A weekly podcast with the latest e-commerce news and events. Episode 124 is an interview with Bob Kupbens, the VP of B2C and seller experience at eBay.
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Bob Kupbens is the VP of B2C and seller experience at eBay. He’s has previously been responsible for E-Commerce at Target, Delta Airlines, and Apple. We covered a variety of topics including the latest innovations at eBay, as well as if and how brands should use Marketplaces and eBay.
Episode 124 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Monday, March 12, 2018.
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Transcript
Jason:
[0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode is being recorded it on Tuesday March 20th 2018 I’m your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I’m here with your toes Scott Wingo.
Scot:
[0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Jason and Scott show listeners we are still recording live here from shop talk show and sunny Las Vegas,
ahayah top of the Venetian where we have a beautiful view of the mountains and work cited have a really special guest on the show Bob cuppins he is the VP of b2c and seller experience at eBay welcome to Showbox.
Bob:
[0:58] Hey thanks guys for having me really appreciate it.
Jason:
[1:00] Yeah that’s what a consonants in your title.
Bob:
[1:02] Yeah I’m trying to abbreviate it down I’m working on a really cool acronym so I’ll get back to you on that one.
Jason:
[1:06] Awesome maybe Wesner could suggest something in a week.
Bob:
[1:08] Yeah I think absolutely I’m definitely open to suggestions always feedback is welcome.
Jason:
[1:12] Call Sababa one of the ways we always start the show and it’s going to be putting your phone in your case is just get a quick recap of how you came into the industry and what the what years were the Korean turkey.
Bob:
[1:24] Well I feel like I’ve been in the industry for ever I started at Target to have back in the day and I was a part of the other lots of different piece of the business on the film inside.
I mean i t e n e Commerce and so-so had a great experience at Target and and love retail from the from the start at work at Delta Airlines for a long time running brand.
And digital and and then I’ve been I was at Apple for two and a half years on the on the online retail side.
Jason:
[1:47] And there would you like a pot of manufacture.
Bob:
[1:49] You’ve heard of Apple yeah I know it’s it’s a small company based in now in Cupertino they but they built a little that little building you might have you might have seen it from the highway.
Exactly and then and I’ve been at eBay for the last stuff for the last year-and-a-half so I feel like I’m at this industry from a lot of different perspectives you know from manufacturer from retailer enough from the marketplace which is obviously marketplaces a very exciting place to be right now.
Jason:
[2:13] Absolutely and can you tell us a little bit about what being responsible for the BBC seller experience adeeb and Tails.
Bob:
[2:19] Yeah I mean our job is to make sellers successful on the platform so it’s as simple as that so across our large business sellers great brands that we have on the platform,
to you and all of our cohort of small and medium businesses on corner of the Cross across the country who have been in a growing businesses and been very successful all the way to our consumer Sellers and how to wean able consumer Cellular’s to make sure that they’ve got the tools they need,
you know when your consumer seller you want to put some on there,
on the side on eBay and you want to sell and so how do we make sure that all that happens so my team also looks after a policy so all of our returns and and shipping,
and so we’re doing everything we can to try to allow a Subway to be successful and provide the right to ultimately the right by her experience on a sign.
Scot:
[2:59] When when I hear things in Channel visors going to go see some dr. Sellers it’s his mind blowing you know you you see like I don’t know if you’ve met the folks it like bhfo Express.
[3:09] Play CDs selling on eBay how to do that you go visit these people and they’ve got the supply chain and the other like.
Outpacing the targets the world until this mess is pretty amazing some of the books on eBay platform.
Bob:
[3:19] For sure and I think they know we used to we see varying levels of sophistication obviously be a typo and then the Like You Know Jack Chinese guys are like the absolute to the top end of sophistication you don’t on the other end we’ve got,
small one person shops entrepreneurs like people who are like really really working hard to create an incredible business on eBay and we feel so great about the ability to empower,
some of these small businesses and individuals and the jobs that work rating I don’t know it seems like it’s at the Peace of the mission of eBay is really help,
small businesses be successful in and create a platform on which they can they can grow something and I think it adds to the specialness of of eBay in addition to us being at the end of the day a great retailer.
