2019 Fall Seller Update

Product

Category changes, expanded item specifics guidance, new item specifics listing requirements in certain categories update.

Category & Classification Changes

When: October 7, 2019.

Where: All eBay sites.

What: Alignment across regions by updating and optimizing the structure of categories and subcategories. No listing will be ended, just relocated within the new category trees. This to align with the industry and create a more intuitive buying experience. 

Category changes to create a more intuitive shopping experience

Starting this fall, category changes including additions, removals, and renames will go into effect. Category updates will create more intuitive buying, selling, and search experiences and bring eBay into closer alignment with industry-standard classifications. The updates will also help international buyers find your items.

If you listed an item in one of the below categories and your listing is impacted by these changes, eBay will automatically move your listing to the most relevant category.

Changes effective October 15, 2019

• Business & Industrial
• Cameras & Photo
• Cell Phones & Accessories
• Clothing, Shoes & Accessories
• Computers/Tablets & Networking
• Consumer Electronics
• Home & Garden
• Toys & Hobbies
• Video Games & Consoles

Changes effective January 28, 2020

• Home & Garden
  • Kids & Teens at Home
  • Bath
  • Yard, Garden & Outdoor Living
  • Wholesale Lots
  • Home Improvement
• Pet Supplies
• Baby
• Crafts

View impacted categories for more information. As a result of the changes to the category structure, if your listing is moved to a different category, you may experience a change in the fees (either an increase or decrease).

List your items in “best fit” categories

Review your listings to make sure that they are located in “best fit” categories. If they are not in the “best fit” categories, use these eBay tools to revise your items:

1. Listings tab in Seller Hub.
2. Bulk edit functionality in My eBay.
3. Selling Manager/Selling Manager Pro.
4. File Exchange.

If you are using an off-eBay listing tool, be sure to use the new category tree to select the best category for your item so that revisions or relists done through the application result in the item moving to the desired location.

Structured Data in 2019

When: September 2019.

Where: ebay.com, ebay.ca, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.ie, ebay.de, ebay.at, ebay.ch, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es, ebay.be, ebay.nl, ebay.pl.

What: Mandating further item specifics in certain categories. Sellers can already see in Seller Hub where there are items missing item specifics. This action will improve the ability for buyers to find what their looking for + improves the visibility in search results and in sales, which can also help our sellers with Google search ranking and Google shopping.

Item specifics updates that help buyers find your listings

We’re continuing to make it easier for buyers to find your listings quickly and easily by providing you with targeted guidance about item specifics that matter most to buyers. Item specifics describe the item you are selling, such as brand, make, model, size, color, and style. If you do not include item specifics when you list, your listings may not appear in natural and filtered search results.

We’re adding hundreds of new item specifics across several categories. Item specifics are surfaced in order of importance (e.g., frequency of use by buyers in search). Some item specifics are already required when you create a new listing or revise an existing listing in the Home & Garden category. Starting October 15, 2019, additional item specifics will be required. If you do not fill out the required item specifics, your listings will not successfully publish. Affected categories include Toys, Fashion, Home & Garden, Collectibles, and Media & Gift Cards . In early 2020, we’ll introduce new requirements in Electronics, Home & Garden, and Fashion.

We strongly encourage you to fill out the recommended item specifics. Complete and accurate item specifics can increase the visibility of your listing in eBay search results, Google search, and Google Shopping, and help your buyers find exactly what they are looking for.

In addition, we’ve enhanced our listing tools to help you derive the most benefit from using item specifics. Now when you create a new listing, you will see recommendations for trending item specifics and search terms frequently used by buyers. Starting in October, we’ll add indicators that will make it easier for you to identify listings that could benefit from additional item specifics. We will also provide single and bulk capabilities on the Active listings page in Seller Hub to help you add them.

New features

Send more offers to buyers and negotiate offers, create Promoted Listings on mobile devices, and access Terapeak, the eBay insights tool, in Seller Hub.

Multi-User Account Access (MUAA)

When: July 23, 2019.

Where: ebay.com, ebay.ca.

What: Allows one user to delegate access and functions for another user to perform actions on their behalf without exposing their password and other personal details. There is no limit to the number of Delegatees that can act on your behalf. The permissions for now, include: Create and edit drafts and Publish listings.

