 1 hours. Asmentioed by Ritu I wanted to posted the replies for unanswered questions over the course of time
Yash is my id and all my open houses are done with this id
Thanks for you post and sharing the concern for which we need to find an answer.
As krishnaindia suggested in his post and also my new role which I have taken address the Seller Development and Growth and during the next couple of months I hope me and my team would be able to find solutions and start executing them.
If one finds anything suspicious or abnormal activity I recommend one should double check.
More as a Safety Tip I suggest you keep all records of suspicious activity like POD, Payment Proof, Buyer Details which may be handy if your suspicion turns out to be true
I will ask my fraud investigation team to check activity on your account and get in touch with you if needed
I can well imagine how bad would handling 3000 items all over again , I couldnt even managing 10 goods at a time !!
But. learning from my past experiences , if you really need answers, come and ask or even reapeat your questions when Yash or Sharat or Ritu is actually handling them . Another EBAY TIP and Strategy !!!!
Thanks for the post and valid point. From the post it looks like this policy is there on certain sites and I know that US has this and there is falls under the "CONSUMER PRODUCT WARRANTIES"
I will talk to various counterparts on sites which have this policy and develop this for India.
In the next 4-6 weeks I will be able to give a complete answer on this topic
Thanks for your post and not sure whether I understood you concerns correctly or not as it talks about selling limits, others accounts, new account, customer service response etc
It seems from your post there are multiple accounts and not sure why you accounts have selling restrictions. There are valid reasons why restrictions are placed on accounts and all restrictions have remedies and an example of remedy for Policy Violation is Tutorial.
In this open house it would not be possible for me to access your account related issues and reasons.
PowerSeller programme has been very successful , every ebay seller wants to become one someday.
How about introducing .. "catch 'em young" the probable pwersellers based on the trends and keep a watch for them .. I am sure that will make that upcoming lot (about to become PS) very motivated and will help ebay to get more powersellers in future . Give them success stories from existing powersellers through the meets you have and other tips and suggestions from the seniors.. they will improve and make them speed through much faster to that status .
Mr Sharat Digumarti last time when i posted a message regarding my limits on ebay for selling you assured me that it will soon be lifted but amazingly you dissapered just as ebay's customer support does plenty of time than I thought to better remind your so said trust and saftey team about my ID. and here is the message I got (see below)
are you sure we are ebay.in and not ebay australia ???
I am been doing good on ebay and thought to increse my sales with a country based id which would feel more comfortable with the buyerers but you have not only discouraged me from listing/selling but have also made a huge dis-appointment to thoughts of eBay as a market place
I would like to hear your coments on this please so that the whole community know where and what eBay is all about
Hello Ranjeet,
Thank you for writing. This is Trevor, and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you again.
We have advised you of this situation in several emails already. Your selling activities are currently restricted to your manishadiamond account only.
We will not be raising your limits on your manishadiamond-usa account, or any of your other associated accounts.
Further emails regarding manishadiamond-usa and other associated accounts will be read, but may no longer receive a response.
All inquiries related to the limitation of the active manishadiamond account will need to be submitted from the email address associated with that account.
Thank your for your time.
Regards,
Trevor B. eBay Customer Support _______________________________ eBay - Australia's online marketplace
We would be making the announcement on Feedback 2.0 in the next couple of weeks
Yes we dont want to block all new buyers and it may not be the best solution to collect money before the purchase and adjusted post purchase.
We have to look at alternate solutions which are creative and not restrict trial. As you might be aware lot of new buyers in India are first time ecommerce buyers which also needs to be kept in mind while finding solutions
I understand your concern on suspensions of some of the sellers on the site. I will like to give you a broader view on suspension to help you understand the circumstances under which s seller may get suspended. There can be various reasons for a seller's suspension, namely Non payment of eBay fees, Seller Non Performance or too many complaints from buyers agaisnt one seller, eBay Policy Violation, False contact information etc. Suspension is the last step hat is taken agaisnt a seller. If a seller violated any policy, the first step is always to educate the seller becuase most sellers violate policies unintentionally. To ensure that sellers are aware of the policy, at times we ensure that seller has read about the policy before he can make fresh listings on site. Similary, there are other attempts and several warnings made to help the seller resolve the issue before suspending his account. If the issues remain unresolved, the account gets suspended. We endeavaour our best to ensure that genuine sellers are no suspended. Our seller community is as important to us as our buyer community.
