Saddam Hussein’s Rolls Royce for sale on eBay UK
July 23, 2008
The Telegraph reports that Saddam Hussein’s Rolls Royce Corniche is up for sale on eBay UK Motors. According to the seller, the car comes with paperwork confirming its ownership by the former Iraqi President, and it will arrive in the UK from its current location in Baghdad in the next four weeks.
For the £185,000 price tag, you’ll get a brand new stereo “as the USA Army … stole the stereos from most cars” they found in the basement of Saddam’s former palace. Steven Brown, owner of the car dealership Autocontinental, told reporters that the car was bought at an Iraqi government auction by an Iraqi friend who’s resident in the UK, along with eleven other cars from Saddam’s collection, including “one Maybach new with solid 24 carat gold fittings specially made for him but not delivered … car was only ready for him two days before he left Baghdad in a hurry”.
And apparently, amongst interested buyers is an American colonel who wants to put SADDAM numberplates on the car. Talk about asking for trouble.
Messages from buyers highlighted in SMP
July 22, 2008
Messages from buyers, entered at checkout, are at last being highlighted in Selling Manager Pro (SMP) with an eBay note. If a note is entered on the PayPal payment it will now appear on the SMP sales record with an eBay note to let sellers know that it’s there.
It’s worth noting that the notes are not displaying in My eBay: users who wish to ensure they’re informed of messages from buyers should consider upgrading to SMP which is free with a featured shop, or £4.99 per month as a stand-alone option.
SNP: 1 month grace before suspension introduced for eBay UK
July 18, 2008
eBay have just officially announced a one month grace period for any seller falling foul of the seller non-performance (SNP) policy for the first time.
Rather than face an immediate site suspension they will be informed that they’re in breach of the policy and given a month to bring their account back into good standing. This is great news and hopefully will keep the dolphins out of the eBay nets. It also means that one upset customer can no longer threaten your eBay business - by the end of the 1 month warning period their feedback will have dropped out of the 30 day feedback and DSRs used in the SNP calculation.
If a seller breaches the policy for a second time within a six month period then they will still face an instant selling restriction or suspension.
eBay have also expanded the Seller Dashboard to include a new Buyer Satisfaction Rating (BDR) to enable sellers to track their performance. This includes negative feedback, neutral feedback, low DSR scores (1 or 2 star ratings) and any buyer protection claims closed in favour of the buyer.
BDR is important not only for SNP but also can affect your standing in search - sellers with low BDR will be disadvantaged under the new Best Match search results. Sellers will be considered in breach of SNP if their BDR drops to “poor” or “unacceptable”.
The only part of BDR that is hidden from sellers are the DSR ratings, sellers should be aware of any other factors that could affect their standing. If eBay would change from anonymous ratings and enable sellers to see where they’re falling down it would be a valuable tool to assist seller increase customer satisfaction.
By keeping DSRs anonymous sellers have no clear understanding which transactions or which buyers are marking them down and sellers are unable to target specific areas or product lines for improvement.
Overall it’s a welcome change though - removing the fear and uncertainty sellers have felt with the knowledge just one or two buyers could earn them an instant 30 day suspension is great news.
eBay local services gets a microsite makeover
July 18, 2008
In the few weeks since I last looked at Local Services the category has had a makeover and been spun out into a Local Services microsite. No longer do users have to browse through thousands of local services many miles from where they live - the new microsite directs users to enter their postcode up front.
The Local Services category is now set to become an online yellow pages - every local business should be listed in the directory to take advantage of eBay’s 14 million users. Best of all Local Services classified ads are currently free so why wouldn’t you want your business listed on eBay?
I’m predicting that this will become a larger part of eBay’s business model in the future. eBay Australia also have a Local Services microsite in beta and have just announced it will move to a classified ad only format.
If you offer a local service (as opposed to a product), which eBay users could be interested, in get your classified ad listed today.
Best match “Item Location” factor enabled on eBay Canada
July 17, 2008
eBay Canada have revealed that some new technology has been added into Best Match known as Item Location factor.
Up until now Best Match has promoted items listed on eBay Canada which means items listed by Canadian sellers on other sites were disadvantaged in comparison. eBay have added in the ability to give higher priority in search for all items listed by Canadian sellers regardless of which site they are listed on.
Best Match will continue to take other factors into account such as price, shipping cost, DSRs and listing ending time. Higher priority will be given to domestic items in search on eBay Canada, but now that will include items listed by Canadian sellers on other eBay sites.
