eBay Reminds Sellers of Imminent Changes from Spring Update

eBay's Vice President of Merchant Development Michael Jones sent an email to sellers on Friday reminding them of key deadlines relating to its Spring Seller Update.

For example, this week, eBay will retire some return options - sellers will not be allowed to offer 3- and 7-day returns, and starting May 2, sellers will only be able to offer "Money back," "Money back or exchange," or "No returns accepted" on their listings.

The option for sellers to show same-day handling on their listings will be delayed until late 2012 "due to technical requirements for a solution that works as expected for both buyers and sellers." However, it appears eBay will proceed with a new system that alerts buyers to the possibility of extended delivery time for items with longer than 3-day handling.

eBay's Best Match algorithm, which determines the sort order of search results, will take into account additional information, including Item Specifics, product codes (UPCs and ISBNs), brand, part numbers, and other descriptors.

eBay also posted a reminder on the Announcement Board, reminding sellers of the May 1 deadline for uploading tracking to achieve or keep Top Rated Seller status and many more changes coming this spring.