More about the Changes to the Unpaid Item Dispute Process

In October, eBay introduced changes in the Unpaid Item (UPI) Dispute process. We have a few clarifications and additions for you on this process. As noted in the UPI documentation, the new process lets you open  a dispute as soon as 4 days after the transaction (instead of 7) and close disputes as soon as 4 days after opening the dispute (instead of 7), etc.

How do you know whether these new timelines apply to your disputes or not? It is all about the request version. If you created a UPI dispute with a request version lower than 637, the old timelines apply and the various platform notifications for messaging are still supported.  But if the request version is 637 or greater, the new timelines apply, and the following platform notifications no longer apply: BuyerResponseDispute, SellerClosedDispute, SellerOpenedDispute, SellerRespondedToDispute. (The reason the notifications are not needed is because messages between buyer and seller are no longer added to the dispute.)

Support for the old process will be removed around March 2010, so please migrate your UPI dispute code to work with the new process.

What do you think of the new UPI process? I would like to hear your thoughts.

Fraser Smith
Senior Product Manager

developer-relations@ebay.com

What It Was Like at PayPal X Innovate 2009

Right as you went in there was a high platform with a white-clad quartet playing stringed instruments exuberantly.

A high school principal took a PayPal credit of $60k for his school, donated by conference attenders.

There was a lot of tweeting. People tweeted all kinds of things: that we have seen the future of payments, that the netbook giveaway was Oprah-like in a nice way, that everyone involved deserved a round of beers, that you could use PayPal to turn all kinds of otherwise wasted things into commodities and trade them for other commodities, or money.

Approximately ten percent of the tweets on day two were retweets of Tim O'Reilly giving the location of his presentation deck (here). A lot of people said the netbooks were nice. Some people said that social media is good for a business, and others disagreed, saying it's often boring. A lot of people liked the bean bag chairs. One person said the human chain was creepy, and another person said it was great. Somebody refused to be associated with the stealing of bean bag chairs. Many, many people agreed with this: "Two best characteristics of an entrepreneur are resourcefulness and ability to sell a vision." Someone said that they were on the stairs of the press room. Someone else said that the bean bag chair had been acquired. Chained payments, microsavings, adaptive payments, charge backs, and identity provision were much discussed. Several people said it all seemed very well organized, and I think somebody else said it was too organized. Someone said they were going back to the hotel early because they were afflicted with swag arm, but another person didn't seem tired at all, and tweeted that the PayPal API lets you establish pre-approvals with date and frequency and amount limits, allowing payments via mobile.

All that and more, at #ppxi09.

Atlanta was in the house, and so was Germany. Also in the house: eBay, Salesforce, Sun, and Andreeson. Burkina Faso was seriously in the house, looking to bring eBay and PayPal to Africa.

There was Red Bull and BLTs.Twinkies and Ding Dongs were never far away. If you held still, eventually someone would come up to you with a tray and offer you one.

On the first night, there was poached halibut dusted with cumin, if you knew where to look for it.

There was massive VC firepower on day two. Everyone felt that.

x.com came back to life.

If you can, you should always attend a PayPal developer's conference.

eBay's Next Gen Platform Opportunity

The eBay Developers Program is here at PayPal X Innovate 09, where PayPal is opening new opportunities to the PayPal development community. Developers here heard about the latest eBay platform opportunity from Madhu Gupta, a lead product manager in the Selling Manager Applications project, and Neil Mansilla, a pilot developer who participated in the program from its infancy.

Madhu gave the context for the opportunity, and Neil talked about what it was like to develop seller applications embedded in sellers' eBay experience.

To give the context of Selling Manager Applications, Madhu sketched a quick history of eBay, highlighting the role of independent developers as eBay evolved into a global marketplace.

eBay is a sophisticated marketplace, where sellers are supported by a large library of helper applications that support business goals. While eBay created Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro to meet the more predictable and obvious seller business needs, independent developers used the eBay APIs to create a whole landscape of seller applications.