Increase your business efficiency with Multi-User Account Access

Now you can grant permissions to other users to access your account and perform specific functions on your behalf. Multi-User Account Access can improve your business efficiency by providing additional support for basic listing functions without exposing your password and critical business information to designated users.

Multi-User Account Access currently offers two selling permissions:

• Create and edit drafts;
• Publish and revise listings.

And more permissions will be added in the future. Your account is safeguarded because your credentials and other private information are not shared with others.

How does Multi-User Account Access work?

The account owner may allow an authorized user to perform certain functions on behalf of the account owner. The account owner grants permissions to the authorized user to perform basic selling functions, which the authorized user agrees to perform on the account owner’s behalf. Authorized users must perform these functions using their own eBay accounts with their own passwords.

The account owner sets permissions and “invites” the authorized user to perform assigned functions. After an authorized user accepts the account owner’s invitation, the authorized user can access the account owner’s account and perform the assigned functions. Both account owner and authorized user manage their Multi-User Account Access invitations and permissions on the My eBay Account Settings page.

How can I start using Multi-User Account Access?

You must be opted-in to Seller Hub to allow another user access to your account. After you opt in, you can grant permissions to another user to act on your behalf. Go to My eBay > Summary > Account, and click Permissions under My Account to invite your users and grant them permissions.

Invite a user to access your account and grant them permission to “Create and edit drafts.”

To grant access, enter the authorized user’s name and email address. We strongly recommend that authorized users keep a separate eBay account from a personal eBay account they may be using to buy and sell on eBay. This will help avoid potential confusion about the account they are using. After you select the permissions you want to grant to the authorized user, click Add user. The authorized user will receive an email invitation, accept it, and have access to your Listings tab in Seller Hub.

If the authorized user has an eBay account with the same email address, they will be taken to the eBay sign-in page when they accept your invitation. If the authorized user does not have an account with that email address, they will be taken to the Registration flow to create a new account with that email address.

Once signed in, the authorized user will have access to the account owner’s Listings tab in Seller Hub to perform the functions granted to them. They will not have access to any other parts of account owner’s Seller Hub content.

Authorized user’s view of the account owner’s Seller Hub

Permissions can be updated and the changes take effect immediately. When the authorized user accesses Seller Hub, they’ll be limited to the functionality that the account owner granted to them.

You can revoke an authorized user’s access at any time.

Terapeak into Seller Hub

When: third quarter of 2019.

Where: ebay.com, ebay.ca, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es.

What: Current Terapeak functionalities will be gradually migrated into Seller Hub, under a new tab called Research. This tab will also include previous functionalities found in the Growth tab. Once the migration is complete, we will remove the access outside of Seller Hub.

Now you can access Terapeak, an eBay insights tool, in Seller Hub

Terapeak, an exclusive eBay insights tool, is now available in Seller Hub under the Research tab, previously called the Growth tab. Terapeak uses recent eBay supply, demand, and pricing data to help you determine what to sell, when to sell it, and at what price.

Terapeak features are being implemented in Seller Hub so you will no longer need to leave ebay.com to use the tool. Over time, all Terapeak research functionality will be integrated into Seller Hub, along with new insights tools and features, and Terapeak.com will no longer be available. We will alert you in advance of the change. In the interim, you can still access Terapeak.com. We encourage you to use Terapeak in Seller Hub before the change.

Terapeak is free to Basic, Premium, Anchor, and Enterprise eBay Store subscribers. Starter Store subscribers and non-Store sellers can subscribe to Terapeak on a monthly or yearly basis.

Buyer Experience

When: already live.

Where: ebay.com, ebay.ca, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de.

What: New activities to encourage buyers to buy more and make faster purchase decisions:  over 70% have an active coupon to encourage future spending on eBay:

• Sensitive and personalized “nudge” communications, we’ll help your buyers make faster purchase decisions.
• We’re giving better recommendations. We’ve tuned one of our email recommendation engines to bring a 20% increase in engagement on eBay.
• We reach your buyers in more places. Now, we send abandoned cart reminders to buyers on their mobile phone.

Send more offers to buyers and negotiate offers in Seller Hub

We’re introducing new “Offers to buyers” features that will help you reach more buyers and negotiate your offers.