Best Match is still undergoing testing, and eBay Canada will be adding in the Item Location criteria which should see Canadian sellers listing overseas get greater visibility. This is one to watch on all eBay sites in the future if you list on eBay sites other than your home site.
eBay to ban email communications from August
July 13, 2008
At the Developer’s Conference, held just prior to eBay Live!, Adam Trachtenberg announced that emails between sellers and buyers prior to a sale would be anonymised. The latest API notes for developers reveal that this change will roll out across eBay sites in late August.
This means that buyers and sellers will no longer have access to each other’s email addresses prior to a sale. Only once a bidder has won an item will the buyer and seller be able to email each other off eBay.
How this will work is that when an email is sent by a buyer using Ask Seller a Question it will still be delivered to your email inbox, as well as to your My Messages on eBay. When replying to the email it will no longer send it directly to the buyers inbox and you won’t be able to see their private email address. Each message will have a unique identifier and the reply will be sent to them via eBay, using the identifier to redirect the message to their real email address as well as placing a copy in their My Messages.
This is great news as it also means buyers will no longer have the choice of hiding their email address which currently results in the dreaded UseTheYellowButton@ebay.com reply to address. For sellers who routinely use email for replies, rather than clicking through to My Messages, it’s all too easy to hit reply without noticing the email is not the user’s address. Replying to the email gives no warning that the buyer will never actually receive it.
Once anonymised emails are introduced sellers will be able to reply from their normal email program, safe in the knowledge that their answer will end up in the buyer’s My Messages on eBay as well as in their inbox.
Once all eBay communications are via My Messages it’s been announced that sellers will have to remove email addresses from their listings. Where this leaves sellers in the UK who make use of Business Seller Information inserts, which automatically inserts their email address into listings, is unclear - currently the UK Contact Information policy specifically allows for the inclusion of email addresses in listings.
Overall I’ll welcome this change, buyers and sellers will have more reliable communications ensuring all emails are routed through My Messages. Also hopefully my personal quota of eBay spam mail will decline as fraudsters will find it increasingly difficult to obtain email addresses.
eBay UK, IE update user agreement
July 13, 2008
eBay UK and eBay Ireland have announced changes to the user agreement and privacy policy. These are effective 13th August for existing members.
User Agreement
The two main changes are that
- if your eBay seller fees are more than 180 days overdue, eBay may take them from your PayPal account, and
- sellers are explicitly made responsible for checking the accuracy of pre-filled item information, stock photography and other catalogue services supplied by eBay.
Privacy Policy
- eBay can share your information within the eBay group, e.g. with PayPal or Skype, and
- with law enforcement agencies in the case of suspected fraudulent and malicious activity.
- A new “No Spam, Spyware or Spoofing” section explicitly forbids the adding of “other eBay users, even a user who has purchased an item from you, to your mailing list (email or physical mail) without their express consent”.
- A new “Marketing” section gives users the ability to opt out of targetted marketing on the site. As eBay were running user tests last month which included looking at reactions to adverts and paid-for services, the more cynical among us might wonder if this heralds yet more third-party ads on the site.
If you’re happy with the new agreements, you need do nothing; if you’re not, you’re invited to close your account.
eBay.com postpone new links policy
July 11, 2008
eBay.com are postponing implementation of their new policy banning links from About Me pages to sellers’ websites. According to the most recent Power Up! email newsletter, which is sent out to PowerSellers registered on .com,
the policy announced in May covering links in sellers’ listings or other eBay pages will not be enforced. Instead, we’ll be announcing a clearer and more comprehensive links policy in mid August.
No corresponding policy was ever announced for eBay UK, so it’s still not clear if there will be a change here, and if so, what it will be.
At eBay Live, Brian Burke stated that the new links policy had probably been announced prematurely: certainly there were many unanswered questions that even eBay staff I talked to seemed to need clarification on. It seems that eBay may have changed their minds, for example, on links to non-transactional pages.
Of course, none of this will be much comfort to sellers who spent hours last month changing their listings to comply with the new policy. eBay have now put out an announcement board post confirming that implementation of the policy is being delayed, and that once the new version goes live, sellers will have a four week grace period to amend their listings. Sellers will also not be required to specify shipping prices until August, when improved bulk editing tools will be available to make changes more easily.
