eBay Open 2019 Seller Updates Galore!

Good news from eBay Open 2019: Policies and initiatives announced at the conference place sellers front and center! These policies impact sellers at all levels.

First, these new policy updates and initiatives unveiled at eBay Open 2019 are important. Furthermore, there are fine points to them that you might overlook.

For all sellers, with or without stores

• New photo-editing tool! eBay has launched in beta a new photo-editing tool that whites out the background of your pictures. But please note the following important caveats:

1. This useful tool is still in beta. That means it’s not yet perfected. It also means that not everyone can use it yet.
2. Only eBay Open attendees currently have access to the beta. To get it, you had to sign up in the Seller Hub area. If you neglected to do so, reach out to customer service to see what, if anything, can be done to enable you to access the beta.
3. You can only use the white background photo-editing functionality through eBay Mobile for the iPhone. Once the background is whited out, your listing can be saved as a draft and then completed from your desktop or laptop computer. The new whiteout tool will eventually be available on those devices as well. As of right now, the beta version is in a very early stage.

• Multi-User Account Access! All sellers — with or without a store — can now utilize eBay’s new Multi-User Access (MUAA). Right now, the only part of your account to which you can apply multi-user access is listing. This means you can give an assistant access to the listing section of your Seller Hub.

eBay will add more areas as Multi-User Account Access rolls out, e.g. shipping and customer relations management. The company plans to include all aspects of selling in future iterations of MUAA. The steps to grant access to your seller account are in my complimentary Exclusive eBay Open Update Guide. 

New and better seller protections!

• The biggest news for sellers is the MASSIVE improvements in seller protections. ALL sellers have new protections.Top Rated Sellers have BIG protections that actually put money in those sellers’ pockets.

Top Rated Sellers who offer 30-Day Returns get TWO financial as well as other protections.

Please note that for the following new protections, you DON’T need to offer free returns. However, you must be TOP RATED to receive these protections:

1. If you get a false Item Not As Described (INAD) return, eBay will credit your invoice up to $6 to cover the cost of return shipping.
2. If an item is returned in a different condition than when you shipped it (returned without tags, damaged, etc.), you may issue a partial refund for up to 50% of the item’s price.
3. Negative feedback, defects and opened cases in Service Metrics connected to false INAD claims will be removed.
4. Negative feedback and defects for transactions in which you give a partial refund will be removed.
5. This process will be automated in your Seller Hub.
6. You’re always welcome to call customer service. However, IF YOU’RE A TOP RATED SELLER, it’s not necessary to do so in order to receive the aforementioned protections.

For small to large sellers with eBay stores

Terapeak Product Research! Terapeak has rolled out to ALL sellers subscribing to a Basic or higher-level store. This justly popular and beloved marketplace research tool offers incredible data that will help you with your listings in a variety of ways. Different sellers are finding Terapeak via different routes, as simple access via Seller Hub seems to be in some kind of gradual roll out:

1. You may now have a Research tab (replacing the Growth tab) in your Seller  Hub; you’ll find Terapeak in the drop-down menu under the Research tab.
2. Google Terapeak, then log into Terapeak using your eBay user ID and password. You’ll see prompts for doing so on Terapeak’s website.
3. Some sellers can log in through My Account > Subscriptions.

For Large Sellers With eBay stores

eBay Managed Delivery! For large sellers looking for an end-to-end fulfillment service, Managed Delivery is now available in beta to select sellers. eBay plans to roll it out site wide starting in the US in 2020. Managed Delivery is intended for very big sellers. My best understanding is that you’d want to have more than 1000 SKUs of inventory to send to the various fulfillment centers to make this option cost effective for you. I know one seller in the beta, and he is very, very happy.

In closing, Devin Wenig and his team have knocked the ball out of the stadium this time around.

There is excellent news for all levels of sellers!  eBay leadership clearly has been listening to the seller community. At the same time, they also are responding to the needs of shoppers.

Finally, what is a savvy eBay seller to do now?

With my complimentary Exclusive eBay Open Update Guide.  Dig in and study the policy changes.  You’re on the fast track to equip your business for more sales!