Boomerangs – Easy returns goes live on eBay

June 23, 2009

easyreturnseBay 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.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Featured, Site Changes, eBay.co.uk, eBay.de | 40 Comments 

eBay.com to launch revamped keyword ad program

September 24, 2008

This post was written in September 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay have announced today the launch of a pay-per-click keyword ad program to be known as ‘eBay AdCommerce‘. Initially the program will be run as a Beta test for selected sellers on eBay.com and eBay.de, but it’s anticipated AdCommerce will be opened up to all sellers on the US and German sites by the end of the year. Currently there are no plans to expand the program to other countries.

eBay AdCommerce will enable sellers to bid on selected keywords and those that bid the highest may have an advert displayed at the bottom of search results, when a buyer searches for that keyword. Links from the adverts can only go to an eBay page – the sellers eBay shop or a particular listing.

The adverts consist of a title, a short description, and if the seller wishes an image. Similar to a Google Adwords campaign sellers can set a budget and a cost per click – they’ll only be charged when a potential buyer clicks on their advert.

Getting sellers to pay for keyword advertising is nothing new to eBay, a similar keyword program was launched on eBay.com in the summer of 2003 and retired in September 2006 due to low adoption rates.

The original program displayed adverts at the top of search results, but the new program will insert them as sponsored results beneath the main search results where Yahoo!, Google or Shopping.com adverts currently appear.

With the recent changes to selling formats and visibility from a combination of Best Match, Recent Sales and the new Featured First listing enhancement it remains to be seen if sellers are willing to pay for yet another shot at getting their products seen by buyers.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under eBay.com, eBay.de | 6 Comments 

eBay Germany re-introduces mutual feedback withdrawal

August 22, 2008

This post was written in August 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay Germany have re-introduced mutual feedback withdrawal in limited circumstances. Sellers can request buyers retract neutral or negative feedback within 30 days of the feedback being left.

There are limits of two requests per month, and sellers can only make one request per transaction. Once a request has been made a buyer has 7 days to respond, if they refuse, fail to respond within 7 days, or simply ignore the request then the feedback will remain on the sellers profile.

This is currently available only on eBay Germany and is running as a pilot so details may be tweaked in the future. Mutual feedback withdrawal should however roll out across all eBay sites in a similar format by October. It’s a great move as it gives a seller a real incentive to look after their customers and resolve any issues even if a buyer leaves feedback in haste.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.de | 61 Comments 

eBay Germany : returning stores to search

August 21, 2008

This post was written in August 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay Germany have announced fee changes for business sellers today, creating perhaps the most complicated fee schedule ever seen on any eBay site.

The most important change is that Shop items will be converted into a new fixed price format, which will be fully visible in search results. The listing fee for these will be between 1c and 10c which will include free Gallery pictures. There are now five different schedules of insertion and final value fees, depending on which category you’re listing in. I think this means that 30 BINs will now be available on eBay.de as they will be on .com and .co.uk, but the release just says “long running times” with no further detail.

For €299 per month, sellers can upgrade to a Premium Shop, which from 25th September to 31st December, will offer unlimited good-til-cancelled BINs, with no insertion fees.

Sellers will have to offer PayPal for the new BIN listings: eBay reveal the quite astonishing datum that only 70% of German sellers offer PayPal. And there is also a hint that PayPal fees are changing, to be “simplified … throughout the Euro area”, though this is sadly lacking any further detail.

Multiple item listings which have had sales will be advantaged in search results, so it makes sense for sellers to use this route to visibility rather than sticking with multiple single item listings to keep themselves at the top of “ending soonest” sorting. Auctions, however, will still be displayed ordered by “ending soonest” as a default.

As with eBay.com and eBay UK, these changes see eBay Germany moving strongly towards a fixed price format. The emphasis is on favourable conditions for business sellers, who are specifically encouraged to “list their entire inventory” on eBay.de.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.de | 13 Comments 

eBay Germany require specified shipping

July 3, 2008

This post was written in July 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

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.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.de | Comments Off 

German sellers must specify postage

June 17, 2008

This post was written in June 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

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.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.de | 5 Comments 

eBay Germany introduce maximum shipping prices

May 29, 2008

This post was written in May 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay Germany are introducing maximum shipping prices allowed to be charged in 34 categories. Ranging between €5,00 and €8,00, a range of items are included in the new policy, from computer accessories, memory sticks and MP3 players, to silver-plated jewellery, some watches, and pearls. The categories have apparently been chosen because they have generally low DSRs for shipping prices, and the set prices are based on the average within the categories. The new rules come into effect from 15th June.

Many sellers are going to see this as a step too far by eBay. If buyers choose to purchase from a seller with a high shipping price listed, that is their choice; shipping prices are the one area where there shouldn’t be any surprises for buyers post-sale, so why would eBay interfere? In any case now, buyers who didn’t read the listing have the opportunity to mark the seller down on the DSRs anyway. The prices quoted will not cover insured shipping in many cases, nor will they take account that some items are heavier to ship than others: categories like Lamps & Lighting or Wholesale & Metalworking are likely to have a massive range of wildly differing items within them, and trying to standardise a shipping cost is a step too far into the Amazon.

Moreover, sellers who want to avoid the restrictions are likely just to list in a different category, so the whole thing seems rather pointless. Nevertheless, what’s done on one eBay is likely to spread, so expect to see this coming to other sites in the near future.

Vielen Dank to Horst from Shadesavers for the link.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.de | 21 Comments 

eBay Germany highlights free shipping

May 14, 2008

This post was written in May 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

kostenloser VersandeBay Germany have just announced the launch of a new icon to highlight items offering free shipping. Germany’s Markdown Manager is also now offering the possibility to lauch “free shipping sales” in Shops.

The same changes were made on .com last month, so sellers on other countries’ sites might expect a wider launch in the near future. As eBay will undoubtedly publicise this very well to buyers, it’s worth considering if it’s something you could take advantage of, even if free shipping isn’t normally your style.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.de | 2 Comments