eBay Shops subscribers in the U.K. and Ireland are seeing a difference in the way their listings show up in searches, as eBay introduces changes to the Shops format.
On Sept. 25, eBay converted shop inventory to standard 30-day fixed-price—or Buy It Now—listings. The move went hand-in-hand with a new fee structure that reduces insertion fees for fixed-price listings while raising final value fees on most types of merchandise.
Rather than pushing shop inventory to the bottom of search results, "All items listed through a shop will be in main searches, sorted through a variety of factors, including popularity," says Richard Kanareck, a spokesman for eBay in the U.K.
Shops subscriptions will continue to be offered in a tiered structure, but with substantially higher monthly fees—along with tougher qualification criteria. Boiled down, this means that in addition to having a branded site in which to house merchandise, Shops subscribers will be able to buy down insertion rates—to as low as 1c per listing—based on subscription level.
Sellers who don't subscribe to a shop will be able list 30-day fixed-price merchandise for 50c, or 25c for media.
eBay is hoping that reducing the fees sellers pay upfront will encourage them to put all of their fixed-price inventory online.
At the same time, eBay says the change in the way items appear in main search results will make it easier for buyers to find what they're looking for by giving sellers of fixed-price merchandise better visibility in searches.
To qualify for a Basic shop under the new structure, sellers will need a minimum of 10 positive feedbacks. Featured and Anchor subscriptions require minimum detailed seller ratings of 4.4 and 4.6, respectively. Existing shops were expected to be converted to the new equivalent shop on Sept. 25, and the new fees immediately be reflected. Qualification criteria will apply starting in October, according to eBay.
To adapt to the format change, sellers who use third-party listing services may need to manually update saved listings that have not yet posted. Users of Auctiva's listing management software may perform a bulk Find and Replace function to automatically update a large number of listings, as well as selling profiles.
Auctiva staff writers constantly monitor trends and best practices of those selling on eBay and elsewhere online. They attend relevant training seminars and trade shows and regularly discuss the market with PowerSellers and other market experts.
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