There are some nice features coming down the line to make selling easier and less troublesome in the .
Immediate payment for BIN
From May a Buy It Now will not be “bought” until it’s paid for. Buyers will be asked to pay immediately, but if they delay payment then another buyer can still purchase the item up until the first buyer makes payment. This is effectively the end of unpaid items for fixed price items on eBay.
If a buyer doesn’t want to pay immediately then they should use the eBay shopping basket instead.
This will only apply to items where PayPal is the only payment option and high priced items will also be excluded from the immediate payment requirement.
Best Offer’s only complete when paid
Currently if a buyer makes a best offer and you accept it then you have to wait for the buyer to pay. In the mean time the item is considered sold and so unavailable for other buyers. From May eBay will start testing the ability to accept multiple Best Offers and the first buyer to actually pay wins the item.
Similar to BINs only being sold when paid for, this will also help reduce the incidence of unpaid items and inventory sitting on your warehouse shelves which can’t be sold while you’re waiting for a buyer to accept your offer and pay.
Category Updates
In early May there will be some category changes. Final Value fees may change as a result and you may need to update item specifics in affected listings.
Product Identifiers
Google have now rolled out paid for Product Listing Ads in the UK as a replacement for Google Shopping which was free. If you want eBay to pay to promote your products then it’s essential that you add unique product identifies (preferably UPC, EAN codes).
I’ve seen many sellers simply making up their own part codes – if you do this it won’t help your products show up in Google. Use the Custom Label Field for your own internal SKU numbers and use the official part code in the Product Identifier field.
Business Policies
In the next few months the new Business Policies Tool will be rolled out to enable you to manage your own custom settings for postage, returns and payments in a central location. Rather then specifying the details each time you list, you’ll be able to specify sets of data and select the appropriate data set for a listing saving time.
Ticket Sales
From the middle of May you’ll need to list tickets on Stubhub rather than on eBay.
eBay for Charity
From today there’ no longer be a £1 minimum donation when selling with eBay for Charity. Once you specify the donation percentage that’s now exactly the donation you’ll make, even if it is less than a pound.
5 Responses
Immediate payment required is not a minor change for sellers of small items where combined postage is the norm.
How will this impact overseas buyers where again combined shipping is essential for the multi buys that are the norm?
Not looking forward to this.
Yes, I saw that but it then goes on to say:
‘Later in 2013, we’ll include Buy it now listings which offer additional payment methods alongside PayPal in the test’
Nonetheless I think that I will add an extra payment option so as to at least delay the issue (in the hope that buyer/seller complaints about loss of combined shipping discounts/sales will provoke a rethink).
Any buyer who contacts me about issues around this will be invited to make future purchases outside eBay.
Blocked buyers will now be able to buy qualifing immediate payment buy it now items. ebay are overiding the buyer requirements list.
“I have buyer requirements in place for my listings. How does this change affect me?
If you have buyer requirements in place to block buyers who don’t have a linked PayPal account, have no credit card on file or have an unpaid item record, buyers taking part in our test will now be permitted to purchase your qualifying Buy it now items.”
I am going to make more work for sellers now I have to pay item by item by mobile. Normally I buy on my mobile and when I combine I go to my PC the day after.
If I don’t want to ‘lose’ my purchase I will have to pay straight away.
Lots of sellers will be sending me lots of packages killing them off with postage as I will ONLY buy using free shipping if I can’t properly combine.
If I am out and about I buy from one seller over 2 days and pay on the third at my PC.
For me as a seller AND a buyer is bigger than the free postage situation as eBay are forcing me into a different behaviour. This is only because I KNOW it is happening….buyers won’t and be pissed.