Scot:
[3:57] Jackson listen to showing you be agitated by that point out he’s mine odds only saw that has his own conference room.
Bob:
[4:02] He is actually the only seller that has his own car.
Scot:
[4:04] I was requesting meeting the Jackson remind others, tribute.
Bob:
[4:07] We let it. We’re really to dilapidated now we just put all this like a closet I’m skinny.
Scot:
[4:11] Small HDMI cable.
Bob:
[4:12] Exactly the server room.
Scot:
[4:14] We’re here at the shop talk so and you guys had some interesting you guys release some interesting functionality I’ve seen Devin talk a lot about machine learning and want to get into.
And they are and how you guys are dropping these new technologies to the the massive eBay platform you know there was a really cool augmented reality and how you guys will eat us little bit about that.
Bob:
[4:34] Well I mean we’ve done a lot of things lately one of the advantages of being eBay and having resources is that you can invest in some of these.
Technologies like augmented reality and you were looking at virtual reality machine learning we apply them sometimes behind the scenes to our business you know when we try to optimize things and use machine learning and AI to do that another time to make it more fun center so we had launched a.
Attack technology called image search which is native in our in our mobile apps and it’s really cool that one check for you if you’re interested remember there’s a meme where you take a picture of yourself and you see which art you look like.
You can also do the image search selfie so if you do a selfie of yourself an image search and see what eBay product you look the most like like that’s an interesting one as well but more practically.
If you see something that you want to buy whether it’s a chair or jacket or whatever pair glasses like you can use image search and get really really reliable results in.
Scot:
[5:24] My wife is up for shoes you’ll see some shoes in a magazine that aren’t attribute and she she really loves the eBay.
Bob:
[5:29] Yeah I think that’s okay. That’s how you say that it really well cuz things that there’s some things in the catalog they really will attribute in you know exactly what they are and you can type in the search box and get the answer other things you sent him to call him.
And we know our buyers aren’t experts in every category and so the image search value is I don’t have to know what it is I can just.
Take a picture of it and then I’ll let you know when we use that extensively another another third-party Channels with find it on eBay and other pieces that,
Batavia we want the little piece of augmented reality that we love which is what’s up what shipping box should you choose and Willis item fit in the Box until you can use the camera to take a picture or scan and real 10 the.
Marker 01
[6:03] Now the item that you’re trying to send in that old Ben augmented reality put the Box around and allow you to choose the best box size so we know for ourselves that’s one of the things we don’t know we don’t want to.
We should be able to bear and you know for them like how you pick the right box I just one of those things that sometimes can get in a seller’s way and we want to make sure that we take as much friction out of that is possible.
Jason:
[6:21] Especially the carriers are charging as more and more for that error so it’s because it’s.
Bob:
[6:25] Absolutely absolutely.
Scot:
[6:26] Volume matters one of the big trends we talked a lot about on her show that you guys are kind of right in the middle of the the tornado on is Bran’s going Direct.
So you have to tough retail environment out there every Brands reevaluating their direct strategy we,
you know if we talk a lot to Brands and their always thinking about their website and should they had transactions and then Amazon’s you how do they relate with Amazon for the party third party in that kind of thing.
I’ve been a big advocate of Branson on eBay for very long time and it’s good side of your on-board kind of.
Think about the experiences that don’t experience which is which is smart what are some of the weather trends you guys are seeing as a platform with with the brands coming in and wanting to use eBay to go Direct.
