Ecommerce news: eBay Spring seller release and Etsy Payments deadline

This week in the Zenstores ecommerce news round up we’ve got everything you need to know about eBay’s latest seller release, the deadline for signing up to Etsy Payments and changes to Etsy’s Stats tools.

eBay UK seller release

eBay UK has released its latest seller release announcing a number of changes coming into effect throughout 2017. This includes changes to how your seller performance standard is calculated; from May, late deliveries won’t count against your late delivery metric for ‘emerging’ markets. And, starting in August each transaction will either count towards your UK & Ireland or Global seller performance standard. The late delivery rate requirement for UK & Ireland Top-rated sellers will change from 4% to 3% in August as well.

From July you’ll no longer be able to opt your product images out of eBay’s catalogue, and in September you’ll no longer be able to share your contact information in item descriptions, images, or your eBay Shop or seller profile. This change is causing problems for sellers of custom items, particularly for listings where the buyer needs to send a high-quality image to the seller as eBay compresses images that are sent through eBay messages.

Read all the changes coming to eBay in the next few months here.

Etsy Payments deadline extended

Earlier this month Etsy announced that it would be requiring all sellers to offer its payment service, Direct Checkout, and will also be rebranding it as Etsy Payments. Initially, sellers were given until May 17 to sign up for Etsy Payments, but Etsy has since extended the deadline until 31 May.

Etsy Payments (Direct Checkout) is Etsy’s own payment system that allows you to offer payment options to buyers such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Apple Pay, Android Pay and gift cards. You can also use integrated PayPal through Etsy Payments, which means that PayPal payments will go to your Etsy payment account and won’t appear in your own PayPal account, but you can choose to keep your PayPal sales separate.

If you haven’t signed up to Etsy Payments by 31 May your shop will be suspended until you do. You can set up Etsy Payments by going to Shop Manager > Finances > Payment settings. Find out more about Etsy Payments and how to set it up here.   

Etsy Stats updates

Etsy has updated its Stats tool within Shop Manager; you can now get analytic insights into your Etsy Shop, Etsy Wholesale listings, Etsy Studio and Pattern site in the same place.

You’ll also be able to see:

• Visits - how many customers are visiting your shop (different to visitors to individual pages/listings within your shop - ‘views’)
  
• Overview of metrics in the Traffic tab and new graphs to help you identify trends in your traffic.
  
• Under the Customers tab, you can see where your customers are located, what they’re searching for on Etsy and what kind of device they’re using.
  
• More accurate data.
  
• Tips and advice that’s based on data to help your business grow.
  

Learn more about changes to Etsy Stats here.