Seller Club Podcast
Seller Club Podcast
Episode 95: Prep for Q4 - Success In The Set Up
This week we’re talking practical Q4 set-up items - what we’re personally doing to get ready for Q4, plus a special feature on an area of preparation and planning we’ve never been so forward-thinking about as we are this year! Each year is a little different, so compare notes with us and with yourself from last year as we hash it all out. From getting everything listed to successful shipping to sourcing, we cover it all this week, including a special interview!
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eBay is not a lender, does not make credit decisions, and does not offer loans to eBay sellers. Financing through eBay Seller Capital is provided by third-party partners to eligible sellers who qualify. Any seller experiences described in this podcast are provided for informational purposes only and may not be typical or representative of all sellers.
Seller Club Podcast episode number 95 got that beep. Hello everybody, how are we doing today?
SPEAKER_03:Amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Amazing.
SPEAKER_04:Pretty good. Pretty good.
SPEAKER_02:World of reselling. Back at it again. It's still turning. It's still turning.
SPEAKER_06:The world is still turning. We've got two more weeks of runway into Q4. Two more weeks. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Woo! Well, well, also, I kind of like can feel the vibe because the leaves are turning are starting to turn.
SPEAKER_06:Oh really?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So like I've seen some some trees are already yellow here in Ohio. So when that happens, I kind of have that Q4 feeling vibe, you know? Not the pumpkin spice latte. You know, not the well, well, that the the vibe is, you know, waking up really early when it's really cold, trying to travel, trying to do some Q4 stuff, and you go to Starbucks and all they have is pumpkin this, pumpkin that. I was like, I don't want pumpkin.
SPEAKER_06:Chestnut praline latte, just throwing it out there. Yes. Really good.
SPEAKER_03:Whatever's not pumpkin, I'll take that.
SPEAKER_06:I'll take that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It's still hot outside, so it's rough right now.
SPEAKER_02:It's like 90 degrees. Glenn's like, I don't want to hear it. It's 93 degrees, and it is bad. I'm like, when is it gonna be?
SPEAKER_06:I know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, more like January, Glenn. We're like Q1, right?
SPEAKER_06:It's been really weird uh where I am. It has rained one time in about the last two months, literally. It's a drought. So that's kind of interesting. But I've heard that it's gonna be a long cold winter. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_03:Was that from the farmer's almanac thing?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and just like larger weather predictions for the whole season. Um, but it is interesting. It's been a it's been an interesting year with like the weather and the seasons. So I'm just planning on, you know, battening down the hatches and doing a lot of listing when when it's cold and dark and not going outside too much, except maybe to source when there's a really good deal. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_02:So right now you're saying get all your jackets up. That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_06:I'm saying yes. And I'm gonna keep reminding everyone this just in case they didn't hear it or they forgot. Gen Deal told us weeks ago we need to get all of our inventory listed by the end of September because of when people are a significant chunk of people are already doing their holiday shopping by the time Q4 comes. So if you're not listing while you're listening to this, get on it. You still have a couple weeks, including myself. I'm also preaching to myself.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, let's just jump right into it right away.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, let's, because we are talking about Q4 prep, the really tactical side of it today. So that's a huge part of it, obviously getting everything you possibly can listed.
SPEAKER_03:And and one of the perfect examples I had, because I still catch myself sourcing, because I cannot not source. Um, but I think, Glenn, we're trying to implement our 24 hour rule. I think we're at uh 48 hour rule right now. That anything we buy new got needs to be listed within 48 hours. Um, and obviously it's not the most exciting kind of like style of listing because I like listing shoes particularly, but the a lot of this are outerwear, so you're thinking pants, jackets, hoodies, and those are kind of like the wonky things to take photos of. But speaking of getting everything listed, ASAP, because people are buying. I just sold a buffer jacket for 150 bucks that I paid 49.99 for. That's great. So so it happened, so like three days. It only took three days and it sold. So it's not hot outside. It's not, it's cold somewhere. Well, it's well also too here in Cincinnati. Um, I've been waking up early and at 7 a.m., it's like 40 something degrees. Wow, it is a lot colder there than where I am.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so am I accidentally in Texas? What's going on here? Yeah, something like that. It's hot.
SPEAKER_02:We do need those jackets listed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's a good sign. So, but but also to caveat too, that doesn't, you know, when I say everything gets listed within 48, those are only the stuff that we bought recently. Because we have a box we have had stuff that our money pile, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Only me. If if it's me, money pile.
SPEAKER_06:I can't even remember like the exact timeline, but I think it was in June, maybe. I was like, okay, I'm I'm listing everything. I don't want to have any kind of pile. So I did that. It was May or June. But then over like July, it sort of crept in again. I have a pile again. Yeah. But I'll tell you what, I've realized because you know, there was like traveling, there was aulied. Julie lied. I do lied to myself. And then now August has also passed by. And I have listed some stuff, but like, kind of like you're saying, Ken, I fell out of my best practice processes. And so I'm trying to just like get right back into that so that I don't have any more bottlenecks and I don't have any more pile going into Q4. Because I want to do that as I'm sourcing in Q4, I want to be listing too, and not kind of what I did over the summer, which is okay.
SPEAKER_03:Nothing about it.
SPEAKER_06:I like flexibility. So I've got to do that.
SPEAKER_03:Nothing about it's kind of like it doesn't make you feel that good when you're sourcing when you know there's stuff uh laying. And then you know, especially with kind of like how the basement is set up right now, there's just stuff laying on the floor. So well, well, let's hear about what Glenn, what Glenn's been up to as far as listening. Um back.
SPEAKER_06:No piles come back.
SPEAKER_02:I know eBay comeback, YouTube comeback. I'm trying. Ooh! Um trying to get everything organized and trying to bring everything back. I know. He's trying to cash in, you know. He's trying. So right now I'm trying to get every well, everything's organized, all the hats. Like the storage unit, everything is placed accordingly, and where everything is, it looks very nice. The problem Congratulations. They're not listed. Okay. They're getting listed at at the moment. But um, I guess the problem is there's still uh actually there's a low amount of cleats left. I've been selling a lot of them for cheap on whatnot to get it out. A lot of these are just older stuff, so that's been helping a little bit. And then I have just some like older hats too that I just bought way too much quantity-wise. Like some of them are literally like 40 deep of like one size, and because they were cheap, I just bought them all, and they're just like so slow to move, or like some people aren't feeling like the color or the size and stuff. So on whatnot, I've been doing clearance shows on Friday, and I put clearance in the title so their expectations are low. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Because uh, I don't want to go in and they're looking at expectations are high, prices are low. Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_03:Like everybody's like that I've seen. You should you should put like uh kind of like uh more um kind of like funny meme title, like Rob Me or something like that, you know, like steel season, you know, like you know how like people like to do that.
SPEAKER_06:Crimes, Glenn, crimes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The people want crimes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and so last Thursday I did like all my best selling hats on like one show, but I only did 60. Um instead of like doing 200 hats at a night. You made it limited, yeah, and that show did really well.
SPEAKER_03:So and then yeah, so you just say like everything's expensive today if are all cheapos, see you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02:Pretty much like I'll see you tomorrow for the clearance show. Uh meanwhile, everything else is getting listed on eBay, so I want to make sure my my goal is just to like less on whatnot, more on eBay and stuff that sells that I don't have to I don't know, actively sell in a way.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I am so much on front of the camera.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. So I've been trying to list everything. Um, so my brother-in-law is getting everything, he's taking the photos and then he's making it into a draft right away, and I'm trying to list it right away. So um, since I've been doing that, we started September 1st, so I think we've sold 39 hats since we did them.
SPEAKER_03:That's that's more than one a day already. Yeah, so that's really good.
SPEAKER_02:So we haven't even gotten like one we're like one eighth in, so we got a lot of work to still do. Um and I'm just running I'm running promotions well. Um and also trying to uh like what I had told Ken when it sells out, um, it still stays listed.
SPEAKER_03:So oh he's using the uh out of stock uh style listing.
SPEAKER_02:So it's pretty cool because it says like last one, but three have sold. And then it's on the list.
SPEAKER_03:Glenn likes to trick the buyers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's limited. There's one left.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're numbered one to one hundred, but I have a thousand of them.
