| |
|
Posted by John Darrow in Documentation & Product News
Thursday, Nov.05.2009, 3:23 PM PT
In October, eBay introduced changes in the Unpaid Item (UPI) Dispute process. We have a few clarifications and additions for you on this process. As noted in the UPI documentation, the new process lets you open a dispute as soon as 4 days after the transaction (instead of 7) and close disputes as soon as 4 days after opening the dispute (instead of 7), etc.
How do you know whether these new timelines apply to your disputes or not? It is all about the request version. If you created a UPI dispute with a request version lower than 637, the old timelines apply and the various platform notifications for messaging are still supported. But if the request version is 637 or greater, the new timelines apply, and the following platform notifications no longer apply: BuyerResponseDispute, SellerClosedDispute, SellerOpenedDispute, SellerRespondedToDispute. (The reason the notifications are not needed is because messages between buyer and seller are no longer added to the dispute.)
Support for the old process will be removed around March 2010, so please migrate your UPI dispute code to work with the new process.
What do you think of the new UPI process? I would like to hear your thoughts.
Fraser Smith
Senior Product Manager
developer-relations@ebay.com
|
|
Posted by Delyn Simons in Product News & Program Events
Thursday, Oct.15.2009, 2:31 PM PT
Join Farhang Kassaei, eBay's Lead API platform architect on Wednesday, October 28th, @ 6:30pm in Palo Alto for a talk on the technical challenges and issues solved to create the latest updates to the eBay API Platform, hosted by SDForum.
Participation is one of the important principals of Web 2.0. To encourage participation often Web 2.0 sites adopt an "open" strategy: Allow your developers to build the application for your end user. Architecturally, this approach is radically different than the traditional architecture where the entire site is built, deployed and operated by an internal team. Some of the aspects of architecture that should be examined in any open architecture are:
1.Overall System Architecture
2.Deployment
3.Development Cycle and Testing
4.Dependency Management and Graph
5.Security
6.Performance
7.Domain Specific API
8.Events and Messaging
9.Internationalization
10.State Management, Data Access
This talk will focus on how eBay dealt with these challenges when it opened its Selling Manager Applications platform to developer community. Get details about the talk here. Join Farhang at SDForum on 10/28!
- Delyn
|
|
Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News, Trading API & Best Practices
Wednesday, Oct.07.2009, 12:03 PM PT
As announced, sellers can now edit almost everything in live multi-quantity fixed price listings even after a sale on the item, except for title, category, duration and format. If you need to add quantity, modify the item price, edit the description, modify shipping costs etc, you don’t need to end and recreate the listing. You can simply revise your live listings. Buyers who had previously bought the item will have an option to see the earlier version of the listing.
For developers looking for new revenue opportunities, consider building feature-rich revision tools. Sellers are searching for listing revision tools that help them identify which listings need to be revised, regardless of which tool launched the listing. For easy policy compliance updates, we recommend all listing tools offer listing revisions, including multi-quantity fixed price items with a sale, with a quick way for sellers to determine which listings need revision. Or build a new revenue stream by building a query and revise tool, for easy search and replace on any parameter (even return value = null).
Developers will want to update their code to retrieve a particular version of a listing for proper reconciliation and dispute resolution purposes.
Developer Impact:
No code change is necessary to edit these listings, but any developer blocking these types of edits should remove such a block. Revisions can be done using any existing revise API call including ReviseItem, ReviseFixedPriceItem, ReviseInventoryStatus. Be sure you are using ReviseFixedPriceItem or ReviseItem so no additional seller fees are incurred (i.e. when using RelistFixedPriceItem). Revisions on multi-quantity fixed priced listings with a sale will still be blocked if a seller tries to edit title, category, duration or format.
When retrieving listings, a new Transaction ID field was added to GetItem on release 627 and GetItemTransactions on release 635 to return a specific version of the listing. If no transaction is specified, the latest version will be returned. Changes to the GetItemTransaction API call may cause a change to the behavior of several Platform Notifications. GetSellerTransactions will return the snapshot of the item as it was at time of transaction on release 635. Read the Release notes for more information.
Resources:
Release notes
ReviseItem
ReviseInventoryStatus
ReviseFixedPriceItem
GetItem
GetItemTransactions
GetSellerTransactions
|
|
Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News
Friday, Oct.02.2009, 9:00 AM PT
Today, we are pleased to announce that the Best Match Item Details API is available. You can use this new API to help sellers answer the following questions:
- Where is my listing appearing in search results when sorted by Best Match?
- How is my listing performing?
- What listing attributes help or hurt my listings rank?
- What can I do to improve my listing's rank?
- How do listings on page one of search results compare to my listing for a given search?
Best Match is the default sort order for search results on eBay. The goal of Best Match is to help buyers find what they're looking for, from sellers they trust.