The challenge was, developers needed to get their applications in front of sellers, and let sellers know that their application would do what the marketing copy said it would do. And sellers needed to know how to navigate the landscape of seller applications: to find applications they needed, and to know they could trust the applications.

Selling Manager Applications puts a selection of trusted selling tools right in front of eBay sellers. Sellers can use these tools without leaving the eBay site. An application embedded in the applications tab in My eBay has advantages over other eBay selling applications:

• It's in an eBay app store
• Its subscription and usage billing are handled by eBay
• It's readily visible to sellers as an eBay-trusted application
• It can access the eBay APIs quickly, from within eBay
• Subscription is simplified, because a new subscriber doesn't have to go through the usual flow that gives user tokens to applications.

Madhu demonstrated some basic development processes: how to upload an application to the eBay Sandbox by uploading the application's deployment descriptor, how to subscribe a user to the new application, and the user employing the application to change eBay listings. The demo took about seven minutes.

Neil described his experience with creating a Selling Manager application. He had written a useful little application that sends SMS messages. He had been distributing it for free, hosting it, and had about a thousand users. To turn it into a Selling Manager application, he edited a sample deployment descriptor that pointed to the application's endpoint, had eBay perform a business review and a product review, uploaded the application and entered it in the applications tab in My eBay. He now has a growing and worldwide list of subscribers who use his application and pay him monthly subscription fees.

You can learn more about Selling Manager Applications here.

Banking the Unbanked

In one of the most interesting sessions here at PayPal X Innovate 09, two banking experts and a telecom business CIO from  South Africa made presentations about financial services for the unbanked and underbanked populations of the U.S. and the developing world. They presented a vision of huge populations who manage their financial needs by paying billions of dollars in fees, penalties, interest, punitive interest, marked up transaction costs, cash-related losses, loss of time, and transportation costs.

In the U.S., about forty million households are underbanked or unbanked. People in these categories use financial services for transactions, savings, lending, and investing, but instead of banks and credit cards, they use check-cashing places, payday loan stores, money orders, tax refund anticipation loans, and services for sending money abroad.

In the rest of the world, the unbanked are the majority of the population. The world is full of people who pay their electricity bills by bringing cash with them on long bus rides and then wait in long lines for their turn to pay, and merchants who lose money and time because they don't have the financial instruments to plan their inventory, distribution, and costs ahead of time.

One helpful and profitable solution has been microfinance, which generally serves people with very small businesses. That population of vendors (about 100 million people) is an important part of microfinance, but there are other larger markets: about 600 million people whose wages, often for casual labor, are paid in cash, and another 600 million small farmers.

In Kenya, where 80% of the population have access to mobile phones but only 20% have bank accounts, Safaricom's M-PESA program enables people to transfer money P2P by mobile phone. Three years after its launch, 25% of adult Kenyans have adopted it.

As the population of the developing world comes online, which it is doing very quickly, digital methods of payment, and online markets, will meet many of its needs. Whoever provides these markets and payment methods will profit by improving the lives of billions of people.

Building Compelling Applications Using the eBay API Platform

eBay is presenting some sessions here at the PayPal X Innovate 09 conference, and today, Rekha Patel of eBay gave her classic tutorial on how to get started creating applications using the eBay APIs. It's about the best introduction you can get to the eBay APIs. I humbly summarize.

Suppose you are a casual eBay seller, selling five to ten items a week, and you want to ramp up to sell thousands of items per week. Listing via the eBay website won't be scalable for you. You'll need the eBay APIs.

You can use the APIs to build widgets, gadgets, plugins, mobile applications, toolbars, and desktop and web applications. You can write these applications in any programming language that can sent HTTP requests. The applications can list items, manage inventory, find items, buy items, integrate with fulfillment systems, manage messages, manage user accounts, and perform and react to research about listings and transactions on eBay. 

