Radio Show News Stories 12-10-2017

For Your Eyes only News Stories ~~~~~~ Ecommerce Enterprise Radio Show December 10, 2017 8:30 pm EDST 1

Americans Are Receiving Unordered Parcels From Chi- nese E-Criminals -- And Can’t Do Anything To Stop Them Heather McGeehan awoke one morning to find an unexpected package from China delivered to her Pennsylvania home. It was a small epacket -- a special subsidized shipping option that Chinese merchants use, enabling them to ship a parcel from Chi- na to the U.S. for less than it costs to send that same parcel domestically. When she opened it she found a small handful of black hair ties with cheap plastic hearts. She was bewildered. The package was clearly addressed to her, but she wasn’t the one who placed the order. Then the following day it happened again, and again, and again, and again without end until the small, unsolicited parcels began piling up in McGeehan’s home. “I receive at least one a day, sometimes multiple,” she explained. She sent me a photo of the haul that came in while she was away on a recent 7-day vacation. But why are people in China sending some random woman in Pennsylvania free hair ties? Why would anyone put in the time, money, and effort to send a stranger on the other side of the world free stuff?2

It’s called Brushing, and even in China it’s illegal. A got hold of McGeehan’s name and address, then created fake accounts for “her” on the e-commerce sites. They then shop for orders via the fake account, compare prices, and mimic everything an actual customer would do, before finally making a purchase. When delivery is confirmed, they then leave positive Feedback, which appears to the e-commerce platform as “verified customer.” The hair ties that McGeehan receives are more than likely NOT the actual items the Chinese brushers are leaving reviews for. Basically, they are low cost stand-ins for the real products. However there are reports of people receiving empty packages. Like on eBay most major e-commerce platforms there are algorithms which rank and order sellers in relation to how many sales they make, how much positive feed- back they receive, etc. Buyers, too, want to purchase from companies which are reputable. Brushing is a way that some sellers are gaming the system. A study at the College of William and Mary in 2015 found that these sites were able to raise their rankings up to 10 times faster than they could via legitimate means. And the risk is very low. While brushing is illegal in China, since the package are sent to the USA, the of- fenders can operate without worry of being caught. 3

Etsy CEO Josh Silverman Shows Sellers New Search Etsy CEO Josh Silverman took to YouTube to update sellers on some of the changes he was making after taking over from Chad Dickerson in the surprise company shakeup in May. One of the biggest changes a marketplace can make is to its search engine, and Silverman said changes he’s made are working. “In September, we introduced a major improvement called Context Specific Ranking, or CSR. Through CSR, we’re personalizing the search experience by using information about the shopper, time of day, and other context-specific factors to rank results in real time. “To give you an example, here are some before and after images to illustrate how this technology can deliver a better search experience for our buyers. This example shows a search for “laundry basket,” and the image on the right shows more relevant results de- livered by our CSR improvements. The more personalized approach means that you’ll no longer see the same results every time you type in a search term. “And the good news is that we’re already seeing CSR drive more sales.” At around minute 2:45 in the video you can see a side by side comparison of search en-4

gine results for the “laundry basket” search he referenced. Silverman also said Etsy was working on enabling sellers to include all of the relevant data about their products as they list them, which would reduce the need to continuously refine SEO terms. He said this would enable Etsy to gain a better understanding of the item with less focus on titles. Silverman expects those changes launched since his arrival will add nearly $100 million in incremental annualized sales, “further evidence that improving search on Etsy can move the needle in a meaningful way.” Also, look for new tools next year – Silverman said Etsy was considering requests made by sellers during the last Forums Q&A as they plan for 2018. He will participate in another Q&A session on the Etsy boards on December 13th. You can post your question on the thread and vote for ones you think he should answer. AAtranscript of Josh Silverman’s YouTube video published today on the Etsy Seller Hand- book. 5

A stolen guitar ‘derailed’ a Skokie teen’s pursuit of music. 23 years later, she found it on Ebay Nicole Pompa said she last saw her Ovation guitar 23 years ago when she was a senior at Niles West High School. When Nicole Pompa’s guitars were reported stolen in a 1994 , she lost her zeal for music but always kept her eye out for the instruments. “I hit up all the pawn shops in Chicago until the 2000s, and when I moved to Arizona, I hit up a lot of the pawn shops here.” She also checked online and signed up for eBay alerts for when any guitars fitting certain criteria were posted for sale. Then on Nov. 2, she received an alert for her blue six-string Ovation guitar, which was a surreal date in itself, she said. The Skokie burglary occurred Nov. 2, 1994 — exactly 23 years earlier. One of the pictures posted for the sale included the guitar’s serial number, which Pompa still had, and it matched.6

