We are closely monitoring the path of the wildfires engulfing the north and south of California. Sellers who may be affected, please stay safe and do what’s critical right now: Take care of yourself, family, and community.
If there is any disruption to your business, please contact customer service at 1 (866) 540-3229 to request protections against incidents that may impact your Seller Performance status.
What this means:
Stock-outs due to fire damage or unresolved cases with buyers will not impact your performance status
Your late shipment rate will not be impacted.
If you are able to, there are a few things you can do now to help protect your business:
Communicate with buyers whose items have not yet been shipped and let them know your situation.
End any auctions and take down any Buy It Now listings before they result in a sale. We will not charge a fee for ending a listing early.
If you are an eBay Stores subscriber, place your store in vacation mode and extend your handling time on all items to when you think you can get back to business.
If you are having troubles with internet access, eBay can help you make the necessary changes. Please contact customer service at 1 (866) 540-3229 and update them on your situation.
We will stay in touch with shipping carriers, and update this Seller News Announcement as more information is available.
For sellers wanting to help in recovery efforts for families affected by the fires, join eBay for Charity in raising much-needed funds now.
Shipping Services Holiday Cutoff Dates
The holiday selling season is upon us and Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner. While preparing your photos and descriptions are an integral part of the listing process, planning your shipping strategy is also incredibly important.
Below are the holiday shipping deadlines for USPS, UPS, and FedEx for the 2018 season. Click here for a printable version.
With hundreds of listings being returned in search results, how does a seller make their item stand out? Here are some tips:
1) Use a meaningful, professional title with relevant keywords. Don’t waste your 80 alloted characters on gimmicky and useless words such as L@@K and WOW! Correct spelling is important. Don’t spam your buyer with keywords that aren’t part of the product you’re selling. You will not only annoy your potential buyer, but eBay is likely to shut down your listing.
2) Be sure to list in the correct category and make full use of item specifics. Don’t simply fill out the required item specifics. You should add as much information as possible for a potential buyer to find your item.
Where possible, be sure to include a UPC or ISBN code, as more and more buyers are searching by specific product identifiers.
3) Don’t be stingy with your photos. Include two or more from different angles and be sure they are not blurry. They should be sharp and color accurate. Buyers suspect you’re hiding something if your photos aren’t clear. Photos should focus on your item, so avoid busy backgrounds.
Use eBay’s catalog photo when the item is brand new in addition to some of your own photos. Many buyers prefer to view the actual item they will be receiving, so be sure to include some of your own photos.
4) Price your item reasonably. Check out completed listings. Now that eBay is also displaying your competitors’ listings, you wouldn’t want to overprice your item.
5) Consider eBay’s recommendations for making your listings more prominent in search results. Free shipping, quick handling and shipping times, and liberal return polices will make your listing stand out.
6) Customer service is key. Be sure to answer potential buyers’ questions promptly. Your feedback score, detailed seller ratings and how quickly you respond to eBay disputes or seller messages all impact how your listings are ranked by eBay.
Product Identifiers and their Importance
Most new, branded items have unique identifiers that help buyers recognize and find them, including the item’s brand, manufacturer part number (MPN), and global trade item number (GTIN). These GTINs can include an item’s Universal Product Code (UPC), European Article Number (EAN), or International Standard Book Number (ISBN).
Product identifiers help buyers find your item more easily both on selling sites and in search engines, even when the buyer does not specifically use them during their search. It is recommended that you use product identifiers whenever possible to maintain search visibility. Most manufacturers list identifiers like MPN and GTIN directly on a product’s packaging, and often right on the product itself.
SSB eBay Update Tool for Secure URLs
eBay is advising sellers that their listings may contain non-https secure URLs or links. SSB's templates and image hosting were updated to use secure URLs in February of 2017 and are in compliance with all eBay policies.
Please note: older listings, Good 'til Canceled listings and listings you may have continually relisted may contain non-secure URLs and should be updated. To ensure compliance we are encouraging all users to update their listings using our eBay Update Tool.
Running the SSB eBay Update tool:
In your SSB account go to the Listings Menu and select Seller Profiles.
From the Action drop down next to your profile(s), select eBay Update from the menu.
At the next screen leave the box checked next to "UPDATE ACTIVE CONTENT & SECURE URLS ONLY". Do not check any other boxes.
Click "Revise Listings” button
NOTE: You must perform this procedure for all eBay profiles in your account.
Depending on how many listings that need updating it can take anywhere from 5 minutes to several hours for all your listings to be updated.
IMPORTANT: Using the eBay Update tool fixes ONLY active listings at eBay. EBay does not allow us to fix older non-compliant ended items! If your listings were passing compliance tests previously but you're being notified again by eBay that you have non-compliant listings, then it's very likely that older listings have been relisted or sold similar and the non-compliant HTML code that was residing at eBay was reintroduced among your items.
Whenever selling similar or relisting your items, please do so through your SSB account so that fresh, compliant code is sent to eBay. In the case of relisting from SSB, please be sure to return to the Listing Generator during the relisting process. This action refreshes the HTML code and SSB URLs to be in compliance with eBay's policies.
Relisting through your SSB account:
Go to your eBay Items>Launched page
Choose Relist from the Actions field
Click on the Edit Item Description button
Click on the Back to Launcher button
Click on the Relist Now button
This updates the listing with the fixed code
Custom Templates: If you have a custom template contact your designer and ask for a version that contains secure URLs for all template graphics. Your designer will need to be hosting their graphics on a secure server in order to make these changes. SSB will update your custom templates as soon as a secure version is received. Please note that our utility does not fix third party URLs (such as to Photobucket or to template designers' sites), but we will do our best to give you guidance on a case by case basis as to your options.
Discounted Shipping Insurance
Did you know you could insure your packages directly through SSB and at a significant savings? Check out our rate table to see how much you can save on shipping insurance!
Shipping insurance is provided through a private insurance company and covers packages shipping from the United States and Canada via USPS, FedEx or UPS. Both domestic and international packages may be covered, and this includes First Class Mail International! Our special contract includes coverage to countries that are sometimes excluded by other services.
To get started, a deposit must be made to your insurance account at SSB. This insurance account is debited as packages are insured. Your buyer must have checked out and the item marked as shipped at eBay to qualify for insurance. Claims are filed directly with the insurance company and claims are settled within 5 days once the insurance company has received the required information. If you have any questions, please email our support desk.