The APIs fall into four main groups:

Buying APIs

• Finding
• Shopping
• Merchandising

Research and Data APIs

• Price Research
• Advanced Research

Selling APIs

• Trading
• Large Merchant Services
• Feedback
• Best Match
• Selling Manager Applications

Monitoring APIs

• Platform Notifications
• Client Alerts

You can check them out and use them at developer.ebay.com.

Rekha did two live demos. The first was a simple demo that showed how to find and use public information on eBay. This operation used the new Finding service to get information on the price and availability of an item listed on eBay, and then to filter the results by location and price.

The second was more complicated, and showed how to use APIs on behalf of a user of your application, in ways that involve that user's private information and require that you have proof that you have that user's formal permission. Rekha showed the process of joining the eBay Developers Program, getting an application ID and keyset, creating a user in the eBay Sandbox, getting a token for the user using the eBay token tool, and linking that user to the application ID. You can do all of this in about ten minutes. 

Having demonstrated that it's not that hard to get started writing eBay applications, Rekha closed with some design considerations for eBay applications:

• Use the APIs that require the least amount of authorization. If you only want to do finding and research, you don't need to get user tokens to act on behalf of users.
• Test in the Sandbox.
• Implement retries in case of server errors.
• Use best practices as given in the API documentation and the Knowledge Base.
• Limit the data you process to what you need.
• Implement logging, especially if you have a selling application.
• Plan to renew user tokens before their expiration at 18 months.
• Plan to update your application to the current eBay version about every six months.
• Estimate your API call volume.
• If you need more than 5,000 API calls per day, apply for a Compatible Application Check, which raises your application's call limit.

You can learn all about the eBay API platform here:

• Documentation
• Developer tool
• Code samples
• Knowledge base
• System announcements
• Forums
• Developer support

639 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

Updated docs: Unpaid Item Dispute process

Around the time version 637 of the Trading API was released, changes went into effect for the Unpaid Item Dispute process.

The Unpaid Item Disputes documentation now reflects these changes.

http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/XML/docs/WebHelp/Disputes-.html

Please compare the older/newer diagrams, and review the comparison table that lists older/newer processes and timelines.

John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools

Join us in welcoming Sri Shivananda to the Developers Program

Hi everyone,

I'm Kumar Kandaswamy, and I'm pleased to announce that we've named a new leader for the eBay Developers Program. Sri Shivananda, an experienced eBay veteran, was recently named Senior Director of Platform at eBay. In this role, Sri leads the eBay Developers Program as well as the Tech and Application Platforms. I will continue my involvement with the program and will be reporting into Sri, who will set the strategy for the teams.

We were lucky enough to get Sri when Half.com acquired Deja.com in Dec 2000. Since then he has worked in various engineering roles at the company including roles in operations, product development and architecture—the most recent of which was as head of Architecture.

During his time in architecture, he worked on helping create new solutions for various business & technology features while architecting for scalability, availability and reliability at Web scale. In this role, he was responsible for driving the technology strategy of the eBay marketplace. In addition, over the last 9 months, he has been a strong advocate at eBay to create features as re-usable services.

One fun fact about Sri, he's multi-lingual. He understands 5 languages, speaks & reads 4, and writes 2. So feel free to drop him a line to say "bonjour."

I know I speak for the entire program when I say that Sri is a great addition to the team, and we look forward to working with him to make this the best time yet for developers building applications with eBay's API platform.

With that, I'll introduce Sri.

--  Kumar Kandaswamy

Excited about joining the eBay Developers Program

Hi all,

I'm Sri Shivananda, Senior Director of Platform at eBay, and the new head of the eBay Developers Program. I've been admiring this program from afar and I'm thrilled to be able to join Kumar and the rest of the folks here who have made this program a success. We're up to almost 100,000 members now! I look forward to meeting you all and working with you to ensure your success.
 
Since I'm new to this role, I'm going to hold off on announcing any new plans until I've had a chance to speak with developers and make sure I'm making the best decisions for the program and your opportunities with the eBay marketplace.

