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