What we know so far:

Last few weeks we witness a wave of various eBay com restrictions from selling to USA and Canada, or even suspensions, due to the new eBay INR policy (Item Not Received) or BBE policy (Bad Buyer Experience).
Although eBay informed sellers that it will start evaluating INR and take actions after July 24th, we saw these restrictions appear few weeks before that date.

Here is eBay’s link with the new INR policy:

https://export.ebay.com/en/fees-and-payments/regulations/shipping-performance-policy-item-not-received-rate/

These restrictions seemed so massive and unreasonable, that some of us thought it could be a bug. We were hoping that the accounts will be restored after July, however it seems that it’s a new “condition” that is here to stay.

In addition, eBay now requests additional “verifications” from accounts of specific countries, in order for them to be approved to list and sell on USA/CA:

 

So This policy seems to mostly target non USA/CA accounts.

 

We have asked some eBay representatives of what is going on with this New eBay INR policy and if/when the accounts’s restrictions will be lifted; but they give us different interpretations, estimations and explanations. Some of them allegedly said that the accounts should be restored within 30 days, others after 980 days and others just say after “few months”, after some evaluation periods take place.

 

It seems that the algorithm, calculates the last month’s, as well as the whole year’s metrics.

Few days after the INR restrictions wave, a new restriction appeared on many eBay sellers accounts, regarding Bad Buyer’s Experience: As it says, additional stats like Returns, Cancellations, Detailed Seller Rating score, and even Negative Feedbacks, might be included for a restriction or suspension.

So what do we do now?:

We should adapt to these new policies. Change mindset and start keeping in mind that almost any metric now is taken into consideration for the health of your account. Some actions that may help are:

• Get tracking numbers in time. Tracking numbers should be valid. Using custom tracking numbers, is not much of a use anymore. You can check a list of dropshipping tools that offer valid tracking such as Aquiline, here.
• If the supplier does not recognize / suggests similar address that the one that buyer provided, maybe you should double check this order.
• Set your eBay to not accept orders without phone number. Assuming that carrier might use the phone # if they cannot find the place.
• Consider increasing handling time. This will give you time to manage any late shipments and other delay issues, without customer being able to open INR.
• Be faster and more proactive: If customer sends you message that has not received the package, or if you see an overdue coming, act fast and try to deter INR cases in any way.
• Generally have in mind how to avoid INR. e.g. if you run out of stock you should not handle it in a way that it might lead to an INR.
• Exclude locations that could potentially take longer to ship, such as Protectorates.
• If there is an order that ships later than expected, maybe it’s a good idea to ask buyer if they are ok with this date. If they say no, cancel. If they say yes, they will probably not open INR.
• Last but not least, since eBay now takes into consideration of about almost any metric, increase the overall performance. E.g. finding suppliers and items that don’t usually run OOS, or selecting items with lower return rate.

 

Closing

These are mostly data that have been collected from conversations and social media. We ‘re not sure if we have left something out. If you’d like to add something, please comment on this post, so we can all be helped by getting a better picture of what’s going on and how to better manage it.

What is your opinion?