E-cigarettes
From 30th June 2009, electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes will be banned from sale on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie.  This ban will enable ebay.co.uk and ebay.ie to have consistent policies with other eBay sites throughout Europe. The ban also includes any listing of component parts (including but not limited to):  cartridges, atomisers, liquid refills, vaporisers, batteries and shells. Full details of this policy will be available on 30th June

Manufacturer Vouchers
From 30th June 2009, eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie will launch a Manufacturer Vouchers policy.  eBay is committed to working with the voucher industry to help ensure that eBay is not a venue for fraudulent voucher-related transactions and to providing its users with a safe place to trade. Therefore, the listing of valid vouchers will be permitted on the site with the following limitations: 

• Expired Vouchers: The sale of recently expired vouchers is not permitted on eBay as such vouchers serve no valid purpose and could be used in a fraudulent manner. Collectible vouchers that clearly cannot be redeemed may be permitted.
• Electronic "scanned" vouchers: All vouchers sold through eBay must be physically delivered to the buyer, and may not be delivered by electronic means for home printing. Further, to reduce the potential for voucher abuse, eBay asks that sellers refrain from placing clear, unaltered scans of vouchers in their listings that could be copied, printed and redeemed in stores. The sale of scanned or photocopied vouchers may breach copyright laws, and sellers of such unlawful items could face legal action.
• Bulk voucher sales: Bulk voucher listings are defined as listings that contain more than 20 vouchers for the same item, or more than 100 total vouchers. If it is unclear how many vouchers are offered, the listing will be considered to be in breach of policy. Voucher inserts (packets of vouchers typically found in newspapers) are limited to a maximum of 5 per listing, unless the seller indicates in the listing that the quantity of vouchers for sale is under 100 total vouchers.
• Vouchers for 'free' products: Vouchers for free products, with no purchase required, are limited to two per listing. Internet home-printed vouchers are also limited to 2 per listing.

Full details of these two policies will be available on 30th June

Regards,

The eBay Team

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Under eBay Buyer Protection, eBay will, as always, encourage sellers to resolve any problem that their buyers may have. However, as part of this policy, there may be instances where a seller doesn't resolve a claim and we find in favour of the buyer, in which case eBay will pay the buyer and invoice theseller for the transaction amount.  Where a seller fails to comply with the eBay Buyer Protection policy, eBay may also remove any special status associated with the account (e.g. PowerSeller status), reduce or eliminate any discounts received by the seller, decrease visibility of the seller’s listings in search results, place certain requirements regarding payment options offered by the seller and potential holds on payments made through PayPal and/or restrict or suspend the seller’s account.

As with earlier updates to the User Agreement, we’ve made other minor changes to reflect eBay’s current product and service offerings and industry legal standards. You'll see references to, “eBay site, services and tools” where the old agreement simply reads, “eBay site.” These changes reflect the many new ways you can access eBay’s offerings through other websites, wireless devices, and tools.

The new User Agreement is effective immediately for new members registering on or after 27th May 2009, and on 8th July 2009, for current members. You don’t need to do anything to accept the new User Agreement. If you don't wish to accept it, you can follow these instructions to close your account.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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• Expanded protection for sellers when they use PayPal.
• Introducing PayPal as payment option on all listings on eBay.ie.

• New item detail page available on eBay. Get your listings ready now.
• New way to list using Buy It Now enables you to offer all variations of one product - e.g. colour and size - in a single low-cost listing.
• Introducing free pictures in the Clothes Shoes & Accessories and Home & Garden categories, and a new webfile upload option.
• New Smart FAQ to answer buyers’ top 20 questions before they contact you.
• Customise item specifics when the available choices don’t apply to your item.

• Increase in price of listings will no longer affect recent sales score for Best Match.
• Mandatory specification of postage time.
• Category and items specifics changes - find out if your listings are affected.
• Policies relating to multiple-item listings and duplicate items changed.

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Buyers feel more confident about buying on eBay and sellers are more likely to see their listings convert to sales when PayPal is offered as a payment method. Through PayPal we can provide protection for buyers and sellers should things go wrong.

Here’s an overview of the upcoming changes that will make it safer and easier for you to buy and sell on eBay.ie.

Increased Buyer and Seller Protection
We're delighted to announce a significant expansion of the protection offered to buyers and sellers when using PayPal on eBay. These improvements will come into effect from June 2009.

Good news for buyers:
Starting in June eBay buyers will receive protection up to the full value of their purchases (including postage) when they pay with PayPal. Terms apply.

Good news for sellers:
Also from June all sellers will be eligible for expanded seller protection against certain claims for fraudulent payments and items not received - regardless of whether they are a PowerSeller or not. Under the terms of the expanded Seller Protection coverage, you will not be required to post to confirmed addresses for eBay transactions. There won't be an annual coverage limit and Seller Protection will cover the 190 countries supported by PayPal for sales made via eBay.

We’ll give you an update on this soon.

We’ve seen that transactions made using PayPal result in significantly reduced instances of fraud. With every listing on the site offering a traceable, protected payment option buyers will have increased confidence to return to shop with you again.

Sellers will continue to be able to offer other payment methods alongside PayPal, as per eBay’s Accepted Payments Policy. Listings in the Motors Vehicles, Property and Services categories will be exempt from this policy.

Thanks for your support in helping to keep eBay.ie a safe place to buy and sell.

