On Tuesday we digested, as best we could, the news coming out of eBay UK in the 2014 Seller Release.
There really is a lot of small print (and some ambiguity) and when it comes to things such as the new Seller Standards, the devil (as ever) is in the detail. With many of the announcements, to further complicate matters, the impact will depend on what you sell and how you run your business. It’s difficult to take a universal view.
The good news is that neither mandatory Managed Returns or the new Seller Standards will be coming before August 2014 so there is time for consideration. Other, less controversial, aspects are coming sooner. The Category and Item Specifics arrive in less than a month and will require attention by many.
In any case, here’s a round up of the posts we made yesterday.
Mandatory Managed Returns are coming in the Autumn
With some limited exceptions, every eBay business seller will have to participate in eBay’s own system allowing buyer returns.
New seller performance requirements
Starting in August, eBay sellers will be required to meet new standards of service. eBay have published a new “defects” criteria, failure to meet the new standards will mean loss of Top Rated Seller status and the worst offenders could have their sales limited. Similar to Amazon’s own seller standards, this is a change that will affect many business sellers.
Changes to Categories and Item Specifics
More granular detail would be welcome, but some fairly hefty Category and Item Specific changes are coming in slightly less than a month. Listings will need to optimised to accomodte the changes and that may be a major undertaking.
Fee Changes
Supersize pictures will be free and there are some fairly small changes to fees. Nothing too terrible compared to past years.
Changes to eBay Shops
There will be lots of welcome changes to eBay Shops. Some minor tweaking may be required for shop owners. Basic shops will now get the Promotions Manager feature gratis.
International Tracked Postage Service
It’s coming apparently: eBay negotiated tracked postage overseas. Sounds good but, again alas, we don’t have the details we need on rates to give it a big hurrah.
Odds and Ends
A few changes in Motors categories and the like. Nothing major.
And don’t forget… eBay Collections
We published this last week but it’s also part of today’s news: eBay introduced the Collections feature to entice buyers into shopping. Nice but no work required from sellers.
You can find the full eBay 2014 business seller release.. on eBay. It does have some more details. It also has a lot more fluff. 😉
24 Responses
Thanks for all the useful posts chaps.
Regarding the international tracked service, I had a call from ebay saying they could offer good deals with DPD. I explained we already had contract services with their sister company, Interlink. They said we were probably already getting the same deals then.
While the service could make it easier for some sellers I don’t think it will be a money saver and you will probably find that organizing your own couriers could save you more money.
I dont trust ebay with the international tracked thing. Its a good idea, but they will want to make loads of profit on it and take the price far to high to be worth it.
Not seen an announcement re ebay UK but I tried to relist an item this morning. ebay stated that my photo was substandard and would not allow the relist. I sell Books almost all New and Unread. There is supposed to be a Catalogue which contains photos and technical details. All we need to do is to tap in the ISBN number to access this. However there are many gaps. Some Books(in fact probably the vast majority) there is nothing at all. Then there are many where there may be technicals but no photo and this category is increasing as ebay seem to have a policy to delete the photo. Then there are a minority of Books where the technicals and photo actually exist.
It is going to make life very difficult if the catalogue remains as bad as it is currently. Taking my stock as an example. I have a large number of titles where I only have one copy. If the catalogue was up to standard I would just tap in the ISBN and the Book would be listed. However that is not happening. It is true that I do have a number of Books where I have multiple copies. In those cases I tend to have a photo that ebay likes, some from the publisher some from ebays catalogue and some I have provided myself.
However if I am limited by ebay to only being able to list those where I have a photo that ebay will accept then I will have to cut back in various areas and one will be in my purchases from ebay.
I currently fund my purchases on ebay from my sales on ebay. If ebay are not going to allow me to relist or list if ebay does not like the photo then this is going to reduce my sales.
All of my Books have photographs. Yet when I browse ebay I find many items either with no photo at all or such as a blue box like thing with the titles name on it. So what is going on.
