Help with eBay Policy changes
Frooition listing rescue is the fast and easy way to bring your listings in line with eBay policy. Frooition can help with:
- https:// (Remove non-secure links from listings) (More about https://)
- Removing Links (More about eBay links policy)
- Removing active content (What is Active Content?)
HTTPS and eBay
Since October 2017, Google Chrome users will see the message “Not secure” in the browser’s address tab when they visit HTTP pages and HTTPS pages that include HTTP content. Other web browsers will likely follow suit and make similar changes in the future.
eBay pages are served via HTTPS, however if sellers have used non-secure HTTP content (such as images), Google Chrome still considers the page in-secure.
From January 2019 eBay will block access to none secure, none HTTPS pages.
To ensure that your buyers don’t see the “Not secure” message when using Google Chrome, eBay is making a change to how desktop users view such content in item descriptions. Listings with HTTP content will have a button reading “See full item description” – creating an additional step for your buyer.
HTTPS compliant listings will continue to be shown as normal.
eBay links policy
eBay’s links policy states that sellers are no longer allowed to share contact information in item descriptions, images or eBay Shops. This policy applies whether the link is clickable or not.
eBay sellers need to remove contact information from both active and new listings. This includes information included in images such as phone number, email, or even a store physical address. eBay messaging tools, such as My Messages or Best Offer, make it easy to communicate with customers and create a clear record of interaction in case of disputes.
Links that direct customers to a site other than eBay are only permitted from approved domains as long as they link to:
- Information on delivery services.
- Product videos, e.g. reviews, product demonstrations or installation.
- Other legally required information.
- Any links which take you to another page on eBay are fine, and updates to eBay’s links policy do not affect externally hosted pictures and CSS media files.
- Any permitted links cannot direct customers to pages that encourage people to view, search, or purchase items off-eBay.
For the links that you are permitted to use in your listings, the target=”_blank” attribute must be used in your HTML item description.
We recommend you have your compliant hyperlinks updated, and non-compliant links removed at your earliest convenience, to avoid disruption to your listings.
eBay active content policy
Active content can inhibit mobile purchasing, creating longer load times, increase security vulnerabilities, and have a negative impact on the overall user experience. For these reasons, eBay stopped the use of active content in listings in June 2017. JavaScript, Flash, Plug-ins and form actions will all be blocked. These changes to active content are to enhance customer experience and encourage people to buy on eBay. Ultimately, these changes will help eBay sellers to make more money from eBay.
Active content can be removed manually. But this is a time-consuming process. We experimented, and even for the most confident coder, editing 1,500 listings would take 85 hours. For sellers with just a few listings, this may be an option, but for those with hundreds or thousands of listings, manual removal would be a huge undertaking.
For eBay stores who do not have a Frooition design, we have launched a listing rescue service. This automates active content removal, massively speeding up the process. It saves you the time of manually trawling through your listing’s code, and prevents any possible mistakes for those less confident with coding.
