We recently spotted that eBay Australia removed all duration options for fixed price listings other than Good ‘Til Cancelled Listings. eBay have in today’s seller release revealed that this is a worldwide move and 3, 5, 7, 10 and 30 day fixed price listing durations are to vanish from the 1st of April – It looks like eBay Australia just rolled the change out earlier than other sites.
From the 1st of April 2019, across all eBay sites, the only listing duration for fixed price listings for both Business and Private sellers will be Good ‘Til Cancelled. eBay told Tamebay that the ‘vast majority’ of fixed price listings are already launched with Good ‘Til Cancelled selected as the duration.
We discussed at length in a previous post as to the disadvantages of the move to mandatory Good ‘Til Cancelled listings for sellers so read here as to how it might impact your operations and your sales boost from newly listed, ending soon, and the visibility of listings that end without a sale and may need amending before relisting. eBay don’t like listings that run forever without a sale (they once threatened to fine sellers with aged Good ’til Cancelled listings) so it would seem reasonable to expect new tools to help sellers manage their listings in the near future – our question would be where are the new tools today?
Existing listings with other durations will continue until their specified end date or until they sell out. If these listings are renewed, Good ‘Til Cancelled will be the only duration option. Short durations will be reserved for listings in the auction format.
Good ‘Til Cancelled listings renew automatically every 30 days, unless the item is sold out. You will be charged a Listing fee for every 30-day period, if you go over your monthly free listing allowance. Of course, you’re able to end a listing at any time. If you are a private seller and concerned that you’ll be billed monthly forever, rest assured that from the 3rd of March eBay will give you 1,000 free listings which should more than cover any listings that renew without you incurring additional listing fees.
What happens if my listing tool selects a short duration listing?
eBay are working with listing tool provides to ensure they’re aware of the change to Good ’til Cancelled fixed price listings. If your tool isn’t updated and enable you to select fixed price listings with short durations after the 1st of April, eBay will override your selected duration and launch a Good ’til Cancelled listing duration.
Why are eBay mandating Good ‘Til Cancelled listings?
eBay say that they are making this change because they believe Good ‘Til Cancelled listings result in higher overall sales for sellers. Having your listings on-site for longer, increases your chances of making a sale. In addition they say that, Good ‘Til Cancelled listings perform significantly better on external search engines, such as Google, hence bringing greater traffic to the site and to sellers’ individual listings.
Additional benefits of switching to Good ‘Til Cancelled listings are:
- Sales history and watchers are retained, which may positively impact a listing’s search ranking.
- Listing downtime during manual renewal is eliminated.
- The out-of-stock feature is exclusive to Good ‘Til Cancelled listings. It allows you to keep your listing performance history until you restock the item.
5 Responses
Great-now I get higher fees as I will have to pay extra for anything over my 250 limit and have to compete with “private” sellers getting up to 1000 free listings-good work Ebay!
“In addition they say that, Good ‘Til Cancelled listings perform significantly better on external search engines, such as Google, hence bringing greater traffic to the site and to sellers’ individual listings.”
and then the buyer can click away, to buy it elsewhere via an on page advertising link
Always have done good till cancelled. Can’t stand the 30 day ones.
Items that do not sell and are therefore automatically renewed do not come out of your 1000 monthly allowance if you are a private seller. I think you get charged an insertion fee for these items but I cannot find this written anywhere on eBay. It sucks for both private and business sellers.