Using the Best Match Item Details API, you can write applications that help sellers improve the Best Match rank of their listings. Additionally, you can enable sellers to view their items' click-through rates, their impression count range, and their items' sales per impression. An impression occurs on a listing when a user sees a search results page that contains the listing.
eBay also is releasing the Search Visibility tool, available in My eBay for sellers who can access the Seller Dashboard.
The Best Match Item Details API provides extra functionality that is not available in the Search Visibility tool. However, before you write an application, please note the information returned by the Search Visibility tool. For example, note the values returned for an item in the tool's Search Visibility Report. The values correspond to some of the values returned in a getBestMatchItemDetails response.
For more information about the Best Match Item Details API, see the Release Notes.
|
|
Posted by Delyn Simons in Business News & Product News
Monday, Sep.28.2009, 5:09 PM PT
We had a great webinar with developers last Thursday outlining the Selling Manager Applications developer opportunity we're offering before the holiday shopping season. If you had to miss it, not to worry! You can still email us at developer-relations AT ebay.com to get the details and get in on our offer before our deadline Next Week.
As a recap, if you submit your Business Readiness Review and your Billing Plan by Friday, October 9th, then successfully complete your Application Review to launch your SM Application by Thursday, November 15th, you’ll get:
four hours of premium DTS Support Requests and LiveHelp (a $300 value)
premier marketing placement as a featured application for the month of December on the eBay Applications Directory (http://applications.ebay.com)
we'll waive our eBay cut of the rev share (20%) through March 2010 –- so you get to keep 100% of your application fees earned through March 31, 2010
We want you to join us, so don’t delay! Email us and get in on our special deal by Friday, October 9th, so that you’re ready to access new customers and make more money in time for the busiest selling and shopping season on eBay.com.
- Delyn
|
|
Posted by Laurel Kline in Trading API, Business News & Product News
Wednesday, Sep.23.2009, 9:52 AM PT
In the coming weeks we'll be introducing Bill Me Later on eBay, as well as on other merchant sites through PayPal, beginning with a launch for a limited number of buyers and sellers in the U.S.
Qualified PayPal customers will be able to use Bill Me Later during eBay checkout. For select sellers, PayPal will automatically add Bill Me Later as a way to pay. Sellers included in the initial rollout will be notified via email by PayPal.
Developers who currently support PayPal will not need to make any code changes to support Bill Me Later. In GetItemTransactions and related calls, items that are paid for using Bill Me Later will use the existing PayPal value in the BuyerPaymentMethodCodeType.
Third-party checkout (3PXO) providers must use Express Checkout for Bill Me Later purchases. Bill Me Later is not supported by CP Cart.
Find out more at https://www.billmelater.com/help/ebay_seller_faq.xhtml.
|
|
Posted by Delyn Simons in Product News
Tuesday, Aug.18.2009, 2:33 PM PT
Kristina Klausen, senior director of the eBay Seller Efficiency team and Fred Speckeen, CEO of Terapeak, on Fox Business News this AM discussing Selling Manager Applications launch to sellers this week. (IE6 users may need to install a plug-in to view, in case you needed another reason to upgrade).
- Delyn
|
|
Posted by Delyn Simons in Product News
Monday, Aug.17.2009, 11:02 AM PT
Back in April, eBay announced at Web 2.0 Expo that it would no longer charge sellers to subscribe to Selling Manager and would turn the tool into an open platform called Selling Manager Applications, where third-party developers could embed their applications into My eBay and allow them to connect with sellers directly.
Today, Dinesh Lathi, Vice President of Seller Experience, announced that eBay is opening up Selling Manager Applications to sellers. The first wave of about a dozen applications from third-party developers are available to hundreds of thousands of subscribers of Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro, looking to make their eBay business easier to run. Sellers seeking ways to make their eBay business more efficient, improve customer service or streamline shipping will find embedded applications for these and many other critical areas available starting this week.
The Selling Manager Applications opportunity gives developers the following benefits:
- Exposure to hundreds of thousands of professional sellers
Be listed in our applications directory, viewable from My eBay.
Have your application be an integrated part of sellers' Selling Manager experience.
Focus on building great applications and eBay will manage subscription and billing.
Get access to a set of enhanced and exclusive seller-focused APIs.
You choose how much to charge, whether a one-time fee or ongoing subscription.
Developers -- get started by taking a look at our documentation, participation requirements and how you can participate in an upcoming application release. Check out our samples to help you get started, and use our sandbox environment as you build your application. eBay is continuously reviewing and accepting new applications to the program.
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to us in the Selling Manager Applications forum for developers -- this may just be the right opportunity for you!
