eBay.com's big announcement: what's in it for sellers?

14/04/2009 at 17:29

eBay.com made its first biannual announcement of 2009 today. This is part of the new strategy to limit disruption to sellers by making two big rafts of changes each year, rather than constant piecemeal adjustments to the platform. The changes are due to take place from 15th June (actual implementation time may, however, be later and in some cases isn’t yet fixed).

There is a lot of detail in the announcement, and I would encourage all sellers to read it for themselves. Here are the highlights, and no doubt more information will be forthcoming over the next few weeks:

Multiple variant listings

Sellers will be able to offer variants of products – for example, shirts in different colours and sizes – within the same listing. It will be possible to vary the price (but not the shipping) for different items in the same listing. This is as announced by Mark Lewis for eBay UK at Catalyst last month.

Multi-variant listings will be available in Mens’ and Womens’ Shoes categories from the week commencing 15th June, and for the rest of Clothing, Shoes and Accessories plus Home and Garden from mid-July. Rollout across all categories is planned, but currently has no implementation date (the rumour I hear is 2010).

Amazonification of product pages

There will be an expansion of product pages: frequently used to group identical items in Music and Electronics (e.g. all the copies of one particular CD), expect to see these in Books, Movies & DVDs, Music, Video Games, Cell Phones, and Tickets, with more categories to follow. More sellers will be chasing the highlighted “value box” at the top right

The new view item page which eBay have been testing for the past year will roll out to “most” buyers by mid-June. “Photo zoom” is coming later this summer, together with an animated countdown timer for auction listings.

Dispute resolution moves from PayPal to eBay

eBay are touting this as a “new dispute resolution process”, but in fact, it looks very much like the old PayPal dispute resolution process, only hosted on eBay instead of PayPal; eBay themselves say that they will “retain substantially the same definitions and policies that PayPal uses to resolve item not received and item not as described disputes”.

Buyers will have the current 45 days to file a non-receipt or SNAD claim with eBay. Exactly how this will differ from filing a claim with PayPal isn’t immediately apparent, except that buyers will be able to file the dispute whatever payment method they have used. Once the claim is filed, buyers “may” be given the option to contact eBay by phone (we’ve heard from some people involved in the testing process that this has been done). The case is then reviewed by an eBay Customer Service rep, who will consider transaction details, buyer and seller track record, shipping information and item location; if the buyer’s claim warrants further investigation, the CS rep will contact the seller. eBay say:

We’ll be taking a more active role, and in certain cases when we determine the seller was not at fault we may refund the buyer at our own expense.

Optimistically, it’s possible that this new process might stop serial non-receipt claimants on eBay. Sellers, though, are going to see it as the loss of yet more control over the transaction, with eBay likely to be just as trigger-happy with refunds as PayPal are.

The new resolution process applies to eBay.com only; there’s no news when or if it might roll out in other countries. The transition process from PayPal disputes to eBay disputes begins Q2 2009 (i.e. now) and the change should be complete before the holiday selling season. I have no doubt that sellers will have a raft of questions about this, so leave us a comment and I’ll do my best to get more info as required.

Returns and handling time info required by 15th June

eBay have extended the time allowed for sellers to add returns and handling information to their core listings until 15th June. GTC listings must have this information by mid-September.

USPS & UPS tracking information can show in My eBay

For sellers who print shipping labels through eBay or PayPal, tracking information will automatically show in the buyer’s My eBay. Information can also be added manually, but this will only work for USPS and UPS tracking. (This really is very cool and I wish they’d do it for all carriers.)

Smart FAQs

An expansion of the current facility to add “frequently asked questions” to your listings, Smart FAQs will allow sellers a little more control over the pre-written responses buyers and potential buyers get to see. For those who get a large number of ASQs, it may save them some time.

(In view of a recent comments thread, we’ll be looking at ASQs in a bit more detail later in the week.)

Cleaning up Fine Jewelry

photo credit: stephend9

There are some major policy changes in the Jewellery and Watches category, which will be enforced from mid-July:

• Items may only be listed in Fine Jewelry if they are solid precious metal, and if the stones named in the piece have the optical, physical and chemical properties of the naturally mined stone.
• Manufactured stones are not permitted in Fine Jewelry.
• Manufactured stones may only be listed in Fashion Jewelry or Engagement & Wedding.
• Plated or filled metal items are not permitted in Fine Jewelry.
• The word “diamond” may only be used to describe stones with the “exact mineral composition of a diamond”. “Imitation diamonds” must be described as what they really are. This affects all jewelry categories.
• Fine jewelry should not be listed in the Fashion Jewelry category.

And that’s not all

Other changes include some alterations to categories and item specifics. Seller Manager will be free for all sellers beginning 15th June (it’s already free in the UK).

And the UK?

We already know a lot of this is coming in the UK too, as Mark Lewis announced it at Catalyst last month. There’ll be a separate announcement by eBay UK tomorrow: rumour has it that compulsory free shipping in some categories is on the cards, so don’t move that dial

eBay’s preamble to the announcement says:

Keeping eBay a thriving marketplace requires a close partnership between sellers and eBay to give buyers the experience they expect. We continue to invest in driving traffic and buyer loyalty, and we need your help to make buyers happy and keep them coming back. For our part, we’re also taking steps to make it easier and more profitable for you to sell.

With the exception of variant listings, I’m not seeing a vast amount for sellers in this. Most of it – tracking in My eBay, Smart FAQs, the expansion of product pages – is just tweaking changes eBay have already made.

The change that most sellers are going to focus on is that dispute process, with its unclear refund process. Sure, most of us get that happier buyers come back to eBay more often, they spend more money and so we sell more, but is eBay’s aggressive couponing strategy really achieving that? Is eBay telling buyers “don’t worry if you get ripped off, we’ll refund you” really going to make them feel safer? And given that sellers with appalling feedback and appalling terms and conditions are still selling on the site, is making buyers feel more secure going to make them do more shopping? I don’t think so.

Smart FAQs and zooming pictures are nice for sellers to have, but they don’t make up for years of being beaten down by eBay’s management, and they won’t bring the upturn in sales that lots of smaller sellers especially are demanding. For a twice-a-year-only “big announcement”, this feels curiously flat and empty.