When Will eBay Announce Fall 2022 Seller Update?
UPDATE 9-28-22
The Fall Seller Update is here! Stay tuned for full break down.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
UPDATE 9-14-22
eBay community staff have confirmed some parts of the Fall Seller Update will be announced at eBay Open next week, with a full formal update to follow.
UPDATE 9-7-22
Historically updates for eBay US and UK have happened on the same day, with the announcement being posted on the UK site usually around 8 AM US Eastern time - it's currently about an hour past that and still no indication of an update on either UK or US at this time.
We're now 2 weeks away from eBay Open events in both the US and UK as well. eBay has already announced category and item specifics updates going into effect September 20.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
What's left for an update? Based on history, possibly fee increases (if there are any) and new tools or features "coming soon".
But if they were to announce new tools and features now, what would be left for the big event?
Given the timing of everything else involved, I'm leaning toward the idea they're saving the big announcements for eBay Open, then may follow up with an official update the week after to give more detail about anything introduced at the event.
eBay sellers are on pins and needles waiting to find out when the Fall Seller Update is going to drop, with some speculating it will be tomorrow since for the last few years it has been the Wednesday after Labor Day.
Some of us like to set aside time to review the new Seller Updates when they first come out, and, judging by the last three Fall Seller Updates, this Wednesday is the likely day for the Fall Seller Update. Could you confirm that it will be this Wednesday? And if it is not going to be Wednesday, can you tell us the date it is scheduled for? TIA!
Other sellers said they were not looking forward to any category or item specifics changes that might be in the update, as previous updates created havoc for their listings.
Last "fall update" they mucked up the Automotive parts categories so bad that I had to go back in an fix all the categories because when they deleted some they just put a lot of my stuff in the "other parts" categories. I would love it if they would limit their "updates" to once a year and only focus on making NEW things instead of butchering what already exists. We could also care less about "cosmetic" updates too. Leave it alone. Simplicity is the best design.
One IS update in fashion meant we had a fabric content category for clothing made from alginate and wood. Boy, howdy! was I glad to see that so I could list all of those birch tree and alginate shirts I'd been holding back
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but eBay has already announced category and item specifics changes that will be taking effect September 20, 2022.
Liz Morton ~ FounderWhile that trend of dropping the Fall Update the week after Labor Day is compelling, I'll also note that in April before the Spring Update, Griff and Brian let the cat out of the bag a day early on the eBay for Business podcast and so far this week at least, they are staying pretty tight lipped saying they have no news to report.
They did tease a little bit about being ready for Fall and "it all starts now" in reference to the holiday season, but no hints at all about a Fall Seller Update.
Griff: Oh yeah. That's right. You'll be hearing this after the Labor Day weekend has ended. Yeah.
Brian: So hopefully everyone enjoyed their three day weekend and is ready for the fall.
Griff: Yeah. Cuz it all starts now. Today it all starts.
Brian: Yes. Summer is done.
Griff: Summer is done. And if you aren't planning for the holiday season, the holiday shopping season...
Brian: You're behind...
...Griff: I'm gonna ask this question, but I know there's no news this week. Brian, is there any news this week?
Brian: Well, Griff there is no news this week. There's no way I, but there is a reminder.
Griff: What's the reminder?
Brian: eBay Open starts in just two weeks, Wednesday, September 21st through September 23rd and registration is still open at www.ebay.com/open. And I think it's too late for them to register for the preview.
It's also been very typical in the past for eBayUK to drop seller updates on the same day as the US site.
The US community no longer has a weekly chat, but when they did, one tell tale sign of an impending seller update was usually that the weekly chat would be canceled in advance, to free up community to staff to answer questions on dedicated update threads instead of the chat.
I don't know if it works the same way on the UK community, so this is purely speculation, but I did notice they still have a weekly chat and it is still showing as scheduled as usual for tomorrow - make of that what you will.
While we wait, let's look back at the Fall 2021 Update and a few promised features that still aren't available to sellers, a year later.
eBay Stores
We were promised many new features for Stores in the 2021 Fall Update. Most of them did eventually come to fruition, but we're still missing a way for buyers to sign up from the Store's About tab.
Newsletter sign-up from your About tab—In the coming weeks, a new button will appear in your Store’s About tab to encourage buyers to sign up for your newsletters
One seller who was particularly excited for this feature kept asking for updates and was strung along for over 5 months before eBay staff finally admitted the feature had been dropped and there were no plans to add it any time in the near future.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
...The (relatively) good news on this is that the Stores team has been fairly responsive so I'll update you as I hear back!
Edit to add - I heard back on these...
At this time there are no plans to add a “follow” link (which would add a buyers to a seller’s newsletter subscriber base) to the About tab on Storefront, as we are focusing on other features to deploy.
Listing Quality Report
If you've been a reader since the start of Value Added Resource, you'll know I have some pretty strong feelings about eBay's Listing Quality Report. 😉 When it rolled out in February 2021 it was full of data errors, "column misalignment", and just flat out incorrect information.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
eBay did eventually fix most of the errors, but the format of the repot was still a bit unwieldy and it lacked any ability to customize the report, so I was very excited when these changes were announced in the Fall 2021 Seller Update.
This month, the Listing Quality Report will be available to download in three formats:
- A PDF “one-page summary”
- An Excel “full report” with one tab per category
- A CSV “raw data” file, to be exported for further analysis
In the past, you could see the analysis of your 10 categories with the most live listings. You’ll now be in control of which categories will show up in the report. You’ll also have the option to keep the existing analysis, using the top 10 categories with the most live listings.
Unfortunately, despite the update saying it would be "this month" (September 2021), a year later we have seen none of these changes go live.
The Listing Quality Report is still the same format (the Excel "full report" mentioned above, PDF summary and CSV raw data file were never released) and you are still stuck with only the top 10 categories with the most live listings with no ability to control which categories will show up in the report.
Terapeak Sourcing Insights
From the Fall 2021 Seller Update:
You can use Terapeak Sourcing Insights to see the top 20 searched categories on eBay, based on sales from the previous 30 days. Find this under a new tab called “Top Categories.”
Unfortunately, Terapeak Sourcing Insights still doesn't work correctly for eBay Motors categories, despite the fact I reported the issues with it over a year ago and in last month's dedicated eBay community chat specifically about Terapeak.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Social Sharing For Discounted Final Value Fees
To be fair, this one wasn't from the Fall 2021 Seller Update, it was from eBay Open 2021 the month before - but still worth a mention in my opinion because it too has been delayed for over a year.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Tom Pinckney, VP of eBay Stores, announced at eBay Open Online that eBay would be adding a social media marketing incentive that will discount the final value fee to 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction when buyers buy from your social media posts.
This was one of the most positively received announcements from eBay Open last year and sellers have been anxiously awaiting its arrival - with very few updates from eBay on the subject.
eBay did finally run a pilot test of the program in Australia, but it was done as a limited time promotion for store sellers.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
No word from eBay on how the Australia test performed or if/when we might see it rolled out as a permanent program (not just a limited time promotion) as it was presented at eBay Open last year.
What are you hoping eBay will include in the Fall 2022 Seller Update? What are you dreading? Let us know in the comments below!
