eBay US August 2025 Seller Update: Seller Protections, Automatic Feedback, & AI Messaging
eBay has announced their August 2025 Seller Update for the US with AI messaging, Automatic Feedback and changes to seller protections with a more flexible approach to risk assessments to minimize business disruptions.
AI Assistant For Messaging
What you need to know
Our AI Assistant is a powerful new feature designed to enhance interactions with buyers. It gives you quick, relevant replies to buyers’ common questions, so you can save time, stay focused on your business and build buyer confidence.You’re always in control
Review and refine each suggested message before sending, or simply write your own. Every response is drawn from your live listings, so buyers get clear, accurate details—with you calling the shots.How to get started
To turn on AI Assistant:
- Open “Messages” on mobile or desktop. A pop-up should prompt you to enable “eBay.ai.”
- If you don’t see the pop-up:
- On mobile: go to “Settings” in Messages and toggle “eBay.ai” on
- On desktop: use the “eBay.ai” toggle in the bottom left of Messages
- To turn it off anytime, toggle “eBay.ai” off on your device
- Open a buyer message. A suggested reply will appear.
- Choose your next step: “Edit and send” to use the suggestion, or “Dismiss” to write your own.
eBay announced this feature at eBay Open 2025 last week. More details:
Liz Morton
Automated Feedback
What you need to know
Starting September 3, 2025, we’ll provide automated feedback for eligible orders, giving you more opportunities to increase your feedback score.This October, you can also expect improvements to how we handle mixed feedback. If a buyer’s comment includes both removable and non-removable content, we’ll give them the option to edit the removable part so their feedback is published.
What’s changing:
Automated feedback
Most transactions go smoothly, with sellers providing great service, but that hasn’t always been reflected in buyer feedback. Starting September 3, 2025, you’ll automatically receive feedback for successful transactions that meet all of these criteria:
- You shipped the order with tracking and it arrived on time
- The buyer hasn’t left feedback
- The buyer hasn’t reported any issues
- If a buyer decides to leave feedback, we’ll replace our automated message with their message. If the buyer returns the item or reports an issue, we’ll remove our automated feedback.
More flexible handling of mixed feedback
We’re also improving how mixed feedback affects your profile. Starting this October, when you ask us to remove feedback and a buyer’s comment contains both removable and non-removable content, we’ll ask them to edit the removable part. If the buyer revises it, we’ll publish their feedback. If they don’t, the feedback won’t appear on your profile at all. We’ll notify you whenever we ask a buyer to revise their comment.See our full feedback policy to learn more.
Automated Feedback was also announced at eBay Open last week and is an expansion of a feature eBay initially launched last year.
Liz Morton
However, the part about Mixed Feedback Revision is a mixed bag for sellers.
Previously, if any part of the feedback was not allowed, eBay would remove the whole thing but now buyers can potentially edit their comment to get it to pass the feedback policies and allow it to stand.
eBay provided the following FAQs to help assuage seller concerns:
What happens if a buyer doesn’t respond to their revision request?
If the buyer doesn’t respond to the request to revise feedback, the original feedback won’t appear on your profile.What happens if a buyer leaves the same feedback as before?
After the buyer revises their feedback, we will review the new comment to make sure it follows our policy. If the buyer doesn’t address what we’ve asked them to edit, or if there is some other policy violation, we will not publish the revised feedback.Can buyers downgrade their rating during the revision request?
No, the buyer cannot downgrade their rating. For example, if they selected a neutral rating in their first submission, they won’t be able to downgrade their rating to negative.Will you stop removing feedback?
No, if the entire feedback qualifies for removal, it will continue to be removed without asking the buyer to revise.Will eBay’s revision requests impact the number of seller revision requests I can send to the buyer?
No, these revision requests from eBay will not count towards your feedback revision requests.
eBay's full Feedback Policy page also has a note stating:
Changes to global regulations mean that, from September 3, we'll no longer automatically remove negative or neutral feedback in the following returns situations:
- The seller offered free returns, handled the return, and issued a refund
- An item was returned used or damaged, and the seller deducted an amount from the buyer's refund
Sellers who've had feedback removed in the last 12 months in either of these situations have been notified in their Seller News email of this upcoming change. Any feedback removed under our current policy will not be reinstated when the new policy takes effect.
They instituted the same policy in the UK when they expanded Automatic Feedback there earlier this year.
Liz Morton
Seller Protections
What you need to know
To help keep eBay a trusted marketplace for everyone, we monitor for risk factors that a seller may not be able to fulfill an order as expected. To help minimize potential disruptions for sellers as we complete these reviews, we've improved how we spot and address potential fulfillment issues—helping to keep your business running smoothly and reducing the need for action on your part.Based on your feedback, we’ve made our review process for potential fulfillment issues more flexible. This way, we can better address your individual situation if any concerns come up.
Before this, if a potential risk was identified, restrictions could be placed on your account or listings while we manually reviewed orders to confirm delivery.
With the revised process, we’ll take a more flexible approach. In most cases, you'll get the chance to resolve the concern before any action is taken. We’ll also use tracking information to automatically release funds once orders are shown as delivered. This change helps prevent account disruptions while maintaining a trusted marketplace for everyone.
What it means for you
If we contact you about a concern, we’ll provide clear, specific steps to help prevent restrictions—such as resolving unpaid balances, closing open claims, or uploading tracking information.With these improvements, any next steps will be easier to handle, so you can keep growing your business. You won’t need to take any action unless we reach out to you directly.
We’re working to cut down on disruptions and keep communication clear, so you can focus on what matters: selling on eBay.
If eBay's goal is to be more clear and specific, this announcement falls short as the vague language makes it not entirely clear what risk assessments eBay is referring to or how this new process will actually protect sellers better.
The same vague language was also included in the the August update for the UK and Germany as well.
Liz Morton
If I had to guess, this might be eBay's way of address increasing concerns from business sellers who are having their funds placed on hold until after delivery with no explanation and confusing and contradictory communication from support.
The new policy started rolling out late last year in the US, with sellers having payouts on all orders delayed until after delivery confirmation if their accounts tripped certain risk factors, including but not limited to being a new/infrequent seller, unresolved buyer claims, or unusual selling patterns like a sudden increase in the average order value or types of items being sold.
Liz Morton
Sellers have been frustrated with confusing communication from support indicating this will eventually apply to all sellers when the policy pages makes it clear it is applied on an account by account basis based on certain risk criteria.
And that confusion has recently extended to the UK and Germany as well, where more sellers are having this delayed payout policy applied and support tells them it is a new policy that will apply to all sellers eventually but eBay community staff have told them it is based on account specific details and risk assessments.
Hopefully these new vague seller protections will address this issue with payout delays and the abysmal communication from eBay on the topic is it continues to be a major concern for many sellers.
Stay tuned for updates and announcements from Canada, and Australia which will likely be coming soon!
