eBay’s decision to treat auctions with the Buy It Now option as fixed-price listings means some sellers will have to update their auctions before May 28 to ensure their listings will post.
With the new policy, announced today as part of eBay’s 2012 Spring Seller Update, auctions with the Buy It Now option will be considered fixed-price listings. This puts sellers with similar auctions at risk of violating eBay’s Duplicate Listing Policy, which took effect in late 2010.
The policy was meant to “prevent search results from being dominated by multiple listings of the same item from the same seller,” and allow more listings and sellers to get exposure on eBay, according to the Duplicate Listing Policy.
When initially announced, the policy only affected fixed-price listings. However, “reducing the number of duplicate listings for an identical item from the same seller has paid off,” eBay states in its spring update announcement. “It’s made it easier for buyers to find what they want—and significantly increased exposure and sales for more sellers.”
So the site decided to expand the requirement to auctions with the Buy It Now option. This means that by May 28, similar auctions from the same seller must be “significantly different” to post on the marketplace, eBay adds.
What is ‘significantly different?’
“Significantly different” listings are those that address “a significantly different user need or offers a significantly different value to buyer,” according to eBay.
To decide if listings from the same seller are significantly different, eBay looks at listing information, including price, color, size, compatibility, use or purpose, quantity, item specifics, as well as title, description, item condition, photos, subtitle, location and product ID, the site notes.
eBay adds that differences must be reflected in a listing—and they must be “significant” in the value it will give buyers. eBay uses the example of a new Dell Latitude laptop that comes with a pen. That would be considered a duplicate listing of a new Dell Latitude laptop that comes with a mouse pad if the only thing that is different about the listing is the mention of the pen. According to eBay, the pen wouldn’t give the buyer a significantly different value compared to the mouse pad.
eBay recommends sellers make at least two fields (e.g., description, photos, price, etc.) in their listings substantially different to prevent problems.
How sellers can avoid duplicate listings
Rebecca Miller, an eBay seller of more than 12 years and the product manager of Auctiva.com, the largest third-party developer of eBay tools, encourages sellers to start reviewing similar listings they offer to make sure they won’t be affected by the policy change.
“May 28 may seem like a long way off, but it will be here before you know it, and you don’t want to be caught off guard,” she says. “I’d say, start reviewing listings now!”
eBay notes that sellers can remove the Buy It Now option in their auctions to prevent these listings from being considered fixed-price. However, it adds, sellers should not take this to mean they can create duplicate listings.
Miller says Auctiva customers with affected listings can use Auctiva’s Bulk Edit tool to quickly remove the Buy It Now option in their saved listings. However, if these listings also include an immediate payment requirement, the requirement should first be removed from the seller’s checkout profile, as it is not allowed on auction-style listings.
For new listings, sellers can use the Parts Compatibility feature (for eBay Motors) or create multi-variation listings to prevent similar items from being flagged as duplicates.
For more information on this new policy, read eBay’s official 2012 Spring Seller Update.
