If you’re an eBay seller, listen up! Since April 2016, eBay has released a number of changes to seller policies with the goal of “simplifying the shopping experience for buyers”. Like it or not, eBay is changing and to remain compliant, your store may need updating.
To help navigate this minefield, here’s a quick summary of the policy changes and how they affect you.
What’s Changed?
Active Content – no more!
The first major policy change was announced in April 2016 and stated that the use of active content in listings can inhibit purchases on mobile devices and leads to abuse in the market place. As such, active content in item descriptions is to be removed and replaced with text, HTML or CSS.
If you’re yet to remove active content from your listings, we recommend doing this ASAP! The eBay plan is to limit the use of active content and eventually remove or block those listings that don’t comply.
eBay say that “The use of active content in listings, including JavaScript, Flash and form actions can inhibit purchases on mobile devices and can lead to abuse in the marketplace. From spring 2017, we’ll limit the use of active content in all new listings across all devices and it will not appear by default. Later in 2017, we plan to remove or block listings with active content. We encourage you to limit your use of active content now“.
Remove Contact Information
From September 2017, you will no longer be allowed to share contact information in your item descriptions, images or eBay shops. Please note, this does not apply to Classified Ads.
All phone numbers, email addresses and social media profiles must be removed from your item descriptions, images and eBay stores to prevent your store from being penalised.
Business Seller Information
Ebay announced last month that they will be removing business seller contact information from the business seller info box on the product listing page. Once removed, buyers will only be able to find your business contact details if they click your user ID and access a new ‘Business’ section within your Seller Profile.
Though these changes are yet to go live on eBay UK, you can see how it will look by visiting eBay France.
Links Policy
EBay has also updated its links policy to limit the types of links that are allowed in listings and eBay pages. To prevent impact on your listings in September, sellers are only permitted to link to approved domains as long as they link to:
- Information about delivery services
- Product videos e.g. reviews, demonstrations or installation info
- Other legally required information
Updating hyperlinks in item descriptions
For the links that you are permitted to use in your listings, be sure to use the target=”_blank” attribute in your HTML item description.
We recommend you update your compliant hyperlinks at your earliest convenience to ensure they continue to work correctly in the future. Confused by code? We can auto-correct any links that do not contain the target=”_blank” attribute, just give us a call.
CORRECT: <a href=”www.yourlinkhere.co.uk” target=”_blank”>eBay</a>
INCORRECT: <a href=”www.yourlinkhere.co.uk“>eBay</a>
Compliance Check List:
- All active content has been removed from my item descriptions
- Contact information has been removed from item descriptions and images
- Links other than those linking to delivery info, reviews, demonstrations etc have been removed
- Target blanks have been included on all remaining compliant links
Need Assistance?
We have created tools to assist you in both selling on eBay, and also standing above the rest. From a bulk edit tool which allows you to edit many items at once, to advance listing tools, we can provide it all for you. We are Certified eBay Developers and have a strong knowledge of the eBay Eco System.
Call: 0151 601 4695
Email: sales@jarilo.co.uk
Web: www.jarilo.co.uk
Source:
https://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/business/news/spring2017/active-content
https://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/business/news/spring2017/links-policy