“I was crying and completely floored,” she said. “As soon as I saw it, I called the Skokie police. I said, ‘this might sound crazy but 23 years ago today I was robbed when I lived in Skokie and I was a minor and one of my pieces of stolen property right now is out on eBay.’” Pompa said the burglary “derailed” her life and her pursuit of music. “I was horribly devastated,” she said. “I was playing in a band at that time and my first real gig was three days later, and I got thrown out of the band for having no instruments. I continued with music but it wasn’t the same.” “The special thing about this Ovation is that there are only 52 made. It’s a 1983 Celebrity Ovation. They only made a limited number of the turquoise blue guitars.” As soon as I opened it and saw it again, I was crying. As soon as I even saw the case again, I was crying because I knew it was my case.album I was playing constantly back then.” Pompa credits police for contacting the eBay seller and setting up the re- turn of the guitar. 7

Postal workers claim they’re being forced to fake package deliveries Utah Postal Service workers said they’re being forced to fake package deliveries to make it look like they’re meeting quotas for companies like Amazon. Last week several residents in Herriman UT, said they noticed their local Post Office kept scanning packages as delivered, but the packages would be MIA. Then, two or three days later, the package would show up on the doorstep. A Riverton Post Office worker anonymously came forward to confirm they faked deliv- eries in Herriman, and explain that they do it because they are too understaffed to meet the delivery expectations. “They’re getting scanned as delivered, so it looks to the re- gional bosses like they are meeting their quota. “It’s obviously not just in Herriman and Riverton,” said Angel Stephensen, who lives in Salt Lake City. She received two parcels from the USPS on Monday, filled with Christ- mas gifts. “I was angry,” she said. That’s because the packages were supposed to ar- rive Saturday, and they were even checked off as delivered and waiting on her doorstep. Hundreds just like Stephensen are commenting online, reporting what appears to be falsified deliveries of their packages. Many who commented online said other states including Ohio, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina and California.8

In Atlanta, local postal workers made the same claim in a similar news story. We have avery big contract with Amazon dollars-wise, and we are trying to prove to them that wecan deliver... 99.8 percent delivery every day,” he said. “So, they try and hit that target.”He added that ‘hitting that target,’ leads to manager bonuses.But, he and the other postal workers said it leads to overburdened carriers in Postal Of-fices that in many cases are already understaffed, unhappy customers and a frustratingsituation for everyone.The author reached out to the USPS and asked questions about the claims of fakingpackage deliveries.They sent this statement on Monday:“The Postal Service is committed to making safe, timely and accurate deliveries. Wecontinually review our staffing and scheduling and make necessary adjustments in or-der to enhance our services. We expect to deliver more than 15 billion pieces of mailnationwide during the holiday season, our busiest time of the year. We appreciate all ofthe hard work our employees are doing to ensure that our valued customers’ packagesand mail are delivered in a timely fashion.” --Brian Sperry, USPS Corporate Communications 9

eBay Expects Green Monday to Be One of Its Busiest Days eBay expects Monday, December 11th, to be one of its busiest holiday-shopping days, and will kick off new deals every hour on what is the 10th anniversary of Green Monday. Last year, Green Monday was its fourth highest sales day. They will celebrate by launching new deals every hour, and offering shoppers amazing in- ventory across fashion, electronics, toys and home & garden. Green Monday enables shop- pers to find last-minute gifts from millions of items available on eBay It all started n 2007, eBay experienced one of its biggest sales days on the second Monday of December. In honor of the milestone, eBay named the day ‘Green Monday …a term that stuck and has been adopted across the retail industry Scott Cutler, Senior Vice President of eBay Americas says, “We see a sense of urgency from shoppers to check people off their lists during this time of the year. On eBay, they’ll find great dealsthat make it easier than ever to find and fulfill last-minute gift orders.” Some of the things which will be one sale are Bose Sound Systems10 Samsung 75” LED Flat Screen HDTV

