Tamebay Morsels 02/07/09
July 2, 2009
eBay Australia has partnered with seekingservice.com.au to provide access to business services on the site. The service allows you to find local businesses and compare quotes by posting a one-off or ongoing project which businesses can bid for.
20% is a big drop in revenue, but it may be that last year’s $2.1m bid for Warren Buffett’s annual luncheon auction was simply too big to match. Recession or no recession, the $1.68m raised for the Glide Foundation on eBay this year is still a sizable figure.
If you’re a Skype user it’s time to upgrade to the latest Skype 4.1 release which apparently fixes a few bugs in the previous versions.
China has delayed an introduction of web filtering at the last minute turning planned protests into a celebration. Software was due to be installed on all computers to prevent access to pornography.
If you’re a hand made guitar aficionado there’s a DVD on eBay you have to buy – Antony Dewar chopped down a dead cherry tree in his garden and spent three years filming it’s transformation into a pair of guitars. Running for 3 hours 26 minutes the DVD shows everything from felling the tree to the finished product.
Boomerangs – Easy returns goes live on eBay
June 23, 2009
eBay have enabled Easy Returns on the site to enabling buyers to inform you they wish to send items back for a refund.
A drop down allows buyers to select a reason for the return, although they can if they wish enter a message to the seller to expand upon why they’re returning the item.
The page kicks off with the message “Please use this form to make use of your right of withdrawal according to the Distance Selling regulations” (DSRs), although even eBay advise that the DSRs only apply to fixed price formats and not to purchases won on auctions. There is no option to differentiate between the returns policies for different selling formats.
Although many sellers (including myself) choose to allow returns on auctions as well as it makes good business sense, many do not. The page doesn’t mention that only business sellers are obliged to accept returns and that private sellers are under no obligation to offer exchanges or refunds.
The link to Easy Returns is from the drop down in My eBay and appears for 35 days from the sale of an item. After 35 days the buyer may still have legal obligations to offer returns but the buyer will have to contact the seller directly.
I’m wondering how long eBay measure returns for before they start to impose limits which can affect your account status. Possibly in the future if the number of requests for returns exceeds a certain amount it could affect Buyer Satisfaction Ratings and even Seller Discounts.
Currently eBay have given no indication that returns monitoring will affect your seller account status, but it’s almost certainly a metric that they’ll be measuring over the next few months. Easy Returns have gone live for purchases on eBay UK and eBay Germany, but expect to see them rolled out to other sites around the world in the near future.
DevCon gives a taste of things to come
June 17, 2009
Those lucky souls at the eBay Developers’ Conference this week have had a sneak preview of what’s coming on eBay in the next twelve months. Some highlights include:
- Merchant credit card processing integrated into eBay Checkout later this year.
- Revise more data in multi-quantity fixed-price listings even after they have sales
- A new finding API, which should make for some interesting third-party apps.
- Better blocking of buyers in “locations to which I do not ship”: rather than the registration location, this is now being touted as “Block buyers whose primary shipping or registered location is excluded by seller”, so may exclude some of those who register with a UK address but want your mobile phone shipped to their nephew in Nigeria.
That’s the good news. On the flip side, I’m slightly concerned about “All pre-sale member messages intermediated through eBay for safety” – eBay’s email forwarding system at the moment is patchy at best, so if there’s something new coming that’s going to restrict things even further, I’d be worried that it’s going to make communication even more difficult than it is at the moment.
As always, details from DevCon are a bit sketchy because the announcements are not aimed at sellers themselves – so as ever, more details when we have them.
Turbo Lister updates (it’s actually good news!)
June 17, 2009
I spend a lot of time whinging about Turbo Lister, so it’s nice to be able to post about a nice new feature that just appeared in yesterday’s update.
Scheduled, Active and Ended Listings have all been broken down into some useful subcategories, so you can see at a glance – for example – what needs to be relisted, or which items have questions on them. It’s not quite turning Turbo Lister into a proper management tool, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Shoe sellers might also like to know that multi-variant listings are now do-able through TL: you’ll need to run the update first.
Multi-Variation listings now live for shoes
June 16, 2009
If you’re a shoe seller you can now start listing Multi-Variation listings on eBay UK using the Sell Your Item form.
If you create a new listing in a relevant category (currently shoes) the option to change to a Multi-Variation listing will appear and you can start the listing flow. The first thing you’ll need to do is decide on the attributes you wish to use – for shoes suggested options are size and colour. Then after adding item specifics as normal you’ll need to create a SKU code (Stock Keeping Unit) for each variation.