Via Skip.
eBay.com tell buyers what to search for
July 11, 2008
eBay.com have made some changes to their New Search Experience following member feedback on recent trials. Preferences have been made ’sticky’, i.e. what you pick stays picked, and more options have been added to the advanced search. As of next week, more members are going to start seeing the new version of search, and those who aren’t included in the trial can still test things out in the Playground.
From what I’m hearing, the new search system has not so far won many friends. Even some pretty experienced users have had trouble figuring out just how it works. But if there was suspicion of Best Match and Finding 2.0, this is going to be ten times worse:
We have also added an Auto Complete feature, which provides search suggestions in real time right from the search box!
Of course, if yours is one of the keywords that pops up on the first letter, this will be superb for you - but if your words never show at all, then you’d better hope that eBay haven’t distracted your buyers before they’ve finished typing. Buyers really should be trusted at the very beginning of the search process to know what they’re looking for, and left to get on with finding it: this horrible new feature should go.
eBay UK hint at more changes to come
July 11, 2008
Following on from yesterday’s announcement on eBay.com, eBay UK have put out their own statement on feedback changes to be implemented later this year.
It’s confirmed that neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the feedback percentage, and that those percentages will be recalculated. This will be effective late August, but in the meantime, no one will lose PowerSeller status because of neutral feedback.
The promised new dispute process which will give buyers the facility to edit feedback, will also roll in the UK in October. More details of this are coming “soon”.
And finally, a hint that change isn’t finished yet:
We’ve also recently received lots of feedback from sellers about the Seller Non-Performance programme. We’ll provide an update on changes to this programme early next week.
Despite many sellers criticising the ‘neutrals as negs’ policy when it was introduced and demanding eBay change it back again, I’m seeing just as many people this morning criticising them for the latest changes. ‘Too little, too late’ seems to be a popular thought: ‘they shouldn’t have done it in the first place’, and ‘it’s an admission of failure’.
But even if the implementation of the policies was wrong (and it was), the desire to clean up the site, to drag it out of the 1990s and make it a better place to shop, was absolutely right. Watching eBay tweak new policies and work towards getting things right is all part of the process: how many of us try things in our own businesses, test, tweak, see if it works, and if it doesn’t, try something else? It’s difficult, for all of us, but the alternative is a site that never moves forward, and none of us can want that.
Neutral feedback will not be included in percentages on eBay
July 10, 2008
eBay have just announced some significant changes coming to feedback in the next couple of months.
Neutral feedback is to be downgraded and from late August will no longer be included in the feedback percentage.
This was one of the biggest complaints of sellers at eBay Live!, with many sellers saying they felt “punished” for neutrals received prior to the last feedback recalculation. Many sellers lost treasured 100% feedback scores when neutrals were taken into account, and felt that it was unfair to retroactively count them as equivalent to negatives. eBay executives appeared genuinely distressed at sellers’ reaction to the changes, and Lorrie Norrington promised to address the issue.
In a second change, eBay are to introduce editable feedback for the first time. They have recognised that buyers sometimes leave feedback too early and will enable them to change the comments and rating. This will appear on the site in October and will encourage sellers to work with buyers to recitify any issues knowing the buyer can improve the feedback left. Currently it’s not been specified if buyers will be able to edit the DSRs left, but more details will be available in the Autumn.
It’s great news that eBay are not only listening to their customers, but are acting on what they’re hearing. I’ve never known them to make changes so swiftly following feedback from site users, so top marks to the new management team for not only listening, but also for taking prompt action.
PayPal claims shown in eBay dispute console
July 10, 2008
eBay.com have just announced that PayPal disputes will now be shown in the dispute console on eBay. It will show the status of open disputes, as well as indicating when you need to take action. If you’re unfortunate enough to have a number of claims open, this should make dealing with them a little easier. The change on the eBay.com site will be made in the next few days.
Buyers rights highlighted in listings
July 5, 2008
eBay have recently started highlighting buyers return rights on fixed price listings, spelling out that buyers have a minimum of seven working days from receipt of the purchase to change their mind and return it.
While eBay are emphasising the rights of buyers what is less clear are the rights of sellers. In the original business requirements announcement eBay specified that sellers must accept returns “within 14 days of receipt” even though the minimum proscribed by law for a buyer to change their mind is 7 working days.
The explanation to sellers is: “We require business sellers to accept returns for a minimum period of 14 calendar days so that the buyer has enough time to let the seller know about the cancellation and post the item back.” It would have been a lot clearer for buyers if eBay had simply specified business sellers must accept returns within 7 working days, as specified by the law, without allowing for transit time.