Bob:
[7:06] Yeah I mean I think for me to do with the starting places that buyers want to search for brands on eBay mean that’s we have more searches for brand terms on eBay than anywhere else and so I think,
yeah the dependent demand for people to see brands on the side is really really clear and so for Brands you know my we had a panel yesterday where we had Crocs,
on the side which is one of our which is one of our big Sellers and they have a great Brand store on on eBay,
yeah the message that we were trying to deliver there is like look at your brand and you know the marketplace strategy you should you should get one you know and it doesn’t mean that you have to participate it means that you have to understand how marketplaces fit in your overall channel strategy and we found that brand to come on eBay.
Tend to find new customers tend to find different customers and so it fits well within a branch channel strategy without a lot of really great,
success stories around Brands coming coming direct or their authorized resellers being unable to to sell directly to be identified as either the brand or not authorized reseller on the site so we’re doing actual out of work and will release here over the next next couple of quarters some things that,
absolutely are going to cement this as Brands need to come on eBay so we’ve got a,
bespoke brand experience so people will be able to direct traffic at a branded experience now we’re not going to kick everybody else off the site who’s selling that brand but we’re going to basically allow the brand to step in front,
of all the demands he knows he’ll be certain person lying and when you tell a brand you know this is how much.
Volume your brand is doing on eBay and don’t you want a big piece of that I mean normally the answer to that is yes until I think it’s Last of Us.
[8:41] It’s less of an if a brand is going to come one of marketplace anybody specifically and it’s more and more when but we’re trying to create the right conditions for those Brands to be successful so we’re trying to create a great learning experience.
We’re trying to to allow Brands and authorized resellers to show up and be prominent in all of our experiences in search results,
in a few item pages in the new product pages that we can come back to that one but we’re creating these new product pages,
as a part of the new search result experience and so whether you’re on a product page review item research results.
Authorized reseller in the brand themselves are going to show up in a really really prominent way so that gives the brand the opportunity like I said they’re kind of step in front of all that demanded all that search volume at there and really get their fair share.
Scot:
[9:23] Yeah and water brands you know they may have a little bit more names on eBay they get really frustrated by some of the third party seller especially out there one of my my big advice to them is b a t Berry Amazon is the best way to solve that is to be the brand on there and.
Give the consumer on authentic experience will choose that every time over you know Bob’s sneaker store.
Bob:
[9:43] I think that’s right and you know me we talked a lot about authentication and we have a programmer on a thumb acacian for handbags if you love I’m going to continue to expand that program what’s more authentic than actually buying from the brand or buying from an authorized Channel you know and I think that that for me is the way to get.
Truly descale on authentication is to have the brand selling directly authorized reseller selling directly you can describe the benefits.
A buying from an authorized reseller of the brand right it’s like manufacturer warranty.
Better customer service you know truly out you know you know what you’re getting right all those things in it and it makes the marketplace better we create stress in the marketplace reduces returns and and you know all the things that people worry about when they buy from Marketplace you buy from a brand there’s no,
Bates no doubts you know.
Jason:
[10:25] We run in and out all the time that.
[10:28] You know Brands want to sell direct but ironically there often the worst place to buy their own product cuz they’re like the only ones that can fly with man up and that they have smaller storm and all these things and yet there’s a huge amount of unfulfilled Demand by consumers.
[10:42] Still want to buy from those Brands and when you dig under the covers it almost always comes down to this truss Gap.
[10:48] And Trust being like one of the biggest impediments to purchases and so you know just having that authentic Trust of knowing that this is the actual brand provider.
[10:58] Is it seems like it’s been very successful.
Bob:
[11:00] Yeah there’s a lot of drivers that the trust got them and that’s one of them for sure I think another thing that we’re spending a lot of time on his is trying to drive retail standards,
so when people shop on eBay we want to make sure that they it’s pretty transparent what kind of shipping service they’re going to get you nowhere pushing folks to provide,
guaranteed delivery which is one of our big programs this year we’re going to make that a bigger and more important to program as a part of the overall Marketplace,
creating incentives around around 30 day returns and 30 day free returns,
because we feel like that’s something that is going to drive conversion and and and helping us so you can look across the Spectrum in and we’re trying to address that Gap that you’re describing on on many fronts you know and I think the brand piece of it is.