The SKU that you choose will appear as a custom label which isn’t normally visible on eBay listings. You can however view them, while listings are live and post sale, in TurboLister, Selling Manager Pro, and some third party management tools.
Once you have created the variations you’ll then need add pictures and enter the available quantity and price for each option. Once you’ve done this you’ll be returned to the normal listing flow to complete the description and launch your first Multi-Variation listing on eBay.
Creating a Multi-Variation listings isn’t much different to creating a new listing, but you’ll want to know exactly what quantities you have of each variation and images of different colour options before you start listing. It also makes sense to have a gallery image showing all colour options to ensure buyers know they have a choice.
Think carefully about your Multi-Variation listing titles. Don’t include colours or sizes as if you run out of stock of one variation you still want search results to be relevant. Use the variations and item specifics to ensure the different attributes are picked up in search results and keep the title generic to the particular product on sale.
If now you don’t need to include colours and sizes in your titles consider using spare characters to call out services such as “Free post” or “Next day delivery”. It’s a good opportunity to differentiate yourselves from your competition.
It will be interesting to see how quickly sellers start migrating listings to Multi-Variant listings. It should in the long term cut down on inventory management and the number of active listings sellers have to monitor, although it’s yet to be seen how easy it is to pick and pack orders and how the post sales information is presented to sellers.
If you launch any Multi-Variation listings and have any more tips please do add them in comments below.
eBay to hold payments for tickets until delivered
June 12, 2009
eBay UK’s head of Trust and Safety, Richard Ambrose, said on Radio 4 yesterday that eBay is to hold payments for tickets “until buyers have what they paid for”. The statement was part of a You and Yours feature on eBay ticket sales from a seller they identified as “M T Promotions”. A number of buyers told the BBC that they had bought tickets for high-profile concerts, but received nothing: You and Yours calculate that around £½ million was paid to this seller – who has now had their eBay and PayPal accounts suspended. eBay told The Sun that buyers would be reimbursed, and that the police had been called in to investigate.
We’ve asked eBay for more details on the new policy: they told us that “this is a big task and something that will take a while to refine the details of and then subsequently launch.” As soon as we have any further details, we’ll pass them on.
The R4 program is currently available on listen again.
Change your eBay returns address to your warehouse
June 11, 2009
In the addresses section of your account information on eBay you can set your registration address, payment address and shipping addresses. A fourth address has just appeared which will be the return address your customers use when eBay implement their new Easy Returns procedure. This is due to go live on the 15th June at 6pm, at which time there will be a new entry at My eBay > My account > Site Preferences > Return Preferences.
If you’re like me and intending to quit work before 6pm next Monday log into your eBay accounts and change your main eBay returns address to your warehouse address, rather than your eBay registered address, today.
Edited to add The returns preferences are now live in eBay. All sellers have by default been opted in to use eBay’s Easy Returns option, but you can opt out should you wish.
Free picture offer extended to Home & Garden.
June 8, 2009
eBay’s reminder about changes to come this month mentions in passing that free eBay-hosted pictures are to be made available to the Homes & Gardens category. This offer had already been announced for Clothes, Shoes and Accessories.
Sellers will be able to use several image upgrades for free including Gallery Plus, Supersize and Picture Pack (up to 12 pictures). eBay have promised a “new zoom feature” later in the year, but the real advantage to using eBay-hosted images is that sellers can show multiple images near the top of the listing.
The offer, with eBay’s comment that
If you currently host your photos somewhere other than eBay, now is a great time to start moving them over to eBay Picture Services (EPS)
has led some sellers to speculate that the company may be considering disallowing self-hosted pictures in future. For the moment, though, this is purely speculation.
Are your listings ready for June 15th?
June 8, 2009
Back at the end of March, eBay UK made their announcement about what would be changing for eBay sellers this summer. The new rules and features launch on June 15th, so here’s our checklist: make sure your listings are ready!
Urgent changes
- Mandatory dispatch time: all listings must show a dispatch time.
- Free postage and packing in some categories: if you list in Video Games, Mobile & Home Phones, Consumer Electronics, Computing, Photography or Clothes, Shoes & Accessories, then check the list to see if your sub-category is affected (not all sub-categories are). If so, you must offer free P&P as one option for your domestic postage, though you may choose to charge for an upgraded service. If you’re a non-UK seller listing on eBay UK, this includes you.