What I can share is that I am 100% behind the vision that Mark Carges provided in the eBay DevCon 2009 Keynote we hosted here at our headquarters in San Jose. That vision is to speed innovation and continue to support the platform to enable more flexible development for internal eBay developers and for API developers like you.

As an example of what we're working on, we recently launched Selling Manager Applications that provided third-party developers direct contact to sellers looking for useful tools to grow their businesses and make them successful.

I'd love to hear your questions and comments, and I invite you to drop me an email to introduce yourself at sri AT ebay DOT com or follow me on Twitter @srishivananda.

Thanks and I look forward to working with all of you!

Sincerely,
Sri Shivananda

Video Interview with 2009 eBay Star Developer Award Winner Seller Machine CRM

"It's not just the one DSR -- if you fix that one {customer communication} DSR, then all the other ones just follow. Once you've built a relationship with that buyer, then they go out of their way to leave 5 stars every time."

-- E.J. Bantz of BengalOne on how eBay sellers can boost their detailed seller ratings

Bantz joined us in June for the eBay Developers Conference 2009 at eBay's campus in San Jose to discuss his recent win in the highly coveted DSR Rockstar category of the eBay Star Developer Awards. The detailed seller rating system is based on a one-to-five-star scale. Five stars is the highest rating, and one star is the lowest.

Bantz discusses how he learned about the demand for his Seller Machine CRM tool as a seller on eBay. His Seller Machine CRM tool was built on the simple discovery that when sellers monitor when packages are received and follow up with buyers in e-mail after they receive their package, you build a relationship that positively impacts all of your DSRs and saves you a lot of hassle. "What I was finding as a seller was that if I could be more proactive in my customer service, then I ended up reducing the number of negatives I would receive."

Watch our interview with E.J. filmed on location at eBay DevCon below (clip is 5:32 in length).

- Delyn

eBay Architecture talk on the eBay API Platform @ SDForum, 10/28 in Palo Alto

Join Farhang Kassaei, eBay's Lead API platform architect on Wednesday, October 28th, @ 6:30pm in Palo Alto for a talk on  the technical challenges and issues solved to create the latest updates to the eBay API Platform, hosted by SDForum.

Participation is one of the important principals of Web 2.0. To encourage participation often Web 2.0 sites adopt an "open" strategy: Allow your developers to build the application for your end user. Architecturally, this approach is radically different than the traditional architecture where the entire site is built, deployed and operated by an internal team. Some of the aspects of architecture that should be examined in any open architecture are:

1.Overall System Architecture

2.Deployment

3.Development Cycle and Testing

4.Dependency Management and Graph

5.Security

6.Performance

7.Domain Specific API

8.Events and Messaging

9.Internationalization

10.State Management, Data Access

This talk will focus on how eBay dealt with these challenges when it opened its Selling Manager Applications platform to developer community. Get details about the talk here. Join Farhang at SDForum on 10/28!

- Delyn

637 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

Sellers can now revise live multi-quantity listings with sale

As announced, sellers can now edit almost everything in live multi-quantity fixed price listings even after a sale on the item, except for title, category, duration and format. If you need to add quantity, modify the item price, edit the description, modify shipping costs etc, you don’t need to end and recreate the listing. You can simply revise your live listings. Buyers who had previously bought the item will have an option to see the earlier version of the listing.

For developers looking for new revenue opportunities, consider building feature-rich revision tools. Sellers are searching for listing revision tools that help them identify which listings need to be revised, regardless of which tool launched the listing. For easy policy compliance updates, we recommend all listing tools offer listing revisions, including multi-quantity fixed price items with a sale, with a quick way for sellers to determine which listings need revision. Or build a new revenue stream by building a query and revise tool, for easy search and replace on any parameter (even return value = null).

Developers will want to update their code to retrieve a particular version of a listing for proper reconciliation and dispute resolution purposes.

