eBay UK October 2024 Seller Update

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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eBay UK has released it's October 2024 Seller Update with changes including Feedback policies, AI image enhancement, Product Research, 1:1 seller clinics and more!

Business Seller Update October 2024 | UK Seller Centre

New Summary and Discounts pages for Shop subscribers

What you need to know
With an eBay Shop subscription, you can unlock a powerful suite of marketing and discount tools designed to accelerate your sales. Now, you can experience an updated look and feel of your Shop pages that make it easier for you to stay on top of your campaigns and monitor the success of your discounts.

Faster to find what you need
Featuring streamlined navigation and a crystal clear overview of your active discounts, your redesigned seller Marketing Tab puts you in the driver’s seat.

The simplified left-hand navigation bar provides easy access to your Summary and Discounts pages, plus useful links to your buyer groups and social pages. We’ve also renamed “Promotions” as “Discounts” for more clarity.

Enhance your listing photos with AI

What you need to know
With eBay’s AI background enhancement tool, you can easily take your listing photos to the next level by placing them on high-quality professional backgrounds. This free tool is available on the eBay app, and allows you to generate studio-quality photos to help attract more buyers. There are multiple AI-generated backgrounds to choose from, including solid colours, outdoor scenes, and more, that’ll help your listings stand out.

How it works

  • First, go to the Selling tab in the eBay mobile app and select List an item (or edit an existing one). Then, upload your product photo.
  • Use the background removal tool to delete the original backdrop, isolating your item.
  • Browse and select from a variety of AI-generated backgrounds that best suit your product.
  • Apply your chosen background to create a professional-looking image that highlights your item.
  • Review your photo and then proceed with the rest of your listing as usual, now with a more appealing visual presentation.

The AI image background enhancing feature was introduced to the US market earlier this year - see how it works:

eBay Launches AI Powered Image Background Enhancing Tool In App
eBay launches AI background enhancer, allowing sellers to place items on a variety of generated backdrops for more professional presentation.

Price your items like a pro with Product research

Our new sell-through rate metric allows you to see the demand for an item, making this tool more powerful than ever in determining the market value of your items to help you price and sell them.

What you need to know
A few months ago, we announced that the Product research tool (formerly Terapeak) became available on mobile. To give you deeper insights, we’ve now added the brand new sell-through rate metric you’ve been asking for, so you can see the demand for an item. Read on to find out how the tool works, and what sellers are saying.

How the tool works
Product research is a free, powerful tool that gives you access to three years of eBay sales and pricing data to help you make more informed decisions about your listings. It shows trends, buyer demand, and even sold listings from other sellers. This equips you with the insights you need to easily determine the popularity of your items, understand their market value, and decide how to price them.

With the new sell-through rate metric, you’ll be able to see the percentage of similar items sold during a specific period of time. This means you can estimate the speed at which these items are selling, allowing you to quickly price your own items and get them on the market.

Updates to Feedback Policy

With the latest policy updates, we’ll now remove negative or neutral feedback in more situations.

What you need to know
We recently shared that we’ve been working to update our Feedback Policy to extend to more situations where removing feedback is warranted. We’re happy to let you know that we’ve revised our policy, and we’ll now remove feedback that sellers may receive in situations that don’t follow these updated policy guidelines. For better clarity, we’ve also updated our Feedback Policy page to clearly list these instances.

What’s changing
We’ll now remove negative or neutral feedback in the following cases:

  • When a buyer asks to cancel an order after placing it and the seller denies their request. Per eBay policy, sellers have the discretion to accept or deny a cancellation request.

For example: A buyer purchases a set of golf balls but then requests to cancel their order because they found a cheaper set elsewhere. The seller declines the request and the buyer responds by posting negative feedback. Since the seller is not obliged to accept cancellation requests, the feedback is removable.

  • When a buyer changes their mind about their purchase and references being charged for the cost of an eBay return label.

For example: A buyer purchases a bracelet and after receiving it, they decide it doesn't suit their style and want to return the bracelet. When they realise there will be a charge for the eBay return label, they leave negative feedback about it. Since there were no other issues with the transaction and the buyer's comment is only about having to pay for an eBay return delivery label, the feedback is removable.

These changes appear to mirror similar changes introduced on the US site in September.

eBay Rolls Out New Feedback Removal Policy, Promises Human Review Of Requests
eBay rolls out new “more fair feedback experience” for sellers & buyers, with promises that removal requests will be reviewed by humans, not AI.

Get 1:1 support with free Seller Clinics

Fast, flexible support with Seller Clinics
Eligible business sellers can now take advantage of free Seller Clinics to give you easy access to growth support when you need it. Simply book a phone call appointment and you’ll be paired with a Marketplace Advisor who can offer you personalised advice on how to grow your business.

How can Seller Clinics support your business?
If you’re looking for new ways to scale your business, a free Seller Clinic appointment can help you with expert advice - tailored to the unique needs of your business.

Whether you’re looking for advice on eBay’s extensive range of services and tools, or new opportunities for growth, speaking to an eBay expert during your 45-minute session can help you take your business to the next level.

You can get support with:

  • eBay foundations
  • Delivery and selling overseas
  • Taking your Shop to the next level with eBay tools and services
  • Marketing your Shop on and off eBay
  • Accelerating growth with eBay Advertising
  • Retail and seller standards

To get the most out of your Seller Clinic session, choose a topic you’d like support with. This will help your Marketplace Advisor prepare ahead of time to maximise your time together.

Eligible business sellers who are registered on the eBay.co.uk site and have a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of less than £85,000 within the calendar year or the 12 month period before their first appointment can book up to 3 sessions in a calendar year.

These 1:1 sessions for businesses were added as a "perk" to try to assuage business seller concerns when fee-free selling for private sellers was expanded earlier this month but the initial reaction showed eBay is going to have to try much harder than that as they've now thrown a bone to some business seller with a fee-free used clothing sales promotion through the end of the year.

eBay UK Throws Business Sellers A Bone With Fee-Free Used Clothing Sales Until End Of Year
eBay UK reacts to business seller backlash with fee-free used clothing sales promotion offer good through the end of the year.

Let us know what you think of those Seller Clinics and other parts of the eBay UK October 2024 Seller Update in the comments below!

eBaySeller Updates

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar Placeholdermarks304754 minutes ago
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar PlaceholdercwiYesterday
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.

Avatar PlaceholderMotif1234Yesterday
Great article. I believe I have been caught up in this situation. I bought a small item on ebay from a private seller and paid £2.70 postage. They used the ebay labels system. It was tracked through royal mail. I was then asked by royal mail to pay an extra £3.50. I did this, as I wanted the goods and thought maybe the seller had forgotten the postage- human error, which i could get back. It wasn't the sellers fault or mine, but something between ebay and royal mail. Never had that problem in 4 years on ebay with 100 per cent positive feedback for myself. This happened between the 27th April and 7th May 2025. I asked for a refund for postage from ebay, offering all the details and they have refused. To add to the insult, I paid buyer protection, which is useless.