What is the eBay Seller Update?
As we know, eBay regularly does Seller Updates across the year with enhancements, changes, and tweaks to how you sell and buy on eBay. This year is no different, and we now have the first of the 2022 updates live across the globe.
The first update of 2022 is a bit of a change from normality as they are classing this round as the ‘Winter 2022’ update in the US while referring to it as the ‘February 2022’ update in other regions. This may mean that there is a further update to come in the Spring, so keep an eye on our blog as we will of course update you when we hear.
So what is changing, and what do you need to be aware of?
The latest Seller Update is certainly packed full of additions and changes, specifically around the seller and buyer experience on eBay, and is structured around 3 key pillars.
- Running Your Business
- Listing & Promoting
- Fees & Financials
You can read the full update from eBay here
Running Your Business
Reducing unpaid items for accepted offers
eBay understands the frustration sellers feel around unpaid items, and to that end, they are further rolling out the new process for collecting payment from a buyer automatically after their offer has been accepted. By the middle of this year, it will also include best offer scenarios and counteroffers.
Refreshed Messaging Experience in the eBay App
You will notice in the coming weeks that the messaging function in the eBay app across iOS and Android will look a little different from normal.
New features include:
- Auto-response (useful if you are on holiday or a busy week of meetings)
- Ability to send offers to buyers
- Destination inbox that makes it easier for you to manage messages grouped by buyer or listing.
While this will be rolled out in beta at present, and you can opt-out at any point now, however, eBay has said that in late Spring this will be rolled out across the app fully.
eBay Academy (UK)
The UK version of the ‘eBay Seller School’ that is live in the US is now live for all UK business seller accounts. eBay Academy courses have been designed for new and existing sellers alike and is structured into short bitesize courses as well as long module-based courses. This is great news for new eBay sellers that may have started up in the pandemic. You can read more about our take on the new generation of ‘Pandemic eBay Sellers’ here.
Listing & Promoting
So that was the key pointers from ‘Running Your Business’ but what about ‘Listing & Promoting’?
Selling Manager Pro
What was previously a subscription-only feature of eBay, will now be included for all sellers over the coming weeks. This will allow sellers to automatically leave feedback for buyers, relist auction items and also see more detailed information on the seller hub around your listings. For anyone who is paying a subscription for Selling Manager Pro, this will cease, and it will be free of charge from March 2022.
Promoted Listings Update
This is probably the biggest area of change in this round of seller updates. If you are new to Promoted Listings, then head to our beginner's blog to find out more here.
Over the coming weeks, you will see new features and points added to the functionality. These changes have been introduced to bring them closer to traditional paid advertising in the market, however, the core aim is still to boost visibility and sales of listings. The key improvements are:
- New campaign dashboard – see at a glance what is working, what needs improvement, and ways to increase the success of your promoted listings.
- Promoted Listings Express is expanding and is now available across all auction-style listings on desktop now as well as mobile and app. A reporting feature is also being rolled out so you can keep track.
- Promoted Listings Advanced will also appear more frequently to relevant buyers with the introduction of ‘broad match’ keyword targeting. This is essentially marketing speak for ‘widening the net’ when it comes to showing your ads to prospective buyers. You will have control over this by adding keywords that are not relevant to the campaign.
Fees & Financials
Fees are changing, and this is a little bit different depending on where you are trading and you can get the lowdown in your region here
UK
However, for the UK there are 3 key changes to fees (source: eBay UK):
- The low-cost item offer is now here to stay indefinitely. You will be able to opt-in and pay a final value fee of 15% + 5p on all transactions for both new and existing listings.
- New reduced fees for low-cost collectible items – this will be reduced from 30p to 10p per order for a total sales price of up to £10 from Feb 2022.
- Changes to refund fees
We know it is a busy time for eBay sellers… and we can help!
With the eBay mandate deadline around the corner on the 22nd of February, we know time is precious right now. So, it is the perfect time to start up with Optiseller, update your listings at pace, see your performance and keep on top of your item specifics.
Sign up for our 7-day free trial today and start optimising your listings today.
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