How do I put a holiday message on each listing?

[kitty-kat-kollection]

Hello!

I am having great difficulty finding where to go on either the ebay app or the desktop website on my phone in order to let buyers know I will be away from 22 December to 3 January.

I don't want to put my store in holiday mode or hide my listings (all fixed price), and I don't just want a message on my store in general as obviously not everyone looks at my store, they just search and find my items and buy.

I basically just want a message written by me to appear on each of my 400+ listings to say buyers are welcome to keep looking and buying but that the last day I can post is 21 December and the first day back posting will be 3 January.

Thanks so much for your help!

[davewil1964]

You can edit your listings to add a message. I don't know if you can do it in bulk, as I would never do it (I believe if you are open for business, you are open for business).

HOWEVER, as you are doubtless aware, most buyers don't read descriptions. So when they are asked (for untracked) if the item arrived on time, you can expect a few No's. And possibly non-green dots. Any parcels that don't have a scan within your handling time will get an automatic late postage defect from eBay. Too many of those and you might find your selling restricted.

You could extend your handling time, but that won't stop non-green dots.

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

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@kitty-kat-kollection wrote:


I don't want to put my store in holiday mode or hide my listings (all fixed price), and I don't just want a message on my store in general as obviously not everyone looks at my store, they just search and find my items and buy.

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Holiday mode will put a banner at the top of all of your listings that says "The seller is away until X date, you can still purchase but there may be a delay in processing your order", or words to that effect. When you put a store on holiday mode, hiding listings is optional.

You can add your own note by editing listings in bulk (using the add to description option) and it will appear underneath everything else (text and simple HTML only). I don't know where the eBay banner appears on the mobile app, and the description is not even visible on those unless the buyer clicks through to view it, so it's worth keeping in mind that roughly half of buyers now shop on their mobiles and notes / banners may not even be visible to them from the outset. 

For extended holidays (which I personally consider to be anything much more than a long weekend, if only due to common buyer expectations about the speed of dispatch), I would recommend considering the benefit of a few extra sales vs the potential issues that can arise, largely through buyers missing these notices and maintaining usual expectations - especially at Christmas time, when it is not all that uncommon for buyers to purchase items all the way up to December 24th and (for some unknown reason) expect that it's possible to receive it in time for Christmas day, somehow. Extending your handling time will help a bit, and is necessary if no postage is possible until you return, but it won't prevent all of the issues that can arise. 

Just a note on late shipment defects though - they do not result in restrictions to your ability to sell. You can lose top rated seller status, and eBay might make you adjust your handling time if it hits a rate of 10%, but your account can't fall below standard. (I don't know why I keep having to clarify this  ). 

[kitty-kat-kollection]

Oh yay, that's excellent! Holiday mode it is with extended postage time!

Last time I went away I put a message (but not holiday mode) saying I was away for 5 days (3 of those days were long weekend days) and NOBODY read it and I got more orders than ever! Then when I got home I went insane posting a million parcels out! No one complained about slow postage thankfully.

Next year I'm going away overseas for 7 weeks so will go into full holiday mode with hidden listings then.

Thank you both so much, I really appreciate it!