Changes impacting your listings are now being consolidated with more lead time for you to adapt. These updates are scheduled to take place on eBay.com in mid June 2009.

1. Easier, more visual shopping—plus buyer incentives to drive more sales

Making it faster and easier for buyers to find what they’re looking for from sellers they trust is key to eBay’s and eBay sellers’ success. A more familiar shopping experience brings more buyers to eBay and more sales for you. New incentives and loyalty programmes keep buyers coming back.

• New eBay item page. For the past year we’ve been testing a new page that puts your item “front and centre.” The new item page is scheduled to roll out to most buyers by mid-June. Look for:
  • Bigger, better pictures, with photo zoom coming later this summer
  • Real-time countdown timer for Auction-style listings
  • Key information right upfront
  • Cross-merchandising: sellers’ relevant listings show up on other each other’s item pages. You can opt out of cross-merchandising with other sellers, but consider the trade-offs carefully—this is a great opportunity to boost exposure.
    

The new item page can impact how your listings are displayed so it’s important to preview them now—just click the preview link at the top of your item page. Find out how to optimise your listings and your pictures for the new page and the four key things to look for in your listings.

New item page—make sure your listings and pictures are optimised.

• New eBay product pages. For popular items in some categories like Books and Electronics, buyers prefer to see the products they’re looking for, not just pages of listings. eBay identifies listings for product pages by looking at a listing’s “product details” (formerly called “pre-filled item information”) to see if there’s a match to details stored in our master database (catalogue) of products. You’ll want to be sure your listings show up.
  
  
  • Product pages have a higher sell-through rate than search results pages.
  •  A “Great Value, Great Seller” box highlights an item at the top of the page. Sellers can’t pay to get this position—every seller has an opportunity to be displayed. To appear in the “value box” you need to have a competitively priced item, competitive postage (free postage is a plus), and a raised search standing. You can monitor your search standing in your Seller Dashboard.
  • Product pages are available in many categories now. They will be surfacing for more categories, initially in Books, Movies & DVDs, Music, Video Games, Mobile Phones, and Tickets, with more categories to follow.
  • We’re also making it faster and easier to add products to eBay’s growing catalog.

Follow these best practices to maximise your exposure on product pages.

New eBay product page—list with product details to get your listings included.

• New way to list items with multiple variations such as size and colour. Look for a new type of multi-quantity Fixed Price listing that will allow sellers to consolidate variations of a product in one low-cost listing. You can price each variation just the way you want.

  For example, include all the colours and sizes in your inventory of Lands’ End Fine Gauge Cotton Cardigans in one Fixed Price listing and charge $29.95 for regular sizes and $39.95 for plus sizes.

  • Dramatically reduce listing time and fees
  • Manage your inventory right in the listing
  • Cross-sell all variations you offer
  • Add features like Featured First—one feature fee covers all variations
  • Add multiple pictures FREE

    Multi-variation Fixed Price listings are scheduled to be available in Men’s and Women’s Shoes on June 15, and in applicable Clothing, Shoes, & Accessories and Home & Garden categories in mid-July.

    Start using the format for your new listings as soon as it’s available in your categories. Follow these best practices

New multi-variation Fixed Price listing—sell multiple variations of a product in one listing.

• Big investments in buyer incentives and loyalty. We’re continuing aggressive investments to drive more traffic to eBay through buyer incentives and rewards.
  
  
  • Tens of millions of discount coupons have been sent since the beginning of 2009.
  • eBay Bucks, a beta of a new eBay rewards program, launched in March.
  • Four hot Daily Deals are bringing droves of buyers to eBay every day.

Four Daily Deals bringing droves of buyers every day.

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2. Key information to set buyer expectations and help reduce your costs

When buyers get key information right up front—details of postage, expected delivery, your return policy—they make a quicker purchase decision, ask fewer questions, are happier with the transaction, and rate sellers higher. You also spend less time on each transaction.

• New Smart FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): Smart FAQ draws “live” information from your listings to answer the top 20 buyer questions—before buyers reach you through “Ask Seller a Question.” Best of all, it’s FREE!

  Some top eBay sellers tested Smart FAQ and cut time spent answering buyer questions in half—without any negative impact on sales.

  • Review and customise the questions
  • Use it for pre- or post-transaction questions—or both.
  • You can also have buyers go right to “Ask Seller a Question.”

Find out more about Smart FAQ and how to use it to reduce your time answering buyer questions.

New Smart FAQ answers buyers’ top questions before they contact you. 

