This is What You Must Know About the eBay Seller Spring 2018 Update

eBay’s first seller update in 2018 revealed very important information as to how eBay’s buying experience will look moving forward. More importantly, how the sellers will be impacted.

As a new seller, I never paid too much attention to eBay’s seller updates but as the years passed I realized that reading the updates is not optional, but a MUST!

A good example to the importance of reading the updates is the active content ban which was announced in the 2017 eBay summer seller update.

If you sell on eBay and didn’t pay attention to this update then you simply took the risk of having your account suspended for not complying to the new policies.

In this post I’ll summarize for you the main topics of the spring update (most to least important):

1. Grouping Same Product Listings Together
2. New eBay Stores Shopping Experience
3. New eBay Stores Subscriptions
4. eBay Guaranteed Delivery Will Be Available to More Sellers
5. Increase in Insertion Fees
6. Reducing the Number of Return Options
7. Discouraging Listing in Two Categories
8. Earning a Top Rated Plus Seller Status Has Become More Demanding
9. New eBay Labels Experience

eBay is transitioning many of its categories to a structure called “Product-Based Shopping Experience” where all listings for the same product are grouped together (similar to Amazon).

In phase 1, which will take effect in May, only a few categories (see list below) will require sellers to adopt the eBay catalog structure.

eBay will expand the catalog to other categories in additional phases over the next couple of years. Keep following the next Seller Updates for more information.

Will Your Listing Creation Process Change?

The listing creation process (for selected categories) will change in the sense that you will have to choose which product from eBay’s catalog is the product listing.
You will do that by providing an identification number known as GTIN – “Global Trade Item Number” (UPC, EAN, or ISBN).

After matching your product to eBay’s catalog you will still need to create the description as you always did, so listing descriptions are not going away any time soon.

When Will This Update Take Effect?

• Phase 1: As of May 2018, when you attempt to modify existing listings, relist existing listings (including Good ‘til Cancelled), or create a new listing for an item in any condition within the Phase 1 product lines (see list below), and you do not associate it with a product from the eBay catalog, you will be unable to complete the listing. For both new and existing listings in product lines with multi-variations (multi-SKU), you will be required to provide a GTIN (UPC, EAN, or ISBN) for each variation.
  Check your Seller Hub to see which existing listings you will need to update to comply with the new requirement.

Who Will Be Affected?

• In phase 1, only sellers who sell these product lines will have to adopt the catalog listing:

eBay releases a newly-designed store experience and an enhanced mobile web experience. The new experience will also be active content-free and HTTPS-ready.

When Will This Update Take Effect?

• May 1, 2018

Who Will Be Affected?

If you created a custom design (by using custom pages or html in your store design) you will have to make sure it’s active content and HTTPS compliant.
If you don’t take any action, eBay will move you to the new experience at a later date. We encourage you to be proactive to avoid compliance issues as was the case for many sellers when the active content ban was released.

eBay has expanded the spectrum of store subscriptions with 2 new options:

Starter Store

This store is suitable for seller with more than 50 items listed per month:

Enterprise Store

For high-volume sellers listing 100,000 items a month:

For sellers who list over 100,000 items per month can purchase additional zero insertion fee listings at these prices:

When Will This Update Take Effect

• May 1, 2018

eBay’s Guaranteed Delivery feature helps sellers increase their items’ visibility in search results.

eBay decided to reduce the seller requirements to be eligible to use eBay Guaranteed Delivery:

1. At least 100 transactions within the previous 12 months.
2. Maintain a late shipment rate of 3% or lower.
3. Remove the requirement to use eBay shipping labels
4. Upload validated tracking for at least 95% of your transactions

When Will This Update Take Effect

• March 1, 2018

Who Will Be Affected

• Qualified eBay sellers will be notified of their eligibility via email.

Insertion fees will increase for non-Store sellers and Basic Store subscribers when you exceed your zero insertion fee allocation:

• Non-Store. Insertion fee will change from $0.30 to $0.35
• Starter Store. Insertion fee per listing will be $0.30
• Basic Store. Insertion fee for each fixed price listing will change from $0.20 to $0.25

The monthly fee for a Basic Store subscription will change from $24.95/month to $27.95/month.

The yearly fee for a Basic Store subscription will change from $19.95/month to $21.95/month.

When Will This Update Take Effect

• May 1, 2018

eBay is limiting the number of return options to these five:

1. No returns accepted
2. 30-day buyer-paid returns
3. 30-day free returns
4. 60-day buyer-paid returns
5. 60-day free returns

Also, removing the Restocking fees as a return option.

The following categories will still have 14-day return option:

1. Collectibles & Art
2. Cameras & Photo
3. Medical, Mobility & Disability Equipment

Additional update to returns: Sellers will be able to offer free returns domestically, and in the same listing, offer paid returns to international buyers.

When Will This Update Take Effect

• May 1, 2018

eBay wants sellers to list a product in only one category which is considered it’s “best fit”.

eBay says that listing in 2 categories will NOT improve your listing visibility.

Moreover, when you will list an item in two or more categories, the higher final value fee will apply when your item sells.

When Will This Update Take Effect

• May 1, 2018

Who Will Be Affected

• Any seller listing the same product in more than one category

Sellers will be required to offer 30-day free returns in most categories to be eligible to receive Top Rated Plus benefits.

When Will This Update Take Effect

• June 1, 2018

The following  update will take effect only in the summer.

eBay will be updating the shipping labels experience by adding these new features:

1. Estimated delivery dates based on shipping service
2. Pricing comparisons.

This is how it will look:

The updates you should focus on right now:

1. The transformation to product-based catalog
2. The store design compliance with eBay active content and HTTPS rules

The other updates are not relevant for all sellers, so prioritize your work and make sure you list products according to the new guidelines.

Feel free to leave comments below for any questions.