SPEAKER_02:I had to I have to get that urgency in there.
SPEAKER_06:Get them out of there, man.
SPEAKER_02:I just love how eBay also will email them and telling them like there's one left. Like you're watching this, there's one left, you know. Yeah, just and I just don't like starting all over again, too. It's like the watchers are always there.
SPEAKER_03:Um instead of having to relist or sell similar, it's just like and also I think, correct me if I'm wrong, this might be a hack that, for example, an item that has 10 watchers, right? And you're using the auto stock feature, you can always change that listing to a different item. That's true. Oh, that's what Amazon does. Have you have you seen? Have you seen interesting? Yeah, so look at Amazon listings, right? Like Amazon's big or top-rated, right? Top seller. So you look at this like coffee mug, right? And you look at the reviews. If you go down too far, next thing you know, it was like a remote control.
SPEAKER_06:It's a different yeah, in the reviews, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have seen that.
SPEAKER_03:So that's kind of like how they quote unquote hijack uh listing or kind of like uh convert a listing, a good performing listing. Um, because you definitely want to keep the watchers and the views, but yeah, if it's a bad, terrible listing, like end that listing and create a new one, you know, basically.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, exactly. So you could do that. So that's where I'm at right now. I got a lot of work to do, but I am excited to see. I mean, pretty much talking to like Sneakers Envy and everything, he's just like, well, you have to give it a chance, right? Like, I haven't necessarily listed all I don't know, hundreds to thousands of hats that I have. But if I play the quantity game, I mean it's gotta it's gonna move, and I think it'll give me more time back, which I'm gonna need in January when baby number two comes. So that's really also why I'm prepping a lot to kind of get time back.
SPEAKER_06:It's not just Q4 prep for you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's Q1 prep, it's all the prep. Um no, and and I think one of the things that I've said this a long time ago, we were still in the apartment. I think you have to have uh the rule of a thousand uh listings, like get every get to a thousand, because I think that's when you really start kind of like making that full-time money in a way. Yeah, you know, once once you have a thousand listings, um I feel like it's such a big net that it's so impossible to not catch a buyer.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, like you're selling stuff every single day at that point. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So exactly. Um so yeah, but that's a that's a good um uh that's a good plan. Um, so let's get into uh supplies. Um we have heard um breaking news from Poshmark that I heard about this, yeah, they're getting rid of priority mail labels. So they said we're lowering down shipping. Oh, sounds such a great headline. But like what good news, yeah, yeah. And then and then they say we're no longer using priority mail, but we're going to do USB as ground advantage. Oh no. So that being said, everybody has all these priority boxes, priority mail boxes and supplies that they can't use eventually. Um, but but they say like you can still use it for the first 30 days, and after that you get charged five bucks if you use it. But I'm like, really, like, do you think that the postal service carriers know that when they see uh USB's ground advantage label on a priority mailbox?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and there's like free those are free supplies anyway.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so uh so people are gonna people are gonna get charged or overcharged because you know certain people don't because like how connected is your mail carrier to Poshmark News?
SPEAKER_06:How connected is Poshmark to Poshmark News?
SPEAKER_03:That's my question, right? So so so supplies, so finally Poshmark sellers have to be real business people. No, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. I saw the Poshmark. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's kind of just a shit. Um but they have to finally buy their own shipping supplies. So welcome to the real world. Because we have been buying shipping supplies on eBay since the beginning.
SPEAKER_06:So yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Or you pay the premium to send it priority mail. Um, so speaking of supplies, are you guys ready for the Q Q4 supplies that you guys are gonna need?
SPEAKER_06:I think so. I mean, it's funny that you mentioned priority mail because I use that almost never now. So most of my supplies are eBay shipping supplies, you know, with my coupon, um, or just like things that I pay to restock really cheap, like poly mailers or whatever that I constantly use.
SPEAKER_03:Polybags.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. And then also, I mean, I do like all summer, you know, all year, every single week I pick up free shipping supplies that's like filler. And honestly, I'm using less. Um, I use more paper to like pack, you know, boxes with sneakers, for example, or those kind of things that aren't like breakable, but they have to go in an outer box. I use a lot less like bubble wrap and um packing peanuts now because I just haven't been selling as many fragile things over time. But um all that stuff is great filler anyway, right? So like I've been kind of organizing and stockpiling that stuff because hopefully in Q4 I'll use basically everything that I've been um overstocking over the summer. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, mostly I like increasingly I'm having to just recycle some of the boxes and stuff that I get for free because it's too many boxes. Like I just don't need that many. I use way more polymailers and bubble mailers. So definitely planning on restocking all of my eBay stuff as much as possible because also, you know, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but I do want to do a lot of sourcing in Q4 and have a Q5 next, you know, Q1, actually. So I want to be like basically stocked for both now. So that's what I'm thinking of. Um, but yeah, shipping supplies is a huge thing. Also, labels, shipping labels, you want to make sure you have enough labels and you're not scrambling and out of labels and having to cut and tape, you know, for a couple days, wait for your labels to come in. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:For years.
SPEAKER_06:I've definitely forgotten to do that before and it was no fun.
SPEAKER_03:Um what about you, Glenn? Are you uh ready for your shipping supplies?
SPEAKER_02:Because you you you I mean during your whatnot streams you have to be ready on those because yeah, so that's why I'm I'm constantly ordering like the same kind of like hat boxes, so those are perfect for um for the eBay side too. So I'm good there. I think polybags um still pretty good. Those I do have to have to order pretty regularly. Um still selling like jerseys and things like that. And then I mean I still like the padded flat rate envelopes, even though those have gone up quite a bit. I think now it's like 960. Yeah to ship.
SPEAKER_03:At that point, just shipping in a box.
SPEAKER_02:I know. Oh, so at that point, but you know what? I only use that when I know the jersey is over like 120. Right. Yeah, because for for insurance, right? Yeah, for insurance and things like that. So I don't want to trust ground advantage, but yeah.
SPEAKER_03:In in the other options too, for like um maybe hoodies or jackets or pants, um, if they don't fit on a flat rate envelope, um talking just about priority because of the insurance uh factor. Um there are boxes called 1092 and 1095. Those are kind of like flat, like you know, only four inches thick um boxes um that could hold to like two XL hoodies and stuff like that. So um but then you just have to pay for actually the weight. It's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_06:I have a question. So I'm pretty sure in eBay labels, when I go to ship something, if it's going like a flat rate priority envelope or a ground advantage, I thought the insurance was the same, like up to a hundred.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think it is for ground advantage, is it? Yeah, I think it's a look.
SPEAKER_06:Because I only have been insuring things like I look at it all the time, but let me see if I can pull up an example.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So meanwhile, Kenny, though, if you go to the Poshmark side, like what how does that change, I guess, like the ratio for sellers?
SPEAKER_03:For buy for buyers, it's cheaper to buy now on Poshmark because it's I think six something dollars to buy. But it's USB S ground advantage, it's not you're not getting it in two to three days. But I I don't think it's such a big deal for Poshmark. I think it only was good because if and this is my experience, I'm I've been buying a lot of my just kinda like you know, unique pieces in Poshmark. And it it helps me it helps the buyer feel like it's coming faster, but it's not really faster. The seller is just taking too long to ship. There are only a few instances that the seller ships next day. Usually they're like, you know, I think two to three, four days sometimes, and then the priority uh you know, package gets you in two to three days. So I feel like there's like a weak turnaround all the time. So I think for as a Poshmark seller, you just have to ship faster to get your packages, you know, to the customer. And then because you know how they do the payout system, uh, they have to accept it, and if they don't accept it, then you don't get to pay you get paid the money that you sold. So um that's kind of like the pushback that I've seen. But yeah, you you you might have to be creative and like Anna, find um recycled boxes that you can find locally. Um one of the things that I've always suggested to people is um go to your local box supply store. They usually are cheaper because one is they don't have to deal with freight. Um actually discovered that my local box supply company will ship for free within city limits. So I've ha got in pallets shipped to me, yeah, delivered to my front door. Because, you know, when you're ordering four or five hundred boxes, I mean it's still a pain, it's free to pick up, but it's still too pain to haul in your car and haul out. So um that's what you gotta do. Now you gotta pay 50, 75 to a dollar per box now for you know bigger boxes.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, I have an update.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_06:This is eBay labels, so this is not you know across the board, but it's part of eBay's negotiated rates with the post office. But yeah, priority and ground advantage are both up to a hundred. Yep, I actually built in.
