eBay are about to launching a change that they say will simplify the order cancellation process for both buyers and sellers. The change will come into effect on the 28th of August.
Buyers will now have the option to request an order cancellation using the Cancel order button before the item is marked as shipped. eBay’s goal is to create a more user-friendly and consistent experience to build trust between buyers and sellers, and encourage repeat purchases.
In prior tests, these changes resulted in a minimal increase in cancellation requests (maintaining an overall average cancellation rate of 1%, with an increase from .9 out of 100 transactions to 1.1 out of 100 transactions). This also led to a notable 25% improvement in buyer satisfaction, which led to a higher likelihood of repeat purchases.
– eBay
When a buyer requests a cancellation, you’ll receive a notice in your eBay messages. You’ll also be able to see orders with cancel requests in your Seller Hub > Orders > Cancellations. You’ll have 3 days to accept or decline the request. On paid orders, eBay will automatically decline the request after 3 days, but we encourage sellers to respond quickly.
You have the choice to accept or decline a cancellation. When feasible, eBay recommended you accept the request, especially if it’s sent within minutes or a few hours of when an order is placed. Doing so has shown to discourage return requests or “item not received” cases, and encourages the buyer to return to eBay for their next purchase.
After you accept a cancellation request, we’ll automatically issue a full refund to the buyer and fee credits to you as per our fee credits policy. If the listing was of a single quantity or Buy It Now item, eBay will automatically relist the item for you unless you select No next to Relist item? when cancelling the order. Naturally, eBay will protect you by removing negative or neutral feedback on these orders.
Will your systems nullify the order cancellation update?
Once you ship the item you need to update the tracking information and order status to ‘shipped’ on eBay. When an order is marked as shipped, buyers will no longer be able to access the Cancel order request flow. If a buyer has requested cancellation before you were able to update the shipment status, and you have already shipped your item, you can decline the cancellation request.
This will be interesting for many sellers as they have set up their systems to mark items as despatched the second it’s downloaded into their multichannel management solutions. Partly, sellers have adopted this tactic to avoid late shipment marks on their accounts, even if the order isn’t then actually despatched until the next working date. This practice leaves minimal time between the order being placed and marked as despatched, in many cases leaving no time for the buyer to request an order cancellation.
eBay emphasise that they monitored and takes action against buyers who habitually fail to pay and proactively restrict such buyers from bidding. Don’t ship items until payment is confirmed, and ensure all communication is kept on eBay so that they can assist if needed.
Finally, if you are a seller of customised items and you’ve already started production, if a cancellation is requested, communicate with the buyer via direct message to explain why the request will be declined, then proceed to decline it. Keeping your communication on the eBay platform helps them provide support if the buyer seeks a refund through their payment provider.