- Category changes, which will mostly affect sellers in Clothing, Home & Garden and the Motors’ categories (not an exhaustive list, so check your own cat.s aren’t listed).
Some sub-categories are being done away with and all listings will be moved into the parent category: live listings should move automatically, but make sure you update your listing templates or new listings in vanished categories could (in my experience) end up invisible to buyers. And check your Item Specifics too: previous category changes have seen them wiped out.
New features
It’s not going to be possible to plan for these in advance, because they don’t go live til the 15th/16th, but at least be ready for the cool new stuff when it happens.
- Multi-variation listings: time for a little stock-take, maybe, so you can get all those colour/size variants listed as soon as possible.
- Free pictures in Clothing Shoes and Accessories & Home and Garden. Most business sellers will be using their own hosting, but the advantage with eBay’s is that you get the slideshow at the top. Worth considering.
- Custom item specifics
- Easy returns
- Smart FAQs: have a run through your ASQs – do the same questions come up again and again? If so, that information should probably be on your listings… but Smart FAQs may also be useful to you.
eBay have put out a timetable of when the various changes are supposed to go live on the site: we share their optimism that everything launches smoothly 
IE8 Accelerators, Web Slices and eBay
June 7, 2009
Having been an avid Firefox user for years I’m starting to enjoy using Internet Explorer 8. It’s got a couple of really cute features that are ideal for using with eBay.
IE8 eBay Accelerator
The first is the IE8 eBay Accelerator. This allows you to highlight text on any website, click the Accelerator icon, move your cursor over the eBay icon, and be presented with buying options on eBay.
The example shown is a DVD and instantly I can see a better buying option on eBay without even leaving the site I’m currently browsing. This instant price comparison tool can be used by highlighting any text on any site on the web.
The only disappointment is that the eBay Accelerator is a manual add on to IE8, so limited to users who happen to find and install it.
IE8 eBay Web Slices
The second feature of IE8 (that’s great for monitoring auctions that you’re bidding on, or watching) is Web Slices. Essentially a Web Slice is a small part of a page saved in your browser favourites that you can view without loading the entire page.
In eBay search results, hovering your mouse over a listing (using IE8) gives you the option to add that item to your favourites bar. Once added to your browser there’s a refresh icon so that you can see an instant update of bids on the listing without even viewing the eBay site.
Unlike Accelerators, Web Slices are available for all users to use as soon as they upgrade to IE8.
Have you upgraded to IE8 and are you using either Accelerators or Web Slices yet? Do you use them for eBay or do you have any other favourite sites that they’ve proved useful for?
eBay UK listings showing on European sites
June 3, 2009
eBay have said that from today, listings on eBay UK will be “promoted” on other European sites. The announcement was made in an email sent to eBay UK sellers: I can’t find anything more official on the site yet.
In order to have their listings included in the promotion, sellers will have to offer PayPal and provide international shipping information. They’ll also need to include a translation of the item description into the language whose speakers they’re targetting: I’m assuming that this is so that listings can be found by people searching in not-English, rather than that eBay are going to filter by linguistic content.
Time Ending Soonest tests on eBay UK
June 3, 2009
Some sellers have raised concerns on the PowerSeller board that search results are being presented as Time Ending Soonest* rather than Best Match.
PowerSeller log in required
Click image to embiggen
eBay have however confirmed that only a very small percentage of users will see search results sorted with Time Ending Soonest and it’s routine for them to run tests on a small percentage of search results as a control in order to monitor the efficacy of search results.
Sellers shouldn’t worry that their buyers will see search results in the same format that they do, the vast majority of eBay users (buyers and sellers) will see search results sorted with Best Match as per normal. Just because you’re part of a test group doesn’t mean that the majority of buyers will.
Clearing your browser cache and cookies will opt you out of the test group, and in fact some users have already reported seeing different search results simply by using alternative browsers such as IE, Firefox, Opera and Chrome.
Many thanks to Steve for the screen shot
eBay dump Skype, emphasise good communications
June 3, 2009
I think I was probably about the only person ever to use Skype buttons on eBay listings, which gave buyers and sellers an alternative way of communicating. However as the feature was used by so few sellers eBay are going to remove the Skype options as of the 10th of June.