SPEAKER_03:Um Google AI told me too, it's a hundred. Google AI.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I was looking on the shipping label page. So anyway, I'm not sure if that's the same for all sellers, like sellers who don't have a store, or I don't know if there's a difference in any of the apps.
SPEAKER_03:It says it on USBS.com or$100 insurance included on USBS. Oh, so that's not part of it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah because I thought there was a time where you would get more cut well, you got more coverage if you printed through.
SPEAKER_03:I wonder if that was the first class.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it might have been. It might have been. Yeah, yeah. I was like, I'm just remembering this from a long time ago. So yeah, because I'm maybe that's standard now.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Uh up to 70 pounds. So, which uh Yeah. So there you have it, guys. So Glenn, you don't have to ship priority now. Okay. Go ahead. I only think I hate and how long it takes to get there. Well, right now it's not uh right, you're correct. Right now, it's not that much difference.
SPEAKER_06:It's less than a day on average.
SPEAKER_03:During non-peak hours, non-peak season, they're almost the same because I I I really think they're on the same truck. I I really think they get shipped on the same truck because I'm track I'm tracking certain stuff, and priority and and USBS ground advantage get there at the same time to the hub. It's more likely on on peak season because I know it's priority gets priority. Yeah, because um when I use the only one other job that I've had was a seasonal worker at USB S at the hub in Cincinnati, there's a priority uh kind of like buckets versus the first class buckets, and priority gets loaded first. And then if the tr if there's more space in the truck, the the other services get loaded after. So and and most likely during holiday season, everybody's using priority and express uh shipping. And while we're at that topic, make sure you add priority shipping now.
SPEAKER_06:Um that's a good one.
SPEAKER_03:Priority and expedited option. Um on expedited option I do US uh UPS because it's closer to me. Because obviously um when the customers in a hurry, you want to be able to drop off at the closest location. So I've I've usually just added um UPS overnight and just do calculated um for that. And then I usually add ten dollar handling on the on the you know, just for my snacks on the way to the drop-off.
SPEAKER_06:To rush it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, because you I I go through Chick-fil-A on the way there, you know, so that covers the Chick-fil-A meal. Um and also find out the cutoff time for your UPS um expedited um uh services. So mine's at 7 p.m. So the regular are f are noon and five p.m. and then the express is at 7 p.m. So that's always good to know because when a lot of people say like I need it tomorrow or the in two days, you could still fulfill um the up till 7 p.m. So that's uh pro tip right there.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, I have a question that's made me think of are you guys looking ahead at the calendar like October, November, December, and blocking off any particular parts of those months for work or for extra shipping, or like are you looking ahead of any of that, or do you typically have certain weeks or something where you're like I've gotta just buckle down and not commit to any other holiday stuff, or like is this is this the time of year where you even look at that or you just take it as it comes?
SPEAKER_03:Um October 1st. I don't have a life. I'm just joking. October 1st, what calendar?
SPEAKER_06:What calendar?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. I think because I'm doing a little bit different things in last year. This year, yeah. Yeah, I don't know how this is how this is gonna play out too. And I feel like maybe just the m you know the more the better at this point and just kind of roll with it. And if I do need help, you'll turn into like a UPS and start hiring some workers to some randoms. Yeah. Um just kind of go with it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good tip, Anna. Um what what me and JC usually have done previously is during how on just kind of like Q4. When once it hits Q4, you know, you get the vibes, everybody's wearing hoodies. Once once I see hoodie around, once you start rocking hoodies, we start shipping uh earlier on weekends. Um most of the time we start we start shipping, we start shipping Saturdays. Uh that's one of the things that we've always done. Um that way the Saturday afternoon purchases in the Sunday is lighter on Monday. So that's what we've always done and and throughout the week we just kind of like just be more proactive about okay, I see 10 items sold already, let's start pulling that. Um because that's always the kind of like I guess pooling stuff is kind of like what takes longer. Um so yeah, just trying to get ahead. Um trying to maybe uh that's a good thing when you're talking about calendar if you're a calendar person or just trying to be create a schedule is try to set a time, right? Like, okay, every s every Saturday morning I'm just gonna ship first two hours, or kind of like get ahead. Because the last thing you want to do in Q4 is get behind.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and be like dressing on Monday or whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Never there's never recovering. I feel like if you get behind, you can't recover. It'll be hard. You you lose sleep.
SPEAKER_06:Not with that attitude.
SPEAKER_03:You lose sleep. You lose sleep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:And oh it's hard to get back on top of it. Yeah. Better to stay ahead of it. I agree. What um what are you guys doing in terms of checking your inventory or even like clearing stuff out? Like I know for me, looking ahead to sourcing in Q4, I'm trying to like get some of my money back faster so I can be ready for sourcing. Um, but also I'm this is a whole other story, but I am moving my inventory to a location outside of my house for the first time since I lived in Illinois, which just is a good time to be like consolidating and double checking stuff anyway. So I've been doing some inventory check stuff for that reason too. But um, what are you guys doing about that? Anything?
SPEAKER_02:Um, nothing really different on that side of things.
SPEAKER_06:Well, you just got everything all like stocked and lost. So you're done, so you're done. He's done. You just did yours early. Golly.
SPEAKER_03:Well, that didn't help, but yeah. That's that's my goal this month. Um we're we're not doing anything fun. Just working.
SPEAKER_06:Good to know you don't think this podcast is fun, Ken.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just working and ready to make money. Yeah. Yeah, I I think um one of the things is I maybe after this week I'm pretty much done kind of like touching the summer wares. Um I think last two weeks I tried to kind of like final mark down a lot of the summer items that we have and just trying to see what I can recoup with that. Um but besides that, there's still gonna be a good stocking stuffer for you know like cheap$20 items. Um I think that would be something cool, right? Maybe like price everything at$50 and uh run a 50% off sale and call it a stocking stuffer coupon or something like that. Um for anybody that's looking for$25 deals.
SPEAKER_06:Um, that's another item on my list is what about setting up your marketing plan for Q4?
SPEAKER_03:Oh golly, that's I'm not I'm not a not there yet. Not there yet. What about you?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's a different episode of my life.
SPEAKER_06:To be honest, I think we're gonna have to talk to Jen Deal again before we make those strategies because I bet you'll have some really good insight into that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because there's so there's still like there's still like Halloween, you know what I'm saying? Well, other h holidays are coming up. There's still Thanksgiving. Um there's still quite a few, you know, like and I feel like that's when I've always say this, like once it gets colder, everybody feels like I feel like everybody's just at home chilling, trying to shop.
SPEAKER_02:So Yeah, that's true too.
SPEAKER_03:And watching football, you know, we're not gonna talk about football. Sorry about it. Team Glends.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, we don't want to talk about that right now.
SPEAKER_06:We're just gonna bring that one all together. We were, we were we were doing good.
SPEAKER_02:I don't want to go off the rails here.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I'll keep us from going off the rails and just say one thing like that I'm doing right now, real life, real time, prepping for Q4, is getting all my habits back in order when it comes to processing inventory, because like I said, I'm about to be moving my stuff. Not my whole house, thank God. But just my inventory. About a hundred and sixty bins, I think. So I'm trying to get the new stuff that's coming in back into those well-worn pathways of what works really well for me. And here's what it sounds like sourcing. And then um any kind of like removing tags, elbow grease, cleaning stuff up, especially the vintage and use kind of stuff. Then I'm logging it, I'm titling it, I'm pricing it, so it's all totally ready to go. Basically everything but photos is done. And I sort it so that when I'm taking photos of, say, like jackets or something, I do all the jackets back to back. So I don't have to keep switching gears in my mind of what I'm taking photos of or having someone take photos of. And then I'm assigning those bins and making those listings. So that's my normal process. And over the last couple months, I've been really loosey-goosey about it. I still have cherry-picked stuff out and listed it, but I haven't been like just pushing everything through in that order. And that to date, like over, you know, eight years has been the best way for me to like prevent bottlenecks and not get any like important information falling through the cracks. So that's what I'm trying to do. Force myself back into my best habits because when things get busy, we revert to we we default to things, right? And so I want that to be my default to go is to do things that way. So I'm resetting those defaults right now. Um, but definitely for having you know goals of obviously selling a lot, but also sourcing a lot while I'm selling a lot, I really want those to be my go-to processes and um stay like committed to that when things get busy.
