Bradford Shellhammer, vice president buyer experience and GM ebay, New York joins Mel to share tips for smart online shopping. How are things looking different this year? He says the big thing when you are shopping is that the supply chain has been disrupted all over the world. What this means that factories and makers are not making as many things, there is longer shipping times, there are things being held in port and there are labor shortages all over the world which means there are less electronics, less computers, video games, less fashion, and less toys on shelves. Bradford says there are fewer discounts because you need to have inventory on shelves to put on sale and the fact there is not as much as there used to be means it is going to be a hard year to find that perfect gift.
What can we do? Bradford says start now and you are already too late as a matter of fact, but don’t delay it anymore. Consider different things. There is second-hand inventory that might be right thing for the people on your list. He says there is refurbished inventory. ebay has a program where they work with big brands and they take once imperfect items that might have a scratch or a dent or an imperfect box, they recondition these items and repackage them and then sell them exclusively on ebay with an amazing warranty. Bradford says you get the name brand products, there’s no compromising because of the supply chain. He says these items are already in stock in the United States; you get a great deal, and you help with sustainability because these are things that traditionally would have been found in landfills.
Mel says it’s also fun to look for retro designers like old Gucci stuff or old sneakers and something Bradford spearheaded was the guarantee that we are getting legitimate vintage items. Bradford says it’s not just vintage, sometimes, like sneakers, they drop in the store and sell out in a matter of minutes so they are new products, you just can’t find them in the stores. The handbags might be vintage. All these situations whether you are buying Jordan’s, Gucci or Channel you want to know if it is real. Bradford says we are guaranteeing that this is an authentic Gucci, or these are authentic Nike’s, and we are going to do that more and more collectable categories as we expand into next year.
How do we know we are protected when giving your payment information? Bradford says we really have doubled down and rebuilt our payment platform, so we invest a tremendous amount engineering resources and effort into product capabilities to protect who you are, how you paid, and the details of the people you are sending gifts to. He says make sure you are using that same thinking when shop the world inventory online. There are some places that are way more trustworthy than others.
For more information go to ebay.com
