eBay Shops are being updated both to comply with HTTPS and to standardise them which will eventually see the end of customised shops on eBay. This was previously announced and eBay have confirmed the time lines in today’s seller release.
By the end of May 2018, Shopfronts without custom content will be moved to a new, fully secured and mobile-enabled template with better SEO.
eBay haven’t yet updated Shops that use custom content but in June 2018 they will move Shops with custom content to a new URL in the format: ebaystores.co.uk/ShopName.
This is to maintain the “Secure” label, as provided by Google. eBay will automatically redirect your previous Shop URL to this new URL, with no action required on your part. However, it is suggested that you start using your new Shop URL once it’s migrated to reduce page loading times for your visitors. Remember that if you have hard coded eBay shop URLs on custom pages or within listing designs these should also be edited.
Leveraging the Seller Hub
The whole point of eBay’s new Seller Hub is that you can manage your entire business within the same dashboard. That’s currently not the case for eBay Shops but from June eBay will migrate all shop management tools into the Seller Dashboard.
A few minor features will be lost (mainly archaic features such as RSS that practically no one uses anyway). You’ll continue to have access to promotional tools through your Shop subscription (including Promote your listings and Seller Hub Promotions) but later in the year, eBay will be make further improvements to the Seller Hub marketing tab to bring you more tools to reach out to buyers and increase your sales.
eBay Shop Tool Management Changes
eBay UK have created a handy table of the main shop features and where UK sellers will be able to access them both now and after June:
| Feature | Until June 2018 | After June 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| Shop Summary | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Seller Hub’s marketing tab |
| Sales reports | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Manage my Shop in My eBay. eBay also recommend using the equivalent data in Seller Hub’s performance tab. |
| Promote similar items | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Discontinued as the majority of sellers no longer use this. Use Seller Hub Promotions to cross-sell your items. |
| Traffic reports | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Equivalent data accessible in Seller Hub’s performance tab. |
| Search engine keywords | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Discontinued. eBay have embedded the best practices of SEO directly in the new Shop experience. This means you no longer need to take separate actions to improve SEO. |
| Listing Frame | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Manage my Shop in My eBay |
| Newsletter | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Manage my Shop in My eBay |
| HTML builder | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Discontinued for non-custom Shops. To ensure HTTPS security, eBay no longer support custom HTML for new Shops. However, this will remain functional for Shops with custom content created before May 2018 until further notice. |
| Promotional flyer | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Discontinued. Later in the year, eBay will enable you to create Seller Coupons that you can insert into packages and post to social media. |
| Favourite seller top picks | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Discontinued as the feature is outdated. Sellers can make use of “featured items” to highlight top item picks in their Shops. |
| RSS Feeds | Manage my Shop in My eBay | Discontinued as the majority of sellers no longer use these. |