By informing buyers that they have up to 14 days to return an item, many will interpret this as notifying the seller they wish a return after two weeks (not including transit time), especially as a 14 day returns policy reads “Item must be returned within: 14 Days of receipt”, not “Returned item must be received by the seller within: 14 Days of receipt”.
eBay have effectively increased a minimum requirement of a 7 working day returns policy to a 14 day returns policy. Many sellers have routinely offered returns policies longer than the minimum required by law and if eBay want to insist that all sellers offer extended returns policy, in principle, it’s arguably a good move. What I do disagree with is the confusing messaging as 7 working days, 14 days and no mention of transit time leave buyers without clearly stated, easy to comprehend, returns rights.
UK PowerSellers must register as businesses by 20th July
July 3, 2008
Back in January, eBay announced that it would become compulsory for PowerSellers to be registered as businesses on the site. Pink Olly has now posted on the PowerSeller Board that as of 20th July, anyone who is not registered as a business seller will lose their PS status.
Olly has also reiterated what eBay told me a month or so ago, that there is a level at which sellers are required to register as businesses, or they are prevented from selling on the site. For those unsure why they need to register, representing yourself as a private seller when you are in fact a trader is a breach of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, and can lead to criminal prosecution.
Anyone who needs to change to business seller status should go to My eBay > My Account > Personal Information, and change their account type to “business”.
Updated to add: as noted on the Business Selling Board, “business seller not displaying proper information” has now been added to the “report this item” form.
eBay Germany require specified shipping
July 3, 2008
From this week, sellers on eBay Germany are required to specify at least one domestic shipping service. eBay say that 95% of sellers already do so, but that the remaining 5% will no longer be able to list without specifying at least one shipping method and its cost. ‘Collection only’ is a permitted delivery method.
According to the eBay Developer blog, the policy is also being enforced in Spain now too: I think we can expect this to become a universally-enforced policy on all eBay sites reasonably soon, so if you’re not already specifying postage in the postage field in your listings, now will be the time to reconsider that.
The problem for UK sellers is likely to be that those who use courier services cannot offer one single flat rate to the whole country, as the Highlands, islands and Northern Ireland are all surcharged by carriers. If eBay are going to require sellers to use the little postage box to specify rates, rather than just putting them within the body of the listing, they really need to allow for the reality of shipping too.
eBay Australia backs down on PayPal
July 3, 2008
eBay Australia have said that other methods of payment may continue to be offered by sellers on the site, though offering PayPal will remain compulsory:
eBay will continue to allow all existing payment methods on eBay.com.au. We have decided to withdraw the notification to stop any further confusion and disruption among the eBay Community. … eBay requires all sellers to offer PayPal as a payment choice on eBay.com.au along with other permitted payment methods of their choosing.
eBay have strenuously denied any plans to make eBay.com PayPal-only; it remains to be seen whether compulsory PayPal will be tried in other markets than Australia and the UK.
eBay UK’s new search loses SIF results?
July 3, 2008
Last week, eBay UK made rather a cryptic announcement about how shops’ listings will appear in search. Some of us were hopeful that Best Match might even mean that SIF listings could return to search results, but it seems our optimism was misplaced.
click picture to embiggen
The first problem I discovered is that it’s not actually possible to search BIN and SIF listings at the same time. If I want to buy something now, I don’t actually care what sort of listing it comes from, I just want to get it and pay for it, but eBay’s search filter is now forcing me to choose between BIN or SIF: if you choose one, the other is greyed out. The old system which gave those in the know the option to add SIFs into their BIN searches was bad enough: if a buyer specifies ‘buy it now’, SIF listings should be included by default. But telling buyers they need to choose between the two formats is just nonsensical; the average buyer has no idea what the difference is, and neither should they have to figure it out. This is exceedingly user-unfriendly.
Then I had an email from TameBay reader Miss Tequila, who’s been seeing some even odder search results. She told me she’d been looking for “raw 7 cashmere”, one of her favourite searches. On the left is the old search; on the right, the new:
The old search shows 25 items including SIF; the new, just one. As Miss T. says, “looks like they want shops gone”.
eBay’s original announcement suggests there is more than one new layout being tested, so Miss T’s version may not be what everyone’s seeing. If you’re one of those seeing the new search results, please let us know what you think: the more specific detail you can give us, the better 
Updated to add
I heard from eBay regarding Miss T’s search results; they point out that the old version searches worldwide, and the new one doesn’t, and that this is the reason for the discrepancy. It’s nice to have it explained, though I do wonder, if Miss T and me both missed it, how difficult this is going to be for buyers to get right too.
eBay UK make changes to Checkout, My eBay
July 2, 2008
eBay UK have announced some tweaks to Checkout and to My eBay.