Yeah it’s really it is really important part of it and again we we should Brent brands have to get to that point where they feel confident in having Marketplace as part of the channel strategy.
We have to create the conditions that allow Brands to be successful and so we’re headed in that direction and and we’d love friends to come to come with us.
Scot:
[11:56] My my playbook for pitching brands on eBay is probably just like Circa 2015 but but what we found at Elmo’s.
Bob:
[12:03] That was so long ago.
Scot:
[12:03] It in the internet years.
Bob:
[12:05] Absolutely.
Scot:
[12:07] So we would always kind of lead with going on eBay with like an outlet or reefer because eBay consumers really love that value orientation and then you can kind of like use that is the center of the strategy and then then put the rest of your product.
[12:19] When you’re pitching a brand today is that what you lead with or are you guys going all-in like do the full enchilada put everything out there.
Bob:
[12:26] I think it depends on the brand strategy at me we’re going to be very consultative and talk about what they need and where they want to fit in we have brands have done number of.
Different things you know it one example that I was going to talk about was Tyson you know it’s a great brand on the site,
if you see them they’re featured in the number of our campaigns you know he go on the side and you see that top Banner,
how you’ll see Dyson in there quite a bit because they’ve been participating in a lot of our programs are Deal’s programs you know there are other ways to drive traffic on the day started with a refurb side and they’ve done very very well with with dice and refer back roster deerberry product lines.
Then I moved into.
Big now moved into the full the full line of products there’s going to be some exclusives you know so we’re starting to see them grow in that direction and I think you know as they get more confident in their ability to address this customer.
And then get data I mean that’s the other thing that’s important is we have a brand new site.
Like we’re not competing with no one p m 3 p right for us it’s all 3p and so we’re not going to jump in front of that we’re not going to get between a brand in their customer Rena provide the data in the inside and allow that relationship with the customer to be very transparent for brands.
But anyway if they learn more about that they get more more confident in this being a court channel for them you know and I think the weather is like it is one of my great friends on the site.
They started by kind of all and you know I’m a taken advantage of again like the deal’s programs but they’re also selling globally they’ve got.
In a business now in in in multiple of our eBay regions and so they’ve been very successful so I think it depends a little bit on.
On the brand and their objectives and in and we would make that picture a little bit differently now we say haters different flavors.
[13:56] And I and if you need if you’re looking for an outlet channeling a crock started as ironically if they’re there their tag on their seller ID on eBay is Crocs outlet.
Right and then it started as an outlet but in fact now they got their product line and then,
sorry. Guess you have single-handedly driven the crock business exactly but I think you know so so we can say you know Outlet can be in the end of season.
I could be refurb or could be full line and we have ways to support your objectives you’re very subjective on the on the platform or however you want to come at it.
Scot:
[14:32] The thing I love about it such an easy decision to move if they if they aren’t already doing some kind of Outlet or or refurb on their site moving that to eBay is a no-brainer because when it’s on your site you’re guaranteed some candles Asian it’s hard to measure what that is.
But I would argue almost like you’re a hundred percent because most people are trading off if you move it to eBay your.
You’re not going to have near the Campbell Station cuz you know it’s much different audience and then you know we we have a ton of data that shows to your point we’ve seen like 80 90 percent of people are new to the brand so not only are you.
Getting rid of cancellation you’re flipping over and you’re turning it into a new customer and kind of experience but they’re on your website to Priority a customer sometime.
Bob:
[15:12] Yeah I mean let’s not forget me 270 million active fires were a hundred 90 Marcus there’s a lot of global vision invisibility for that inventory and,
and then we got you don’t want to take a search engines in the in the world you know until you put all that together forever for an existing brand it makes a ton of sense,
emerging brand it also makes a ton of sense somebody who’s trying to build their brand like what a great opportunity to create this bespoke,
destination on eBay that allows people to to come and see your brand and highlight all the attributes of that brand I think we you know Denver,
building some of those experiences summer like today and in very soon we’ll have some more of those live.