SPEAKER_02:I had to stick with the process, that's what we gotta do.
SPEAKER_06:That's what we're trying to do.
SPEAKER_02:Then stuff gets left behind, that's how Death Pile started.
SPEAKER_06:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so like we can have that.
SPEAKER_06:Inventory gets mismanaged.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and then you and then you after all the selling season and you look at your inventory like crap, I still have ten of these, and somebody was asking for five more. Right. Uh that's another thing.
SPEAKER_06:And that's like that's not necessarily something that I recall having to to do to like hard reset myself last year going into Q4, but you know, I've got my sights set differently, I guess, on how I want this Q4 to go. So I want to ask you guys that. Like, is there anything you're doing this year, right now, that is a little bit different or a little bit with it from a different approach, like going into this particular Q4?
SPEAKER_02:Well, inventory-wise is definitely different. I didn't have this many hats or anything last year. But I think last year too, I was doing probably more whatnot than anything. So this this eBay store is definitely getting like a second chance to live to prove itself worthy of your time. So that's really gonna be a difference from last year to this year. And yeah. I mean, I am excited to have just kind of like I mean, I'm I'm not excited for slower sales, but I'm I want to be more profitable by by not having to less volume, you mean less grind, less grind, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Less grind, more, more merry, more merry.
SPEAKER_06:Plenty of hustle, plenty of hustle. Yeah, don't worry.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, so many of these sellers are just like I've seen the same show. The same shows, you know, over and over and over again. And I think that's that's kind of scary too when you get like palettes full of stuff, and and there we get so many people, at least me and Ken also would they would tell us like, man, if I can only get a palette of uh 500 pieces, a thousand pieces. And we would tell them too, like, can you even handle five thousand or you know, a thousand pieces, five hundred pieces? You know, what would you even do if you had that? Yeah, and when you actually get it in hand, you're like, okay, this is a totally different and then the worst part is they're the same size and the same color.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, same skew, same color, same dads. And you're like, oh, that's why you that's why you go whatnot. That's when you just move it fast and fingers crossed, you break even. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_06:Life is not for me, you guys.
SPEAKER_03:Once you start voluming, like, yeah, once you start volume, like you you see it, go to your life selling platforms, and to a point they're sell they're doing two seconds sudden death. How?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I mean seconds. It's interesting though, like stepping back from that. Like, I'm very curious to see what it's like for you to kind of roll it back and not be. Because you kind of you get to the edge, right? And you look over the precipice, and you're like, wow, I can see where this is going, and I don't want to go all the way there.
SPEAKER_03:I'm curious to see how Glenn will feel. This guy's gonna be all smiles. This guy's probably gonna gain weight, he's gonna eat more ice cream. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. There's there's some good options there. Um but no, because I I I felt ran down for at least a year after I did that. And I feel like now this Q4, I'm gonna feel better. Yeah, the further the further the volume game is. Um until we have an automated warehouse, volume game's not it.
SPEAKER_06:Right, right. But that doesn't mean growing your inventory is not it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh. Always, always. You always gotta grow inventory. And to grow inventory, Anna, what do we need?
SPEAKER_06:Well, I don't know about you, but I need capital.
SPEAKER_03:We all need capital.
SPEAKER_06:Why are we so cheesy? Glenn. It's so funny.
SPEAKER_03:Glenn, what what do you need to buy more inventory?
SPEAKER_02:Um, capital?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:What do you need to buy more inventory?
SPEAKER_03:Um, more money. Cause more money, more problems.
SPEAKER_06:Money with a capital M, I guess. Is that what capital means?
SPEAKER_03:Just kidding. I know what capital means. Well, um, you know, um, part of the Q4 prep that we're gonna be doing is game planning sourcing. And I think most of the people that are listening here and that we know of, and if you're listening to this podcast, I believe in you that you're already a good buyer. And when you're already a good buyer, you start seeing more opportunity. When there's more opportunity, that means you need more money. And when you need more money, and your pocket money runs out, you need to use other services that now eBay provides, which me and Glenn have used different other providers previously, but now it's all tied into eBay.
SPEAKER_06:Well, this is one part of prepping for Q4 that I have never really done. Um, because I never until like the last couple years, I really haven't looked at Q4 as a big sourcing opportunity, but it really is. And so, you know, not wanting to miss out on that, like I have been using um, you know, at first I was just used like, okay, I have a business credit card, I'm gonna use that. Um, great, like obviously responsibly, right? But like now, eBay seller capital is something we've talked about. They have a couple of different ways um of borrowing money that basically takes you know your repayments come right out of your um eBay sales and all that. So anyway, we actually had the chance to talk to eBay Seller Capital um like directly. So we're gonna share an interview with you guys that kind of runs through all of that in case it's a tool that you want to use while you're sourcing now, or um probably maybe by the time you're hearing this, it'll almost be Q4 anyway, but during Q4 and beyond, and we as with anything that we recommend, like on the podcast or that we promote, like I mean, we've used it, you know, we've we both have really like it and it's worked well and really boosted our businesses a lot. So, you know, it's not maybe for everyone, but it's definitely something to consider. And I really believe that if you're going to borrow money, you definitely need to have a plan, right? Like you shouldn't just be borrowing money willy-nilly to do stuff in your business. So when you have a strategy and you have a good reason, like then you can have um a good product to actually use to do that. So that's what we're gonna show you guys.
SPEAKER_03:Huge shout out to eBay for partnering with us and sponsoring this podcast. And stay tuned for the interview.
SPEAKER_06:Well, guys, it's time for our feature way of preparing for Q4, and we have a very special guest with us to discuss this. So, special guest. I'll let you introduce yourself, but we want to know who you are, what you do, and why you're so passionate about it.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks so much for having me. Uh hello everyone. I'm Jitin Rajnayer, and I lead the eBay Seller Capital North America business. Um, I've been at eBay for around seven years now, and what I really love about my role is getting to work on products that make a real tangible impact for sellers. Access to financing can be such a game changer for small and medium businesses, and it's incredibly rewarding to help create solutions that remove barriers and give sellers more opportunities. Now, as most of you know, uh, we at eBay we've always been about empowering entrepreneurs. And you know that eBay is the home of the accidental entrepreneur, as we put it. Uh, and for me, it's always fulfilling to see how the work we do translates into real growth for the seller community. Um, I'm excited to be here today to share more about how eBay seller capital works, what makes it unique compared to traditional financing options, and how sellers in our community are using it to power their growth.
SPEAKER_06:Awesome.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, yep. So super excited about uh this conversation that we're gonna be having. Um, you know, as we have talked about, September is our Q4 prep, and this is the tactical side. And one of the uh things that we love about the business is sourcing. But what's the most fun, right? That's the most fun, right? But the you lose the fun when you run out of money. Yeah, it's not as fun anymore when you see opportunity and you don't have the capital to buy that passing you by the bummer. So that is definitely a feeling that um every eBay seller probably have felt uh at least once. Um and you know, as as you get better uh selling and getting to know the inventory that you want, um, I feel like capital is the one that gets lagged behind. Obviously, you know, we have bills to pay, we have to you know manage our cash flow and stuff like that. So super exciting, and um it's a very uh perfect uh timing for this to talk about uh seller capital.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, me and you are focused on sourcing this Q4, Ken, but I know there's a lot of other reasons why sellers might need capital also. So I'm hoping Jatin will tell us a lot more about that. But I had this thought also while you were introducing yourself, which is maybe the bridge, maybe the moment that you change from an accidental entrepreneur to an on-purpose or maybe an intentional entrepreneur is when you start using capital. Right? When you start thinking about your plan for capital and not just going where the wind blows you. So anyway, I would love to hear um some more about all this. It's obviously something Ken and I have been using and loving, but we want to share with everybody, you know, how this might fit into their own business. And I'm sure seven years of eBay is a long time too. So, what kind of challenges have you noticed by um sellers having? What kind of challenges have you noticed sellers having running their small businesses? Like what are the problems people are facing that you guys are solving?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And it's funny because um, you know, I with the product management, uh, one of the the things that you know it gets drilled into us is that always start with the problems, right? Always start with the problem statement. So uh you guys might have a flair for this.
