eBay UK Seller Updates – February 2010
by Chris Dawson
eBay will be making three major announcement this year and the first is out today. As expected there are changes to the PowerSeller program, lowering the minimum sales requirements. This will allow smaller businesses to qualify for Top Seller Status even though previously they weren’t eligible for PowerSeller status.
PowerSeller program and new minimum performance standards for all sellers
At the same time as lowering the entrance requirements for PowerSellers there are new minimum performance standards for selling on eBay. From April sellers can receive no more than 1% or total of three low ratings for “Item as described”, and no more than 2% or total of three low ratings for “Communication”, “Dispatch Time” and the “P&P charges” DSRs. Falling below this level will incur sanctions such as demotion in search and selling restrictions.
Selling Practices Policy for all sellers
Along with higher selling standards a Selling Practices policy will be introduced which is summarised as:
* Sellers are responsible for ensuring a smooth and professional transaction with their buyers.
* This includes setting buyers’ expectations by providing accurate and consistent details about items and the terms and conditions of sale.
* Sellers also must offer excellent customer service from the time of purchase to item delivery. This includes reasonable postage & packaging charges, clear statement on dispatch time, prompt and professional communication, and ensuring the item is delivered to the buyer as described.
* Business sellers need to offer a return policy which is included in the listing description
* Sellers are expected to live up to their stated terms through all stages of a transaction.
Mandatory Business Information displayed on listings
All business sellers will have to display their business contact information on their eBay listings by the end of March. This will be compulsory but introduces a number of issues, not least of which is that it’s added to the item description as text and can not be bulk edited. Any changes such as a relocation to new premises, change of phone number or email address and change of VAT status will result in every single one of a sellers active listings being incorrect.
Many sellers, especially those that trade from home, will be concerned about having their contact details displayed for buyers to see. My main concern is that the way the contact information is inserted into listings means that there’s no way to make a single edit which will update every live listing on the site and in the long term that’s simply unworkable. eBay need to fix this and allow sellers to make global changes to their Business Seller Information in eBay preferences to make this program viable.
International Site Visibility reinstated
At last the International Visibility listing upgrade is returning to eBay UK, from the end of March sellers will be able to use a listing enhancement to display fixed price listings on eBay.com and eBay.ca. Currently that’s only available for auctions, although US and Canadian sellers are able to use the listing enhancement to display their items on eBay UK.
I imagine for sellers who previously used the feature will be pretty happy that this is returning for fixed price listings, and will be able to save money and simplify stock management by not duplicating listings on multiple eBay sites.
The end of mandatory free postage
Mandatory free postage has been scrapped and is a thing of the past, and will be replaced by shipping caps. From March postage caps will apply to a number of categories and eBay have published a list of maximum shipping charge for each category. The postage caps only apply to the first domestic postage option for UK sales. Postage caps will not apply to overseas sales.
Mandatory free postage has undoubtedly put pressure on margins and restricted the type of postage service sellers have offered to buyers. This change will enable sellers to once again offer a premium postage option as default instead of being forced to offer the cheapest possible and of course it’s the end of paying eBay’s final value fees for free post.
Ending old Good Til Canceled listings
From the end of March a new process will be introduced to end Good Til Canceled listings which haven’t had a sale for 16 months. These listings will appear in your eBay unsold items and are available to be relisted. I like this move, it gives sellers a prompt to review their items to make sure the title is relevant, that the listing still has pictures and that the price is still competitive. It will also prompt sellers to update item specifics for listings which have been affected by category changes or other updates.
Multi Variation Listings in more categories
Multi Variation Listings will become available in more categories, and from the end of March will appear in some Home and Garden, Sporting Goods and Baby categories.
Watermarking images
There will be enhancements to the way that images in eBay listings are watermarked. In the future instead of eBay’s default camera image a seller will be use their eBay user ID as a watermark. This should mean the end of stolen images from sellers who spend the time to produce quality pictures.
Sellers’ product photos in catalogues
eBay will be improving the quantity and quality of images in product catalogues, and will do so by using photos from sellers’ listings. All sellers will be opted in to the program as default, but are able to opt out if they wish. If your photo is used as a catalogue image a credit to your eBay ID and link to your My World page will be added as a credit.
Summary
There’s not too much in this announcement to disrupt how sellers do business on eBay, but plenty to please them. Concerns are most likely to be around the display of Business Seller Information, eBay’s use of sellers’ images and of course the new minimum seller standards. There’s much welcome news though, such as the end of mandatory free postage and the re-introduction of International Visibility. Overall it looks pretty good news and more a tidying up of the site and standards than a radical overhaul of the way sellers do business.
