Great news coming into the holiday season, eBay UK has just got the holiday settings which were implemented in the US in October. You can now hide and block purchases from fixed price items from sale as well as display a return date.
Previously although fixed price items were hidden in search results if a buyer had them on their watch list or had previously purchased from you they could still see and click the buy now button. Now even if they can see your items you can choose to block them from search.
One obvious advantage is that if you’ve built up a good position in Best Match search results you don’t have to cancel and relaunch your listings to ensure buyers don’t purchase for the few days that you’re unable to ship. If you’re away for a week or even if you have a family emergency and need to stop selling just for a couple of days you can easily stop selling and restart from where you left off as soon as you’re back at work.
You can also display a message on your shop front to reassure buyers that although you’re away for a few days you are still trading and of course let them know when they’ll be able to purchase from you again.
4 Responses
Whilst on the face of it it is great news for eBay shop owners (and about time too) if you check your shop holiday settings you will see this information:-
“Your fixed price listings with immediate payment will not be blocked.”
Would it be possible to have clarification as to what exactly is hidden and prevented from being purchased with this enhancement?
Is it easy to edit listings so that immediate payment can be turned off?
Can watchers still view but not purchase?
Are contact details hidden from watchers if they are able to view?
I have checked it out to see how it all functions.
BIN items are removed from search and cannot be purchased by watchers.
Any auctions that are running will feature this message which cannot be edited:-
“This seller is currently away, and is not processing orders at this time. You can add this item to your watch list to purchase later.”
Not good! Why display this message in running auctions? Or at the very least make it clear that only BIN orders are not being processed and that visitors may bid on auction items as normal.
Also I don’t want to tell visitors that I am “currently away”. Why not simply tell visitors that BIN orders are not being processed at this time without stating any reason for this?
I would like an option of putting a holiday message in my live auctions and if this is to be compulsory at least the option of being able to edit the message.
You have to have a shop header message. There is no option not to. You have full control over what message to put.
Still work to do eBay but a step in the right direction.
A step in the right direction but agree with the other posts that it is not clear exactly what you can and cannot now do and what affect this has on your listing. I am sure with time it will be clarified though.
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