If you’re using the new View Item page the links for Skype are already missing. eBay do however say that they “appreciate your continued commitment to good communications with your customers”.
Skype has been a missed opportunity for eBay from start to finish but the one thing it was useful for was the occasional buyer who had a pre or post sales question. I have to be honest and say it was very rarely used by my buyers but when it was it has secured me a few sales more quickly and easily than by relying on email alone.
I’ve long thought that eBay and PayPal should have a unified logon – if you open an eBay account you automatically open a PayPal account, and it would have made a lot of sense to automatically get a Skype account set up using your eBay log in credentials.
That’s too late now though, and doubtless eBay will want to unravel the few remaining Skype/eBay integrations prior to selling the company off as a separate entity.
eBay UK discuss the future of forums
June 2, 2009
eBay are surveying site users on the future of the community forum boards. They’re currently running a survey giving users their chance to say how they use the eBay chat boards, what they like and dislike and how they think the boards should evolve in the future.
The US PowerSeller board has already been split with three new sections – PowerSellers Marketplace Cafe, PowerSellers HelpDesk and PowerSolutions. It’s possible we could see similar splits on the UK boards to try and segregate general chit chat from business discussions and requests for help.
The one thing I would hate to see is an upgrade to the board format in use in the US today. Far from being an improvement on the UK style eBay forums the US boards are too image heavy with little focus on how to find relevant topics of interest.
eBay haven’t revealed the direction that they’d like to see the boards move, but I’m guessing they’d like some such as the PowerSeller and Business boards to become less general chat and more focused on assisting sellers to sell.
What would you like to see from the eBay community forums? Are you happy with them in their current format or would you like to see changes in either the layout or the content?
More details emerge on eBay’s new buyer protection policies
May 29, 2009
More details are emerging on the theory and practice of eBay’s new ‘dispute resolution’ process, and frankly, they are not good news for sellers.
Firstly, we see the process in action. I heard this week from a TameBay reader we’ll call Bob, who bought a mechanical item through eBay which arrived with an important component missing. Bob had checked with the seller before purchase that the part was included, and so was extremely frustrated when the seller failed to put things right. He’d opened a SNAD claim with PayPal, but was contacted by eBay and offered a full refund if he closed the PayPal claim.
I asked Bob what eBay had done to verify his claim. He told me: “I contacted the seller through eBay messages. All contact with him was through eBay messages and I had the impression that eBay customer services had access to all this when I was talking to them. I was asked if I was able to buy a replacement part, but in this case I have been unable to identify the machine maker to source one.”
And what had they asked him to do with the goods? “I still have the machine, and nothing was said about what I should do with it.” This is significantly different to PayPal’s policy, which did require buyers to return the item to the seller.
Changes to eBay UK user agreement
Yesterday, eBay UK announced changes to their user agreement to make allowances for this new procedure.
Under eBay Buyer Protection … there may be instances where a seller doesn’t resolve a claim and we find in favour of the buyer, in which case eBay will pay the buyer and invoice the seller for the transaction amount. Where a seller fails to comply with the eBay Buyer Protection policy, eBay may also remove any special status associated with the account … and/or restrict or suspend the seller’s account.
The threat of negative feedback used to worry eBay sellers, but the threat of losing your money, your goods *and* your seller account under this new policy is a very real one. My advice to sellers in dealing with unhappy buyers has always been “don’t let it get as far as a PayPal dispute”: this now goes double under eBay’s new dispute procedure.
The best advice for sellers now is to be upfront about your own dispute resolution procedures: dispatch emails, packing slips and/or invoices should carry at least your contact details and advice on what to do in case of any problem. And if buyers have a problem, deal with that problem: if someone contacts you with an issue post-sale, don’t fob them off. Most buyers, most of the time, will go to the seller before they go to eBay – make sure you take that chance to put things right.
The new UA is effective from 8th July for existing eBay UK members. If you don’t want to accept it, you can, of course, close your eBay account.
eBay UK to ban electronic cigarettes, limit voucher sales
May 29, 2009
eBay UK have announced today that the sale of electronic cigarettes is to be banned on the site from the 30th June. The ban also includes componant parts, including cartridges, atomisers, liquid refills, vaporisers, batteries and shells.
Again on 30th June, eBay UK will launch a new policy on the sale of vouchers:
- expired vouchers (unless collectable) and emailed vouchers will no longer be permitted.
- Sellers will have to deliver physical vouchers to their buyers.