So the brand can feel really confident when you come to eBay and what you’re seeing is a is the most positive expression of that brand,
and and you know what I came from a brand you know from the Packer and I built my team built the team all store for Apple in China,
and so we know what it means to represent the brand well and I feel very strongly that Brands need to have that on eBay that’s not going to be quite the same. I think you know for sure we need to provide.
Something that feels brand right and and then everybody has a slightly different definition but work in that direction and then we love again you know I said even feedback on the acronym certainly welcome but also.
Feedback on feedback on on what we should do to to further enhance our are you know the.
Landing Pad basically that we provided for Brann’s on the platform is so I really welcome.
Scot:
[16:30] Yep you ever see a day so so can you bring up Alibaba so they have taobao which is kind of like the P2P or the sea the sea and then they have tomorrow which is B2B b2c and then they have different search experiences on your your entry Gateway.
So it’s almost like if I if a consumer goes to Team all they want to Brand experience and they kind of sea front end only Brands and then they backfill with the consumer and then it flips over if there.
You guys ever see a day went with eBay whatever to that or.
Bob:
[16:55] Yeah I don’t I don’t I mean I don’t and it’s interesting I mean I’m not an extra I might be like Circa 2015 with with with T-Mobile and how about as well but but I think like part of the Magic in the joy of eBay seeing the spectrum of value,
you know that’s what I love about eBay that’s why it’s well honestly one of the reasons here you can put Brandon inventory and if somebody chooses and they believe in though in in buying from a brand that’s great but if somebody wants the the the the used one you know,
that somebody’s that somebody you know used in love for a year and then they want to give it to you had a slight at a discount like great like that’s there too and then if you want that thing that you couldn’t find anywhere else like that’s on eBay to answer for me that’s,
the Magic in the end in the joy of eBay and I would hate to think that we would start to bifurcate that experience you know I think we done something recently launched under $10.
Piece of the site you know and so we we think there may be experiences or events are places where customers are looking for something very specific and we might be able to.
Direct them to two events and similar to what we do for Holiday Inn similar to what we do for the deals program folks were like looking for specific value but I think in general I would be.
I know I can speak for the virus. Sketch of my personal opinion is seeing b2c C2C you know.
P2P auctions fixed-price like together if it’s done in a way that gets a great buyer experience then it creates did Chris positive value I love to continue to see that together.
Jason:
[18:15] Do you find do you have to have a very different conversation with I’ll call them sort of traditional wholesale brands that maybe don’t have a legacy of selling direct then you do with the sort of vertically-integrated brands that are used to selling their own products.
Bob:
[18:29] I don’t know I got some X I think folks are used to selling their own products sometimes they.
Yeah they have more emphasis on the channel than they do on their own side I mean to your point like they’re out there on their own site selling map.
I got very limited in a quantity is because it’s been you know that the allocation of that inventory is based on historical sale performance you know and so by definition you will end up with.
Some me a very small percentage of your inventory in your own channel and a very significant part of the authorized Channel you know so we you know we would say to a lot of these Brands like maybe you don’t sell the rack.
Maybe this point of set your authorized resellers and they become the mechanism by which assign direct maybe there’s an opportunity for bigger.
You have a bigger and bigger volume in math in that model but again we work with each brand a little bit differently and try to help them achieve their objectives.
Jason:
[19:09] Not so you say you could imagine a brand experience on eBay that isn’t necessarily tied directly to a selling experience that support sellers of that brand.
Bob:
[19:18] Toy yeah Anatolian we want the brand to contribute content we want the brand to contribute the catalog so we would get you know we get to the attributes right.
But you know you’d come to a brand experience and what you’d see either you see the brand or you would see the brand content that supported than a series of model that showed authorized resellers of that of that product and again very specifically to finding what.
