Over the past few years, eBay has asked you, our Canadian valued sellers, to focus on delivering the quality and service ecommerce buyers expect. As always, you’ve gone above and beyond. With this, the second release of 2012, the focus is squarely on sellers. These updates will help you reach more of the fast-growing legions of ecommerce buyers drawn to eBay.ca and eBay.com this holiday season—and make your selling easier and more profitable.
New protections and rewards
New safeguards are coming in February to keep eBay a fair marketplace for sellers
- Buyers will be required to contact you first before opening a Buyer Protection case (for items sold on eBay.com). You’ll then have 3 days to resolve the issue.
- The number of opened cases will no longer be used as a US performance standards. (Open cases have never been used for your Global performance standards). Only those cases that are not found in your favour will count. This could mean an immediate positive impact on your US performance rating.
Reporting buyers who violate policies or misuse the system will be faster and easier. Starting in October, a more accessible and enhanced reporting hub will make it easy for you to contact eBay directly to report buyers in violation of eBay policies.
A new Top Rated Plus seal, coming to eBay.com in September, will highlight listings from US Top Rated sellers with 1-day handling and 14-day or longer money-back returns. It will replace the current Top Rated seller badge. Top Rated sellers will continue to receive recognition of their status on their Feedback profile page.
New ways to showcase your items, boost sales
More selling power for your listings
- Sell more with more pictures! Now that pictures are FREE (Motors Vehicles excluded), load up! Starting in October, new listings and relisting will be required to include a picture, with additional picture requirements announced earlier this year coming in 2013.
- Item condition notes field helps you set the right expectations. Starting the week of October 22, buyers will see the important details about the condition of your used items right up front.
- Show your item location to increase buyer confidence. Enter your valid postal code and your city and province will be automatically added to your listing.
More selling power for electronics. New way to shop for popular products coming to more categories-listing with the eBay catalogue required.
Boost sales with multi-variation listings. Coming soon on eBay.com! A new feature will let you easily combine individual listings of different variations of an item—such as colour and size—into one listing.
Other updates
Ending Auction-style listings when they have a bid can lead to buyer frustration. Starting October 1, to protect the spirit and integrity of auctions, a fee will be charged for ending an Auction-style listing early after there’s been a bid.
More communication power in My eBay Messages. Starting in late September, you’ll be able to upload up to five pictures via My Messages to help close the sale. Respond to messages from your primary eBay inbox and automatically stay in sync with Messages in My eBay.
Category and item specific updates
- . As always,
changes to categories and item specifics
- are included with the rest of seller updates. Updates are coming in many categories and a few categories are being eliminated—find out if your listings are affected.
Get details on the 2012 Fall Seller Update. See the Seller Checklist for more information about how these updates affect you, then use bulk editing tools to update your listings quickly and easily.
For additional insight, you’re also invited to talk with members of my staff on July 24 via a special discussion board we’ve set up for this purpose. Griff will also be discussing this announcement on eBay Radio on July 24, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST (2 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST). Join me and other leaders from eBay in a Town Hall meeting on July 25, 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m to 8 p.m. EST).
As always, thank you for selling on eBay.
Sincerely,
Michael Jones
Vice President,
Merchant Development