Target buyers who add items to their carts but haven’t completed their purchases

Previously on Seller Hub, you could only send offers to buyers that are watching your listings. The new “Offers to buyers” feature will allow you to send offers to additional buyers that have added your items to their carts but not checked out within 5 days. You will be notified when buyers become eligible to receive offers through this new feature.

Negotiate your offers with buyers with a new counter offer feature

Currently, when you send an offer to a buyer, the buyer can only accept or reject your offer. Starting in early October 2019, we will add a counter offer option that will allow you and a buyer to negotiate an offer by exchanging up to five offers and counter offers for each negotiation. Seller Hub users will be able to select or deselect the counter offer capability. The counter offer feature will be available in additional selling flows over time.

Promoted Listings Enhancements

When: Already live / October 1, 2019.

Where: ebay.com, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es.

What: Promoted Listings will be available in mobile apps (iOS/Android) and from the Active listings page in the Seller Hub. 

Mobile Apps (ebay.com, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de): LTS late September

Promoted Listings will be available in mobile apps (iOS/Android). Sellers will be able to manage their promoted listings from their mobile devices.

We will also suggest sellers what listings to promote.

Seller HUB (ebay.com, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es): Already live

Sellers can now more easily promote their listings or edit their ad rate from the Active listings page in the Seller Hub.  There is also a new column on the Active Listings page dedicated to Promoted Listings, which can be customized and removed if not needed. Eligible listings will show up with a Promoted tag and give sellers the option to promote a listing with a To-do prompt on the Seller Overview page. Overall, we made it easier to opt in and opt out of Promoted Listings. 

We also enhanced the Bulk Edit and Relist flow. When sellers relist items in bulk, the Promoted Listing status is now more transparent, and sellers can filter their bulk relisted items by this status.

Promote your listings on the go

Now you can conveniently access Promoted Listings on any device that uses iOS or Android operating systems. As an extension to features available in Seller Hub and Promoted Listings campaign manager, mobile access also gives you the ability to create and manage your promoted listings at any time.

eBay sellers who are in good standing can increase the visibility of their listings by elevating them to prominent locations across eBay through Promoted Listings. You only pay when a buyer clicks on the promoted listing and purchases the item within 30 days.

Promote listings you create or manage in My eBay

You can now select and set ad rates for your listings in the My eBay Active listings page. You can also opt-out of, or make edits to, listings that you previously promoted.

Click on the Promote listing option in My eBay Active page to promote an item. Choose your ad rate and click Promote listing now to boost your item’s visibility.

Follow these steps to create a Promoted Listing with the quick listing tool:

• In My eBay Active, select Promote listing from the dropdown next to the listing you wish to promote.
• Review your ad rate. (Note: Your listings will be automatically opted into trending rates but you can always edit them.)
• Click Promote listing now.

Later this year, on the Sold page, we’ll add a new feature, so you will be able to see which listings sold through a promoted listing. A label that reads “Sold via Promoted Listings” will display with each sold listing that you promoted.

Removal of duplicated promoted and non-promoted listings in search

Starting in September 2019, we’ll no longer show duplicate promoted and non-promoted listings on the search results page. If you are using Promoted Listings, only one of your listings, either promoted or non-promoted will appear in a given set of search results, giving buyers a cleaner, more relevant search experience. We will select which listing to display, based on factors such as listing quality, relevancy to the buyer’s search, and ad rate.

Promoted listings will continue to appear outside search on other pages such as the Home page, product pages, and other prominent locations on eBay.

Increased visibility for Promoted Listings in search results

In our ongoing effort to optimize the visibility of Promoted Listings placements, we’re shifting to a mix of promoted and non-promoted listings at the top of search results. Now a mixture of promoted and non-promoted listings will be eligible to appear in the top search rankings.

This is designed to balance visibility for both promoted and organic, non-promoted listings, depending on their relevance to a buyer’s search and quality of a seller’s listing.

Below Standard Restriction

When: October 1, 2019.

Where: ebay.com, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es.

What: Currently, B2C sellers without a Shop subscription have to be above standard or eTRS in order to access Promoted Listings. However, if a B2C seller has a Shop, this restriction doesn’t apply. From 1st October, shop subscribers will also need to be above standard or eTRS in order to promote their listings.

Policy

Additional protections benefits for Top Rated Sellers who have a strong track record of delivering on their service promise, and simpler policies that are enforced in a more seller-friendly way.