- Bulk listings for more than 100 vouchers total or more than 20 vouchers for the same item will be banned.
- Sellers are asked not to place unaltered scans of vouchers, which could be printed out and used in stores, on their listings.
What’s particularly concerning about this announcement is its concluding line:
Full details of these two policies will be available on 30th June
This is the same day that both policies come into force: in other words, sellers of any of these items are only going to get full details on the day they have to comply with the policy. I must admit that neither electronic cigarettes nor vouchers is my area of expertise: but every time eBay makes a policy change, the sellers who are actually affected by it need more information than is initially given out by eBay – and I don’t see why this is going to be much different.
Publishing the full policy on the same day it’s been enacted seems to run entirely contrary to Mark Lewis’s promise back in March to make eBay UK a better business partner, and to give sellers a sixty day notice period of changes to come.
Marks out of 10 for feedback
May 20, 2009
eBay are testing more changes to feedback with new feedback flows to be presented to selected sellers customers over the next four to six weeks in the US. eBay Ink has some screen shots as well as an interview with Brian Burke, eBay Director of Seller Standards & Feedback.
Options could include scrapping the almost universally hated Detailed Seller Ratings (no surprise there – regularly getting 4 stars out of 5 for free shipping pretty much shows they’re not working that well). Coming in with a marks out of 10 score is the simple question “How likely is it you would recommend this seller?”
Click image to embiggen
That, to be honest, is possibly the most important feedback question that could be asked. Forget the fact buyers may have overpaid for postage, returned the item for refund or even had an item go missing or damaged in transit. It’s all about how the seller handles their customers and did they leave the customer happy enough to recommend them to others.
Having said that just how many more changes to feedback will there be? DSRs have come and they may well go, for selected sellers if not for all. DSRs are a pain for buyers to complete, especially for multiple purchases and some sellers still feel victimised that they can’t leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers if they feel it appropriate.
The good news is that regardless of the test results there are no feedback changes planned for this year. Tests normally result in changes though, so what sort of feedback changes would you like to see? Do you want to be ranked out of 10, have you grown to like DSRs, or is there another feedback option that you’d prefer?
Grab a ‘Daily Deal’ on eBay UK
May 14, 2009
eBay UK have just upgraded ‘Deal of the Week’ to ‘Daily Deal‘ kicking off with a Sony Cybershot DSCW115 digital camera with an RRP of £139.00 and offered at £64.99. Deal of the Day appears to be a recognition that the eBay marketplace has the ability to sell hundreds or thousands of a single item in a day and they’re open to offers if you have a product you’d like to offer.
The products on offer will be largely drawn from Clothes, Shoes and Accessories, Home and Garden and Tech categories. To be considered for the Deal of the Week you’ll need sufficient inventory of a great mass-market, spontaneous, impulse purchase product that’s going to excite buyers and it needs to be offered at an attractive price point. You’ll also need to be able to fulfill the orders on top of your normal business and probably be a Platinum or Titanium PowerSeller with good feedback. To give an indication today’s deal is for 500 cameras and in the 45 minutes of the promotion 40 have already been sold!
Daily Deal is being publicised heavily on the site with the addition of a button on the top site navigation bar. As it becomes better known it should attract buyers to visit the site regularly and anyone that’s comes to spend money on eBay has to be good news in the current economic climate.
If you want to get involved supplying a Daily Deal speak to your account manager in the first instance.
5 Free auctions for all eBay.com sellers
May 12, 2009
eBay.com have announced five free auctions every 30 days, for all sellers, starting in June this year. Insertion fees will be zero with a final value fee of 8.75% capped at a maximum of $20 (for the sixth and subsequent listings fees will be as normal).
eBay say this is open to all sellers, but that’s not quite true. To qualify you have to use either the Sell Your Item (SYI) form or Simple listing form, you can “opt out” by using an eBay tool or third-party listing solution. Quite frankly not many pro-sellers will want to use the SYI form so simply won’t be eligible, which is probably a good thing if you expect your item to sell for a high price (More than $62.00 final value and you’re cheaper “opting out”.
