We might all still be BBQing, living in shorts and overindulging in ice creams but autumn is right around the corner and eBay wants us to know about it in their latest Autumn Seller update.

The third and final business newsletter of the year, brought with it new ways to manage your business, updates to shop by product, new listing optimisation, updates to after-sales processes and changes to eBay’s international sites. If you haven’t had the chance to take a read, we’ve gathered together some of the essential updates and actions you need to be aware of now.

New ways to manage your business

Later this year you’ll be able to create uniquely coded coupons for your customers. These Self-Serve Coupons can be set up in the Seller Hub and will be uniquely coded for the use at checkout. The best bits?

– The Self-Serve Coupon will have a unique landing page, displaying the inventory included;

– The Self-Serve Coupon will be easily shareable via social media, postage inserts and marketing campaigns; and

– The Self-Serve Coupon is trackable, meaning that you can measure where buyers are coming from.

eBay will also be changing the way it displays promotions in the top banner of the View Item page. Only the most relevant promotions will be shown, so following eBay’s best practice guidelines is a must. Review your existing promotions to check that the discounts offered are ‘eBay good enough’.

Shop by Product

We announced the trial back in March, but because of the significance and complexity of it all, eBay wanted to check back in to make sure everyone understood.

Shop by Product is the new buying and selling experience on eBay. Sellers are required to match their listings to products in the eBay catalogue. It starts with these 12 categories at the end of the month, expanding to 22 more categories from October.

If you have a product not covered by a category, you can request eBay to update the catalogue, which they’ll do within 24 hours. Speedy.

Listing optimisation

HTTPS

Following Google’s newly announced changes to their security requirements, eBay will begin blocking new, relisted and revised listings that contain non-secure content, starting late January 2019. A new tool in the Seller Hub will help you to identify which of your listings do not currently comply and how to add HTTPS protocol to any non-secure content.

Pre-sale phone queries

Sellers can now opt-in to share a customer service phone number with buyers before they make a purchase. Simply enable via the ‘manage communications with buyers’ section in your account settings, for buyers to see the number after clicking “Ask a question”. Work is currently enabling this on the mobile app.

After-sales processes

Service metrics and competitive insights

You now have increased visibility into “item not as described” and “item not received” requests via a new service metrics tab.

Item not described surcharge

Any sellers with very high rates of “items not as described” open requests, as measured against competitors, will incur a 4% additional final value fee surcharge as of 1 October

Tracking

From 26 September sellers will be required to upload tracking information before the estimated delivery date. This will enable eBay to protect sellers if a buyer claims that they have not received their item.

Auto-accepting returns

From 17 September, eBay will automatically issue returns labels to buyers, as long as it falls within your returns preferences. Those sellers who have set up returns merchandise authorisation will still be able to provide their own labels to buyers.

We recommend checking your returns acceptance rules and label provisioning options now.

International changes

Those selling internationally may be affected by some of the global eBay autumn changes.

Other changes

If that wasn’t enough:

– The subtitle feature fee will increase from £1 to £2 per listing from 6 September 2018. Is that little line of additional text worth it? With the characters not appearing on mobile app search results or gallery view desktop searches, many will be deciding not.

– eBay wanted to remind sellers of its duplicate listings policy. Duplicate listings are against eBay policy and those failing to comply will see their whole inventory demoted. Take the time now to check for accidental duplicates.

An active autumn for eBay

We hope that eBay’s autumn changes will lead to increased customers and sales for your eCommerce store. eBay promises that it is listening and responding to seller (and buyer) feedback, in a bid to lure customers and buyers away from Amazon.  Luckily, with multichannel management software such as Expandly, you don’t need to worry which marketplace your potential customers head to first. Expandly allows you to list on Amazon, eBay, Wish.com and Etsy, as well as your own website, simply.