I’ve only see Fedex come near to the DPD deal with eBay. A few examples:
Germany up to 30KG – £7.97
Italy up to 30KG – £14.99
Spain up to 30KG – £12.99
France up to 30KG – £9.74
USA 5KG – £28.33
Australia 5KG – £32.63
Also you can ship www, Amazon & Play orders using the service. DPD should be rolling it out next week.
Anything is welcome to improve the cost & reliability in delivering overseas. Just a shame it doesn’t cover South America
Just another attempt by eBay of increasing revenues. They simply are generating more revenue from very popular home and garden categories and restricting even more the window for any discouns
Re. Seller Performance
Nice example below of the kind of lunatics we deal with.
Bath ordered and paid for 2nd March.
Buyer didn’t pay delivery. Buyer invoiced 2nd March.
Buyer contacts us on 9th March and asks to pay delivery.
Second Paypal invoice sent 9th March. No payment received.
Buyer opens a case today, 16th March, for non delivery and asks for tracking.
*FACE PALM
Happy to forward full details Emma if you request them. Chris and Dan have my email.
Total overkill as usual. It is becoming more and more about metrics, numbers and compliance. They force things down at you and there is no consultation period for larger sellers like us. Do you think they take into consideration that we, as a shoe seller, often get marked down and cases opened for SNAD since people who order a pair of shoes and find they dont fit particularly well think that it’s the fault of the seller. Constant change cannot be good for anyone despite what they may tell you. Yes, the bar has been raised….but you need to ask yourself – was it not high enough with 0.5%, yes that’s 5 out of 1000 of transactions in DSRs allowed to be a “1” or a “2”. The pied piper plays his pipe and the masses dance to his tune.
We took in £1,904,662 over the last 12 months on eBay so hopefully that settles any doubts that i know what i am talking about and we need to be heard.
The fact that eBay are also making managed returns mandatory is ridiculous. We have a very effective and easy returns system which is basically good for the scrap heap now since again they are forcing us into opting in for managed returns.
Recently we wanted to offer items on the top picks page and they unusually did not want to know. When speaking to our account manager, they stated you had to have the click and collect from Argos rubbish active in order to list on the deals page.
Where is the choice and the freedom as we always had? eBay are forcing you to do everything you dont really want to do. Its a dictatorship. Remember the days when you could opt in to offering paypal as a payment method?
Some things are for the greater good, granted. But there is a fine line and a balance between authoritarian rule and imposition of changes and on the other hand encouraging and incentivising best practise.
What the heck has got in to eBay management! I hope they read this and the office of the president should also get a copy on his desk.
The managed return is a double kick in the teeth. Customer will know all you have to select is item not as described, and the seller has to pay the return cost. Most of our product post for £1.20 first class. In the managed returns we would have to pay £4.50 for the item to be returned. And if that is not bad enough, we get a defect. I can see managed returns to get abused by many buyers, and the seller our of pocket, and many defects.
Now if we loss our Top Rated Seller Status, and loss our 12% FVF discount, so we also loss the 3% we get for having an eBay Premium Service?
I can’t get any answers from eBay.
Interesting announcement from eBay:
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https://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/201403241606502.html
Hello,
We’ve heard from many of you about the need for more insight at the transaction level into how you’re doing toward eBay’s performance standards – and we listened.
We’re pleased to announce you’ll soon be able to run weekly detailed reports on your transactions to help you prepare for the new approach to seller standards on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie coming with the August 20 seller evaluation. These reports will show which of your transactions have defects, and the specific defects associated with each transaction.
Starting the week of April 16, you’ll be able to see which transactions have:
· Returns initiated for a reason that the item was not as described
· eBay Money Back Guarantee cases opened for item not as described or item not received
· Seller-cancelled transactions, and negative or neutral feedback
Starting in late April, the detailed rating system will no longer be anonymous, and you’ll also be able to see which transactions have low detailed seller ratings for item description and dispatch time.
We’re making this change to the feedback system specifically to help you succeed with the new standards – and deliver the great service that earns you more visibility and potential sales.
Regards
The eBay Team
“Starting in late April, the detailed rating system will no longer be anonymous, and you’ll also be able to see which transactions have low detailed seller ratings for item description and dispatch time”
That is a very positive move!