41 Responses on "eBay UK Seller Updates – February 2010"
Related Posts:
- Delay to removal of eBay UK free shipping policy
- Free listing days for private sellers on eBay France & Germany
- PayPal withdrawals to be free in the UK
- April 2010 “Changes for sellers” timetable
- German sellers must wait for fee change info
Recent Posts
- eBay display NSE search results with no pricing
- HMRC campaign aimed at people who fail to make tax returns
- Royal Mail waive SmartStamp subscriptions as apology
- 50,000 free auction listings with BIN on eBay.com
- Which of your eBay DSRs can you control?
A pain free start to the year.
Re.Multi Variation to anyone currently using it, If I wanted to sell a suite and offer different shapes and sizes of bath to go with it, will it show a picture of the selected bath style?
I believe you are allowed to add a photo for each variation possibility. When you select the variation it immediately updates the photo (if available).
If you check out http://cgi.ebay.com/The-DENNIS-SYSTEM-Always-Sunny-in-Philadelphia-T-Shirt_W0QQitemZ380194041127QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_CSA_MC_Shirts?var=&hash=item975711c20b (random result searching for “shirt”) you can see that they have multiple photos.
Thank you. I have actually found a seller in my cats. who is doing exactly what I wanted to know. Happy.
It’s definitely the way forward.
If you have say twenty sales for your MVL and the title is Whirlpool Bath those twenty sales regardless of which item had been bought will count towards BM for search visibility for the terms Whirlpool, Bath and WShirlpool Bath.
If you’d sold 10 Oval Whirlpool Baths (bear with me I have no clue what the variations would be) those ten would count for that serahc term and so on.
So if most buyers use generic terms you’re away!
Shush
Hi Chris,
I read the Business Details bit differently as eBay are just moving the details up the page.
Currently, my business details are displayed near the bottom of the page and i have to opt in to get them displayed there.
The update doesn’t state that its going to be compulsory (Thats not to say they will not) to display them there, as currently Business Sellers have a number of options of where they display them.
It also doesn’t say what they are going to do if Business sellers do not comply, it only suggests that you browse the regulations!!!
TBH, i see this change as a way for ebay to show the relavent authorities that they are “doing something”
JMHO
Lee
According to the announcement the mandatory business information will be made available if a link is clicked within the listing.
Business users have been requested to make sure their business information on file is correct. It does not appear that there is any need to do anything if your current trading address on file is correct. eBay will automatically place a link in all business user listings to the mandatory infomation.
Re P and P This is a total humiliation for Ebay and of course there isn’t a word anywhere admitting that they might have made a mistake or god forbid they are sorry for the chaos caused.
But on a positive note congratulations to Tamebay for heading up the scrapping of forced free postage over a week ago, before anyone else. This is the site to come to when you want the news first.
I think the whole Free Postage has at least encouraged a lot of businesses to look at their charges and the ways they post. This has to be a good thing in the long run.
Many have missed the postage caps..we mail clothing into the UK and the 4GBP postage cap is going to do serious damage to us , in fact it will almost certainly make us give up eBay totally.
People are reading it wrong as it says very clearly on the eBay announcement that if you mail into the UK you must offer the 4GBP as a first postage option (so the bottom feeders will all choose the cheapest option then complain to Paypal for non delivery as no tracking will be available)…well i can tell you that for us to send a pair of jeans into the UK it costs approx 9GBP..a hoodie 12GBP (does anyone at eBay understand that larger sizes are more postal weight??? and higher a charge) ..we are no longer allowed to charge for insurance so even basic postage items are very high risk of scammers claiming no arrival..so eBay say adjust your start price or use a different carrier>????…so they get more fees and scare off many buyers with increased selling price..Totally Dumb
so what..if you are from china or anywhere else… great or anyone fancy 99p and 40 shipping….finally they are sorthing this madness
All arse about face if you ask me. eBay couldn’t/wouldn’t police the site for postage scammers. So everyone suffers postage caps?
£9 to post a pair of Jeans? Where from?
Seller’s product photos in catalogues: When eBay uses your picture, does it appear in the catalogue with your ID watermarked on it?
As I read it they wont use any pictures that carry a watermark. However, if yours is used you get a credited link back to your ID next to it…. Though knowing eBay it’ll be in a very light grey colour and the smallest possible font size just like the important info on posting times.
One thing I can’t figure out is the new rule on policy violations. It says that any violation in a 90 day period will get you ejected from the PS programme. In my experience, it is normal to have the occasional violation if you sell a large quantity of product on eBay. If sellers are going to be harshly punished for what could be very minor and occasional infractions of the rules, does this mean that it could be very tricky to maintain PS status/discounts in future?
I thought the same thing but if you go to the eBay site it still says you can have 4 violations for Bronze powerseller (more for higher tiers). My guess is they mean the more serious violations (but not the most serious because those are now 180 days).
1% or total of three low ratings for “Item as described”
Just aswell eBay don’t base their fee’s on our ratings of them John.
I am surprised that all the brain power at eBay HQ, they don’t appreciate that selling used clothing or used goods, where subjective descriptions are required, is much harder than a DVD or new goods, yet they apply the same rules to seller performance.
