Extension Granted on Enforcement for Required Return Policy and Handling Time

Nate Etter announced today that we would be extending the deadline for  Required Return Policy and Handling Time in listings.

The new enforcement date for mandatory Return Policy and Handling Time will  be in early 2009. To give sellers adequate time to get their listings ready, we'll  be giving sellers at least 30 days notice before we start enforcement.  

Developers should still prepare to support sellers in adopting Return Policy and Handling Time before the early 2009 enforcement date. No changes are required for Handling Time, but for Return Policy, you'll  need to start using the new Return Policy node. See the API docs on "Offering a Clear Return Policy." Read more »

Email addresses Do NOT Need to be Removed From Listings for Holiday

There's been some confusion about whether or not seller email addresses must be removed from listings before the holiday season. Let me be clear. Sellers do NOT need to remove  email addresses from their listings.

As mentioned in "Anonymization of Email Addresses in Member to Member Communication," we're  making all email addresses anonymous on the site and in the API, except between transaction partners. If this is enough to keep everyone safe, we may never need sellers to remove their email addresses from their listings. We'll take another look at this in Q1 2009, and see how well it's working. Read more »

New Way for Buyers to Correct Feedback

Lorrie Norrington announced in July that we would be rolling out a new process this month to resolve issues with buyers, even after a buyer has left negative feedback. Everybody makes mistakes—buyers and sellers alike—and buyers should have a mechanism to change feedback if they make a mistake or if the seller rectifies an issue in a timely manner.

Unlike with our previous Mutual Feedback Withdrawal system, our new process will enable buyers to change their feedback of the seller, not just withdraw the rating. DSR ratings can also be revised. US will be releasing this feature the week of Oct 20. Read more »

Processing Merchant Credit Cards through eBay Checkout

Per our announcement in August, all items listed on the eBay site must be paid for with an approved electronic payment method, which includes credit card acceptance through merchant accounts. Fortunately we're adding support for merchant credit cards to eBay Checkout, so you can integrate your Internet merchant account directly into the eBay Checkout flow.

To take advantage of integrating your Internet merchant account into eBay Checkout, you'll need to sign up for the Payflow online payment gateway. Normally online payment gateways charge a fee for processing your transactions, but we'll be waiving your fee for this service. Learn more »

More Best Practices for Listings Under the Domain Split

As mentioned previously, there are certain template changes you may want to make to ensure that your listings will look their best under the domain split. Further testing has uncovered a few more things to look out for:

• Content Not Centered
• Double Scrollbars
• Extra Whitespace

If you're having any of these symptoms, make sure you check out the blog »

Domain Split Rolling to Motors Starting Monday (9/29)

The domain split will be rolling to the Motors site starting Monday (9/29). It will start out at 50% on the site (50% of listings will have the domain split applied) and—if results are positive—will go to 100% on the following Monday (10/6).

This is an improved version of the domain split that rolled out to Motors earlier this year.

This does NOT mean that the domain split will be rolling to ALL eBay sites on Monday. The timing for other eBay sites is still being driven by the new View Item page, and that is incrementally rolling out. And being tested and verified at each stage. Read more »

Specifying "Returns Not Accepted" using Attributes

For those of you who are still specifying Return Policy using the old attribute style, you will need to specify "Returns Not Accepted" in this way. For attributeID="3803", use a Value ID of -10 to indicate that returns are not accepted. This code is currently supported in production.

As a reminder, the old attribute way of specifying Return Policy will still be supported until Feb 2009. Or you can start moving to the new way of specifying Return Policy now. See the API docs on "Offering a Clear Return Policy." See the code snippet »

Technical Alert: ReturnsNotAccepted working for US, not International

As mentioned previously, all sellers will be required to specify a return policy in their listings. It's OK to not accept returns, you just have to specify that you don't.

For developers who are using the new schema node to specify the return policy, the option ReturnsNotAccepted is now working on the US site. The option will be working on international sites 10 Oct, 2008. To monitor the status of this issue, see this system announcement.

Custom Item Specifics and Catalogs Improve Seller Sales

Over the next few months eBay will be increasing search exposure of item specifics. In more and more places, buyers will be able to click on item specifics in the left hand navigation area to narrow their results to items with that specific feature or attribute. In addition, eBay will be expanding the list of eligible values for left navigation to include popular Custom Item Specifics. This will be the first buy-side exposure of Custom Item Specifics (previously limited to Title and Description Search).

Why is this important to you? Sellers who aren't able to adopt Custom Item Specifics or Catalog Products will be at a competitive disadvantage in Search. Developers who support Custom Item Specifics and Catalog Products in their selling tools will have an important competitive differentiator—better sell-through performance for items listed using their tools.

For more information on how to incorporate Custom Item Specifies and Catalog Products into your selling tool please see the relevant documentation. Learn more »

Early October 2008 Category Changes

The category structure will be updated in early October based on feedback received from the eBay Community and from experts in the affected fields. If you sell in these areas, please be sure to take a look at the new category structure on Seller Central here. Categories with updates are:

• BABY
• BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL
• CLOTHING, SHOES & ACCESSORIES
• COINS & PAPER MONEY
• COLLECTIBLES
• CRAFTS
• DOLLS & BEARS
• ELECTRONICS
• ENTERTAINMENT MEMORABILIA
• HEALTH & BEAUTY
• HOME & GARDEN
• JEWELRY & WATCHES
• POTTERY & GLASS
• SPORTS MEM, CARDS & FAN SHOP
• STAMPS
• TOYS & HOBBIES
• eBay MOTORS

We appreciate your input on how we can make categories better for everyone. Please submit category suggestions here.