These changes are aimed at encouraging sellers to list more Buy It Now listings.

Why?
The answer in this instance is one word - demand.

Today, buyers want quality products at great prices and increasingly, they want them quickly and conveniently. This has been illustrated on eBay by the rapid growth in demand for fixed price items over auctions. The changes being introduced are aimed at enabling sellers to better meet this growing buyer demand.

What?
If you use eBay predominately to buy, you should notice an increase in the products available for purchase as well as changes to the way search results are sorted. We’re aiming to make finding exactly what you want on eBay faster and easier.

If you sell on eBay there’s a little more information to absorb.

Let’s start with the increased visibility of Store listings and enhancements to Best Match.

From the launch in September, ALL store listings (often referred to as SIF listings) will have increased exposure as they will appear within the main eBay search results. Increasing the profile of these listings will help sellers meet the growing demand for Buy It Now by giving Store listings greater visibility than they currently receive.

Best Match is the mechanism that helps rank listings and is being enhanced to manage the extra volume of listings appearing in the main search results. Best Match will help ensure there is a good mix of relevant auction and Buy It Now listings.

The other big news for sellers on eBay is the introduction of new Store packages.

To encourage larger and growing sellers to list more Buy It Now listings,we are introducing new store packages which offer not only free insertion fees, but also FREE subscription to Selling Manager Pro. Sellers should examine the new store packages closely to determine which package will work best for them.

We also recognise the important contribution that smaller or more traditional sellers make by providing the wide and unique range of items. To ensure these sellers continue to be a central part of eBay, there will be no changes to standard pricing, and no Feedback requirements anymore to list single item or multiple items in a fixed price format from the week of September 22.

Am I going to be better off?
We believe the new store packages offer greater value for the majority of larger and growing sellers and enable them to better meet the growing demand for Buy It Now. By not changing standard pricing, sellers can continue to benefit from the great existing value available on eBay.