Guest Buying available to the UK

by Sue Bailey

This post was written in November 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Guest buying (buying without registering on eBay) is now available to on eBay UK. I loved this when it was introduced on .com, and I love it even more now.

One little caveat: the UK announcement reads “Your current PayPal settings will apply – if you require buyers to pay with a confirmed address, your Guest Buyers will need to do so as well.” This PayPal setting is only available to US sellers: UK sellers will have to make the decision to take the risk to ship, or reject the payment, which is hardly a great buyer experience. Hopefully, therefore, eBay will take the decision to make this filter available to UK sellers as well.

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Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Filed Under Uncategorized
 

Comments

7 Responses to “Guest Buying available to the UK”

  1. Newt on November 17th, 2007 1:16 pm

    So, just for the idiots amongst us - how do we turn this on? Or does it happen automatically?

  2. Chris Dawson on November 17th, 2007 1:24 pm

    It’s there automatically (so long as your listing qualifies)

  3. Liz on November 19th, 2007 3:05 pm

    Has this feature had a positive effect on US eBay sales and sellers? For the UK just entering the Christmas crunch time, its seems folly to introduce a feature with sellers under pressure.

    Channeladvisor users and other third party checkout users will find it a pain as the purchase will only be made though eBay checkout and the sale could be missed? Is there a way to stop guest buyers?

    Or will any seller using a third party checkout be excluded automatically?

    Thanks!

  4. Sue Bailey on November 19th, 2007 3:09 pm

    Liz, the US only had it a few days longer than the UK, so I don’t think they have had time to judge.

    Third party checkout users will - as I understand it - be excluded automatically. If you as a seller are not eligible for guest buyers, you will not get guest buyers.

  5. Kidson Talks | The E-commerce Chemist on November 19th, 2007 5:24 pm

    eBay ‘Guest Buying’ so like? No one has to sign up anymore?

    According to the latest news eBay is now allowing ‘guest’ purchases on fixed price items on the eBay marketplace. The ‘Guest’ buyers will have to pay immediately in order to secure the purchase. So what happens with buyers from …

  6. Sue Bailey on November 19th, 2007 5:30 pm

    Liz, I went to leave a comment on your blog but comments don’t seem to be installed/working on there, so…

    I don’t get why sellers would be against this. If you have PayPal seller protection, that’s as much as you’re ever going to have. If you operate a website and take credit cards directly, you probably don’t have any more protection there either. Selling on the net puts you at risk of fraudsters, just like having a real life shop puts you at risk of shoplifters.

    Seriously, has anyone who’s just lost money to a scam buyer EVER thought “oh well, I can neg them so who cares about the money?” I doubt it very much somehow :^O

  7. Liz on November 20th, 2007 9:54 am

    I am just reflecting my personal views as a seller and the views of those in forums and on blogs. I will add your comment manually. I think as I was getting a lot of blog spam that I disabled them! I have never had much luck with eBay seller protection, and neither have the accounts I manage. Fraud is a huge problem on eBay as it is and this option COULD make it easier, the proof will be in the pudding, why it had to be a Christmas pudding escapes me!

    I hope eBay prove me wrong.

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