• Package tracking in My eBay: “Where’s my stuff?” is one of the most common buyer questions. When buyers can easily find out for themselves, they’re more satisfied with transactions and leave sellers higher postage DSRs.
  
  Starting in mid-June, buyers will be able to access tracking information in a pop-up window right from My eBay without having to go to the Order Details page. You can upload the postage tracking number for buyers.

Package tracking information available to buyers right from My eBay.

• Custom Item Specifics: To help your listings surface in search results, we’re making it possible to create your own Item Specifics when the current choices don’t cover your item. Custom Item Specifics will be available in more and more categories, starting in April.
  
  Best practice: Don’t use Item Specifics as a way to set your listing apart from the crowd. This is one area where you want to “fit the mold” to make sure you get the best possible exposure in search results. Always use the eBay item specific choices first, and add your own only when there are no appropriate alternatives. For example, if an available choice is “blue” don’t customise with a designer colour name like “periwinkle.” Stick with blue! Learn more about Item Specifics.

Add your own Item Specific to help buyers find your item.

• Category and Items Specifics changes: Changes to categories and Item Specifics that were previously announced monthly will now be included with other major changes that may impact your listings. Category and Item Specifics updates are coming June 15 in the following categories. The new category structure will be available in late May:

Category changes
Antiques: Silver
Books: Textbooks
Cameras: Binoculars & Telescopes
Clothing, Shoes & Accessories: Luggage, Men’s Accessories, Uniforms, Unisex Accessories, Wedding Apparel & Accessories, Women’s Handbags & Bags
Coins & Paper Money: Replicas & Reproductions
Collectibles: Animals, Cultures & Ethnicities
Crafts: Art Supplies, Needlecrafting
Electronics: iPod & MP3 Accessories
Home & Garden: Inside the Home, Yard & Garden
Jewellery: Engagement & Wedding, Fashion Jewellery, Loose Diamonds & Gemstones
Musical Instruments: Guitars
Pet Supplies
Toys: Webkinz & Lil’ Kinz
Travel: Luggage

Item Specifics Changes
Books: Textbooks
Clothing, Shoes & Accessories: Handbags & Bags, Wigs, Men’s Belts
Home & Garden: Curtains & Drapes
Music: CDs, Cassettes, Records, Other Formats

Find out if your listings are impacted by the changes.

Policy updates in Jewellery & Watches categories will take effect on July 15. The new policy will better differentiate Fashion Jewellery from Fine Jewellery and authentic stones from simulated stones. If you sell in these categories, you may have to make changes to your listings—for example if you have not moved your authentic diamond listings out of the Fashion Jewellery category since we made the category changes last year, you’ll want to make sure they are moved now to the Fine Jewellery category. Read the new policy updates for details on how these changes may impact your listings.

 

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3. Other changes to make selling on eBay more efficient

As part of our partnership with sellers, eBay now has an entire team devoted to finding new ways to help improve your efficiency. Here are a few starters, with more to come!

• eBay Resolutions: eBay US is introducing a new, more efficient dispute resolution process for “Item Not Received” and “Item Significantly Not as Described” claims. Cross-border sellers registered on eBay US will see a new Resolutions process and will need to comply with the new guidelines. To understand more about the new Resolutions process on eBay.com.

Later this year, we expect to announce improvements to the Unpaid Item Process, all designed to help you sell more efficiently and profitably on eBay.

• FREE Selling Manager: Starting June 15, Selling Manager will be free for all sellers. Watch for new third-party tools and applications for both Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro later this summer, including research tools, automated customer support, free tools for Stores sellers, and more.

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4. Sell to more markets with confidence:  PayPal Seller Protection

• Coming in mid June, PayPal will be launching Seller Protection aimed at helping sellers reduce their risks of fraudulent or unauthorised payments as well as item-not-received claims, chargebacks, and reversals.
  
  
• PayPal Seller Protection is free and will be available for eligible eBay items.  Here’s some of the benefits you’ll enjoy when it launches:
  
  
  • Worldwide coverage.  Reach more customers.  Sell with confidence to more buyers and markets - 190 countries and regions.
• Instant payment reviews.  Notifications of unauthorised payments before you ship. 
• Automatic integration.  No set-up or changes needed to your checkout experience to take advantage of Seller Protection.
• Unlimited coverage.  No monthly or annual limit.
• More profits to your bottom line.  The ability to increase sales and lower loss rates. 
  
  
• Look for more information in June. 

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