- Delyn
|
|
Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News, Business News, Critical Notes from Tech Support, Trading API & Best Practices
Wednesday, Jul.29.2009, 6:04 PM PT
Just a reminder that we rolled out the requirement to specify Return Policy and Handling Time in two phases. The first phase, where they are required for new and relisted items, was enforced in June. The second phase, where they are required for Good Til Canceled (GTC) listings, will be enforced in mid-September.
In mid-September, when GTC listings are renewed, they will be checked for Return Policy and Handling Time. If they are not included, the listing will break.
It is likely that you have some customers that will break if they do not take any action. Please make sure that your application supports Return Policy and Handling Time in the structured data, and that your sellers are specifying it. If Return Policy and Handling Time is mentioned only in the Item Description and not the structured data, it will not count toward enforcement and the listing will break.
Also, if you have a lot of listings to update, make sure that you have left enough time to make the updates by the compliance deadline of mid-September. Your bandwidth constraints may limit you in how many revisions you can do in a day, so you may need to start your revisions as early as mid-August to make sure you have enough time to do all the revisions.
Note: Return Policy and Handling Time are not required in categories like Vehicles or Parts & Accessories.
For more information on how to specify Return Policy and Handling Time, see the API Documentation on Return Policy and Handling Time.
|
|
Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News, Business News, Feedback API, Finding API, Shopping API, Trading API & Best Practices
Wednesday, Jul.29.2009, 5:18 PM PT
Today, Stephanie Tilenius announced the Summer 2009 Updates. Here is the developer impact for those announcements. Watch the developer blog for more details on these changes.
As announced in April, in the spirit of partnership, eBay is now consolidating changes that impact your business into two or three major releases a year, with two months advance notice. This post introduces the second and final major release of 2009. Most of these updates will launch between September 22 and October 1, 2009.
In some cases we will launch these features to the eBay Sandbox before the September 22 release. Watch the blog for a list of those features. Also note that "September 22" means "the week of September 22" as it takes time to roll code to all the eBay servers.
- Rewards for sellers delivering great buyer experiences
- New way to look at DSRs
- Avoid getting low DSRs—1s and 2s. Buyers have different ideas about what constitutes a high rating, but most leave a 1 or a 2 only when they experienced a significant issue with their transaction. eBay will be shifting focus from average DSRs to the number of low DSRs as a more accurate measure of customer satisfaction.
The Feedback API allows you to get insight into your seller DSR ratings, including which group of transactions may have resulted in 1s or 2s. It is a good idea to add this functionality to your application so your sellers can carefully monitor their DSRs.
- Only domestic DSRs will count toward requirements for eBay.com. International transactions can be subject to factors outside a seller's control and we want to make sure sellers can expand globally without undue impact to their standing on eBay.com.
There are no specific API changes for this feature, but the API will reflect eBay site behavior.
- PowerSeller program update: rewarding quality over quantity
- Starting in October, a new eBay top-rated seller status will be added to the PowerSeller program to recognize and reward sellers providing great buyer experiences based on the new way to look at DSRs (very few 1s and 2s). eBay Top-rated sellers will receive the highest PowerSeller Final Value Fee discounts (20%), increased visibility in search results for Fixed Price listings, exclusive access to purchase Featured First and a prominent Top-rated seller badge on item pages. The Top-rated seller badge will be tested in search results pages this summer. The current PowerSeller icon will no longer be displayed on buyer-facing pages including item pages.
- All sellers with 100 or more annual transactions and at least $3,000 annual sales who meet the requirements for Top-rated seller status will be invited into the PowerSeller program and can start receiving Top-rated seller benefits in October.
- Next April, the PowerSeller program will also include a requirement for sellers based on the new way to look at DSRs (very few 1s and 2s). PowerSellers that don't have Top-rated seller status will get 5% Final Value Fee discounts.
- Meanwhile, the current PowerSeller discount structure will continue until April 1, 2010 to give sellers 8 full months to keep their current discounts while they adjust business practices to qualify for the new Top-rated seller status.
Information about top-rated sellers will be returned in Trading API and other API calls, just as it currently is for PowerSellers. We are currently planning to make more information about Top-Rated Sellers available via a dedicated API in a future release.
- New minimum standards for all sellers:
- Starting in October, there will be a new minimum standard for all eBay sellers based on the number of low DSRs (1s and 2s) received. The minimum standard will be stricter in April, 2010.
- A new Selling Practices policy will define guidelines for professionalism and accuracy in all aspects of listings and transactions.
- Optional buyer charges for shipping insurance will no longer be allowed. Sellers can still buy shipping insurance and add the cost to the item or shipping price.
As of SR2, any insurance charges including in listing calls like AddItem will automatically be dropped from the listing with a warning. The listing will not fail.
- Updates to the Seller Dashboard: You can now see a snapshot of your low DSRs (1s and 2s) and standing toward the new Top-rated seller requirements updated monthly through a link at the top of your Seller Dashboard. In September, you will be able to see daily updates.
