Following the early Spring Seller Release in February, eBay have today published their full eBay UK Spring Seller Release 2019 setting out their roadmap for the first half of the year.
The good news for sellers is that this is a seller release aimed at assisting you in selling more. In the eBay UK Spring Seller Release 2019 there are no fee increases in the UK, but there are new eBay selling tools, new eBay selling protections and an increased clampdown on both bad buyers and rogue sellers.
eBay UK VP Rob Hattrell introduces eBay UK Spring Seller Release 2019
New Tools
First up are the new tools for sellers covering everything from the introduction of Terapeak (for free) for eBay shop subscribers. This comes with tweaks to the European Sales Booster and Strike Through pricing for eBay sellers with a Featured or Anchor Shops.
More support for selling tools will see new promotional tools enhancements. The new Multi-buy features will come to listings with variations. Bulk Best Offer and Make Offer to Buyer tools are coming and you’ll be able to manage eBay Promoted Listing campaigns in Seller Hub.
Seller Protection enhancements
Next are enhancements to seller protection in the first wave of enhancements with more to come in the Summer. Sellers will see increased protection from abusive buyers with clearer options for reporting them. Arbitrage sellers who bottom feed by seller goods offered by merchants on other marketplaces will see their listings further dumped in search as eBay views this practice as increasingly undesirable.
Selling enhancements
To assist sellers manage buyer communications, there will be new unique order numbers. These numbers will be unique to the order, the seller, the eBay site AND all eBay sites globally. This will enable sellers and eBay to support buyers as well as make it easier for sellers to identify orders with eBay support. The old order numbers will still be supported but the new ones will be unique for a minimum of seven years.
eBay will introduce a new easy relist for returns and cancellations. They have also to support genuine seller reiterated their clamp down on item location abuse and will be cancelling any Good ‘Til Cancelled listings in June that break the policy. This will end any sales history and other benefits rogue sellers attain.
Item Specifics and Item Condition
Less good news, but eBay says essential to the marketplace, are new Item Specific requirements from the first of May (which were announced in February) with more in July and later in the Summer. There is also a change to the Item Condition ‘New – Other’ which will change to ‘Opened – never used’ so you may need to amend some listings if they don’t meet the new definition.
Good ‘Til Cancelled Listings fees in favour of sellers
Finally, whilst we said there are no fee changes there is a change to Good ‘Til Cancelled Listings fees which will save some sellers money. Good ‘Til Cancelled Listings change from renewing every 30 days to renewing on the (or nearest) calendar day they were originally listed. This means that from July when the change takes place you can never again be billed twice in a calendar month for a Good ‘Til Cancelled Listings listing.
This is a good eBay seller release for sellers
Overall this appears to be one of the best seller releases for many years. There’s nothing that will cost sellers higher fees, a ton of new tools to assist sellers to become more successful, a clamp down on rogue buyers abusing sellers and a clamp down on rogue sellers gaming the system with location abuse or arbitrage.
You can read the full eBay UK Spring Seller Release 2019 on eBay.
There are also changes to eBay International sites announced today which you can read about here.
28 Responses
I can’t quite see why they included a section on category changes (not in email but on sellercentre page you are led to) which has a link to August 2018 changes.
Not everything is new and improved with eBay!
Totally underwhelmed
Being grateful for no fee increase is a akin to saying thank you to someone when they stop kicking your nuts
Typical. They say they listen to sellers but it seems they take no notice!
Fare to weak in dealing with bad buyers
Far to weak in dealing with fsellers from the Far East who
their goods are in the uk or their business is.
They get special postal rates, lie for customs about the contents and some even have fake addresses in the uk and also some use fake VAT numbers.
Nothing about penalising us sellers when the pist office ‘loses’ or late delivers our mail and the buyer marks a late delivery.
Why penalise us when the fault is with the postal system? Its not viable to track items that are small and low value. Do eBay listen? No, because they are deaf to commin sense. They only hear the cash register! End of rant
I see nothing that benefits us sellers!?
While this may not be the most exciting release ever, I like it. There aren’t too many things which require massive amounts of time changing every single listing.
A bit of stability is a good thing in my book considering all the other changes small businesses are having to deal with right now (brexit, MTD, etc).
We are finding the experience of selling on eBay significantly less stressful than selling on Amazon at present, and eBay’s seller support significantly superior to Amazon’s. The cynic in me can’t help thinking that eBay aren’t worrying about an impact to them for the extra seller protection measures because all the scammers and virtual shoplifters have moved to Amazon…..
Why can they not look at the delivery metrics wording…. Why does it say not posted on, when referring to late delivery? Posting and delivery are different things. If i can prove it was posted on time… then i should be protected against late delivery. END OF!
Arbitrage sellers who bottom feed by seller goods offered by merchants on other marketplaces will see their listings further dumped in search as eBay views this practice as increasingly undesirable. ‘
how will they know which sellers to dump? how exactly will ebay know if a seller has bought from an amazon third-party seller and had that shipped directly to their buyer?
Sorry are you NUTS? The only reason there are no fee increased is because WE SELLERS ARE MAXED OUT ON THEM! They are already at the levels of REAL auction houses with REAL buildings! The amount of fees ebay already charge is daylight robbery. Oh yes! They say – we offer discounts! er…. no you dont. Unless I send the same day. So you expect me to be waiting by my car to send an item do you? Despite the fact I have to drive 300 miles+ a week to SOURCE my items, and spend 40+ hours a week listing and packing already? So essentially EXTORTIONATE FATES, POINTLESS TOOLS, AND UNACHIEVEABLE DISCOUNTS. Thanks great ebay. This propaganda ebay site should be re-entitled ‘lamebay’ instead………..
