Ina Steiner

Etsy sellers were generally pleased to learn the marketplace will soon change how it calculates their average review ratings.
www.ecommercebytes.com/2hzg

An eBay executive recommended everyone create a new account so they could experience eBay's magical listing flow launched in 2023 and now infused with new agentic AI capabilities.
www.ecommercebytes.com/w56q

Amazon's Big Spring Sale will kick off this month, and unlike Prime Day, it is open to all shoppers. Europe's Spring Deal Days will kick off on Tuesday, but Amazon has yet to announce the dates of its Big Spring Sale in the US.
www.ecommercebytes.com/md13

How Did eBay Get My Social Security Number? Dear Ina, You wrote about the fact eBay wants your SSN number to sell. It had to do with the new IRS $600 in sales ...

A seller reluctant to provide eBay with their Social Security number discovered eBay already has it and wants to know how. Today's letter to the editor.
www.ecommercebytes.com/njp1

Amazon sellers said they paid ad fees during Thursday's outage when shoppers could click on their ads but not purchase their items.
www.ecommercebytes.com/xrbv

eBay is inviting young New Yorkers to sell up to 25 items for free this month in an apparent bid to boost the sell-to-buy flywheel.
www.ecommercebytes.com/paxe

Amazon sellers can now use AI-powered chat to visualize their data to gain insights and explore scenarios. With some early seller reactions.
www.ecommercebytes.com/tbp0

eBay promised to protect sellers as it pauses shipping from US to Middle East as carriers face disruption in the region.
www.ecommercebytes.com/f86c

USPS temporarily suspended mail to 18 countries in the Middle East as well as numerous military post offices due to the conflict in the region.
www.ecommercebytes.com/134j

Amazon encouraged sellers to use its AI listing enhancement tool in a post on Monday, but will sellers pay the price if AI leads them to break the rules?
www.ecommercebytes.com/ssdh

Thanks for citing me in this!

While Etsy does need to show the price with shipping added per UK law, it could display it differently than the current iterations of this rollout. Concerned sellers should go public with that issue.

#EtsySellerNews

Etsy began displaying price-plus-shipping in UK search results last month and a week later announced the change, explaining to sellers it was due to a UK law. For certain items, the change could be off-putting to buyers, some sellers said.
www.ecommercebytes.com/rbxa

Amazon abruptly ended its book club program on Sunday and plans to focus on other, unspecified, book discovery features for readers. Its own book club Sarah Selects will live on.
www.ecommercebytes.com/07hr

eBay makes buyers jump through an extra hoop for transactions that are exempt from sales tax charges - including sellers buying inventory to resell. Today's letter to the editor.
www.ecommercebytes.com/a4dz

During eBay's recent webinar on advertising strategies, sellers asked questions and shared their experiences with eBay Promoted Listings.
www.ecommercebytes.com/45k5

eBay is laying off hundreds of workers to align its structure with its strategic priorities it confirmed on Thursday. But some are wondering if the layoffs are related to AI, or its pending $1.2 billion acquisition of Depop from Etsy.
www.ecommercebytes.com/gaxc

Handmade marketplace Goimagine, which launched as an alternative to Etsy in 2020, is closing its doors next month.
www.ecommercebytes.com/8hcq

Amazon is borrowing a page from eBay's playbook with the introduction of the Amazon Seller Expert Pilot program.
www.ecommercebytes.com/0idg

A buyer is unable to shut off eBay Live push notifications and finds it so annoying that he is considering deleting the eBay app from his iPad and shopping exclusively from his desktop computer.
www.ecommercebytes.com/8bp4

Online sellers have dealt with tariff disruptions since early last year. Uncertainty remains despite the Supreme Court ruling striking down IEEPA-related tariffs on Friday.
www.ecommercebytes.com/7tdy

eBay recently rolled out agentic AI search to a subset of US mobile traffic and plans to scale it to more users throughout 2026.
www.ecommercebytes.com/17ns

Etsy announced fourth-quarter 2025 earnings on Thursday. Etsy marketplace sales were flat in the 4th quarter while consolidated GMS (including Depop) grew 2.4%.
www.ecommercebytes.com/kfbb

Etsy is selling its used-fashion marketplace Depop to eBay for $1.2 billion. Etsy acquired Depop in 2021 for $1.6 billion; it has 3 active million sellers and 7 million active buyers.
www.ecommercebytes.com/jfwd

Alert: Amazon sellers have 2 weeks to ensure the automation tools they use comply with the new Amazon BSA agreement.
www.ecommercebytes.com/dz6g

Some buyers are peeved when sellers ship their orders in a reused Amazon box - but sellers were appalled to learn that one such buyer received a full refund when they complained to Etsy. Others shared their strategies for avoiding the same fate.
www.ecommercebytes.com/euqr

eBay began tinkering with sellers' country of origin field in listings in early February, and some sellers say they still can't correct mistakes eBay is making.
www.ecommercebytes.com/5574

How important is eBay's Feedback Left for Others feature when contemplating a sale with an unknown buyer? Would you cancel a sale if you couldn't see how the buyer rated other sellers? Today's letter to the editor.
www.ecommercebytes.com/o8uy

Sellers should monitor shipping costs on a product level as ever higher rates and surcharges squeeze their margins, Ship dot com warned, offering some concrete suggestions.
www.ecommercebytes.com/t5e0

A persistent seller is continuing their years-long campaign to push eBay to roll back a change it made to the Blocked Buyer List (BBL) policy in 2023. Other sellers agreed, with some sharing their belief that the current policy hurts buyers as well as sellers.
www.ecommercebytes.com/kk0g

A seller recently haunted by an eBay ghost listing said it's such a well known phenomenon that AI recognizes the issue. Today's letter to the editor.
www.ecommercebytes.com/1gkq