Value proposition is for buying from those authorized through that authorized Channel now look I mean I’ll be fully transparent like.
Blow that below the fold and maybe even a little bit farther below the fold you’ll still see other sellers of those products and that’s what I was talking about, the joy in the end the end the likes of the Elegance of putting all that together but again we want to Brandon the authorized resellers to step in front of.
Of all that demands and and have the opportunity to tell the story why is selling white white buying from the brand direct make sense.
Jason:
[20:08] To the brand stuff sounds super exciting I’m also curious about what else is new at eBay and you you the one that’s always a personal interest in me a little bit in the new product detail pages.
Bob:
[20:21] Yeah yeah I mean look where we’ve talked about structured data for a very long time because of her on eBay how much longer than I have and start your day. Probably better.
Jason:
[20:30] Circa 2015 still would cover at your ass.
Bob:
[20:32] Yeah I think if we actually might be it might be reminded a couple years before that but I think the value of structured data in one of the reasons to do that is because of you Kelly attributes right you can create a very different buyer experience and so you know this year we said we’re just going to get it right this year I’m going to start.
Category a category of Novi, mail to us but like the level below that like really you know what product basely by-product and and make sure we got the catalog right.
So we we we just announced in our latest seller update a series of of categories that are going to be basically right we’re going to we’re going to make sure that they’re perfect.
And as we launch those onto the site will start having now search results default into a grouped into into a group set of search results that allow you to click into a product page.
And the value that product page is you can sort of see either in one screen both on desktop and mobile all of the different options.
For that product and you know that all of the sellers that are selling that product are ours are compressed and captured in that one experience.
And so we think for a lot of products in for a lot of buyers not having to Wade through in 02 pages and pages of listings and for us to give the ability to say like hey here’s,
here’s our best pic.
I hear the lowest price here’s the manager the best used packing out here’s the best auction and have it kind of all sitting in one experience where you can truly understand.
The trade-off is a buyer that you want to make her on that product we think that’s a really really great elevated experience and it doesn’t work for everything you know for.
Percent that’s hard to attribute we may never we may never get there he know you can imagine compressing around attributes at some point but but like look that’s like graduate-level I let start on the things that we can get the catalog perfect.
[22:08] And and compress in a way that gets a great buyer experience.
Then for you know just like since when the brand topic you know when you have those multiple top picks one of them if if we have a brand or authorized reseller he’s going to be that brand an authorized reseller and and it’s cool boy put down a lot of the prototyping in.
The click on the brand authorized reseller product and you see content-rich content making a lot of hand gestures right now it does it doesn’t come visit it’s not a video podcast.
Jason:
[22:35] But whenever your hand gesture hits the table I wasn’t hers will know you did that.
Bob:
[22:38] Excellent good while sod. That’s for that for you everyone out there some sound editor named named Jason will edit that out.
Jason:
[22:47] It went the intern do it.
Bob:
[22:49] Yeah okay good anyway so when you when you click on that brands,
best pic it’ll show enhanced content it could be video can be the attributes of you know why it makes sense to buy from a brand when you click on,
that one next would all that ad that rich contact goes away and you got basic content so you know what the product is and so you will really show even in that product page very different experience between bronze and,
and and everyone else.
Scot:
[23:13] I think so too a lot of small one of the fun things about being a TBM troops covered is you it’s hard sometimes you’re like the mayor and always.
Admire what Devin s go to you to make you know you make one set of sellers happy another one agitated some of the product stuff in a lot of the small kind of old-school tells your actions you’re making eBay Amazon.
What’s your standard answer to that objection.
Bob:
[23:33] Yeah I mean for some categories you know people want a more specific buyers want a specific product base experience look for not preventing people from looking through the the,
you know the feelings and I need the listings for those products that are there is one click away you got the entire set of historical search results but the other thing is like we know that people want great value,
and for products that are easy to compare that are easily attributed they’re going to be looking at all kinds of different places to buy you know to buy that product like if you think about her,
I don’t know a phone or a thermostat or you know if they can things that are that are easily comparable.
