Q. How can I change the category order in my Shop?
A. You can select from three options when specifying the order of your Shop categories in your eBay Shop:

1. Alphabetical order: Categories appear in descending order from A to Z
2. By number of listings: Categories appear in descending order showing the highest to lowest number of listings
3. Manual order: Using the arrow buttons, you can move level 1, level 2, or level 3 categories up or down in the order
4. Select Save to apply new order

Q. How do I control whether I display eBay categories or Shop categories in my Shop?
A. You can control the display of categories in your Shop in "Display Settings" under "Manage My Shop". Click the "Change" button to the right of "Left Navigation bar settings". Here you will be given the option to either display eBay Categories, or Shop Categories. If you choose Shop Categories you will be able to choose the Category level you wish to display.

Q. Can I control how many Shop categories are displayed in my Shop and in what order?
A. Yes, you will be able to specify to which category level to display (e.g. level 1, level 2 or level 3). Furthermore, under "Manage My Shop" you can choose to "reorder categories."

You can select from three options when specifying the order of your Shop categories in your eBay Shop:

1. Alphabetical order: Categories appear in descending order from A to Z
2. By number of listings: Categories appear in descending order showing the highest to lowest number of listings
3. Manual order: Using the arrow buttons, you can move level 1, level 2, or level 3 categories up or down in the order
4. Select Save to apply new order

Q. Will there be any impact to pre-existing links that I have to Shop categories?
A. All existing links to categories should work. However, if you choose to move your categories so that they are no longer the first level of categories and exist within another category, the link will break and send users to the shopfront. Please use the following new structure going forward: http://stores.ebay.com/[Your_Shop_Name]_W0QQfsubZ[x] Where [Your_Shop_Name] is the name of your shop and [x] is the category number. You can get the category numbers on the "All Shops Categories" page here: http://cgi6.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?StoreAllCategories

Q. Will I still be able to influence the meta tags used for category pages?
A. Yes, you will be able to choose keywords for eBay to use in contrasting meta tags for each of your category pages. Any keywords previously entered will be retained.

Q. Will categories with no listings in them show up in my Shop?
A. No, unless that category has subcategories with active listings. From Manage My Shop you will be able to see and manage all categories, even those with zero listings.

Q. How do I re-name a Shop category?
A. Under "Manage My Shop" click on Rename Categories, which will allow you to change the name of the selected categories.

Q. What happens if I re-name a category?
A. Nothing will happen to the listings within a category that is re-named. The address for the category page will change to reflect the new name. eBay will redirect traffic from the old category address to the new Shop category URL in as many cases as we can. If we are unable to redirect to the new category page, we will forward the address to the front page of your Shop. Shop categories that change names often may see a decrease in the natural search page rank of the corresponding category page.

We encourage sellers to use the special Shop html tags when creating links to Shop categories. The Shop html tags use the Shop category ID number (which does not change on rename) to refer to the correct category page. See additional information.

Q. Can I create more than one category with the same name?
A. Yes, as long as they don't exist within the same category. For example, if you only have one category level, you will not be able to create multiple categories called "shoes". However categories with the same name are able to exist within different categories. For example: "Women-> Shoes" and "Men->Shoes" is fine.

Q. What happens if I delete a category?
A. Deleting a category will affect the following:
1) Listings: You will be prompted to move your listings into another category before deleting the existing category.
2) Subcategories: If the subcategories contain no listings, these subcategories will be deleted upon verification.
3) URLs: These URLs will no longer exist, however if they are used, the buyer will be redirected to the User's Shops homepage.

Q. Is there any way to see my entire category structure?
A. From Manage my Shop, click on Shop Categories in the left hand navigation bar. In the bottom right corner of the table, click on the "All Categories" link.

Q. How do I display my Shop categories in my Item description?
A. In "Manage My Shop" click on Listing Frame under Shop Marketing. This will take you to the Listing Frame setup page. You can include links to your Shop categories in two areas of the Listing Frame:
- Option #1: You can choose the option to "Show my listing header in my listings" and add to
  up to 5 category links to the Listing Header across the top of your item description.
- Option #2: You can show the first 30 shop categories on your Shop Left Navigation menu by
  clicking on "Show my Shop listing header and left-navigation bar in my listings".

Q. How will this new feature impact my cross-promotions?
A. Existing cross-promotions will work as long as the categories have not changed. Should you choose to change your categories, you will need to edit the rules for cross-promotions to fit the new categories.

Q. Are Shop categories supported in my favourite listing tool?
A. Shop categories are supported in the Sell tab of the eBay site and in all eBay listing tools.

- In Turbolister, choose "Tools-> Check for Program Updates -> Install Now" to make Turbolister pick up any changes you have made to your category structure.

- Applications from third party developers may not immediately support Shop subcategories. eBay has been working with 3rd parties to help them transition and we encourage you to let them know that you would like to use subcategories within your eBay Shop.

 

Email Marketing

Q. What is email marketing?
A. Email Marketing is a tool for eBay Shops sellers that allows them to send email to interested buyers who have opted-in to their email mailing lists.

Q. Who can I send emails to?
A. You can email anyone who has subscribed to your mailing lists. Users subscribe to a seller's mailing lists via the "Add to Favorite Sellers and Shops" process, through which they can select one or more mailing lists to subscribe to for each seller.

