eBay

rdemaree · ‎11-03-2025

Ebay is crushing its sellers from multiple angles.

First they want to try and push us into using the EIS which will objectively double or triple BOTH shipping prices and shipping times and if we refuse to sign onto this new shipping program they post a big blue banner on our listings scaring away customers with false information insisting USA buyers HAVE TO pay tariffs which isnt the case at all on CUSMA items and in general it is policy for many shippers to pre-pay tariffs on non-CUSMA stuff unless they use UPS or Fedex but if you want to be competitive you likely arent using UPS or fedex.

So from what I gather about that the only shipping methods that exist in the universe in ebays eyes are EIS, UPS and Fedex. --- Chitchats, Stallion Express, Swiftpost, and Canada Post with Zonos etc. all dont exist at all in the eyes of ebay.

To add insult to injury starting in January apparently if you use promoted listings if someone views your promoted listing ad and you sell it to someone completely different who may have found it organically youre on the hook for the promoted listing ad regardless! I knew something was up when they forced the minimum ad% from 1% to 2%. At minimum they are essentially increasing their fees by 2% but then you always get red box warnings about listing with a 9-15% ad rate on top of the standard 11-15% base selling fee rate so really ebay wants practically 1/3 of a cut from your sale if they have it their way and at the very bare minimum they want at LEAST 15% but preferably in th 20-30% range. They also encourage you to offer free shipping (eat the cost) and then you have to figure in the cost to produce or source the item you are selling. Just how much of a bottom line are sellers supposed to settle for?

I have a theory that to make up for less sales by quantity perhaps ebay wants to make it up in raising fees from sellers primarily but also from buyers who choose to buy using EIS.

These new changes are making it harder and harder to make ebay any sort of full time or serious income and I fear it might slip into just a few big fish and then a bunch of smaller hobby sellers. Perhaps this will become a new trend in ecommerce.

I am not liking the direction ebay is going right now. It is bad enough for Canadian small businesses to have to deal with trumps constant rhetoric on canada and bad policies for small businesses globally and the constant Canada Post strikes. Right now what we need is a platform to do everything in their power to keep sellers above water and its feeling pretty rough right now on ebay.

I opted out of EIS.

I will stop using promoted listings entirely.

If these programs were bringing in big views and sales to justify the big price tags I wouldn't be upset about it but my views/ impressions/ sales for Aug-Oct. 2025 vs same period 2024 are all roughly HALF and thats with me running more sale events than I did last year, listing way more prodcuts etc. So literally double the work for half of the return.

I am going to be testing Etsy out and seeing if I can start gaining some traction there so that if ebay continues sinking and turning into an expensive hobby seller platform I will at least have somewhere else to stand if it gets too bad here.

Would love to hear your thoughts and what you guys are doing in light of all of these disastorous new trade and ebay policies that keep on being hurled at us Canadian e commerce sellers.

tryubik-useonlyasdirected · ‎11-09-2025

I stopped using Promoted Listing in August. I had only used them this year as I had deeply suspected that my sales were being pushed out of the algorithm because I didn't use the service, and honestly sales seemed to be uncomfortably consistent either way. It felt more as if my sales occurred as a metric of total quarterly sales and consistency of new listings.

- We need Algorithmic transparency and a way to collectively engage for our rights as sellers.

As for the EIS. This is a thing and I'm certain it breaks a slew of laws. Not to mention that it intentionally targets the public service. My business account isn't enrolled but it appears my personal account has been auto-enrolled somehow and I'm not sure how to take it off and having just had an offer am likely about to get to try it out. While it will still be turned off as soon as I can figure out how, it will at least give me a better understanding of the process.

- The price EIS charges the buyer is equal to the price I would charge through CPC using tracked packet with a business discount - so it is a direct targeting of the public service. (I've noticed this as a trend elsewhere; ie the amount eBay offers as a discount at CPC vs my CPC business discount, even though eBay has a far deeper discount given them.)

- It's as if the Canadian EIS is directly targetting CPC as cometition. But EIS in the states is insanely high and I fear there is a strategy going on here with EIS US the intended EIS CA outcome. There are so many times there has been a good deal on an item from the states and then the EIS is like x3 what it would actually cost to post the item using USPS so I simply don't bit (or I ask the seller if they will post USPS instead!). Unforunately CPC isn't subsidized (yet) as the USPS is.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎11-09-2025

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected wrote:
I stopped using Promoted Listing in August. I had only used them this year as I had deeply suspected that my sales were being pushed out of the algorithm because I didn't use the service, and honestly sales seemed to be uncomfortably consistent either way. It felt more as if my sales occurred as a metric of total quarterly sales and consistency of new listings.