Developer Impact:
No code change is necessary to edit these listings, but any developer blocking these types of edits should remove such a block. Revisions can be done using any existing revise API call including ReviseItem, ReviseFixedPriceItem, ReviseInventoryStatus. Be sure you are using ReviseFixedPriceItem or ReviseItem so no additional seller fees are incurred (i.e. when using RelistFixedPriceItem). Revisions on multi-quantity fixed priced listings with a sale will still be blocked if a seller tries to edit title, category, duration or format.

When retrieving listings, a new Transaction ID field was added to GetItem on release 627 and GetItemTransactions on release 635 to return a specific version of the listing. If no transaction is specified, the latest version will be returned. Changes to the GetItemTransaction API call may cause a change to the behavior of several Platform Notifications. GetSellerTransactions will return the snapshot of the item as it was at time of transaction on release 635. Read the Release notes for more information.

Resources:
Release notes
ReviseItem
ReviseInventoryStatus
ReviseFixedPriceItem
GetItem
GetItemTransactions
GetSellerTransactions

New Best Match API: What's your rank?

Today, we are pleased to announce that the Best Match Item Details API is available. You can use this new API to help sellers answer the following questions:

• Where is my listing appearing in search results when sorted by Best Match?
• How is my listing performing?
• What listing attributes help or hurt my listings rank?
• What can I do to improve my listing's rank?
• How do listings on page one of search results compare to my listing for a given search?

Best Match is the default sort order for search results on eBay. The goal of Best Match is to help buyers find what they're looking for, from sellers they trust.

Using the Best Match Item Details API, you can write applications that help sellers improve the Best Match rank of their listings. Additionally, you can enable sellers to view their items' click-through rates, their impression count range, and their items' sales per impression. An impression occurs on a listing when a user sees a search results page that contains the listing.

eBay also is releasing the Search Visibility tool, available in My eBay for sellers who can access the Seller Dashboard.

The Best Match Item Details API provides extra functionality that is not available in the Search Visibility tool. However, before you write an application, please note the information returned by the Search Visibility tool. For example, note the values returned for an item in the tool's Search Visibility Report. The values correspond to some of the values returned in a getBestMatchItemDetails response.

For more information about the Best Match Item Details API, see the Release Notes.

eBay Giving Works lowers minimum donation to $1, extends automatic collection date

Starting October 1, the eBay Giving Works minimum donation will be reduced from $5 to $1 per successful listing. In addition, the automatic collection date for donations will be extended from the second Monday after a listing ends to the fourth Monday after a listing ends.

The lower minimum donation will make it more affordable than ever for sellers to get the cause marketing benefits of eBay Giving Works. The extra two weeks before automatic donation collection gives sellers more time to receive their funds from PayPal and the buyer, before MissionFish collects the donation. (As always, donation minimums and collections dates do not apply to nonprofits selling on eBay to raise funds.)

If you have questions about these changes — or want to learn how to offer eBay Giving Works to your users — please contact MissionFish, eBay’s nonprofit partner. For information on how to use the API with Giving Works, see the API Docs.

Last Chance for Special Developer Offer -- Act by Friday, 10/9!

We had a great webinar with developers last Thursday outlining the Selling Manager Applications developer opportunity we're offering before the holiday shopping season. If you had to miss it, not to worry! You can still email us at developer-relations AT ebay.com to get the details and get in on our offer before our deadline Next Week.

As a recap, if you submit your Business Readiness Review and your Billing Plan by Friday, October 9th, then successfully complete your Application Review to launch your SM Application by Thursday, November 15th, you’ll get:

four hours of premium DTS Support Requests and LiveHelp (a $300 value)

premier marketing placement as a featured application for the month of December on the eBay Applications Directory (http://applications.ebay.com)

we'll waive our eBay cut of the rev share (20%) through March 2010 –- so you get to keep 100% of your application fees earned through March 31, 2010

We want you to join us, so don’t delay! Email us and get in on our special deal by Friday, October 9th, so that you’re ready to access new customers and make more money in time for the busiest selling and shopping season on eBay.com.