You can have three tabs open and even look at once I going to look at some other side you can look at eBay and so we want to make sure that we’ve got the most competitive offering.
Right there in front of the in front of the buyer and we think that drive conversion,
so what I would say is you know sometimes yeah we are going to going to have the best one front-and-center we’re creating a programmer on price guidance and so we’re going to tell sellers what we think the best price is and what is going to take to be to be featured in that in that backpack.
And and you know we really hope that that helps Drive.
The competitiveness of the marketplace overall so that eBay is seen is that place that you can get grape value in the same way that you can another side so don’t think we want to be you say Amazon I want to say Amazon,
do you have what do we don’t want to be too many Amazon we don’t want to turn into that eBay has a unique differentiated value proposition it’s about Spectrum value it’s about great opportunities to see,
the new product that used one you know that they auction version you know and I think virus appreciate that and value the difference between eBay and Amazon for the same time.
[25:03] There are some folks were going to come to eBay and want to see a comparable competitive price for a very specific product and we want to create an experience that that facilitates both of those things.
Scot:
[25:13] I talked about that for a long time but I never typed time-constrained.
Bob:
[25:17] What’s feedback.
Scot:
[25:18] What I would say to the sellers is you know hey we’re all raw in the marketplace to make buyers happy right in a buyer coming and seeing 80,000 things you know possible to buy on eBay when you have to pick them up.
Bob:
[25:32] But you know what I think it’s interesting you say that made some buyers do want that let me some buyers enjoy,
the searching the treasure hunt you know so it’s like hey I’m on I’m on page 14 of the search results and I found that thing from a seller who had that you know it’s like it’s awesome I like I love I love that about.
Scot:
[25:47] That’s be a balance.
Bob:
[25:47] And so yeah so so but you know you’re always one click away from that experience even in a product-based compressor twirled and and so I don’t I don’t think we want to take that away but we want to.
Together and make it more efficient for those buyers who are interested in something very different.
Scot:
[26:02] Another big theme in the world of e-commerce in addition to Brands going direct and whatnot is in a shipping is getting faster faster.
What does the bar is always being raised there and you guys have had a long history of interesting programs for sellers you’ve had asthma caught Fast and Furious but as fast and free.
Bob:
[26:18] I wish you were Fast and Furious.
Scot:
[26:18] Yeah Vin Diesel would make a nickel for every package and then.
Jason:
[26:26] If you deliver to me would be totally awesome.
Bob:
[26:28] What happened that maybe you can have eliminate of those right so we got to ask 9 maybe as I could.
Scot:
[26:32] And then you guys have you know you mentioned earlier tell us tell us, where is eBay on that and where you going.
Bob:
[26:41] Yeah I mean guaranteed delivery is a key program process uses you say I like people want to know.
When they’re getting their saying Amazon has his program it’s just giving me what it’s called I’m just teasing but expectations are clearly being set by other programs related to to chipping and specifically fast shipping.
I’m so fast and furious been a great program for us we see that address conversion.
Will see you at that it you know to the trust of the question you know it enhances trust in the marketplace when you see that something’s going to be delivered.
I’m certain day and and you know that it’s free shipping like that that really makes buyers feel confident in those Ben those purchases and so.
We launched TGT it’s been a successful program we wanted to be way more penetrated than it is.
And I in so we’re doing a lot of things this year to make sure that that EGD gets the traction that we know that it did it needs to have you know we’re doing.
Scot:
[27:28] The sellers often is an hour.
Bob:
[27:30] So what you up to in yet we’re removing some of the limitations that we had put on the on the program so for example we had.
Required initially for EGD sellers to be using the eBay labels platform.
