eBay Stores upgrade: final reminder to check your Store!

eBay Stores has always been a great way for sellers to create their own brands on eBay. With new storefront templates and enhanced search results, the new eBay Stores format is even better—both for Stores sellers and their customers.

Most Stores sellers have chosen to upgrade and are currently benefitting from the new format and over the next two weeks, we will be upgrading the rest of eBay Stores automatically. If you haven’t already done so, it’s important that you preview your Store and opt-in beforehand. Just go to My eBay and click “Manage My Store” in the Account menu.

For most Stores, the transition is seamless and requires no modification by the seller. If your Store has been significantly customized, you may need to make some changes. So be sure to check now, before the automatic upgrade begins.

For more details, please see our frequently asked questions.

Older search technology retiring at the end of April

Almost all eBay buyers and sellers are now using eBay’s new search technology. We previously announced the older technology would be retired in April of this year.

If you’re still using the older pages, we encourage you to give the new search a try—even if you tried it before (just click the “Try it now” link at the top the search page). Since it was first introduced, we received some great comments and suggestions, and we’ve used your feedback to make it even better:

• Results are returned faster than ever.
• You see more of the items you want.
• You can now customize your preferences for the left side of the page.
• Window shopping in the snapshot view makes shopping even more fun.
• “Related searches” and “exclude in category” searches are back!

We’ll continue to make the new search better, faster, and easier to use with more innovative ways to find what you’re looking for.

Sincerely,

The Finding and Stores Teams

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Stephanie Tilenius

On behalf of eBay, let me open with two words: Thank you. We appreciate your business and the opportunity to strengthen our partnership with you. Together we can do what’s necessary to bring buyers to eBay and keep them coming back.

We also recognize the impact that major changes to eBay can have on your business. For that reason, we are grouping those changes into two or three major releases per year, with at least 60 days advance notice.

In 2009, there will be 2 significant releases. This post announces the first release, coming the week of June 15. The second release will be announced this summer and will go live in the early fall.

Here’s an overview of the changes launching the week of June 15. This release focuses on driving more sales and improving seller efficiency. Note there are no fee changes in this release.

The spring release is set up to deliver three things for our sellers:

1. Easier, more visual shopping to drive more sales

• New item page rolling out. New photo zoom coming later this year. Get your listings ready now.
• New eBay product pages surfacing to more buyers. To make sure your items show up on these pages, use product details (formerly called pre-filled item information).
• New way to list in Fixed Price lets you offer all variations of one product—e.g. colour and size—in a single low-cost listing.

2. Key information to set buyer expectations and help reduce your costs

• New Smart FAQ answers buyers’ top 20 questions before they contact you.
• Package tracking links available from My eBay—print labels on PayPal and tracking links show up automatically, or you can upload the information.
• Return policy and handling time required for new listings and re-listings beginning June 15. Deadline for updating your Good ‘Til Cancelled listings extended to mid-September.
• Use Item Specifics. Now in some categories, you can customize when the available choices don’t apply to your item.
• Category and Item Specifics changes now consolidated with the rest of updates—find out if your listings are impacted.

3. Other updates to make selling on eBay more efficient

• Selling Manager FREE for all sellers.
• Bulk editing tools available now.

Get more details on all these updates.

Cheques and money orders no longer allowed
As part of our ongoing commitment to improve the customer experience on eBay.ca, we will be moving to an electronic checkout process that’s faster and more consistent for sellers and buyers. As part of this move, cheques and money orders will no longer be allowed on eBay.ca. By moving to a paperless payment system that is more consistent with the rest of the ecommerce landscape, Canadian buyers and sellers will have access to the same payment safeguards and enhanced checkout experience that can be found on eBay.com. Find out more here.

Finally, I’d like to invite you to talk with members of my staff during the next two days on a special discussion board on eBay.com we’ve set up for this purpose.

Again, thank you for partnering to make eBay a successful marketplace. We believe these changes will improve your sales and the efficiency of selling on eBay.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Tilenius
Senior Vice President & General Manager, eBay North America

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