Hope I am able to clarify the matter. Please do not hesitate to post a question or clarification
Thanks for the reply . Yes doing things like validation is definitely regulatory .
Answer to that is sell a 'buyer guide' from ebay . The amount paid to buy that will be adjusted with first buy . Make it a sort of a priviledge for the new ebayers. OF course , Meg (Whitman) or John (donahoe) may not keep that barrier for more new users .
I agree there are so many new ebayers who bought my stuff and I am very happy with them .
Thanks for you post and sorry to note the experience. At this stage I dont have specifics of your case such as the reasons for suspension and reinstatment.
We will look at this process and check where we can improve in these situations. Will also pass this as a case to our Customer Support team as also regularly look at improving
Currently PaisaPay service is only a pass through and what you mentioned has regulatory concerns associated with it
As mentioned in my earlier posts, UPI is an area of concerns and we continuously work to reduce UPI rates.
We look at the overall site metrics and restrict buyers and as an individual seller one can effectively use the Buyer Requirement Tool in restricting certain profile of buyers or ask them to verify through SMS etc before placing bids. Check this link to know more http://pages.ebay.in/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html
Hello Sharat, I am Nidhi and my ebay id is guptazmall. it is only last year when I became a member of ebay india. At first, all was going well till my id was suspended. When I loggined to ebay.in with my id and password a suspension notice flashed onto my PC's screen for which no prior intimation was given. It was mentioned in the email that my account is linked to a suspended account and to my surprise the name of that account was not even mentioned in the email. And the next day my account was reinstated and it has been 3 days since my account has been reinstated but till now it has not been updated fully as far as my sold items are concerned. So I am helpless as far as my recent transactions with my buyers have been deleted for insufficient reasons. I am very disstaisfied with ebay as the customer support do not reply till 2 long days have passed. They do not even think that such suspension gives a bad impact on our customers. Moreover when the id is not known and when I donot have such linked id they then mentioned. In future, the trust and safety department have to go a long way in protecting the rights of the sellers at ebay who rely upon them but are not satisfied in return. Try to update my account as soon as possible. Please do improve your response time.
The suggestion needs to be evaluated as some of the fees like Feature Fees need to be charged at the time of listing. Also buyers have various choices to make the payment to the sellers and it would not be feasible to track the payments and then charge sellers
The current UPI process addressed this issues and the FVF - Final Value Fee is revered in situations of failed transactions
1. New ebayers - Pay Rs 25/- throgh Paypaisa and this will be adjusted with first buy . That will bring down a lot of non serious buyers .
2. New Ebayers: A Rs 5 /- transaction with the new buyers credit card which again can be reimbursed against his/her first buy .
3. If the new buyer doesn't pay in a stipulated time frame - blacklist the mobile number with place . So that he cant come back. A SMS reply method with code number to complete the new ebayer form would be ideal .
4. Categorise new ebayer -- if SMS validated Silver , if credita card validated gold. And let sellers choose the type of buyers thay want .
I have so many more suggestions . Let us see how this is answered and looked at .
Thanks for your appreciation for all the effort and frankly users like you make ebay a great marketplace
You are absolutely correct on the concerns and the challenge ebay faces in finding a solution. However, we have not seen many instances of items lost in transit as many sellers use good courier/logistics service providers. I agree ebay should do something in this direction and we will explore during the course of the year
Thanks for your post. I will ask my Cross Border Team to get in touch with you and give guidance and tips to sell on other ebay sites.
If you want to list directly on sites like ebay.com( US) the charges are as displayed on the ebay.com site and the same applies if you want to list on any ebay site.
I agree UPI is an area of concern and we continue to work to reduce UPI rates and thanks for the suggestion
First kindly accept our congratulations from seller for making eBay India a wonderful place to sell.
I missed to see you & eBay India team in Bangalore Top User's meet due to my travel. Like other sellers, i would like to appriciate eBay India team for making eBay a wonderful place for shopping in recent days. I aknowledge that eBay India is improved and i am experiencing good selling. Unlike before i have 100% payment from past month and i am happy about the quality of the buyers, which saves plenty of precious time of a seller. I hope this will continue and attract many buyers and sellers.
