Back in October 2017, externally hosted content such as CSS, images, or HTML5 that didn’t use HTTPS started to be displayed on eBay with a not secure icon in Google Chrome and many other browsers.

In order to retain Google’s secure label and maintain customer confidence, eBay removed non-secure content and put item descriptions with non-secure content 1-click away.

In the Autumn 2018 seller update, eBay announced that they will start blocking listings that contain non-secure (HTTP) content from late January 2019.

But what is HTTPS? Why is it so much better than HTTP? And why do eBay care about it so much?

What is HTTP?

HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol. This is the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website you are viewing.

HTTP is the standard protocol that has enabled people all over the world to share information via the internet. The downside to everyone knowing the method is that everyone includes criminals, and anyone who knows the protocol knows how to intercept it.

What is HTTPS?

HTTPS stands for hypertext transfer protocol secure. With HTTPS, all communications and the website you are viewing are encrypted.

Using HTTPS, the website you are viewing, and your browser agree on a “code” between them, and then they scramble the messages using that “code” so that no one in between can read them. The key to the code is generated by the SSL certificate of the sender and the recipient. Only those two certificates will know how to decipher the information you send.

Why HTTPS is essential for e-commerce

HTTPS keeps your information safe from hackers. Even if the information is intercepted on its journey between the website and your browser, it would just be strings of random characters. Only the sender and the recipient, with the SSL certificates holding the “code” can decipher the information.

Google has been sliding sites using HTTP down in search result rankings since 2015, and Google’s Chrome browser now marks non-HTTPS sites as ‘nots secure’.

For e-commerce sites, where sensitive information is shared and stored, HTTPS is essential.

Frooition eBay designs are all HTTPS. We also host images and videos so that they are HTTPS.

To be HTTPS secure, everything on a page must be HTTPS. Just one image or one element being HTTP is enough to compromise the security of that page.

Ebay is urging sellers to add HTTPS protocol to any non-secure content as soon as possible.

Frooition’s Listing rescue is an automated service which scans listings for any traces of HTTP and removes them. This saves you the time of manually going through listings and deleting elements with HTTP.