SPEAKER_06:Uh oh, we're really good at finding problems. There's always problems to be found.
SPEAKER_00:But uh thank you so much for starting with the problems that statement, Arna. Um, you know, SMBs are the lifeblood of the US economy, right? But traditional financing institutions simply are not meeting their financing needs. Now, I read a uh a Goldman Sachs survey recently where I saw that 77% of small businesses are concerned about their ability to access capital.
SPEAKER_04:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:Access to yeah, access to financing is limited because of insufficient revenue, lack of credit history, and seasonality in general, right? And that's just uh on the eligibility standpoint, from an eligibility standpoint. And and um uh uh it it what makes the process even more cumbersome is the long application times, rigid payment terms. And it this essentially results in uh SMB's capital needs being underpinned by fear, right? Uncertainty and doubt. And and in doing so, what happens is they are they are unable to efficiently allocate their time uh and focus on what's really important, which is operating and growing their business. Um this is essentially where eBay comes in, and eBay seller capital comes in, right? eBay's mission is to connect people and create economic opportunity for all. We have uh what 2.3 billion live listings, it's one of the largest online marketplaces, millions of buyers and sellers across 190 markets that rely on eBay to buy and sell like hard-to-find collectibles, you know, feel of the electronics, uh, and and sneakers can uh push.
SPEAKER_06:Don't worry, Ken. Still a lot of people love the sneakers out there.
SPEAKER_00:Um yeah, so we see ourselves as a growth part of small businesses and and uh and and help them thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Um so so yeah, these are some of the issues that we've we've we've seen uh um with respect to financing.
SPEAKER_03:No, I mean totally agree on that one. I mean, I think um speaking from experience, I think I recognized it early on that financing was really against kind of like my situation in the in the early days of building my business, and you know, that's always been kind of like the challenge of trying to find. Um, you know, one particular experience about when you mentioned traditional financing is um I've been banking with this bank since you know, since I started the business. Went in there and next thing you know, they needed paperwork. And I was like, okay, let me get some papers printed.
SPEAKER_06:Collect the papers, yeah. That's always a fun process.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And and one is to just go there and talk to the manager is already intimidating enough. You know, you get put in the office. I felt like I I'm always in trouble, you know, growing up. Yeah, that's what I feel like. And and it's not and and it's and it's not to their fault, it's just the traditional way of financing that yeah, it feels like it's an interrogation. It's like, what do you sell? Where do you sell? You know, I'm saying, like, do you have a brick and mortar? And every time I say, Do you have a brick and uh every time I hear that, I'm just like, oh no, denial right off the rep because they don't think I'm real, they don't understand e-commerce, right? Like, well what you sell stuff on the internet, right? And it's like, yeah, you know, and it's like, do you know like eBay? You know, like you know eBay, you know, and and that's you know, I I I I I truly kind of like 100% um agree on those challenges that you have mentioned.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. It's about the industry risk perception, right? I mean, there are certain industries, especially within the online uh world, where um they're considered as higher risk by by lenders, right? Uh if you think about the one thing that lenders look for, traditional lenders look for, right? It's collateral. And if you have a uh a predominantly online marketplace, but you don't have a brick and martyr presence, yeah, uh um uh banks are simply unwilling to lend because they just don't have anything to collateralize this again. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head too, just talking about how much doubt and uncertainty there is, especially for that accidental entrepreneur, right? It's like you didn't go to business school, you don't know how this is supposed to work, you feel like you're in the principal's office when you're gonna talk to somebody at a bank. But at the same time, like you know, you understand hopefully the basic equation of like it taking money to make money, right? And um I know that people that's one one reason people are sitting on the bench and watching opportunities pass them by is because of that that kind of uncertainty and fear and doubt around all of this, right? Because nobody wants to get in over their head or um not be responsible, you know, but also it's just hard enough to find a way to have access to capital, which I think is really where you guys have just flung the door open um for sellers in a way that they haven't had access to before. So um yeah, is there anything else you want to say just about why those traditional ways are not good for sellers? Like I'm curious, you know, what you've heard um working with working with so many sellers and just hearing what they're up against.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. There's a bunch of bunch of reasons, right? I mean, uh if you think about the the uh the experience that's offered by traditional banks, it's it's it's clunky, it's inefficient, and it's it's very stressful. Like going, you know, just listening to Ken uh speak about his experience earlier as well. Uh if you think about the application experience, the traditional loan application process is extremely time consuming, right? Uh there was a report that I read recently where uh you know more than half of the banks that process these applications take over 10 days, 10 business days to uh uh to make a decision, which can be a significant hurdle for SMB. Yeah, yeah, already lost the deal. Exactly. Your business moves at the speed of flight, right? You don't have time to wait for uh you know a business or a bank to come back to you with uh a decision after weeks, right? Um that's just one, right? Let's say um you do manage to kind of sit through that process, uh, your chance of approval is really low. It speaks to what we were talking about earlier as well, right? Uh the approval rates are really low. Um, because let's face it, sometimes uh the credit history is limited. Many SMBs have a limited or less than ideal credit history, which significantly hinders their ability to secure financing. I don't know if you've seen the SFS SBDC report, 36% of small businesses that were denied funding uh cited this credit score as their primary reason.
SPEAKER_06:Interesting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and if you think about uh uh the revenue volatility when it comes to e-commerce uh SMBs, right? Many experience fluctuating revenue, seasonality, uh changing consumer demand. Uh and for traditional banks, they prefer a predictable revenue stream. They're not uh able to underwrite uh uh a thriving e-commerce business, right? And all of this results in obviously the chance of an approval for an SMB going really low. Um and let's say you do get approved, right? Um the repayment process is often super rigid, right? It comes with fixed monthly payments, and and this rigidity can strain uh businesses during slower sales periods, making it difficult to meet the repayment obligations, right? If you have seasonality and you expect the same fixed monthly payment every month, uh it's it's it's a problem.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so in that case, if you didn't have fear or doubt before, you get that rigid fixed monthly payment and you start having stuff as soon as Q4 is over. They'll make you which is not great. I mean, I was curious about that just because honestly, I never did try to go a traditional route to fund anything for my business. Um, you know, besides having like a business credit card, you know, like eBay seller capital has really opened things up for me. And I totally stayed away from all of that um and probably miss out on tons of growth, you know, because I didn't um I didn't try to access anything like that, but I was very intimidated by it and I just figured, yeah, I'm not gonna make it through the approval process because of the nature of you know how my business like looks on paper or all the different, you know, paperwork processes and all that. I mean, I didn't even try. I was like, I'll just keep rolling forward at whatever pace my business can provide the capital, which in some ways is really safe, but you know, that's not the only strategy, and it's definitely not like a a growth strategy compared to what I can do now. So anyway, I just wanted to ask a little more about that. So so obviously you guys are seeing at eBay, you guys are seeing all of these challenges and all these pain points, right? That sellers are up against, and you're probably asking them and listening to them because we know that that's what eBay does, and we absolutely love that. So then from there, you started with the problem and you had to design a solution for it. How did you guys do that? Like, how did how did you step in and say, you know what, we can handle your seasonality and your volatility and all that stuff and still give you a solution? Like, how did that happen?
SPEAKER_00:Um, there are millions of small businesses and entrepreneurs on our global platform, and and eBay understands the unique financial challenges faced by business owners. We've spoken to a lot of sellers like yourselves to understand um you know what some of the needs for financing are, what some of the problems that they're faced with when they look for financing and capital outside of our platform. And and one thing is clear, right? Sellers want to grow, and sellers want to grow on eBay. So there isn't, right? Um, and what they've made it clear through you know interviews that we've had with them is that they need a solution to address some of the pain points that we talked about earlier. They need access to financing fast, quick, straightforward access. Right? They need uh capital on demand with payments that adjust to their sales cycles. And what they want is a solution that is integrated into their eBay ecosystem. They don't want to manage multiple platforms. So, what they want to do is ensure that everything kind of is seamless experience from start to end. So when we look to relaunch the program, we decided to kind of design it from the ground up to address these specific pain points. Financing is not a new industry, it's been around for decades, you know.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, really a long time.