- We need Algorithmic transparency and a way to collectively engage for our rights as sellers.

As for the EIS. This is a thing and I'm certain it breaks a slew of laws. Not to mention that it intentionally targets the public service. My business account isn't enrolled but it appears my personal account has been auto-enrolled somehow and I'm not sure how to take it off and having just had an offer am likely about to get to try it out. While it will still be turned off as soon as I can figure out how, it will at least give me a better understanding of the process.

- The price EIS charges the buyer is equal to the price I would charge through CPC using tracked packet with a business discount - so it is a direct targeting of the public service. (I've noticed this as a trend elsewhere; ie the amount eBay offers as a discount at CPC vs my CPC business discount, even though eBay has a far deeper discount given them.)

- It's as if the Canadian EIS is directly targetting CPC as cometition. But EIS in the states is insanely high and I fear there is a strategy going on here with EIS US the intended EIS CA outcome. There are so many times there has been a good deal on an item from the states and then the EIS is like x3 what it would actually cost to post the item using USPS so I simply don't bit (or I ask the seller if they will post USPS instead!). Unforunately CPC isn't subsidized (yet) as the USPS is.

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected

In the USA they have a tracked service with letter type parcels that can get items to hub for a few bucks. Something Canadians do not have access to...something that eBay does not understand. (CP Registered is a whackadoodle amount.)

I totally agree with your observations. Seeing the current CP rates compared to what we had a few months ago gives the impression of something going on in the weeds on the Canadian side. With the intention to "pursuade/influence Canadian sellers to use eIS vs CP direct as their new go to method. This would be okay if eIS Canada was a GOOD alternative for Intl. shipping in ALL situations just like eIS USA is not from all perspectives. It defininately appears that eIS was being got played against USPS. Why it has become next to impossible to find USPS rated listings to Canada for several years. Choice is a good thing. Forced choice is not (Re: Automagic opting in). It didn't take much to quickly recognize it is not.

When eIS was implemented in the USA many Canadian buyers tested or saw the posts pointing out the potential issues with the program. I personally can't remember the last time I purchased from a US seller. Has to be over 5 years ago. Now its either from Canada, Amazon or just do without. Potential problems solved.

Re: Getting a US seller to opt out on a by listing basis. Possible a few years ago. Now... Step away from the optimism pills!! But if you want to there definitely will need to be an additional reason thrown in the mix for cancelling orders. None of the current 3 choices are entirely accurate or fair to the buyer.

marnotom! · ‎11-09-2025

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected wrote:

As for the EIS. This is a thing and I'm certain it breaks a slew of laws. Not to mention that it intentionally targets the public service. My business account isn't enrolled but it appears my personal account has been auto-enrolled somehow and I'm not sure how to take it off and having just had an offer am likely about to get to try it out. While it will still be turned off as soon as I can figure out how, it will at least give me a better understanding of the process.

I wonder if the "laws" you're thinking of are the regulations concerning negative option billing. If so, this isn't really the same thing if only for the reason that the eIS service is being offered to you by eBay for no charge.

People tend to be resistant to change or new ideas, and eBay is probably doing things this way because otherwise there would be very little buy in for this new (for Canada) initiative into which eBay Canada appears to have sunk a lot of investment (by its standards).

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected wrote:

- It's as if the Canadian EIS is directly targetting CPC as cometition. But EIS in the states is insanely high and I fear there is a strategy going on here with EIS US the intended EIS CA outcome. There are so many times there has been a good deal on an item from the states and then the EIS is like x3 what it would actually cost to post the item using USPS so I simply don't bit (or I ask the seller if they will post USPS instead!). Unforunately CPC isn't subsidized (yet) as the USPS is.

At first glance, it does appear that eBay is trying to negotiate deals and services with Canada Post only to kneecap them with this new service, but how much involvement does Canada Post have with an international shipment once the item leaves the country? And the way the postal system is going as an international force, there's a very real possibility that the item is destined for a country where its postal service has been partially contracted out, like ours, or even privatized.