All members will now be able to checkout and pay with PayPal without actually leaving the eBay site. I love this one: paying feels so much quicker and easier. I’ll be interested to see what “P&P promotions offered by sellers are handled better” means: hopefully that free P&P offers via Markdown Manager may become available for UK sellers, as they are in the US.
There are also some changes to My eBay which parallel those made in the US last month. Watch lists are increased to 200 items, and users can create their own lists within My eBay to organise items the way they want them. Only “a small group of UK members” will be seeing this new version, so if you’re one of the lucky ones, do leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
eBay UK testing shops in search?
June 27, 2008
There’s an intriguing announcement from eBay UK this afternoon:
over the next few weeks we’ll be testing how buyers react to different displays of Shops items on eBay UK search results pages. These tests are part of our continual efforts to optimise of how we display items to buyers on eBay.co.uk. The testing will affect a minority of buyers; sellers aren’t required to do anything different or new.
If anyone spots the new search display please let us know what’s being done, or better still grab us a screen shot.
eBay India make fee changes
June 26, 2008
eBay India have announced some major changes to their fee structure. They broadly follow the trend of other sites in weighting fees more towards sold items and reducing upfront costs for listing. Here are some of the highlights:
- Insertion fees are Rs.1 per item, regardless of price (except in media categories which continue to be free to list). Insertion fees are capped at Rs.1500 per seller per month, so if you list more than 1500 items, that’s free.
- International listing fees have been cut from Rs.15 to Rs.5 for items under Rs.2000, and from Rs.30 to Rs.10 for items above that.
- Basic shop subscription fee will increase from Rs.199 to Rs.249 per month
- Seller Manager increases in price from Rs.149 to Rs.199 per month, but Seller Manager Pro is reduced from Rs.500 to Rs.399.
- Home page featured upgrade will be Rs.150 regardless of the number of items listed.
- FVFs change: the current sliding scale according to price will be replaced with a flat fee dependent on category: 1% for technology, 6% for media, 5% for everything else
The new fee structure should encourage sellers to list more on the site, and in particular to offer their listings internationally now. If you’re a seller on eBay.in, how will this change your listing habits?
For those outside India wondering, Rs.100 is approximately £1.18.
Seller Non-Performance Changes
eBay India are also changing seller non-performance rules; the previous 30 days of data will now be taken into account instead of 90 days, and DSRs will be taken into account as well as INR and SNAD complaints. Like other sites around the world, India cites a “minimum number of bad transactions” without stating what that minimum might be: lets hope this isn’t the beginning of a fresh round of dolphins.
eBay.com test new My eBay pages
June 25, 2008
eBay.com have announced testing on some new features on My eBay pages. There will initially be two test groups - one who can opt out, and one who can’t - and you’ll know if you’re seeing the new beta version because the page will be primarily yellow rather than blue.
As I’m not in the test group myself, I’m going by what other people are saying here.The major feature change appears to be the introduction of lists within the watch list: rather than everything being in one list as it is now, you can break it up into ‘items I’m going to snipe’, ‘items I might BIN’, ‘items I’m researching to sell myself’, ‘items I might get Biddy for her birthday’ and so on. A screenshot suggests that lists are not limited to individual items, but can also contain saved searches and favourite sellers too.
This is a great way for items that you’ll be looking for over a period of time. But in assuming that buyers are going to research and search and browse and make lists, I think eBay are really overestimating the amount of effort that the average eBayer wants to put in on the average purchase. What about the buyer who wants to hit the site with a very specific want in mind, buy the first decently-priced one they find, pay, and forget about it: because that’s how the majority of ecommerce transactions go, and if eBay is really going to survive, behaving in a way that people are used to is essential.
Making it easy for people to come back and find items they were looking at yesterday or last week is great. But what about items you’re looking at now? I need to buy a new laptop battery today, and I’m going to browse through half a dozen sellers trying to find one who looks reliable and is in the EU. I can’t be bothered adding things to my watch list and then clicking through to My eBay and finding the link for watch lists (it’s not a feature I use that much) and considering which battery I’m going to pick. The “flow”, as eBay refer to the process of doing things on-site, is just too cumbersome here. I want, in fact, a shopping cart, like every other ecommerce site has got. When are eBay going to roll this out beyond eBay India?