SPEAKER_00:Really, really long time, right? Uh, but what we needed was a solution that works for our sellers, and that's exactly what we tried to do when we re-look when we relaunched the EBSLA capital program. And we're looking to improve constantly, so uh we're we're nowhere close to where we want to be. Uh, but uh uh I know that we'll get there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean one of the things that I I like about um what you mentioned was the seamless integration. Um, I think that was very key. Um for that's very key for speed, right? Um, and one of the things that I've heard, you know, just talking to different sellers, like um when before this became a product, like why don't eBay provide this? They already know our store better than a bank would, right? Like uh an external financial um you know provider would. And that was the thing that I you know, like we've kind of like you know talked to multiple people, it's like hey, like uh uh uh capital program would be great because there were other capital programs that we have experienced previously before eBay had their own um right that were not seamless and integrated. Exactly, because you have to go to multiple, right? And in and just it's just another layer because like you know, we have bills to pay, and then now there's another website that I have to go to to make sure that that's managed. Um in you know, seamless integration. I think you guys have done it well. Um, and I think you have mentioned it too, um uh during eBay open that it only takes three clicks to uh get qualified. I I think that is that is amazing.
SPEAKER_06:Sounds like you were listening to the presentation.
SPEAKER_03:I was, I was. Um you know, I'm trying to uh because because you know as as as Jin said, they're continually evolving and trying to uh get better. Um because when I did it, I think it was five.
SPEAKER_01:About five or six.
SPEAKER_03:Five or six, right? But but it's eliminated some of the but listen to this, but listen to this. This is one of the things that we came up with uh just you know, chit-chatting uh during our session. We didn't even touch paper. Oh, what about that? We're saving trees now.
SPEAKER_06:Right? I was trying to think of like a great comeback for that about something about you didn't touch paper, but then you like got all the paper, like the money that you got deposited. Oh, but that also wasn't physical paper, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right, right. Yeah, I didn't have to touch paper, neither I did have to touch money too, because it went straight to my microphone.
SPEAKER_06:Right, exactly. Yeah. Man, it's come such a long way from you know, buyers mailing in their money orders to pay for their items and their cash and their change. Like, man, it's just so crazy how far everything has come. But I want to ask, um, just for anybody who's listening, because Ken and I have talked about this a little bit on the podcast, um, just our own experience and as we've been using eBay seller capital. But Jen, can you just run us through the program itself and kind of what is the opportunity for sellers? Like, I'm sure there are some sellers listening to this who are interested in trying it.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Um, our eBay seller capital strategy centers around providing tailored financing solutions through a multi-product, multi-lender approach. Now, eBay sellers in in key markets such as the US, UK, and Germany have access to a range of funding options uh to grow their business. Now, by leveraging eBay's rich data on sellers, we work with our partners to offer customized financing that aligns with the seller's performance. And this provides flexibility and speed and makes the entire experience seamless. So our sellers uh get access to financing options that are you know for eBay sellers, right? Um, so eBay has this, like I mentioned, this unique advantage of having access to our sales data. We know our sellers, right? It allows our partners to offer uh financing that's tailored and closely aligned with a seller's business performance, right? So which means that the funding amount that you get access to and the repayment schedule is customized to a specific seller's sales cycle. This ensures that there's affordability and flexibility. And and like you mentioned, Ken, right? Three clicks, uh uh uh the you know that's that's the that's the ethos of the program. The application process for eBay's uh uh financing product, eBay sell like Apple's financing product products are is is quick and user-friendly. Eligible sellers can apply in as little as like three minutes and receive funding fairly rapidly, usually in 12, 24 hours.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, that's been my experience. And it is like, you know, the offers and things that I was looking at and considering were different than what Ken saw on his screen when he went to look for, you know, whatever was available to him. So I really appreciate that, especially thinking back to the whole idea of doubt and uncertainty. And, you know, like like I said, one of the things I've heard from other sellers over the years who haven't used any kind of leveraged any kind of financing for their store is like they don't want to get in over their head, right? That's like the fear everybody has of that rigid fixed payment. What if I can't make it because my sales are low this month, etc. But I love that there is this tailored approach that's built in so that the thing that you're being offered is appropriately sized for your store that's been that's been you know considered on a the basis of a wholesale cycle. Like I think that is really unique as far as whatever other you know funding might be available out there, that gives me a lot of peace of mind that you know it's not just me doing my own math on an envelope, like what's being offered to me is appropriate. So I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I mean, uh if you think about it, like during your like like you mentioned, right? The the um uh flexible payment schedules means that during a slower sales periods, your payments are reduced, which can help remove some of the financial stress on your business, right? Um uh so that that I I I believe is is is the true value proposition of the product. Yeah, it's built for an eBay seller. And as as you mentioned, Ken, everything is integrated into your eBay seller hub. So you can see uh there's your sales history along with the amount that uh has gone towards payments uh and the amount that's that's remaining. Right? So everything is out there, it's transparent, it's it's it's so that's that's that's that's what we try to do with uh the experience.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, what what I like about what I see in the dashboard is um it does the number doesn't give me that fear and doubt if I'm gonna pay it because of the certain percentage that's only taken out of my sales. So that alleviates that. So the focus actually points towards not me paying faster, it's actually me selling more, which I like. I like to be positively reinforced and saying, like, hey, the hustle be if you want to pay this down fast, sell more. So I was like, wait, that is a great idea.
SPEAKER_06:It is a great idea, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So so now it pushed me. Okay, I need to list more, I need to acquire more products, I need to sell more, I need to make sure that everything in my eBay store is top shape that way it gets to the customers that's wanting to buy it. So, and then the payment takes care of it, you know. And and I mean, as a matter of fact, my first uh my first round of uh using the product uh which you can uh tell us I use the business cash advice. And I I took it personal and that's when I said, No, I'm not. I'm gonna pay it in record breaking time. I was just making it my own. Yeah, I was just I didn't know what record was there. I was like, I was just gonna beat your quote and I'm just gonna overachieve. So um how many days? Uh forty-eight.
SPEAKER_06:Nice instead of one hundred. That's pretty good.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so so so so which actually, you know, like as a seller, as a small business owner, um, you're thinking about a lot of things. But those are kind of um a very possibly reinforcing, uh rewarding feeling that that I feel when when I sell, and it's like, okay, when I sell a product, that means like my my cash advance is getting paid off uh faster. So um, yeah, Jateen, why don't you uh walk us through the different um products? Because I mentioned one of them.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and we haven't tried all of them, so tell us about all of them.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And then before I get to that, I just want to kind of address that point that you made. Um, and that's the core principle of what eBay is built on and eBay seller capital is built on, right? We don't compete with our sellers, our our success is in our seller's success. Right. So when you sell on eBay, we we we succeed, right? Similarly with eBay Seller Capital, if you sell on eBay, you make payments, and your payments are tied to your sales, right? So that's essentially uh the core principle of our product.
SPEAKER_06:Um but uh yeah, but they they're always automatic, right? Like, I mean, every product I've used, I think the payment is automatic, so I don't even have to go make it, it just dumps it in there at the end of every day. But um, I don't know if that's true for every product, so I won't say that across the board. But I love that the ones I've used are automatic and I literally don't even have to think about it. I just watch that number go down and it's great.
SPEAKER_00:That is correct. I mean, we have products that uh we have traditional products as well, but uh uh the product that you've used, Anna, the the business cash advance, and the one that you've used, Ken, the flexible cash advance, are both products that uh uh allow you to make automated payments. So you it's basically enhanced the experience. The moment you get funding, all you have to do is focus on your business and focus on growing. Everything else is going to be handled automatically.
