Stop for a minute, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself: “What do I value most as a buyer?” If you’re like most modern consumers, it comes down to several important things: getting a product quickly, returning it free of charge and easily evaluating all of your buying options at one time.
eBay announced its 2018 Spring Seller Update recently, and many of the updates speak to today’s consumer mentality and offer plenty of improvements for sellers. Highlights of the update include streamlined return policies, a continual movement towards product-based listings and improvements to eBay Shopfronts.
While releases are designed to improve site function, usability and ensure both sellers and buyers can make the most of the site, they can also derail your plans and cause you to make changes to how you do things today. But, we’ve got you covered!
Here are the top things you need to know about eBay’s 2018 UK Spring Seller Update:
1. Product-Based Shopping Experience: eBay is transitioning more categories to its new product-based shopping experience, and all listings for the same product will now be grouped together.
- Phase I items that require the adoption of the eBay catalogue before the start of May are:
2. Changes to eBay Premium Service Delivery Criteria: eBay research has shown that buyers really value free delivery within 3 days of purchase, with full tracking updates to follow exactly where their purchase is, as well as having the option to pay for next day delivery. From 1 June 2018, the qualification criteria for eBay Premium Service is changing. To qualify for eBay Premium Service you will need to amend your listings to:
- Offer a free domestic delivery option within 3 working days.
- Offer an express delivery option within 2 working days for no more than £10.
- For items over £20, all the delivery services must be designated tracked services and valid tracking must be uploaded within the despatch time (this includes auction-style listings and Best Offers where the final price is over £20).
3. Updated Returns Policy: From May 2018, eBay will remove the 14-day returns duration for new listings within the fashion, health & beauty, home & garden, sports, hobbies & leisure, media and vehicle accessories categories. The four returns policy options available for buyers within these categories will be:
- 30-day buyer pays return postage
- 30-day free returns
- 60-day buyer pays return postage
- 60-day free returns
5. Listing in Two Categories: Starting 01 May 2018, when listing a product in more than one category, if there is a difference in final value fees across the categories, you will be charged based on the category with the highest final value fee when the item sells.
6. Increase in Fees for Below Standard Sellers: For sellers whose level is Below Standard, there will be an additional 4 percentage points fee on the standard final value fees at the time the item sells. For example, a final value fee would increase from 8% to 12%. Above Standard and eBay Top-rated Sellers will not be affected by this change.
7. Updated eBay Stores: eBay Stores will be updated in May 2018. The revised experience will be built to improve search engine optimisation (SEO), strengthen the mobile experience and provide new merchandising opportunities for eBay Stores subscribers. For sellers with non-custom eBay Shopfronts, the change is automatic and no action is needed. The majority of sellers’ Shopfronts will be updated automatically starting in May 2018. If you use custom pages or have HTML in your Shopfront, you will be able to move to the new experience at the same time or eBay will move you to the new experience at a later date.
8. Updates to HTTPS Security: If you’re still using non-secure, HTTP content in your listings, Google Chrome will mark the page as “Not Secure”, and buyers might not see your full content.To make sure that your buyers see a “Secure” page, eBay is making a change to how desktop users view such content in item descriptions. Since March 2018, eBay listings with HTTP content now feature a button reading “See full item description”, putting the complete description one click away. This experience is similar to how buyers already view all listings on mobile web. Item descriptions that are HTTPS-compliant will continue to display the full description as normal. To show your complete item description automatically, simply add HTTPS protocol to any non-secure content.
Ready to take advantage of some of these new updates and start selling on one of the biggest marketplaces in the world? The ChannelAdvisor platform makes it easy – get started on eBay today!