Regards,
The eBay Team

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New item detail page coming soon to more buyers
The new item detail page is coming with bigger, better pictures, a real-time countdown timer for auction-style listings and much more.
To be sure that this works for everyone, we’re going to start testing the new item detail page soon. We'll be looking carefully at the test to help us make sure that we've taken care of any issues before we introduce it fully in the summer. We highly recommend you preview how your listings and listing templates will look in the new item detail page by early July to make sure they look great.

Here is how to preview your Listings in the new View Item Page

1. Upload good quality photos - 1000 pixels wide or larger
2. Check your item descriptions
3. Shops sellers: pick your top categories and upload your message
4. Boost exposure with cross-merchandising

To preview your listings, just click the 'Switch to the new version of this page' link at the top of your listing. 4 things to look for:

1. Photos: The new page puts your item front and centre with bigger, better pictures. Later this year, a special zoom function will let buyers roll over your picture for a close-up look. Make sure your item shines by uploading high quality pictures that are 1000 pixels or larger.

2. Item descriptions: For security reasons, the new page hosts the content you generate in a different location to eBay-generated content. In a few cases, this may cause some item descriptions to look ‘broken’.

3. Shops header: The new page shows categories in the header and gives Shops sellers a space in the header for a customised marketing message. Go to Manage My Shop to configure your categories and message.

4. Cross merchandising: Sellers will also have the option to cross-merchandise on each others’ relevant item pages. You can choose not to have cross-merchandising on your item pages but your relevant items won’t appear on other sellers’ items pages. You’ll want to consider the trade-offs carefully.

To preview your listings, just click the 'Switch to the new version of this page' link at the top of your listing. For more details see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Save time and money with our new multiple variations listing format
Save on listing time and fees!
From mid-July 2009 all sellers who have an eBay Shop will be able to include multiple product variations in one Buy It Now listing in Clothes, Shoes & Accessories and selected Home & Garden categories. Price each variation just the way you want. For example, you could sell all the colours and sizes of Gap Women’s and Girls’ shirts for a single listing fee.

• Manage inventory right from your listings
• Get multiple free pictures
• Just one feature fee covers the entire listing, including all variations
• Great cross-selling—show buyers all variations in one listing

Use multi-variation listings to maximise your sales.

• Try multi-variation Buy It Now listings for new listings. If you move inventory from your current single and multi-quantity Buy It Now listings and create a new listing, your recent sales scores in Best Match search results for the original listings are not carried over.
• Consider Featured First as a way to jump-start a recent sales score for your new listings. Just one feature fee covers the entire listing, including all variations, so it could work out to be a good deal.
• Inventory with good supply is best. Select items for which you have consistent supply and ready access.
• Keep your listing stocked. You can add inventory to any variation at any time, even after there have been purchases.
• Use lots of pictures! You can upload multiple sets of picture variations. You pay for only one set—the set with the most pictures.
• List with long duration—30 day or Good ‘Til Cancelled—to build your recent sales score. You pay the same listing fee as you would normally. (Good 'Til Cancelled listings are automatically renewed for the same fee every 30 days).
• Remember, your position in Best Match search results is based on a variety of factors including recent sales, the relevance of your listing title, item cost, your track record as a seller (DSRs), and Free P&P. Get more tips for making Best Match work for you.

For more details see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Introducing free pictures in the Clothes Shoes & Accessories and Home & Garden categories, and a new webfile upload option.
We’re pleased to announce that all pictures within the Clothes, Shoes & Accessories and Home & Garden categories will be free from end of June.

• Free Gallery Plus
• Free Supersize
• Free additional standard pictures
• Free Picture Pack

If you currently host your photos somewhere other than eBay, now is a great time to start moving them over to eBay Picture Services (EPS). Later this year, if you host your pictures on eBay using EPS, you'll be able to take advantage of the new zoom feature.

Introducing Smart FAQs
We’re introducing this new free feature to help you save time. It will draw on ‘live’ information from your listings to answer the top 20 buyer questions before buyers even reach ‘Ask Seller a Question’. Some top eBay sellers who’ve tested new Smart FAQ found it halved the time they’d usually spend answering buyer questions – and this was without a negative impact on sales.

For more details see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Introducing Custom Item Specifics
To help get your listings found on search results, we’re making it possible for you to specify your own item specifics when the current choices don’t cover your item. If the list of available Custom Item Specifics does not appear to be complete in a given category, you can use the “Add your own item specific” link to add your own custom name and value. However, the best practice is to use eBay item specifics recommended in the Sell Your Item flow, as long as they accurately describe your item.

For example, say eBay offers a Custom Item Specific called “Colour” that has value choices of: red, green, blue, pink and yellow. If you are selling a cornflower blue blouse, select the existing “blue” option rather than entering “cornflower.” You can include “cornflower” in your item title or description. By using the existing “blue” value in your Custom Item Specifics, your item is more likely to be found by buyers who use the left-hand navigation of the search results page to refine their search results.

For more details see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Regards,
The eBay Team

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In November 2006 we made bidder IDs anonymous on listings. This change has been very successful; research we conducted in 2007 showed a 90% reduction in fake second chance offers and other malicious emails.

To bring eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie in line with other global eBay sites, and to increase security for sellers, we will be going one step further and extending anonymous User IDs to winning bidders as well.

This change will be implemented this week.

As always, the following information will still be accessible:

• Sellers will be able to view all bidder IDs on their listings
• All members can click on the bidder ID and view the bidder’s Bid History page, which will detail the categories in which they’ve bid over the past 30 days.
• Feedback pages will show the same information as now – buyers and seller IDs, with comments visible to all.

Regards,

The eBay Team

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