SPEAKER_04:Awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Perfect. Um so yeah, so the business cash advance uh to Ken's point. Um uh the business cash advance product, which is BCA, uh, is uh is powered by our lending partner, Liberus. Uh sellers can avail capital ranging from$500 all the way up to$1 million. This is our most popular option. Uh, you'll get a lump sum, you pay back uh as a percentage of your daily eBay sales. As mentioned before, if you have a slow day with no sales, you make no payments. It's a fixed fee product, which means that uh when you get approved for an amount, they will attribute a one-time fee to the amount that you got, and then the total amount that the the amount you got plus the fee is what you pay back. There's no interest, uh, which means that you know exactly what you're getting into, which is different from how traditional financing works, which is interest-based. So if you know what happens if you miss a payment, the total amount you pay back balloons, right? That's not what happens with the BCA. Uh uh, you know exactly uh what you're gonna pay back at any given point in time.
SPEAKER_06:Right, and that's really important because I think sometimes people, you know, hear, oh, there's a percentage, there's a percentage involved, but the percentage involved is the percentage of your sales that goes to pay off that fixed balance. There's not a percentage of like interest on the balance, and so that should be super clear to people, hopefully, by the end of this episode.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, absolutely. And uh, we also have the flexible cash advance, which is uh, I would say the next step in our in the evolution to a VCA. It's very similar to a BCA, but with additional flexibility. Think of this as you getting access to a pool of funds that you can draw from on demand whenever you need it. It has the same flexible salespace payment, which means that uh you make payments from your daily sales for the amount that you've actually taken out. So let's say, for example, you get approved for uh an account of$100,000. At that point, you have zero obligations. You can decide to take money from it or you can decide not to. Let's say two months down the line, you decide that I want to take out$10,000 from that pool, you do take it out at that point. The one-time fee will be applied to the$10,000 that you took out, not the entire$100,000. Right. And then you pay back only the$10,000 that you've taken out. And as you pay back, uh the original account gets replenished. But that's not to say that you have to pay back the entire$10,000 to take more money. You can take out$10,000 one day, the next day you can take out another$20,000 up to the limit that you've been approved for. It's very similar to how a credit card would work without the uh interest rate.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, right. So the business cash advance, the first one, is just one lump sum. And this is more like there's a big pool, and you can take out multiple lump sums as you need them, up to that amount that is the total pool.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And yep, that I I think that's a really uh great product to as a business owner to just kind of have a peace of mind that there is access to capital when you need it the most. And that is one one product that I am sitting on right now that I have been approved and I've made multiple draws. So again, now I'm just trying to break records again, trying to pay it fast.
SPEAKER_06:And you mentioned you have traditional options too. Can you tell us about that in case anybody loves to have a fixed payment?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Uh we work with our partner iBusiness Funding to provide up to a half a million in funding with fixed monthly payments. It's a it's a term loan, it's a traditional product. This is for the seller who is uh uh who's seeking stable, predictable revenue options. Sometimes it happens you uh want that predictability, you don't know exactly how much money is going to go out of your account every single month, and that's where your traditional options come in. Um, but the good thing about all of these options is that uh applying does not hurt your credit. So uh uh because our lenders only do a soft credit check. Like it's it's truly a risk-free way to check what your business may be eligible for, right? So go ahead, apply, and see what you know options you're getting, what offers you're getting, and uh make an informed decision. At that point, you're not obligated to move forward, and neither does it hurt your credit.
SPEAKER_06:That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, I think I I I always say there's like 101 ways to have a successful business on eBay, so it totally stands to reason that there should be different products that kind of fit different business models better. But you know, by the same token, like different sellers have different challenges. So, can you tell us a little bit about that? Like, what have you seen people use the money for? Because, like, for me, I'm definitely thinking inventory, thinking Q4 sourcing, you know, but I'm sure there's other ways that people use it.
SPEAKER_00:So absolutely. I mean, uh, these solutions are designed to give eBay sellers easy access to the capital that they need to invest in inventory, like you said, which is the most common option that we see. Uh, I mean, you you want to take advantage of that perfect deal at short notice, right? That's what this fast financing helps. Uh, you can use it to market your products uh better. I mean, if you have if you have not uh checked out promoted listings at eBay yet, please do so. Uh, it's a great way to market your product to the broader buyer population. Um, you can use it to expand operations, uh hire employees, delivery vehicles, you know, buy a you know, build a warehouse, and in general, uh seize new opportunities. So this this financing that eBay seller capital offers is is not just for increasing your inventory stock, it's it's also to uh invest in different areas of your business to help you grow strategically uh and set yourself up for success in the future.
SPEAKER_06:Awesome. I I suspected people use it for other things. I mean, honestly, it makes me think about um the up and running grants, right? I was a grant winner years ago and that was incredible. And obviously, when you applied for that, you had to kind of say, here's what I am planning on using the money for, but also like you have autonomy as a business owner. If there's other things that come up that are more important to your business, like you can spend the money on that. Nobody's nobody's checking to make sure that you spend it on exactly inventory or whatever. Like, there's a lot of different things that go into running a successful business, and you might need capital um to support a number of those things.
SPEAKER_00:So that's absolutely, absolutely, and and um you know uh uh pardon me for uh uh you know a brag here, but uh do it, do it. I'm like super pleased to share that to the eBay Seller Capital program. We've connected eBay sellers with well over a hundred million in working capital this year.
SPEAKER_06:Uh in 20 wow, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, and and and super excited about that. And it's just not the number, it's about what that number represents, right? Each dollar from that represents growth uh for sellers, right? And that's exactly what I'm uh excited about.
SPEAKER_06:Over 100 million in the last year. That is wild. Jatin, can you tell us uh like a case study of somebody who's used eBay seller capital?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, absolutely. Uh I I have loads, but uh there's this uh uh this wonderful seller that that uh uh you know I I my mind keeps coming back to. Uh I'm I'm I'm sure you guys know her, uh Stephanie Franco.
SPEAKER_05:Um yes, Lady Suburbia. Shout out, Stephanie.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, she she owns the eBay store, Lady Suburbia. She began uh, I'm sure you know her story, but she began reselling items she found in her garage uh and uh in in thrift stores on eBay as a part of as a part-time hobby in 2017. Uh during the pandemic, though, um she lost several of her marketing clients and decided to kind of formalize her eBay venture, moving from that accidental entrepreneur to like a formal entrepreneur. Uh and last year she uh she received a cash advance from Libris, the business cash advance, uh, to bridge her summer sales slowdown and invest in inventory for the holiday season. Um and uh Stephanie, when I asked, when I spoke to Stephanie, she said she she really loved the automated uh payment system. Uh it reducted a percentage of her daily sales. Um the application process for her was very, very straightforward and quick, and and she found the terms to be uh favorable. And the money that she got um had a uh I would say a dramatic positive impact on her business. Like with the extra capital, she uh she was able to confidently experiment and explore new product categories, including DVDs, clothing, toys, and books. Uh, and she was able to kind of discover new profitable avenues for her for her business. Uh she also um uh rented a storage unit. Uh it solved her inventory storage limitations and and uh helped her kind of expand her business further. And uh I was I was really happy to see that she she tripled her eBay listings and she experienced a 55% increase in sales between 2023 and 2024, and in just six months, like I think it was August to December 2024, she generated the same amount of sales as she did in the entire year of 2023. Um, so it was it was it was really impressive how she was able to use the capital to kind of grow her business, and uh um you know no matter what I say, what numbers I throw out, it won't do justice to her story.
SPEAKER_06:And and no, that's why I'm laughing. I'm like, Stephanie's the fire, and you guys are the fuel.
SPEAKER_00:Like she's such an entrepreneur. I I think it'll be remissive if you don't uh allow your listeners to kind of hear uh to kind of hear a story in in her own words.
SPEAKER_05:Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_03:So let's insert that clip. And before we insert that clip, make sure you uh watch and go to eBay on YouTube and uh just look for Stephanie Franco and you'll see the whole video. But here's a quick clip of Stephanie's story.
SPEAKER_01:I decided to apply for eBay's seller capital program because I wanted to scale up my business and I needed that capital to do so. The process was straightforward and easy. It just took a few minutes to apply, and within a few days, I received funding. I was able to lower my cost of goods. I now rent a storage unit where I can sell all that extra inventory. I literally have gone from 200 listings to nearly 700. eBay offers a lot of flexibility as a seller and it allows me to grow as my business grows as well. I'm able to attend my family's events, my kids' soccer games, I get to pick up my son from school. eBay's seller capital program empowers me to be the businesswoman that I want, the mother that I aspire to be, and the seller that's making strides on a global scale.