Also if you’re going to list an item with a Start/BIN/Reserve price of $18 million or higher you’ll sadly be excluded from the promotion. I’d suggest starting your item at $17,999,999.99 as then your final value fee will be just $20 
eBay’s email changes cause confusion for sellers
May 4, 2009
It seems eBay have made some changes to their sold item emails in the last few days, which may cause some confusion to sellers. TameBay reader Kate from Cat’s Eye Designs forwarded me an example from one of her own sales:
Sale price: £2.99
Quantity: 6
Quantity sold: 3
Quantity remaining: 3
Buyer: XXXXXXX
Kate points out that the quantity sold to the buyer in question was 2, and that 3 is in fact the total quantity sold from this listing. On another transaction, where the buyer had bought a single item, the email read:
Sale price: £3.50
Quantity: 11
Quantity sold: 9
Quantity remaining: 2
Again, the email reflects the total quantity sold from the listing, not the number purchased on this individual sale.
It probably bears saying again; if you’re relying on any single set of emails for sales information, you’re going to run into problems sooner or later. Better at least to reconcile eBay with PayPal, and to be getting your information from the site, not relying on mail.
And if anyone from eBay is reading this, could we have the “send invoice” button back please? I notice there’s a yellow button to go to My eBay, so I assume this hasn’t been removed in an anti-phishing move to get people to stop clicking things in emails. So it seems like yet another case of the people who design things at eBay have never used the site. It wasn’t broken, it didn’t need fixing, please, let’s have it back.
eBay UK adds “additional terms” to Best Offer
May 2, 2009
Several sellers have noticed a new addition to their Best Offer pages today: a new text box for “additional terms” has been added, so that if you make a counter-offer, additional terms (or just comments) can be added.
Other sellers, mainly in the collectables categories, say they’ve had this for a while, so it seems to be something that’s only just rolled site-wide.
eBay sellers seem to fall firmly into two camps over Best Offer: those of us who love it, and those who hate it. For those of us who find it a useful selling tool, this will be a very welcome addition to the process. The lovely Martin from The Whirlpool Bath Shop, who sent me the original heads up, tells me he negotiated a price both he and his buyer were happy with via this console today, on the basis that the buyer bought accessories with his bath. I can see it being useful for my own sales when I’m happy to do a better price for buyers purchasing multiple items at a time. And of course, on the original B.O. console, making offers like “if you buy three I’ll give you free/upgraded P&P” wasn’t an option: now it is.
Those who don’t like Best Offer are of course free to not add it to their listings
eBay’s new dispute resolutions process in action
April 26, 2009
In eBay’s announcements of site changes last week, one of the things promised was more direct involvement in disputes between buyers and sellers. Just a couple of days after the announcement was made, the new system was already being rolled out. I heard from a TameBay reader we’ll call Tom, who had purchased a camera on eBay but had it delivered minus several of the promised components. Tom told me, “having got no joy from the seller and nearing the 45 day deadline, I went to PayPal to file a dispute, but was redirected to an eBay screen with a customer support number to call.”
The eBay rep said that eBay themselves would process a payment for the cost of the replacement parts, took Tom’s PayPal email, and sent him the cash! Tom comments: “as a buyer, it’s a much cleaner process to get resolution to a problem transaction. If they look to recover this from the seller, my concern would be the the level of safeguards built in to the process.”
Mine too. I asked eBay for some more information on exactly how this kind of refund would work: were they not encouraging some buyers to make fraudulent claims, and how – when it’s a buyer’s word against a seller’s – were they to judge who was right?
eBay told me they have a number of fraud checks in place, and will also look at buyer and seller history when getting involved in disputes. Perhaps most importantly, they will have access to claims history – something that sellers don’t currently have – so will presumably be able to see serial claimants.
As for the question of who is funding the refunds, “we may seek to recover the funds in the future – just as PayPal does today for all claims in the buyer’s favour”. The significant difference is, of course, that PayPal require a buyer to return the SNAD item to the seller, whereas eBay haven’t yet mentioned any such requirement; potentially this leaves the seller out of pocket for item plus refund.
Sellers will be given “a certain number of business days” to provide prove that the item *was* as described; if the seller doesn’t respond, then the buyer will “generally” be refunded and eBay will seek to reclaim the funds from the seller. eBay add:
We understand that there will be times where both buyer and seller may be right. In those cases eBay may absorb the cost to reimburse the buyer without any impact on the seller.
Over to you – is this the reassurance that buyers need, or just asking for trouble? Leave us a comment.
eBay UK’s big announcement: mandatory free P&P expanded, easier returns
April 16, 2009
eBay UK have finally made their biannual announcement of changes affecting sellers for spring 2009. Much of the content is the same as the eBay.com announcement made earlier this week, but there are a few tweaks just for the UK.
