The eBay Time Away feature for sellers is now better than ever.

When it comes to selling on eBay, you’re always open. Whether you have an eBay store or not, your items are available to shoppers 24/7/365.  But sooner or later, you’re going to need Time Away. Yes, that’s Time Away with a capital “T” and a capital “A.” Time Away is eBay’s way of letting you take a break from selling without having to close your store or end your listings.

Before eBay Time Away, only eBay store subscribers could put their selling on hold.

It was called Vacation Settings. You could choose to allow purchases while you were away or to have your listings hidden. For sellers who didn’t have a store, the only way to get time off from eBay was to either bulk-edit listings to extend your handling time (up to a maximum of 10 days) or end your listings altogether, then relist everything once you were ready to get back to work.

Thankfully, now there’s a better solution available to ALL sellers.

If you need to take a break from selling, you can schedule some time away using — what else? — Time Away.

You can access Time Away from the “Change Settings” hyperlink in the upper right-hand corner of your My Messages inbox. Click on “Change Settings”, then scroll down to “Time Away and Automatic Response.” Time Away is also on the eBay App under “Settings.” You can also access it from this page, select “Go to Time Away Settings.”

Now you’re ready to set up and manage your Time Away settings and My Messages autoresponder.

 Under “Set up your time away”, click “Let’s go”. 

In addition to scheduling Start and End dates, you’ll need to decide whether you want to pause or allow item sales. If you allow sales, you can have up to 15 days of time away; if you pause sales, you can have up to 30 days. Then click “Apply”.

You can select today’s date if you need Time Away to begin immediately.

Within minutes, a message will appear at the top of your listings, letting buyers know that you’re away. However, it takes a few hours for estimated delivery dates to update. Furthermore, if you choose to “Pause item sales”, allow several hours for your listings to be hidden. So, it’s best to set up Time Away in advance.

Set your time away to start a day or two before you begin your break from selling.

Doing this accommodates any last-minute orders. Then end your time away a day or two later than your actual return date. This way you have time to pack and ship any sold items.

It’s a good idea to utilize Time Away’s My Messages auto-response feature as well.

Customize it with a message letting customers know you’re away and when you’ll be back. Then click “Apply”.

Bear in mind that whether you choose to pause sales or allow them, delivery dates will NOT be updated for:

• Second Chance Offers
• Auto-accepted Best Offers
• Pending counteroffers
• Seller-initiated offers accepted during Time Away
• Items with Local Pickup or Global Shipping Program (GSP) as a shipping option

So don’t send out offers right before you go on vacation.

In addition, plan to edit handling time and/or shipping options for Local Pickup and GSP listings, as well as for any listings that offer eBay International Standard Delivery (eISD).

If you opt to allow sales while you’re away, your listings remain visible, and buyers can purchase your items.

However, they’ll see a message at the top of your listings stating that you are on time away until thus-and-such date. Meanwhile, estimated delivery dates will automatically be updated in the Shipping and Delivery section of your listings.

Should you prefer to pause sales during your time away, your fixed price listings will be hidden from search results, so shoppers won’t be able to find and buy them. Even if a buyer already has one of your items on their Watch list or in their cart, they won’t be able to complete the purchase. Instead, they’ll see a note telling them that you are not processing orders until your Time Away end date.

When your Time Away ends, it can take a couple of hours for your listings to reappear in search results. However, they will do so automatically.

Auction listings cannot be hidden during Time Away.

They’ll continue to play out in real time. But a message at the top of the listing will inform bidders that you’re away, and the estimated delivery date will automatically be updated.

For a deep dive into Time Away — and Time Away strategies — check out my video eBay’s Time Away Vacation Update

While you’re on hiatus (or when you get back), consider taking some time to brush up on eBay basics. My free guide How to Start Selling on eBay offers proven, actionable advice to sellers at all levels of experience. It even includes tips on sourcing inventory, some of which you can implement while traveling.

To get your complimentary copy, go HERE. 

Enjoy your time away!