eBay Seller Release Autumn 2018
The eBay Seller Release Autumn 2018 includes changes to the after sales such as automated returns and additional metric-based fees, plus extending Shop by Product, eBay’s catalogue. Find out everything you need to know about the Seller Release, how it’ll impact your business and what you need to do.
Change to the after sales process
- More insight into “Item not as described” and “Item not received” requests.
- After 26 September 2018, you need to upload tracking information within the estimated delivery date, to be protected against “Item not received” claims.
- Starting 1 October 2018 a high number of “Item not as described” claims will incur a 4% final value fee surcharge.
- From 17 September, eBay will start auto-accepting return requests and provide buyers with return labels.
After-sales updates
Within Seller Hub, you’ll now find ‘Service Metrics’, which is a new section designed to give you insights into “Item not as described” returns and “Item not received” requests. You’ll be able to see which of your listings don’t meet buyer expectations and are resulting in a high number of refunds.
Starting from 26 September 2018, sending a tracking number via email or uploading it after the estimated delivery date will mean that you’re not protected against “Item not received” claims.
And, after 1 October 2018 sellers with high rates of “Item not as described” open requests, compared with other sellers in the same category, will incur an additional 4% final value fee surcharge for that category. If you’re one of these sellers you’ll receive a monthly email notification - find out more about service metrics performance here.
Learn about changes to eBay’s aftersales process here.
Returns
From 17 September 2018 eBay will start to automatically accept return requests, whatever the reason, as long as it’s made within your returns window. Once the return has been accepted a return label will be provided to the buyer, and the cost of that label will be charged on your next invoice from eBay. When you receive the return you can either issue a refund or ask eBay to step in.
If you’ve already set up automated returns then these preferences will stay in place.
Read about automated returns here.
What you need to do:
- Upload tracking information to eBay as soon as your parcels are dispatched, before the estimated delivery date has passed.
- Keep an eye on your metrics in Seller Hub, and take action when you notice any listings that result in a high number of issues.
- Automated returns will be rolled out through the rest of 2018, you can find out about setting up your own return rules here.
Shop by Product
Shop by Product is the new catalogued approach to listings on eBay, all sellers with the same product for sale are brought together into one listing. From late September you won’t be able to create any new listings, or revise existing listings in these 12 categories, without matching them to the eBay catalogue.
Shop by Product will be extended to 22 more categories, in October 2018. Catalogue matches for listings in these categories will be required in early 2019.
Any ‘Good ‘Till Cancelled’ listings that aren’t matched with the catalogue will lose their visibility once Shop by Product becomes the default shopping experience on eBay.
What you need to do
- From late August, if you sell in any of these categories, you’ll need to match your listings to the eBay catalogue. This page in Seller Hub will show any existing listings that require catalogue matching, from there you can match your listings with 1-click. If your product isn’t catalogued or details are incomplete, you need to either submit your uncatalogued products or improvements to existing product details to eBay.
- You can submit new products or improvements for the next 22 categories from October 2018.
Seller Hub marketing tools
- Sellers will be able to create their own promotional coupons for their business
- Offers will be prioritised to show the most relevant ones to individual buyers.
Discount coupons
Sellers can create discount coupon codes within Seller Hub, with a limit on how many times the same customer can redeem the discount and a cap on the savings that they make. Each coupon will also have its own unique landing page which displays all the inventory included in the offer. You’ll also be able to monitor usage and performance of the coupon from within your seller account.
Offer visibility
Only the most relevant promotions will now be visible in the top banner of View Item pages.
What you need to do
- You can set up coupons by going to ‘Promotions’ in your Seller Hub and then ‘Create a promotion-coupons’ - learn more here.
- Follow eBay’s best practice guidelines for your offers to give them the best chance of being displayed on the ‘View Item’ page.
Read about changes to Seller Hub here.
Listing optimisation
- Updates to stay in line with Google’s security changes
- Enabling pre-sale phone enquiries
HTTPS
eBay has already started to remove non-secure content and changed item descriptions so that they’re 1-click away, measures which mean that eBay listings will retain Google’s “Secure” label and the security icon. More recently, Google has announced that secure pages will be standardised and eventually more emphasis will be placed on non-secure pages by highlighting the “Not secure” indicator in red.
Towards the end of January 2019, eBay will start blocking listings that still contain non-secure content.
Learn more about HTTPs and eBay here.
Pre-sale phone enquiries
After enabling sellers to share a customer service phone number with buyers for aftersale support last year, eBay is now testing out listing a phone number for pre-sales enquiries. If you’ve opted in, buyers will be able to see your phone number when they click ‘Ask a question’.
Find out more about pre-sale enquiries here.
What you need to do
- Use eBay’s tool to find out which of your listings don’t comply with Google’s new security requirements - find out more in Seller Hub.
- If you still have non-secure content in your listings - eBay will send you reminders every two weeks, as well as warning messages when you use bulk editing and relisting tools.
- You can share your phone number for pre-sales enquiries in the ‘Manage communications with buyers’ sections in Account settings.
Changes to eBay’s international sites
Read the full eBay Seller Release here.
