Last week eBay Australia announced that they will be delaying the launch of the new product identifier rules that were unveiled last year.
Mandatory use of product identifiers across eBay, including in the UK, was expected in February 2017. But following Australia’s lead, eBay Ireland has now announced it will be following suit and delaying implementation saying “we heard from many of you that this timing is a bit rushed. We get it. So we’re relaxing our timelines.”
You can read the full announcement here.
As the announcement says:
“- Our new catalogue portal will be available from spring 2017. You’ll be able to upload your entire catalogue of private-label and unbranded products quickly and easily using eBay-generated product identifiers.
– New options, including Amazon, Google and self-created product identifiers will be available from summer 2017.
– We’ve postponed our next product identifier mandate – additional categories of new and Good ‘Til Cancelled listings for manufacturer refurbished items – to next year, along with the removal of the Does not apply listing option.”
There is no doubt that implementing product identifiers is a pain for many sellers and, for bigger sellers, an onerous task. Chris wrote a piece reflecting the hassles called Why we don’t like eBay Product Identifiers.
The most pressing concern must be whether eBays Ireland and Australia are the start of a trend. Will other eBay territories such as the US and UK also soon be subject to a delay in the new previously announced product identifier rules?
Obviously eBay sellers who have already invested time and resources on their product identifiers in Australia and Ireland will be frustrated that they have taken the time to comply where others haven’t. But they should hopefully be reaping the benefits of utilising them, even if they are not mandatory.
We’ll see, over the course of the next few days, if the implementation will be delayed on a broader scale.
6 Responses
How are you supposed to get them for vintage items, imported products and own brand products?
Will we have to go out and buy bar codes at our expense?
Not sure if anyone feels the same but ebay sales are slower and more expensive than ever at the moment.
Maybe ebay have realised that there is a genuine danger people will throw in the towel with another required hoop to jump through.
Unbranded seems to be a popular choice on ebay suddenly, even for items with a widely known brand label visible in the photos.
I realised this when a friend was trying to price a few bits they wanted to sell recently, and found almost none of their items using the brand filter – even using the brand name in search brought up only a couple of extra results, despite a trawl through listings showing several examples of their items on sale.
It looks for now that many sellers are actually hindering those buyers who know precisely what they are looking for, presumably to avoid the predicted race to the bottom on price.
“along with the removal of the Does not apply listing option.”
Maybe they have realised that this could wipe out vast numbers of listing in one go?
Come on the UK… it’s time to join the sensible crowd and let’s hold off on this utterly disastrous policy. Poorly thought-through and a knee-jerk me-too reaction to the Google penalty 18 months ago, this has been poorly supported and poorly delivered since its conception. It is once again an attempt by the marketplace to get the sellers to do the work that the marketplace should do, and as a result it kills selection and velocity.
Given the high likelihood that the UK will join these delays, it would make sense for sellers to stop the task that eBay has set them to do and concentrate on making some sales instead.
It’s time for eBay to adjust their approach. If it really does help search — really truly and without any doubt — then give us the data and it’s a carrot we’ll nibble on it. Sellers will do anything to get their listings higher up in search.
Frankly I don’t believe it does. And that’s why the product information database is such a shambles.