topic Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings in Selling

Advice sought on holiday mode settings

thebossesaccount — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 09:09:19 GMT

Our main eBay store site is very active and averages 15-20 sales per day. We have worked hard over the years to build a solid reputation for both qulaity of products and the despatch of order on the same day as received.

At long last, we want to take a one week vacation, but with the least possible negative impact on our eBay status and sales.

It is my understanding we can (a) put our store on "holiday mode", and warn buyers of a delay in processing orders (b) block buyers from making a purchase during the holiday mode setting (or so I am informed by eBay reps) and (c) extending our current 1 day process/shipping of order to (say) 7 days.

I would greatly appreciate input from the more learned members as to the best way forward, and in particular will help protect our eBay status.

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

kopenhagen5 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 09:15:38 GMT

I suggest setting the holiday mode to listings visible but buyers cannot purchase.

That means there will be a notification on listings that you are away.

And buyers can still add your listings to their watch list but just can't purchase.

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

twyngwyn — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 10:21:15 GMT

This is what I do:
Set your handling time to 10 days......when in 'holiday mode' add the blurb that you will not have internet access between such & such a date, as nothing will be posted between these dates ( ), so please do not pay until internet access is available.....take a screen shot of info.....go about your life as normal. If there is a problem ebay will accept the screenshot & delete any defects against you

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

brerrabbit585 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 11:06:07 GMT

@kopenhagen5 wrote:
I suggest setting the holiday mode to listings visible but buyers cannot purchase.

That means there will be a notification on listings that you are away.
And buyers can still add your listings to their watch list but just can't purchase.

There's no such setting. Either they're visible and they can buy, or they're not visible so they can't buy.

I'd take twyngwyn's advice, except that I'd forget trying to tell them not to pay straight away. If you've been opted in to immediate payment you'll only confuse the buyers, and many would ignore it anyway.

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

twyngwyn — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 11:09:32 GMT

I'm not opted in to immediate payment....but point taken 🙂

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

kopenhagen5 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 11:30:16 GMT

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
@kopenhagen5 wrote:
I suggest setting the holiday mode to listings visible but buyers cannot purchase.

That means there will be a notification on listings that you are away.
And buyers can still add your listings to their watch list but just can't purchase.
There's no such setting. Either they're visible and they can buy, or they're not visible so they can't buy.

I'd take twyngwyn's advice, except that I'd forget trying to tell them not to pay straight away. If you've been opted in to immediate payment you'll only confuse the buyers, and many would ignore it anyway.

Oh, I thought I had read in another thread that listings could still be placed on watch lists but purchases couldn't be made ?

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

lyndal1838 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 12:28:43 GMT

If a buyer has an item on their Watch List it remains visible to that buyer but cannot be bought and that buyer cannot see any other items in the store.

No idea what the setting is as I am not a seller.

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

*tippy*toes* — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 14:19:19 GMT

@twyngwyn wrote:
I'm not opted in to immediate payment....but point taken 🙂

I'm not opted into immediate payment either, but eBay has kindly forced it upon me without my consent. Something they are good at doing.

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

brerrabbit585 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 23:44:49 GMT

It's a Clayton's option - an option that's not an option.

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

digital*ghost — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 01:01:02 GMT

Personally, I'd hide the listings if taking a break more than around 3-4 days. It's true that you might be able to sort any problems with eBay afterwards, but that avoids the problems all together (it's really common for buyers to miss holiday notices and / or extended ETAs). During a break, I don't want to be thinking or worrying about accruing tasks, or any buyers getting increasingly frustrated with delays, regardless of whether the info was available to them or not.

The drawback of making listings invisible and not selling anything in the interim is you can sometimes take a little bit of a hit in search rankings, and of course no turnover in the holiday period. Plus, the listings can take a while to reappear on site once you take the holiday settings off. (You can get them to come back up faster by doing a 'soft edit' on them, i.e. load them into the bulk editing tool, change nothing at all, but submit them as if you have - this seems to re-index them almost immediately instead of up to 24 hours later).

Whichever option you select, I'd recommend also creating an 'out of office' auto reply when you put the holiday mode on, so that anyone who messages you gets notified of the holiday and any potential delays to getting a normal reply etc.

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

cr.love — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:20:25 GMT

I hope you enjoy your holiday!

I am similar in the sense that I take my job seriously, post daily and like to have happy customers so often go to lengths that they would not realise to ensure the product and service are great [as most of us would relate].

Basically it is how much pain you are willing to endure when you return.

The least painful path is to shut down.

However the financial loss of not being 'employed' for that period of time can be the unattractive option.

If you keep your store open you are 100% going to have customers who miss the bright orange banner at the top of the listing stating you are on holidays and are away. There is nothing you can do about this as it is a very bright warning and can not be missed, but people will miss it.

Also if there is an issue and a case is opened [ even if it is a 'doesn't fit me' case and not your fault ].... the case can be closed without your response even if your store is in holiday mode. In your scenario you are not away that long but just worth a note, basically even if the world knows you are away there is still an expectation that you can handle issues and respond to people.

I set up an out of email response with full explanation and dates etc and still people will email more than once asking about delivery.

So 100% you will have issues but are you prepared for a bit of a headache when you return along with some funds in the account or 100% stress free.

Enjoy your holiday!

Re: Advice sought on holiday mode settings

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 09:57:37 GMT

Feedback for all of those members that offered advice as to the best course of action.

We put our store on "holiday mode" advising we were closed from 14 Jul - 22 Jul and also changed our handling time from same business day to 7 days.

Sales dropped only about 25% - 30% during the period so really hard to say if the holiday break was the reason.

So far we have received no negative comments about late shipping/delivery.

Many thanks to all of the members that offered their contructive advice and yes, the holiday in Penang was great!!