For SR2, this additional information will only be available via the Seller Dashboard on the ebay.com website. We are currently planning to add this information to a dedicated API in a future release.
- Enhanced search presents more relevant listings
- Best Match, eBay's default sort order, will look at listing's recent sales in relation to the number of recent impressions it received as a key factor for Fixed Price listings. An "impression" is any time a buyer sees a search results page that includes the listing.
This new Best Match behavior will be reflected in the new Finding API for searches with a Best Match sort order specified. However, for technical reasons, will not be reflected in other Search calls.
- In addition, single quantity and newly listed Fixed Price items will be given exposure in Best Match even though they have no sales history. These listings will be given initial impressions based on the performance of similar listings. This change will improve the exposure of new Fixed Price listings that are relevant to buyers.
- Auction-style listings will still get a boost in exposure as they are about to end. To keep auctions enticing, Auction with Buy It Now listings will be required to have a BIN price at least 10% higher than the auction start price.
Listing calls that do not meet this criteria will fail with a blocking error.
- A new Search Visibility tool will help you evaluate how your Fixed Price and auction-style listings are performing in search results.
A new, dedicated Best Match API is being released with SR2. This API offers the same functionality as the Search Visibility Tool that will be offered on ebay.com.
- Several features will be discontinued including Featured Plus, Border, and others to save you money and keep the focus on relevance.
If discontinued listings enhancements such as Border are included in your listing calls, they will be dropped with a warning. The calls will not fail.
- Product pages are rolling out to more buyers, so list with product details to make sure your listings are included. Also, eBay will start selecting sellers' photos for inclusion in the eBay product catalog on September 1. If your photo is chosen, your user ID and a link to your profile page will appear on the product page. If you'd prefer not to have your pictures selected, opt out no later than August 31.
Listings must include a valid Product ID to be shown on Product Pages. Product catalogs are being rolled out to more categories, so there are more items that are eligible to be shown on Product Pages when you include their Product ID.
Also, there is no way via the API to opt out of sharing photos. Sellers must go to their My eBay to opt out.
- Easier, more profitable selling on eBay
- Faster recourse for unpaid items. A streamlined process will cut the resolution time in half. We are also working on a new automated option that will make the process even more efficient, cut the time to resolution to as little as 8 days and block negative feedback when a seller opens a claim and a buyer doesn't pay. This automated option will be tested in late September and our goal is to gradually make it available to all sellers by the holidays.
This new process also applies to items listed via the API. LeaveFeedback will be blocked in cases where this new process applies.
- eBay dispute resolution for buyer claims is expanding to more buyers to make the process faster and easier for sellers and buyers.
No additional dispute-management functionality is being added to the API with SR2. We are exploring the option of adding it in a future release.
- Buyer communications will be faster and easier to manage with enhancements to My Messages and streamlined post-transaction emails.
There are no API changes as part of this change, but developers who offer email management will want to be aware that fewer emails will be generated for each transaction.
- Get more control over international ship-to locations. You'll have the same ship-to choices you have now, plus you'll be able to specify countries you do not want to ship to.
With SR2, sellers can specify a list of countries they will not ship to. They can specify this globally, and on a per-item level. Global preferences can only be set via the ebay.com website, but per-item preferences can be set in the AddItem call. To take advantage of this feature, sellers must select the option in My eBay to exclude countries that they will not ship to.
- Upload tracking and delivery confirmation numbers for more shipping carriers.
Currently shipping carriers are selected from a list of enums. With the SR2 release, you will be able to specify the shipping carrier in a string. This will allow sellers to include more shipping carriers in their listings, including ones that the eBay site does not currently support. You can also specify a tracking number for that shipping carrier. Where eBay can identify the carrier, the tracking number will be displayed as a link to more shipping information.
- Editing listings, even multi-quantity listings with a sale and listing descriptions, will be faster and easier.
Currently it is not possible to edit live, Fixed Price listings once there has been a sale. As of SR2, this will now be possible. Also, when retrieving listings via GetItem, and so on, you have the option of retrieving a specific version of the listing. If no version is specified, the latest version will be returned.
- New Selling Manager applications boost efficiency for sellers of all sizes-try them free!
Selling Manager applications will be generally available to sellers shortly after SR2. To build your own Selling Manager application, see Selling Manager Applications.
- Category and Item Specifics changes are now consolidated with the rest of updates. Find out if there are changes to your categories.
- Stores subscribers-now you can put all your Fixed Price listings on vacation.
Get more details on all these updates You're also invited to:
- Take part in one of several upcoming webinars on Tuesday, July 28 and Thursday July 30.
- Join me and other leaders from eBay and PayPal in a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, July 29. Check the Announcement Board soon for more details.
- Talk with members of my staff during the next two days on a special discussion board we've set up for this purpose.
Watch the developer blog for more details on these changes.
|
|
|