We know that not everybody wants to use the eBay slate labels platform and while we think it’s a great platform and have great rates and you know commercial insert commercial for eBay labels platform here we do know that that other sellers have no other operations and so relaxed that requirement for example.
We’ve always relax the transaction volume requirement down to it like basically to the point where every business seller should be able to to qualify an opt-in to to guarantee delivery and then we feel like.
We want to create the in-center of Mostly because we can get drive conversion.
For sellers to opt into that anymore accelerated rate in so we’re building our proven or Epi so that we can work through platforms like Channel advisor and and Shopify and just try to make the program easier to opt-in and not an easier to be a part of.
Scot:
[28:25] Can people control at the school level in this user in there.
Bob:
[28:28] Yeah they have I mean I have a fairly detailed rate table and that’s part of been part of the challenge but we’ve got a Transit table that were that was built.
That sellers can that’s how it can upload and then give them pretty fine at control,
Avaya because you know it like it’s cute suits for bigger sellers like some skis are in different locations and and so you need to be able to understand for each individual item like where you know where they can get to and what pretty time.
Jason:
[28:53] Down on the floor here chop talk one of the big themes is machine learning and Ai and in fact I feel like in order to have a booster you actually had to buy the letters Ai and attach them to whatever College you’re offering.
Bob:
[29:05] Yeah you’re offering.
[29:09] A machine designed a booth actually today.
Jason:
[29:12] Ours would have been much better if we had a machine.
[29:15] The one of the problems with machine Learning Center obviously be a huge component of future of all these experiences in it but one of the big challenges as you out of data to really Leverage.
[29:29] And it occurred to me that you guys are in a unique position of of having like a shooting on the date are you guys thinking about ways to leverage that and like anything you’d.
[29:39] You care to share in terms of the future of AI on the eBay platform.
Bob:
[29:42] Yeah I mean look there a lot of things that we try to do behind the scenes machine learning AI sits behind a lot of the analytics work that we do you know you can do a lot with models,
but models get better as you apply machine learning and AI to them right I mean it’s like so there’s a good like soundbite but when you think about,
trying to track by her abuse and understand you know how we protect sellers in that way,
we start looking at Trends around around claims or brought me. Like there’s a lot of ways that behind the scenes were applying machine learning and AI to try to make our predictive models better,
the one thing that stays visible to Sellers and it’s not perfect yet or called but we do we do price guidance.
And we talked a lot about hey I both on the CDC in the b2c business we think your item will sell better if it’s priced in this range,
and you know we’re starting out a path is this is a complicated problem the machine learning they are going to help us get down that path faster so that our guidance will get more accurate and in better and be more connected with you really want to be able to say,
especially to a consumer seller look at the price of here on average is going to be 6 days and nothing will tell in 6 days and we want to get more and more and more,
accurate about those predictions and make that quality better and better.
Jason:
[30:56] Bob.
Is probably a good place to wrap it because it is happen again we’ve used up all at a lot of time if you want to continue the conversation we didn’t charge you to jump on our,
page if you predict enjoy this episode we love you to jump on one of Bob’s old platforms and give us a 5-star review on iTunes.
Scot:
[31:18] Bob if people are interested in learning more have a say in at the thousands of Brands listen to the show want to call you immediately and get song on eBay is there a what’s your preferred way for them to reach.
Bob:
[31:28] Honestly I’ve been super transparent my email my email is just Bob at ebay.com and I’m happy to take any any sort of questions or input at that at that email address or we’ve got ebay.com seller center.
Until feel free to to dilate a seller center we’ve just updated a ton of the content there so I can find anything they want about selling on eBay or you know how how Brands can be successful and so yeah let me know.
By far away let’s say let’s have a conversation.
Scot:
[31:54] Cool thanks I appreciate you taking time out your busy schedule and I really look forward to seeing what else comes out of eBay this year.
Bob:
[32:00] Awesome thank you guys so much.
Jason:
[32:01] Until next time happy commercing.
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