Account settings is where a seller customizes the setting which are required to run their account

Business information

This section is where your business details are specified.  These include:

• Username.  Your username can only be changed every 30 days. Your usernames can include letters, numbers and some symbols. Usernames must be at least six characters long. You’re not able to use spaces, or these symbols: @, &, ‘, (, ), <, or >.
• Contact details.  Login email and phone number
• Business Details.  Business name, registered address, company number

Payment information

This is where payment methods for purchases are set and your linked PayPal account is specified

Communication with buyers

This is where automatic messages which are sent to buyers can be viewed.  Sellers have very limited options for changing these

Business policies

Business policies are a group of setting which can be applied to a listing.  The include:

• Payment
• Returns
• Postage

We will be covering these in detail in the listings post

Addresses

A seller can set separate addresses for the following:

• Registration address, email and phone number
• Dispatch address.  The address from which items are dispatched
• Delivery address.  Delivery address for purchases
• Returns address.  Address for customer returns

Communication preferences

Choose the email which you wish to receive form eBay.  These include:

• Sales notifications
• Buyer messages
• Resolution centre
• Feedback

Site preferences

Site preferences cover various aspects of eBay selling including buyer requirements and returns.

Return preferences

Sellers can set rules which specify the following:

• Automatically refund if the order is below a certain amount
• Automatically refund if a particular return reason is specified
• Automatically approve a return if the order is below a certain amount
• Automatically approve a return if a particular return reason is specified

Unpaid items assistant

Buyers can ‘buy’ items without paying for them.  They will then be in the status ‘awaiting payment’.  This is a legacy of eBay’s origins as an auction site.  The unpaid item assistant will automatically start an unpaid item case after a certain number of days.

Listing preferences

Sellers have two choices which are applied to all listings

• Out of stock listings. Item which are listed but stock out will not be deleted by instead will be live but removed from search.  This maintains the listing history of the listing
• Show/Hide amount of stock available.

Buyer requirements

A seller can block buyers based on certain rules. These include:

• Block buyers by ID.  Specify a list of blocked buyers
• Unpaid purchase level.  E.g., block buyers who have 2 or more unpaid purchases in the last month
• In a location you do not post to

Postage preferences

This is where sellers set their postage preferences and enrol in postage programmes.

Postage programmes

Global Shipping Programme

With the Global Shipping Programme, international parcels are shipped to a domestic shipping hub and then forwarded internationally, with eBay taking responsibility for international shipping. This is great for sellers who do not want the hassle of international shipping.  It is also great for locations that are difficult to ship to, like Russia and South America.

Click and Collect

Click and collect is a programme where customers can choose to have their packages delivered to a convenience store.

Shipping preferences

Use postage rate tables allows shipping to be set at the country level.  These can then be assigned to a product using shipping profiles.

Set same business day handling times

Set the cut off time for shipping for each day.  Not that the premium shipping service, a free 2-day service must be set.  For this, orders need a same-day processing time, even if this is early in the morning.

Allow combined payments and postage

If a buyer purchases multiple items, then postage and payment need to be combined.  If a buyer buys two items, they will not want to pay for postage twice.

• Allow combined payments.  Buyers can pay for multiple items at the same time with one payment when they check out.
• Flat postage rule.  Add or subtract a shipping amount for each additional item or offer free shipping
• Promotional postage rule.  Specify postage under certain criteria e.g. buy 2 items and shipping is £3.

Exclude postage locations

Sellers may not want to ship to all location.  Postage locations can be excluded at the account level.

Sellers can choose to allow excluded locations to be covered by the global shipping programme.

Always ask buyers for phone number

Sellers can be asked for a phone number after making a purchase. Whilst this is useful for couriers, requesting a number can annoy customers.