Sorry you must be losing the plot here? The only reason there are no fee increases is because WE SELLERS ARE ALREADY MAXED OUT ON THEM! They are already at the levels of REAL auction houses with REAL buildings! The amount of fees ebay already charge is HUGE. Oh yes! They say – we offer discounts? But they are unachieveable in the real world. Unless I send the same day, I get nothing. If you are a big business with employees it is no doubt possible. However, as a 1 man band, you cannot expect me to be waiting by my car to send an item every day? Despite the fact I have to drive 300 miles+ a week to SOURCE my items, and spend 40+ hours a week listing and packing already? So essentially EXTORTIONATE FATES, POINTLESS TOOLS, AND UNACHIEVEABLE DISCOUNTS. Thanks ebay.
@Graham That got that off your chest!
Is there a reason why you can not offer same day? You sound like you are very busy and would be posting everyday. What time do you post?
Go to the postage settings in Business Policies and select Same Working Day, you will see below that there is a link for “View or edit your order cut-off time in Postage preferences”.
That will open up a new page and shows “Select order cut-off time for same business day dispatch:”
Set that to a time that suits yourself, like 6am or earlier and you comply with the rules to qualify for a discount.
Hope that helps.
@Nick
So what happens when everyone pays eBay extra? Let’s say we all eventually max our sponsor listings- do we all win?
No, only eBay wins.
With no seller protection, the charges that they peddle are already exhaustive.
It is also worth noting that:- When I joined ebay in 2002 ebay fees were 3.25%. Now fees are around 10%. As well as this – if you sold an item over a certain value, your fees were limited. Now they arent. Essentially in 2002 I was paying between £300 and £500 was month for ebay fees. Today I pay between £2200 and £3500 in ebay fees. Now I do indeed get that:-
1) The ebay site has improved.
2) Protections for buyers and sellers were long overdue and are warranted.
3) Charlatans needed to be rooted and out and got rid of.
So indeed, I would have expected an increase. Maybe 6%. But 10% with ZERO hope of any discount? And remember this has nothing to do with inflation – as this is a PERCENTAGE charge – not a monetary value. Over the years we have had:-
1) Fees trebled in percentage terms since 2002
2) Unachieveable discounts (I have no staff, I sell high end collectables which require long descriptions and time, I end all my auctions the same day each week, I cannot use buy it nows, and as people pay as and when they want to – it is impossible for me to go to the post office with 1 item because Mr Lazy cant be bothered to pay for 4 days!).
3) Fees implemented on postage charges.
Now again people may say? Surely free postage draws in buyers? Well if the postal service hadn’t been privatised and prices sky rocketed ever since, then this maybe possible. However I send worldwide and postage per year costs me a WHACKING £11,500 per annum. I cannot simply afford to write off £11,000+ postage a year! Many of the items I sell are worth £200+ and insurance is essential.
So NOT ONLY can I NOT achieve a discount because I charge postage, but I actually pay FEES on it aswell.
But again – ebay would say, but your discount would nullify you postage costs if you sent every day? No it wouldnt. I only sell 30-40 items a week, mostly high end, and an average postal cost of £15 per item around the world. So giving free postage wouldn’t even cover the discount I would get.
If I was a huge company + staff, selling standard items, with a standard mark up, at buy it nows, with a known margin, then of course I could easily set up for the discount.
However, I have low sales volumes (35 items a week), HIGH values (250,000+ turnover through ebay a year), HIGH postage costs, and the amount of work needed to describe and source items make it impossible to post everyday.
So for someone like me, the discount is worthless. And the fees are HUGE. There is absolutely no justification in TREBLING (and in real terms QUADRUPLING) ebay fees since 2002. None. None at all……
REPLY TO GAVIN:-
1) “Some have come off ebay entirely and gone onto Discogs”
Discogs is full of charlatans and essentially is a dumping ground for junk. £20 items or less sell on there – but decent items? Most people wont take the risk.
2) “I would suggest get a better price switching to best offer with a top end buy it now price for any collectable vinyl that is £50+”
No collector buys ‘buy it nows’. They prefer the auction for collectables, and their interest drives up the prices at the end. Many of my items are £300+ and if I put a buy it now price at that level no one would bid. Buy it nows would achieve WAY less than my auctions get.
3) “but if you insist on auctions, have them end Friday evening, so you at least give the slow to pay buyers the whole weekend to pay. That way, you can do the bulk of your shipping on a Monday and qualify for ebay discounts.”
Most people go out Friday nights so don’t bid. The best ending time after YEARS of trialing (I have been on ebay since 2002) is Sunday evening when people are bored, dreading work, and have all the time in the world to go on ebay.
4) Postage options dont work / dont qualify / take far too long – I have examined these.
5) “Even something as simple as buying your mailers in bulk”
75% of my items are over £100 and 20% are over £300. If I used mailers which have ZERO protection I would lose my customers overnight. I have to use double boxes and hard plastic corner protectors. All of these I do buy in bulk and get the cheapest prices possible.
All of this DOES NOT explain why ebay have the right to charge fees on POSTAGE – its a disgrace.
What ? Its never a good spring seller release for Sellers . They actively encourage people to return items, Ebay is a joke now because everyone savvy enough knows they can purchase something on Ebay, use it and return with no questions asked.
In this article where are the negatives ??