I would like to express one concern as a seller. Incase if buyer did not receive an item (due to shipping company's mistake or a natural disaster) and if we have shipping proof, what is the guarentee for a seller protected from unpleasent feedbacks (I have no such bad experience, becuase i try to compensate the loss immediately though i loose some money becuase it is worth getting a -ve feedback ) or loss. Though i have shipping proof, i cannot argue with buyer to avoid bad feedbaks and i have to refund some money quickly to keep him happy. eBay should introduce a insurance scheme for sellers and buyers to prevent the loss(50%-50%). This is really complicated issue i agree, eBay should think for solution to protect sellers from bad experience.
Regarding customer support by email, it is again a big issue and long story. It is becuase how the team handles a problem. If i start, all other sellers will start and when Vasundhara comes to online meet i will raise those issues.
A warm welcome to today's Open House. Today we have Sharat Digumarti with us. Sharat is a Senior Manager - Marketplace Health for eBay India and is excited to be here today. Sharat will be here till 5 PM.
He will be answering the questions already posted by our users, before answering fresh questions in the session.
Please Welcome Sharat! Feel free to post your questions and make the most of this one hour.
hi! i sell in the jewelery category and need some guidance to capture the international market. i need to know the charges of listing in ebay.com.how much in % would i increase my business if i do so ? i also am very upset with the unpaid items policy. the buyers in this case are more protected than the sellers.i suggest some amount should be taken as deposit at registration time n if the buyer does not pay ,a % amount can be deducted and added in the sellers account. in this way non buying bidders will definately reduced and the sellers will also be protected.please take this matter as prime importance.thanks regards nisreen {nakatib}
Hi Sharat, This is haresh_vatwani. I want to suggest you that ebay seller fees should be shown on our ebay account only after we recive the payment. Also the buyers should be completely verified as 9 out of 10 buyers dont pay on ebay after buying the item. And buyers who are not paying after buying something should be done to them.
There are lot of good sellers at eBay. eBay doesn't suspend geunine sellers without a reasons. I think nisha_online & coolstuffmart are back. --------------- With Regards, Navaneeth (snrama)
sir, i am a very old user on ebay, but i found that you are totally unfriendly and non coperative. You had suspended big sellers like nisha_online , coolstuffmart and vibhamall However i hadnt have a deal with them but it was really shoking, I had lost faith in your team, and besides that you says that we are working to get good seller , do you think that there is good from these sellers. Kindly explain Thanks payal_kerela
Going throught the help pages of ebay.com (USA), ebay.ca(Canada), ebay.com.au(Australia), etc., I found this policy on warranties:
"Warranties
eBay members who offer items on eBay valued at more than $15 and who offer either a written warranty or service contract with the items must in their item descriptions provide one of the following:
The full text of the written warranty
A statement explaining how a free copy of the written warranty can be obtained upon written request
A link within the listing that takes members to the warranty details
Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:
Listing cancellation
Limits on account privileges
Account suspension
Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
Loss of PowerSeller status"
But I could not find a simillar policy in ebaY India.
Dear Sharat, Kindly please tell what to do if there is some suspecious activity in our account for example from last 3 days some buyer form ahmedabad is buying many products with different ebay IDs from my listing almost all the address are same or similier with phone numbers also not correct, when i call the number he is not responsing properly that how he bought the item and his activity seems to be suspesious as many phone numbers are not reply. also it seem that payments were done by one bank account only. I jsut want to confirm from ebay that is there any fraud behind it but didnt found any proper link for same. I have shipped the products. Regards Jyoti
In the last 4 months i have tried to sell a few cars via auctions on ebay.in But i have noticed that everytime there is a winning bidder, the bidder claims to have bidded just for the heck of it. I have noticed that till date none of my auctions have had a genuine buyer as a winning bidder. U can go thru my selling account and u would come to know that 4 times i have taken the final value fee credit. The issue is that i have put in 7 days of auction time and 7 days of waiting time of rthe buyer to respond but each time without any result. I guess there is a loop in your selling, buying system. There should be some way by which a bidder on any auction is compelled to pay for the item he bids if he wins the auction. The problem faced by me should be a common problem with most of the sellers using the auction option on ebay.in I request you to look into the matter and make ebay.in a better selling option.
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