My shop selling new garments is at top rated or nearly at. My 2nd hand shop is on the boundary of the 1% for item as described. I put 10x more effort in getting things right for the used shop.
To list a suit, we have to hand measure 5 or 6 bespoke measurements; get the colours right; describe the texture and material; describe the fit; check each button is in place and not loose..etc etc. This takes incredible attention to detail and commitment.
I thought I would share that, and hope eBay management appreciate that we dont live in a homgenised environment.
The potential mark up on second hand clothing can be great. It’s all swings and roundabouts
@you are kidding…were you drunk when you gave your reply
Just the typical stupid not thought out reply..we are in Northern Spain
Last time i mailed a pair of jeans in the UK recorded 2nd class cost 6.75..people like you are fools as you just don’t get the implications of idiotic caps like this …how the hell can we mail a leather jacket into the UK for 4 quid…a pair of womens boots for 6 quid….the backlash from this will really hurt eBay and Our business
So what are you going to do?
hmm spanish friend where are you listing on spain or on the uk site. If you are listing on the uk then thats your problem..you know what they say if you cant stand the heat get out……
Then don’t sell your clothes on eBay. To be honest I would rather that UK sellers serve the UK market, that way the money stays in the UK.
Agreed.
As I read it, the caps only apply to accesories and garment care items with the CSA cat. There won’t be any caps on clothing or footwear.
Shoes and clothing are specifically listed on:
sellerupdate.ebay.co.uk/april2010/postage-limits.html
@you are kidding
I can really see all the Italian haute couture sellers sending gucci dresses etc into the UK for 4 pounds (eBay’s new standard first postage charge option) or the new Jimmy Choos for 6 pounds …it is ludicrous
We don’t all sell little light electrical cables or memory cards
At last eBay are doing something right imo.
The VeRO violation / removal of PS status I was worried about yesterday will not be an issue according to my PAM.
International visibility on fixed price items. At last we can get our US customers back!
Free p&p scrapped. We can get our multiple item sale back!
We still get less discount than we did prior to Jan 16th, unless you are a part time seller ie 2k per annum.
So a part time seller with 2k per annum sales now will get the same discount as someone selling up to 72k.
I can see the logic of trying to improve the smaller sellers’ selling practices but it seems incredibly stingy not to differentiate between those who have consitantly given good service over thousands of transactions.
Presumably this is based on the sheer volume of sellers in this category, with many just not quite managing to get beyond this holy grail of a figure
It also ties in more or less with the vat thresholds.
Question: what is the point of the silver PS level as it confers no advantage. Likewise the Titanium level.
My last comment should have read
“Likewise the Titanium level.
Will we get email notifications when old items are moved into “unsold”?
Hi,
I received a message in my eBay inbox yesterday and I went through the postage and PowerSeller changes in detail.
What I couldn’t see is how much you need to turnover in order to increase your discount from 5% to 10-15% on the standard visibility level?
I couldn’t see that mentioned anyway – does anyone else know?
I wrote up a longer summary of the changes and how I think they will affect users on my car boot sale blog (hope this is within posting guidelines)
http://www.everything-car-boot.co.uk/ebay-postage-policy-changes/
http://www.everything-car-boot.co.uk/changes-to-the-ebay-power-seller-program/
Anthony
I have been doing a lot of research into the DSR’s recently and it appears that in certain circumstances you do not have to refund postage costs.
For example, where you offer “free post” as a delivery option but the buyer chooses another paid postage option, such as upgrades to 1st class or Next day delivery etc.
The DSR’s say:
If you provided additional services such as gift wrapping or express
delivery that a consumer specifically requested, then you may
withhold the additional charges incurred by the consumer for these
services only if:…
It basically goes on to explain how you have to let the buyer know etc etc.
I’m not saying that this is what you should do, that’s for you to decide but I think it’s quite clear that you don’t actually have to refund postage. (given certain circumstances)
I think you’d want to word that a lot more clearly than
you don’t actually have to refund postage. (given certain circumstances)
There are enough sellers trying to get around the law on this one without making it look easy for them to do so.
You are of course right Sue. I champion buyers rights, where they apply.
The DSR’s are something that should be read with your individual business in mind.
Many sellers both on and off eBay don’t even know the DSR’s exist never mind what’s in them. And don’t even get me started on “restocking fees” whatever they’re meant to be!
And don’t even get me started on “restocking fees” whatever they’re meant to be!
LOL, no, me neither. Absolute pet hate.
My own “don’t get me started” bit is from the OFT’s pdf:
the DSRs do not link cancellation rights with a supplier’s ability to resell items as new.
And believe me, I know it hurts sellers to have to take a hit on something, but it’s part of the costs of doing business. If people didn’t pare their margins down to the penny trying to be The Cheapest all the time, it wouldn’t be such a terrible issue for many sellers.
Super Thank-you both.