65 British small businesses have gathered for the launch of the eBay retail revival event at the Molineux stadium in Wolverhampton. We wrote about retail revival here in September.
They say that Wolverhampton is the first city outside of the US where the retail revival programme has landed and the businesses have got involved hoping to use the scheme to gain new digital skills, boost their ecommerce presence and grow their business.
Throughout the programme’s kick-off event, participating businesses attended training workshops on topics such as making the most of an eBay shop, optimising listings, shipping advice creating the best customer experience and business marketing. The event concluded with a fireside chat, moderated by the UK’s head of seller experience, Emma Grant. The conversation featured three businesses, Retail Revival participant and new eBay seller Paul Jones of Goodstart Jones, seasoned eBay seller Hannah Daragon of Hannah’s Games and Wolverhampton resident and eBay seller Fred Evans of Toolsave.
Over the next 12 months, eBay will provide valuable support to these retailers in the wake of a challenging national retail climate affected by changes in consumer behaviour and the economy. It is an exciting program that will help businesses with their digital marketing and sales skills, giving them a solid platform for sustainable growth. In an increasingly digital world, such skills are ever more important to business success and survival, complementing and boosting in-store, over the counter sales.
– Rob Hattrell, Vice President, eBay UK
During the event, attendees also had the opportunity to connect with 3rd party partners and providers during the breakfast and lunch business expo. They met with organisations like the Royal Mail, the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, the Women’s Business Form, the Duke of York’s iDEA initiative and many more to learn about further services and products that could help boost their business.
To find out more, you can check out this video which includes a double decker bus decked out with the seasonal red eBay logo.
7 Responses
Message to Rob Hattrell:
Save the PR gimmicks.
Sellers want less intervention from Ebay (leave sellers to get on with selling, which they are good at).
In fact, a period where Ebay does nothing new at all would be great.
And stop the constant fee hikes. Sellers Are Paying More Than Enough.
Message ends.
“,,,,,,, changes in consumer behaviour ,,,,, blah blah blah,,,,,”
By that does he mean the huge amount of non payment on eBay, demanding customers and false SNAD returns that are out of control?
There appears to be a very large disconnect between eBay themselves and the sellers whom actually sell the products that are available for sale on eBay.
When I joined 11 years ago, it was fairly clear what the roles were:
eBay = Platform
Seller = Supplier
Buyer = Consumer
These days it feels more like eBay are trying to be the supplier (without any of the costs associated with being) and treating sellers like staff who they can boss around in any way they like in order to keep “the customer” (i.e. buyers) happy.
Were in business
As long as ebay provides profit
Ebay can say and do as they wish for any reason they wish
What a rude awakening these small businesses will get once they actually start selling on eBay. No doubt eBay is filling them full of nonsense about how great it is. An Ebay management revival would be more welcome, maybe including more people who have actually ran a business on the marketplace would be beneficial
And what was their advice re charging postage?
I went to list something for sale on my personal account the other day and it showed:
Delivery: Recommendation applied.
Royal Mail | Buyer pays £2.95.
So why do they keep telling us that buyers are insisting on FREE P&P and you have to use this method to be a TRS
I think, it’s a good eBay initiative.