Black & Decker Robotic Vacuum KitchenAid® 6 Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer Additionally, fashion: Calvin Klein Outerwear New Balance shoes Ray-Ban Sunglasses In addition, eBay will continue to offer Price Match Guarantee on more than 50,000 eBay Deals, ensuring shoppers get the best value on top gifts. ‘Did You Check eBay’ Holiday Airstream Multi-City Tour Hits The West Coast After delighting shoppers in New York City, Chicago, and Denver, the ‘Did You Check eBay’ Holiday Airstream is heading to the West Coast. Shoppers can browse a curated collection of the season’s most sought-after items on eBay’s Holiday Airstream tour. A popular inter- active claw machine game offers visitors a chance to win some of the hottest gifts of the season. Shoppers can also receive personalized gifting advice via the Google Home Mini, with a voice-activated quiz powered by eBay’s AI technology. The best part? Everything is available at eBay.com/Airstream and will land on shoppers’ doors within three days. 11

eBay Watermark Removal Policy scrapped - - from TameBay eBay announced a new watermark removal policy in a recent Seller Update, and it had sellers complaining about the number of images that they have to edit to remove watermarks. In some cases it’s 10s of thousands … AND there are a large proportion that eBay themselves watermarked on behalf of sellers when they were uploaded. On Nov. 30 Rob Hattrell e-mailed all sellers to let them know the good news. If you have already edited you image then this is still a good thing – it’s required by search engines if you want your products to be displayed on them. Image standards across the web are rising and any superfluous deco- rations or watermarks won’t do you any favours” He recommended if people have already revised their photos to use them that way, however he said, “ if you feel it’s vital for you to protect your intellectual property then you can still do so” Here is the e-mail. I’m going to read it in full, because there are a lot of people who are wondering, if this is only a temporary reprieve. Email from Rob to eBay sellers I know that this has been an important topic and I want to thank those of you who took the time to contact me directly to explain the challenges you had with it. We encourage you to have clean images because when watermarks are in place, we cannot typically promote your listings on platforms outside eBay, such as Google and Bing. We’ve also heard from customers directly in focus groups that they are more likely to buy from us when product12

photography is on a white background and uncluttered. But having listened to your views on this, we recognise that you as the seller should be able to make the choice. So I wanted to let you know today that I have asked the team not to enforce this policy, but to keep it in place as guidance only. Thank you again for your feedback, which made a real difference on this. The views of the people who sell with us are absolutely essential we continue to evolve eBay for buyers and sellers. We are listening. I hope that you have a great Christmas trading season. Rob -------------------------------- Here are a couple replies by readers on the site: Good news I guess, but I’ll be honest, I was never going to do it anyway. No point, eBay rarely enforce other rules like text and graphics on images anway. ------------------------ What a shocker! It was obvious this would never have been enforced. Very few sellers would have taken the time to replace all their images, so come 1st March eBay would have had to block all non compliant listings, which would mean 90% of listings disappearing overnight. It would have killed eBay sales. I feel sorry for the few sellers who have spent the last 2 months and hundreds of hours re-photographing, and updating thousands of listings. What a waste of time. | V 13

Watermark Removal Policy Enforcement Update Nov 30, 2017 In September, as part of our Fall Seller Release, we announced that listings with wa- termarked images would be removed from eBay search results beginning on March 1, 2018. We know that buyers want to see products clearly before they make a purchase, and watermarks create a cluttered experience not consistent with retail standard. Water- marked images are also a primary reason Google rejects eBay-funded Google Shop- ping placements, meaning less visibility for your listings and decreased conversion. As a result, we encourage you to remove watermarks from listings in order to enhance your reach and velocity on eBay. However, we have received significant feedback about our upcoming enforcement and for this and other business reasons have decided that we will not enforce the removal of watermarks in March 2018 as originally planned. We know this is a crucial time of year, and we want you to be able to focus completely on selling.14

Thank you to those who have already removed watermarks. We know in many cases this has been a significant effort. Because of those efforts, your listings will more likely be included in Google Shopping search, your products will be featured in our prod- uct-based shopping experience, and will be considered for our deals and seasonal promotions. And, eBay will even more delight buyers with a world-class retail experi- ence. We appreciate your efforts and always value your feedback. 15