Your advice for listings while on vacation?

[musicyouneed]

I am going away for Christmas this year from Dec 19 to Jan 4, 16 days.  Only 8 of those days is when the PO pickups are operational.   Normally when I go on vacation, I put my store on vacation and hide my listings for the entire time, this time, I was thinking, to put that I am on vacation, put my handling time from 3 days to 10 days and not hide my listings.  Also send an out of office email automatically. 

I Want to do that because last time I was on vacation and hid my listings, took me 3 months to get back on track. 

What do you do and what worked and what didn't

[musicyouneed]

No one have any advice or experiences?

[ichopshop]

Will you have access to a computer to adjust your settings while you're gone?  Set vacation and adjust shipping times , then  start scaling them back as your return date approaches.  With all the Stat days and weekends you can probably take it of vacation mode and return your shipping times to normal by December 31st.  Requires more effort on your part but will probably result in the lowest impact on your sales.

Ian

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I have put my store on vacation a few times recently but usually for only a week. I leave it visible with a message saying how long I will be gone. I also had access to my computer each time. So I was able to remind all my buyers that I am away & there will be a delay in shipping. I didn't even change my handling time but that probably would be a good idea to do.

[momcqueen]

“No one have any advice or experiences?”

The answers you’ll get this time will be the same as the answers you got last time that you asked when you closed and took a cruise, was it to the Panama Canal? The advice or answers and people doing the answering aren’t likely to change in less than a year. Or at least I shouldn’t think so.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Closing vs Store Vacation:

If you close your store there may be fees involved. Something to consider.

"If you cancel your yearly Store subscription, you may be billed an early termination fee."

https://www.ebay.ca/pages/help/sell/closing-your-store.html

-CM

PS. Added this note to another related discussion. Apologies for the duplication.

[musicyouneed]

Yes, that was a Panama Canal cruise and it was for 4 weeks.  I put it on vacation mode hiding all my listings.  It tooks months to get back to what I was selling before.  If  I was going away for 4 weeks I would probably hide the listings again.

Mo, I tried to find my original post but couldn't find it.  Also I am a senior who has trouble remembering what I did yesterday. 

This is another cruise but only 14 days and the Caribbean this time.  This time I would not hide my listings but there would be a notice that I am on vacation until Jan 4/19 so nothing will be going out until I return.   I will have access to the internet only a couple of days during the cruise.  

What I was looking for was: has anyone not hidden their listings but just put a vacation notice on it when they were going away for 2 weeks?  How did that work for you?  I know what happens when you hide your listings, but I wanted to know what happens when you don't hide them. 

[momcqueen]

“Closing vs Store Vacation”

She’s not taking about canceling her store subscription, she means hiding her listings. A seller had put their store on vacation— close it— with or without hiding the listings.

[musicyouneed]

Did you have any problems while you had it on vacation mode?  Where all the buyers OK with the delay, or did they want to cancel their purchase?   Do the buyers read the notice that you are on vacation?

[momcqueen]

I struggle to find posts of my own even when I know they're there and I'm not sure as to the reason but there's these: 

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Sales-for-Jan-after-a-week-holiday-have-tanked/m-p/39206...

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/I-m-taking-a-week-vacation-in-Jan-and-need-to-close-down...

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/To-close-or-not-to-close-the-store/m-p/395924

and all these:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?q=vacation&collapse_discussion=true

I don't mean to sound salty but I suspect that I do, if so my apologies, I think the labour situation with Canada Post is getting to me. 

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

 I never had a problem with any of my buyers. I sent them all a reminder that I was away & got replies back that they saw the vacation notice on my listings & that they were okay waiting.

[musicyouneed]

Mo, not salty at all.  I got what I wanted from those links.  You must be a lot younger than me that you can find things so quickly.  I come to the boards to learn from others experience.

What I learned is that if you put your listings on vacation mode, buyers can still buy and you would have to ship by a certain date within your handling time.  

So I am going to put my listings on vacation mode from Dec 17/18 to Jan 4/19, I am going to adjust my handling to 10 days reducing it when I get some internet access, halfway through my trip.   

After I get back I will share my experiences.