Policy Simplification

When: September 25, 2019.

Where: All eBay sites.

What: Reducing the number of policy rules from over 500 to about 200, new e2m emails, new help hub for sellers and a new view for the policies in CSKB.

Some of the changes include shorter more simple policies as well as new consciences packages for sellers who violate the policies.

We’re simplifying our policies to help you avoid potential disruptions to your business

eBay policies help us provide a secure and fair marketplace for all buyers and sellers. We want you to be able to focus on your business, not on having to learn policies. Starting October 1, 2019, we’re simplifying our policies so that they will be easy for you to understand, as well as help you manage your business consistent with our rules. And if you do need to take an action, we’ll let you know exactly what you’ll need to do to correct it to help you avoid disruptions to your business.

If you have a policy issue, we’ll help you fix it to avoid any disruptions to your business

If we flag a listing for a potential policy issue, we’ll give you an opportunity to correct the issue and avoid disruptions to your business. We’ll clearly communicate the issue to you and advise specific actions you’ll need to take to correct it. We understand that inadvertent mistakes can happen. And if they do, we’ll help you fix them.

When we enforce policy, we’ll help you correct an issue and continue selling

We’re also changing how we take action to enforce our policies and correct the issue while you continue to sell. Under our current method of policy enforcement, your listings could be ended and your account suspended.

However, starting October 1, 2019, we’ll introduce a new enforcement measure called “Hide All Listings” that will temporarily hide all of your listings in buyers’ eBay search results and browsing while you correct a policy issue, rather than end all of your listings or suspend your account. By hiding your listings, any watchers, bidders, or buyers will be able to continue to do business with you. After you correct the issue, all of your listings will be visible in search and browsing again, and you won’t lose any of your item’s sales history. We anticipate Hide All Listings will only apply to a small percentage of eBay sellers.

Seller Protections

When: October 1, 2019.

Where: ebay.com, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de.

What: Some sellers will qualify for additional protections when they offer 30-day or more returns . This applies to:

• ebay.com, ebay.co.uk: eTRS (eBay Top Rated Sellers)
• ebay.com.au, ebay.de: eBay Plus sellers 

These protections include:

• Taking seller's track record into account 
• Giving them additional protections when they receive false item not as described claims, or items that are used or damaged before they are returned

What happens when a buyer falsely claims that an item was not as described?

We will protect you by:

• Subsidizing the return shipping label cost, up to a maximum of $6/£4/€4 per return, for qualifying false SNAD reports that you submit through the Report a Buyer flow. You will receive the credit on your monthly invoice.
• We will also automatically remove any negative and neutral feedback, defects and open cases in your Service Metrics.

What happens when an item is returned to me after it has been used or damaged?

• When you give a refund for an item that has been returned after it has been used or damaged, you can deduct up to 50% from the refund for the lost value of the item.
• We will take care of any issues with the buyer, including removing any negative and neutral feedback, defects and open cases in Service Metrics.

Additional seller protections benefits for Top Rated Sellers

We protect all sellers from abusive buying behavior and from events outside their control. Your track record matters on eBay, and we’ll support you when you deliver on your service promise and provide a good buying experience.

Enforcement of Returns Policies

When: February 2020.

Where: ebay.com, ebay.ca, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk.

What: Moving from over 70 to around 5 return policies possible. Automatic migration to the new return policies according to the chart presented in the past SRs.

Update your returns policies to give buyers a retail-standard returns experience

In 2018, we announced that we will streamline our returns policy options to deliver a retail-standard returns experience to buyers and help increase conversion for sellers.

We encourage you to update your listings to your preferred returns policy options now before we automatically update them for you. Starting in February 2020, we will automatically update any listings, including Good ‘Til Cancelled listings, that offer a returns policy that does not align with one of the five updated returns policy options in the table below.

In addition, when you list new or revised listings, you will only be able to select one of the updated policies.

This change will not apply to certain product categories with unique retail standards. Sellers who list items in Collectibles & Art, Cameras & Photo and Medical & Mobility categories can continue to offer 14-day returns for those listings.

In addition, we are updating the returns policy for listings in the Jewelry & Watches category. Starting in early November, items in this category can be offered with 14-day returns in addition to the policies above.

Learn more about eBay returns policies.