Free P&P in lots more categories
As of 15th June, sellers in selected categories in Video Games, Mobile & Home Phones, Consumer Electronics, Computing, Photography, and Clothes, Shoes & Accessories will be required to offer free P&P as their first domestic postage option. Currently, this doesn’t apply to all the subcategories of each of those sections, so do read the full list on eBay’s page; for CSA, for example, only the accessories’ subcategories and clothing & shoe care are included.
eBay are sweetening the pill very slightly by offering a 20% Final Value Fee discount to sellers in those categories; we’d hope to see this made a permanent offer, otherwise eBay will rightly be accused of making extra profit on those included P&P charges.
As with other free P&P categories, sellers will be free to offer other, pay-for shipping options.
“Easier returns”
A new returns process will make it easier for buyers to say they want to return an item, and for sellers to process that return.
- Buyers who pay with PayPal will see a return link (presumably in My eBay) for 35 days after purchase. Note that this is longer than the eBay minimum of 14 days to return an item.
- When a return is requested, sellers will receive an email alert and have the opportunity to accept or reject the return.
- Sellers will be able to set a separate returns address and specify a default message to be shown to buyers returning goods.
- Sellers will be able to refund payment and reclaim FVFs from the same place.
Only items paid for with PayPal will be included in the new returns’ process. We’ll be looking more at returns and the handling of them in the next few days.
eBay Resolutions comes to the UK
eBay UK will have its own version of the eBay Resolutions dispute process revealed on .com earlier in the week. Substantially the same as the current PayPal dispute process, this will roll out over “coming months” and is expected to be available on all transations by Christmas 2009. Intriguingly, eBay UK actually mention that “we will also better monitor and prevent buyer fraud or abuse”, so perhaps those serial lost-in-the-post claimants will be less ready to claim in future.
Variant listings and changes to the choice policy
As announced by Mark Lewis at Catalyst, and as per eBay.com, from 15th June variant listings will be available in the adults’ shoes categories. In “late summer” (Mark said July 15th, so it seems the schedule’s already slipped), the feature will be expanded to selected Clothes, Shoes & Accessories categories, and Home & Garden categories. There’s no mention at all of the rest of eBay in this; I’ve heard roll-out side-wide in 2010 mentioned, but for now, that seems to be just a rumour.
Free photos in Clothing, Shoes & Accessories
CSA sellers will now get free Gallery Plus, Picture Pack, Supersize and additional pictures. With the new view item page pushing seller-generated content further down the page, having more pictures above the fold should be a plus.
A new Copy Web Files tool will make it easier for sellers to import pictures from another web server into eBay Picture Services; scroll to the bottom of this page for the current scanty details. We’ll be watching with interest to see if eBay will just allow the import of any pictures from the internet, or whether they’ll require an FTP connection to the server in question to prove legitimate use.
Smart Answers actually are smart!
There’s more information on how the new Smart FAQs will work; I’m particularly liking the idea that eBay could answer questions for me:
As you’ll have already provided the information about your item to eBay, we use that information to answer your buyers’ questions. This information includes item details, P&P information and transactional details. As long as your item details are up-to-date and accurate, eBay can accurately answer questions for you. For example, if a buyer asks “Do you ship to country X?” we check the shipping destinations provided by you and send the buyer an answer.
As ever, this won’t suit all sellers (you might want to except buyers from your normal requirements, after all) but for some, it will be exceedingly useful.
More product pages
Not quite so extensive through the media categories as on .com, but expect to see product pages expanded in Movies & DVDs, Music, Mobile Phones, Consoles, Digital Cameras and Camcorders.
Category changes
Changes to some subcategories of CSA, H&G and Collectables. More details on these in early May (so much for 60 days’ notice!). The Cars, Parts & Vehicles category will be split into two categories: Vehicles and Parts.
So, good, bad or indifferent? How will the changes affect your business? Leave us a comment.
Third-party checkouts changing, not banned
April 16, 2009
You may have read a blog post yesterday on AuctionBytes reporting that third party checkouts were to be banned on eBay from June. The post cited ProStores and Infopia as saying that their checkouts were to be discontinued, and named the source of the story as “letters sent to some sellers”: surprisingly, it hadn’t been included in eBay’s biannual changes announcement made the day before.