Also remember that with eIS, sellers still have the option of using the postal system to get their items to the forwarding hub in Mississauga.

Yes, US eIS can be expensive but its rates are structured to be competitive with USPS counter rates. The expense is either with the addition of the seller's domestic shipping price to the forwarding hub, or else the seller didn't provide any or enough information on the item's shipping dimensions and weight, forcing the eIS calculator to come up with a guestimate.

By the way, my understanding is that USPS, like Canada Post, is supposed to be self-sustaining, but also like Canada Post, it's received a few bailouts over the course of the past several years.

marnotom! · ‎11-09-2025

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Seeing the current CP rates compared to what we had a few months ago gives the impression of something going on in the weeds on the Canadian side. With the intention to "pursuade/influence Canadian sellers to use eIS vs CP direct as their new go to method. This would be okay if eIS Canada was a GOOD alternative for Intl. shipping in ALL situations just like eIS USA is not from all perspectives.

So name me a shipping service that's good for international shipping in all situations. There isn't one. Sellers have to do the research, number crunching, and planning to decide whether a certain shipping service is best for their business. That's why there are so many shipping options out there. Gasp! That means making a choice, doesn't it?

One thing that eIS has going for it that no other shipping or forwarding service I'm aware of has is that it takes responsiblity for returns. This may be a big deal for some sellers, not for others, but it certainly differentiates eIS from Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, Stallion, and Chit Chats.

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
In the USA they have a tracked service with letter type parcels that can get items to hub for a few bucks. Something Canadians do not have access to...something that eBay does not understand. (CP Registered is a whackadoodle amount.)

What's Expedited Lite, then? (Besides being a bit borked at the moment.)

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎11-09-2025

@marnotom! wrote:
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Seeing the current CP rates compared to what we had a few months ago gives the impression of something going on in the weeds on the Canadian side. With the intention to "pursuade/influence Canadian sellers to use eIS vs CP direct as their new go to method. This would be okay if eIS Canada was a GOOD alternative for Intl. shipping in ALL situations just like eIS USA is not from all perspectives.
So name me a shipping service that's good for international shipping in all situations. There isn't one. Sellers have to do the research, number crunching, and planning to decide whether a certain shipping service is best for their business. That's why there are so many shipping options out there. Gasp! That means making a choice, doesn't it?

One thing that eIS has going for it that no other shipping or forwarding service I'm aware of has is that it takes responsiblity for returns. This may be a big deal for some sellers, not for others, but it certainly differentiates eIS from Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, Stallion, and Chit Chats.

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
In the USA they have a tracked service with letter type parcels that can get items to hub for a few bucks. Something Canadians do not have access to...something that eBay does not understand. (CP Registered is a whackadoodle amount.)
What's Expedited Lite, then? (Besides being a bit borked at the moment.)

Before all this tariff up front stuff started all my US packages were going tracked. (Expedited over 2kg). Just was cheaper plus more convenient in my situation compared to UPS(which is ongoing risky with the up charge after the fact) problem. Fedex was a non starter. Majority of Canadian sellers have limited choices for domestic. US sellers have a large variety. You can see by checking the US calculator tool. The biggest problem is eBay labels is not giving sellers access to all the services that they could be. (Fedex/UPS on Canadian side.)

For a 2 lb package within the US, US sellers have 21 choices. 8 choices if you switch to shipping to Canada to Canada 7 choices. Canada to USA. 4 with CP/2 with Fexex/1 with UPS. You can eliminate Small packet air to USA reducing choice.

Our certified is 13.15. Their certified is 4.85. Substantial difference. Our expedited lite is potentially good up to 200 grams. Their media mail is 4.47 up to 15 oz. 5.22 for up 2 lbs. Our up to 500 grams is 7.36

Regarding returns: You get refunded but don't get the goods back. They keep.

Unfortunately not everyone has access to the chit chats etc.

marnotom! · ‎11-10-2025

Lotz, do you get a lot of US buyers complaining that eBay Canada isn't exactly the same as eBay US in terms of shipping, or anything else? That's the only reason I can think why you're frequently pointing out the differences between how the two sites function.

For what it's worth, sellers don't get "refunded" in the event of a return with eIS. They get to keep the money they received for the sale. They have no reason to get the goods back as well when they have the $.