If you’re one of the lucky Beta testers, let us know what you think in the comments below.
Identity confirmation about to commence
June 24, 2008
eBay have started to prompt users to update their account information with a splash screen when logging in. This is in preperation for when they commence verifying the computer you normally use is the one you’re logged into when listing on eBay.
You can change your telephone numbers on eBay in your eBay account preferences.
Project Echo: 3rd Party tool integration into SMP
June 17, 2008
Kumar Kandaswamy, the Senior Director of the Developer Program and Innovation at eBay, gave TameBay the inside track on Project Echo, the new API tools available to allow developers to integrate their applications with Selling Manager Pro (SMP).
He told how back in 2000 his team opened up the eBay platform using the Application Programing Interface (API) to allow third parties to develop eBay tools. With millions of users although eBay provide some great tools, they’re not enough to meet the needs of all users world wide. Over the course of the last seven years over 70,000 developers have used the interface with some 12,000 live applications using the API today.
Over 28% of listings come through 3rd party applications or 1/2 billion listings. If you include TurboLister and SMP the figure rises to over 60% of listings launched by tools using the API.
Kumar explained how Project Echo will enable the 3rd parties to bring their expertise and bolt their applications directly onto the eBay platform. Instead of having to visit a third party site or use a desktop application the tools will be accessible directly through SMP on eBay.
We can expect to see the first five applications available in SMP on eBay.com in Q4 this year, with public Beta starting in Q1 2009. Full product release is scheduled for the middle of 2009, with worldwide rollout to follow.
The first five applications built into eBay will be Terapeak (eBay research) and Hosted Support (customer support automation), who have already built their applications with Sagefire, MyStoreCredit and ShipRush to follow.
On the left of SMP there are already links to eBay features, so applications such as Terapeak will be added into the menu as a consistant seamless user experience.
Kumar explained that eBay will not compromise on security, scaleability and seamless useability. They will ensure applications offer the same security as eBay itself and that the providers are able to scale up for the thousands of users Project Echo opens their application up to. Once implemented users will be able to seamlessly click from SMP into the application without leaving the eBay site.
3rd party providers will also make subscription costs clear and Kumar is insisting that they offer a 30 day free trial so that users are able to try before they buy.
This is a golden opportunity of developers to put their applications in front of thousands of new buyers and sellers. For eBay users in the future your favourite application will be available seamlessly on eBay without the need to visit the developers sites or download applications.
Kumar is very excited at the API applications being given access to the eBay core platform, and rightly so. I can’t wait until every third party tool I use is available through the one website interface and is available from any and every PC that I log into.
What’s your favourite application and what features would you like to see developers build into eBay?
German sellers must specify postage
June 17, 2008
Another one to file under “expect this to roll globally any time now”: from 1st July, German eBay sellers must specify postage in the postage field of their listings, and will not be able to simply list postage costs within the item description.
This is a sensible move and frankly should have been made across all eBay sites years ago. There’s no excuse for sellers not to be upfront about their postage costs, and this makes it much easier for buyers to find them, as well, of course, as feeding into a seller’s Best Match rating. What isn’t specified is whether this applies to just domestic postage, or to international costs too.
Microsoft Live Search cash back live on eBay.com
June 14, 2008
Microsoft have revealed more of their Live Seach cashback initiative confirming that all fixed price listings on eBay.com are eligible for a rebate.
When a buyer clicks through from Live Search to eBay and goes on to make a purchase, when they check out they’ll be presented with a screen telling them exactly how much cashback they can expect. Payment for the purchase will have to be via PayPal to qualify.
The cashback offers are now live on eBay.com, but currently Live Search cashback is only available in the US. It marks a departure from Google’s stategy where advertisers pay for exposure, on Microsoft Live Search, merchants can offer cashback direct to the buyer with eBay paying rebates for products on their site.
If Live Search cashback proves popular in the US doubtless it will filter across to the UK in the future. One to keep an eye on and no doubt JD will be announcing it to US sellers at eBay Live! next week.
Recent Comments
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If anyone has one and wants to spend it with me... - northumbrian: the only fault with that bling thing is if anything it makes the item look to good
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