I spoke to ChannelAdvisor, who said that their own checkout was not being discontinued, though changes were to be made. There’s currently no detail on just what those changes are, but Scot Wingo wrote a long and impassioned plea for CA customers to defend their checkout.
Then eBay weighed in with their own post: Dinesh Lathi writes that third party checkouts will only be available from a select group of providers who “have updated their user interface according to a set of eBay guidelines. Our goal is to give buyers a more consistent checkout experience.” Again, there is a conspicuous lack of detail about exactly what these changes will involve, so sellers using one of the approved providers on Dinesh’s list should contact that provider for more details.
As eBay have been talking since at least eBay Live in Chicago last June about “a more consistent and safe checkout experience”, my guess would be that the new rules will force less merchant branding, no offsite links and definitely no off-eBay upsell. 3P checkouts will remain available for payment processing and stock control purposes, but the way that they’ve been used to siphon customers from eBay to merchant’s own sites will be stopped. But all that is only my guess, and eBay have given me no information on this whatsoever. As Dinesh writes:
Please keep in mind that the definitive source of information about eBay is eBay. You can find accurate information about any planned changes through this Announcement Board and through emails, calls and other official communications from eBay.
The problem is, when eBay themselves don’t give out the information, give out incomplete information, promise announcements and then don’t deliver them, where are merchants and 3P providers supposed to turn?
eBay.com’s big announcement: what’s in it for sellers?
April 14, 2009
eBay.com made its first biannual announcement of 2009 today. This is part of the new strategy to limit disruption to sellers by making two big rafts of changes each year, rather than constant piecemeal adjustments to the platform. The changes are due to take place from 15th June (actual implementation time may, however, be later and in some cases isn’t yet fixed).
There is a lot of detail in the announcement, and I would encourage all sellers to read it for themselves. Here are the highlights, and no doubt more information will be forthcoming over the next few weeks:
Multiple variant listings
Sellers will be able to offer variants of products – for example, shirts in different colours and sizes – within the same listing. It will be possible to vary the price (but not the shipping) for different items in the same listing. This is as announced by Mark Lewis for eBay UK at Catalyst last month.
Multi-variant listings will be available in Mens’ and Womens’ Shoes categories from the week commencing 15th June, and for the rest of Clothing, Shoes and Accessories plus Home and Garden from mid-July. Rollout across all categories is planned, but currently has no implementation date (the rumour I hear is 2010).
Amazonification of product pages
There will be an expansion of product pages: frequently used to group identical items in Music and Electronics (e.g. all the copies of one particular CD), expect to see these in Books, Movies & DVDs, Music, Video Games, Cell Phones, and Tickets, with more categories to follow. More sellers will be chasing the highlighted “value box” at the top right
The new view item page which eBay have been testing for the past year will roll out to “most” buyers by mid-June. “Photo zoom” is coming later this summer, together with an animated countdown timer for auction listings.
Dispute resolution moves from PayPal to eBay
eBay are touting this as a “new dispute resolution process”, but in fact, it looks very much like the old PayPal dispute resolution process, only hosted on eBay instead of PayPal; eBay themselves say that they will “retain substantially the same definitions and policies that PayPal uses to resolve item not received and item not as described disputes”.
Buyers will have the current 45 days to file a non-receipt or SNAD claim with eBay. Exactly how this will differ from filing a claim with PayPal isn’t immediately apparent, except that buyers will be able to file the dispute whatever payment method they have used. Once the claim is filed, buyers “may” be given the option to contact eBay by phone (we’ve heard from some people involved in the testing process that this has been done). The case is then reviewed by an eBay Customer Service rep, who will consider transaction details, buyer and seller track record, shipping information and item location; if the buyer’s claim warrants further investigation, the CS rep will contact the seller. eBay say:
We’ll be taking a more active role, and in certain cases when we determine the seller was not at fault we may refund the buyer at our own expense.
Optimistically, it’s possible that this new process might stop serial non-receipt claimants on eBay. Sellers, though, are going to see it as the loss of yet more control over the transaction, with eBay likely to be just as trigger-happy with refunds as PayPal are.
The new resolution process applies to eBay.com only; there’s no news when or if it might roll out in other countries. The transition process from PayPal disputes to eBay disputes begins Q2 2009 (i.e. now) and the change should be complete before the holiday selling season. I have no doubt that sellers will have a raft of questions about this, so leave us a comment and I’ll do my best to get more info as required.
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