Recently our very own Sharon McBride, Senior Director of the eBay Government Relations Advocacy and Public Policy team, spoke with The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly about eBay’s small business advocacy efforts. She highlighted how eBay advocates for all sellers across platforms, and how sellers can get involved. Joining Sharon as a guest on this episode was eBay seller and Small Business Ambassador Network member Theresa Cox of Club Red 97, who has been a seller advocate volunteer for years and has worked hard to help protect sellers and their small businesses.
During the episode, Sharon shared that eBay’s Government Relations team is “unique in that we engage and activate our sellers in our advocacy work”. Sharon gave insight into one of the biggest policy issues we currently face, the INFORM Act. Currently being debated at both the state and federal level, this act would require eBay and its sellers to publish their business addresses, which is a problem for those who run their business out of their homes. So far eBay has been able to engage many sellers in letter writing campaigns and meetings in many states to help legislators understand how harmful the INFORM Act could be to online sellers. This type of seller involvement is immensely impactful as legislators do listen to their constituents.
Sharon also highlighted eBay Main Street’s ability to help keep all sellers informed of changes that could directly affect their small businesses. She encouraged listeners who are interested in learning about advocacy opportunities and policy changes that affected their small business to join eBay MainStreet as well as apply to be a part of the Small Business Ambassador Network.
Later in the episode, Theresa highlighted her experiences as a part of the SBAN network. She explained how attending a variety of eBay GR-sponsored events, including our annual Washington, DC Fly-in event, gave her the once in a lifetime opportunity to advocate directly to legislators on behalf of other small businesses. She also called out the amazing community of sellers she has become a part of through her activities with eBay and the Small Business Ambassador Network.
If you’re interested in listening to entirety of the podcast you can find it here.