Q. How do I send email to my subscribers?
A. Using the Email Marketing tool, you can easily create and send template-based or fully-customised HTML emails to your subscribers. You can send one email to each of your mailing lists every week, but there is no limit to the number of subscribers on one email list.

Q. What types of default email layout and content are available?
A. You can use default content for the following types of emails - Items Ending Soonest, Newly Listed Items, Previous Buyers and Welcome Email. After choosing the type of email, you select the layout you wish to use for the mailing. When you choose one of these types of emails, the subject line and personal message in the email will be filled with the default content. You can either edit the message and subject line or simply leave the content as is.

Q. What is a Welcome Email?
A. A Welcome Email is a specific type of email that is sent to the subscriber as soon as they subscribe to a Shop mailing list. The Welcome Email introduces the Shop and informs the subscriber how they can unsubscribe from the mailing list. Welcome Emails do not count against your monthly allocation of free emails.

Q. How do I schedule an email?
A. When you create your email, you will be asked if you want to send the email immediately or if you would like to set the email to be sent on a recurring schedule. You can choose the frequency you wish the email to be sent (weekly, every two weeks, etc.) plus the day of the week that you want the email to go out.

Q. How can I cancel or modify a scheduled email?
A. All scheduled emails will appear in the "Pending Emails" section of the "Email Marketing Summary" page. To delete a scheduled email, simply select the email and press the delete button. To edit the email, select the email you wish to edit and choose "Edit" from the pull-down menu in the Action column.

Q. How do I change the listings that appear in my emails?
A. There are two places in the email where your listings may appear - the Item Showcase and the Item List. In the Item Showcase, you can choose to use automatic selection and based on the type of email you select to send, the appropriate items will be selected for you by default. You can override the default selections and click on "change criteria" and manually selected the items you wish to show in the Item Showcase. For items in the Item List, you can change the items being displayed by clicking on the "change criteria" link.

Q. How do I know how many emails I can send for free?
A. In the upper right-hand corner of the "Email Marketing Summary" page, you can see the number of free emails you have left for the month. Additionally, on the "Preview and Send" page, you will be shown the number of emails that you have remaining for free before you send your email.

Q. How can I limit sending emails to only those that I can send for free?
A. When you create your email, there is a setting that allows you to send only emails that are included in your Shops subscription for free. If you uncheck this selection, you will be able to send more emails than are included for free.

Q. How do I send more emails than the monthly allocation included in my subscription?
A. Before sending an email, you will be shown the current allocation and remaining email count for the current month. On the "Preview Email" page, you will be shown the additional charges and by clicking "Send Email", you agree to pay the additional charges on your eBay account.

Q. How can I tell how many subscribers I have?
A. The "Shop Marketing Summary" page displays your total number of subscribers.

Q. How will I know that my email is reaching anyone?
A. The Email Marketing tool has a tracking mechanism built in which allows the sender to see the number of recipients who opened the email, clicked on links, and bid or bought directly from the email. This helps sellers understand which messages or product offers are most effective, and helps sellers fine-tune their marketing strategy.

• View Item Page
• Cross Promotions on the bottom of the View Item Page
• Seller Email Marketing
• eBay Shops Promotion Boxes

• In-Shop Search (this is the Search within a particular Shop)
• Items I'm Watching (if the item has gone on Sale after it was added to the buyer's watch list)
• Items I'm Watching Ending Soon Email
  • In all other areas, the "Sale Price" will be displayed as the BIN price (including in the main eBay Search results).

• All listings from a category
• This will apply to all currently active Buy It Now listings in the selected category
• Individual items selected by the Item Picker
  • Note: all of these selections will only apply to currently active listings. If you would like to apply a Sale to future listings, you will need to select them in the Sale once they become active.

• Markdown Manager only applies discounts to Buy It Now listings.
• Some of the listings did not meet the requirements as mentioned in Listing Requirements.
• The listing became active after the Sale was created.
• You selected the listing to go in another Sale with overlapping dates.

• 1 Day Minimum Sale Duration
• 14 Days Maximum Duration
• 5% Minimum Discount
• 50% Maximum Discount
• 14 days wait time from when an item goes off Sale to when it can go back on Sale

• The daily limit is defined per Shop subscription:
  • Basic Shop Subscribers: 250 Listings
  • Featured Shop Subscribers: 2,500 Listings
  • Anchor Shop Subscribers: 5,000 Listings
• For example:
  • Seller A is a Basic Shop subscriber and schedules a "New Years" 10% off sale with 250 listings to start on January 1st and end on January 15th. This sale will be allowed.
  • If Seller A schedules another Sale with 250 listings to start on January 1st, they will be unable to do so because they have reached their limit for that day.
  • However, Seller A can schedule a second sale to Start on January 2nd with another unique 250 listings, because they have not reached their limit for January 2nd.

• For example: Item A was listed for £100 and gets reduced by £10.90. The new Sale Price will be 89.10, but the % off will reflect 10% (not 10.9% or 11%)

• 1 Day Minimum Sale Duration
• 14 Days Maximum Duration
• 5% Minimum Discount
• 50% Maximum Discount
• 14 days wait time from when an item goes off Sale to when it can go back on Sale
• Listed for at least 28 days at a higher price before being put on sale