SPEAKER_06:That's awesome. I just love Stephanie. I remember meeting her in San Jose on eBay's campus and hearing some of that story from her when I was just asking her about herself and getting to know her, but so cool. She is um just a great example of how exponential your growth can be, right? When you have the right tools and you have access to what you need. So, you know, Ken and I uh obviously are both uh customers also of eBay Seller Capital.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_06:And we've talked about that a little bit. Um Ken, do you want to say anything else here about just your journey with it so far?
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know, I mean I will never stop and get tired of sharing this story. Uh only because it was definitely uh b business changing for us. Um, you know, our our goal this year was to really get to the next level. And you know, w ha being a business owner, there's always gonna be ups and downs, but you know, you kinda like look at the big picture. Um from twenty-three to twenty-four, um, we kinda have like a one percent growth in sales. So we really didn't grow the revenue in the business that much. Um, because a lot of that was just challenges on trying to find better products, and I didn't want to settle on buying a lower quality product just to push out revenue. Um but what I discovered in 2025 is there are bigger bulk buys that were available to be bought. And this challenged me because now I'm spending more in a short amount of time, right? Like I might have spent fifty thousand in a six-month span, but now it required me to spend fifty thousand in a week. Right, and real fast. Real fast. And this was the challenge that I faced, and I definitely reached out to all the possible um financing options that I had. I mean, definitely emptied out my cash flow, my credit card, and everything like that, and then obviously I s saw eBay's uh seller capital program and I I tested it and it really lifted us. So, because of that effect, we are in September right now, and I f got my first um cash advance in January. We are gonna go to Q4 bigger than ever. So we're gonna have more inventory heading to Q4 this year than ever. And I was just looking at my dashboard. We are compared to last year to date, we are 70 71% up on our revenue.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, this was my first year also using any of these products, and I actually started with the business cash advance and tried that out. Kind of similar. I needed a lift in my business really bad because a couple years ago at this point, it feels like it's been so long. But I moved halfway across the country and moved my inventory with me, and I downsized a lot getting ready for that. I stopped listing new things for about a year around the move. And then once I got here, I also just kept on kind of downsizing because I had a different storage situation and you know, all the chaos of like moving in and settling in. So my sales were kind of slow, you know, it wasn't the former kind of glory days of my store. And and this year I was like, okay, we gotta we gotta start getting back into growth mode again. And I realized quickly that, you know, the best way to do that was to infuse new, more, better inventory faster, right? I couldn't be using the trickle of capital that my store was giving me after being kind of slow and slowing down for those big reasons. So I took my first um Cash Advance. Man, it helped so much. And then now I'm actually using the flexible um version, and I really like that. I'm I have a draw on it right now that I'm working on, but I'm also prepared to basically have my entire pool of funding available for Q4 sourcing. So I just wanted to go ahead and get one under my belt and get some things um set up for Q4. But I'm really excited to have that because again, like the the peace of mind that comes with using a product like that is so much greater than even just like using a credit card or um any other like traditional kind of funding. So um I don't know if you could call me a poster child. I would certainly call Stephanie and Ken poster children of this product, but um, I hope to become a poster child because I want my uh growth trajectory and my success story to just keep on climbing. Um and I definitely see uh eBay seller capital continuing to be part of that. So kind of speaking of that and looking to the future, Jatin, do you have anything you can share with us about what's coming up for eBay Seller Capital? Anything on the horizon that sellers should be on the lookout for?
SPEAKER_00:For sure. And and by the way, post to child or not, um, you know, stories like yours and Ken's and Stephanie's, and I'm sure I'm I speak for my colleagues here, is uh are what gets us out of bed in the morning and go to work. It's just it's just insane to hear about the success stories that uh uh that that you have in some small way helped support. So thank you for sharing that.
SPEAKER_06:Um, absolutely, and I will be happy to say that the hope of being able to have that kind of success and that kind of flexibility with our businesses and our lives and like focus on the stuff that actually matters in our lives is what gets us out of bed in the morning. So it really is once again a win-win.
SPEAKER_00:100%, 100%. Thank you so much. And uh look into the future, as you asked, um, one of the most uh exciting developments for eBay seller capital is our focus on embedded financing. Uh we're seamlessly integrating funding options directly within the eBay experience. Uh, we're trying to build industry-leading financing solutions that make it easier than ever for sellers to access capital they need without leaving the eBay platform. This means faster access to capital, more personalized financing options, and a smoother experience that lets sellers like yourselves focus on growing your business rather than navigating the complex lending processes.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Um, now we're also trying to harness the power of AI to transform eBay seller capital into a smarter, more personalized financing solution. For example, we uh use AI to refine our risk assessment models in partnership with our lending providers to allow us to better predict payment behaviors and identify potential risks. So by doing so, we're able to weed out some of the bad actors and offer an even better product for the ones that for the sellers that are actually looking to grow.
SPEAKER_06:That's what I was thinking. Like it's even more tailored that way.
SPEAKER_00:For sure, yeah. And and while I can't share all of the details just yet, we're focused on expanding our offerings to better serve a wider range of businesses' needs, such as you know, more flexible financing options, a better borrowing experience, and in general, making it easier for our sellers to discover and access capital on eBay.
SPEAKER_06:Awesome. Yeah, I I think it feels so seamless already. So I'm curious to see how much more embedded the experience can get. But um yeah, that is very exciting to hear about. When you can tell us more about any of those upcoming options, please come back on the show and tell us all about it. Um and also, Judin, I have buried the lead a little bit because we didn't even tell our audience right now that you sell stuff on eBay yourself, too. So I just want to ask you and put you on the spot and ask you, what's the last thing you sold on eBay? Because I know this about you, but we didn't really talk about it.
SPEAKER_00:Actually, the last thing I sold on eBay uh was uh uh a toddler's bike. Oh, by the way, I have a 19-month-old. Um and um yeah, he uh I've been blessed with some really great friends who pampered him with like a lot of gifts uh on his birthday. And uh you have to kind of ration gifts uh for the kind of toddler. So we just got around to like opening some of the gifts like uh a few weeks ago, and um um there was a uh bike that uh one of our friends had gifted him, which he already had one off.
SPEAKER_04:Oh gotcha, it's a duplicate.
SPEAKER_00:It's a duplicate one, but it's a toddler, right? He just proceeded to tear open the box. Now it's an open box, right? Uh so we decided to uh list it on eBay eBay open box. It's essentially untouched. And uh, but I I listed it at like a 30% discount. So you know that that needs to be found on eBay. It's a good deal.
SPEAKER_06:It's all profit for you or your toddler, you know, if you want to share the funds. We'll see. But that's really awesome. Did you have was that a pain to ship? Was it bit big-ish?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, no. I mean it wasn't. It wasn't. It's it was yeah, it was it was it was something that you had to assemble. So like uh just kind of broken down a little bit that's broken down as easy.
SPEAKER_06:I won't feel bad for you then. It's easy to ship. That's awesome. Well, is there anything else you want to share with our audience? I know we've been talking a lot about all this, and I really appreciate just the level of detail you're willing to go into with us to share with us, and just to have our listeners have the chance to hear straight from you about everything that eBay is offering.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I mean, if there's one thing I want to leave uh your listeners with, it's it's that uh you know it eBay seller capital really offers a risk-free way for you to kind of gauge what your business could be eligible for in terms of capital. Uh uh, it's it's it there's no obligations, you can apply with no hit to your credit, uh, and your personalized offer is waiting for you on your seller hub. So go ahead, check it out, and uh give it a shot um and uh grow your business like uh you know Can and Anna did.
SPEAKER_06:Heck yeah, and Stephanie. And would they go to the payments tab? Is that where it lives, the application?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, if you go to the payments tab on on Seller Hub, you should be able to see eBay Seller Capital on the left-hand nav. Click on that, and there's a dedicated page for eBay Seller Capital with your personal software waiting for you.
SPEAKER_06:That's incredible. Well, thanks so much. I hope we hear so many more success stories uh coming out of this program. It's really been a game changer for me and for Ken, and obviously for a lot of other people too.
SPEAKER_03:So, well, there you have it. So let's all get locked in and get our strategies together. Uh kit you're sourcing on, uh powered by eBay Salar Capital.