- Delyn

Bill Me Later Coming Soon to eBay

In the coming weeks we'll be introducing Bill Me Later on eBay, as well as on other merchant sites through PayPal, beginning with a launch for a limited number of buyers and sellers in the U.S.

Qualified PayPal customers will be able to use Bill Me Later during eBay checkout. For select sellers, PayPal will automatically add Bill Me Later as a way to pay. Sellers included in the initial rollout will be notified via email by PayPal.

Developers who currently support PayPal will not need to make any code changes to support Bill Me Later. In GetItemTransactions and related calls, items that are paid for using Bill Me Later will use the existing PayPal value in the BuyerPaymentMethodCodeType.

Third-party checkout (3PXO) providers must use Express Checkout for Bill Me Later purchases. Bill Me Later is not supported by CP Cart.

Find out more at https://www.billmelater.com/help/ebay_seller_faq.xhtml.

Video Interview with 2009 eBay Star Developer Award Winner WatchCount.com

"WatchCount.com shows how many watchers the most popular items on eBay have accumulated."

-- Jake Becker (helios825) of WatchCount.com on how eBay buyers and sellers use his tool

Becker joined us in June for the eBay Developers Conference 2009 at eBay's campus in San Jose to discuss his recent win in the Service to the Community category of the eBay Star Developer Awards. Sellers use WatchCount.com to know which items are popular to source/niches worth focusing on for research. Shoppers use WatchCount.com widgets to find that great deal they've been looking for. Check out his Success Story to learn more.

Becker talks about the core APIs that run his app, such as FindPopularItems from the Shopping API, GetMostWatchedItems from the Merchandising API, GetSingleItem, and GetCategoryInfo. As for his prolific posting of terrific answers in the developer forums behind his Star Developer Award? "I go to the developer forums often to look for information and news, but when I see someone ask a question, I feel compelled to help them out. I still feel like newbie myself sometimes."

Watch our interview with Jake filmed on location at eBay DevCon below (clip is 5:52 in length).

- Delyn

North America

• US/CA/CAFR: Significant changes in Computers, Sports Trading Cards, and Home & Garden. Minor changes elsewhere. 1675 changes total, including 82 new categories and 1407 removals. See detail below.
• Motors: Moving Golf Cars (Electric & Gas) from .com to Motors. Adding new models in Cars & Trucks. Adding new categories in Car & Truck Parts. 45 changes total.

Germany/Austria/Switzerland

• 915 category removals in DIY Materials & Tools; Tickets & Travel. 938 changes total.

UK/Ireland

• Creating new L1 for Events Tickets. Renaming L1 Tickets & Travel to Holidays & Travel and consolidating subcategories. 94 changes total.

Australia

• Significant category adds and removals across the site to improve alignment with US & UK structures. 4322 changes total.

Poland

• Adding 219 categories in Video Games. 249 changes total.

No SR2 category changes for Belgium, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, Spain.

North America Detail

The full list of September US category changes by meta is posted here.

Verticals Initiatives

• Computers & Networking: Combining Apple and PC categories for components, accessories, monitors etc.; replacing many subcategories with Custom Item Specifics

Seller Tag Rollups
Custom Item Specifics (aka Seller Tags) are replacing categories in:

• Cameras & Photo: Binoculars
• Clothing, Shoes & Accessories: Men's Belt Buckles; Men's & Women's Sunglasses; Men's Ties; Men's Underwear; Bridal Veils, Tiaras & Headbands; Wedding-Boys' Attire; Women's Belts
• Computers: CPUs, Motherboards, Monitors, Keyboards, Laptop Batteries, Laptop AC Adapters, Networking Hubs
• Home & Garden: Furniture; Vacuum Cleaners; Refrigerators; Portable & Space Heaters
• Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop: Trading Cards

Improving Trust
Changes implemented in coordination with the Trust & Safety team for:

• Jewelry & Watches: Clarifying policy for vintage Native American jewelry by renaming category to: Native American (pre-1935)
• Sporting Goods: Electric- & gas-powered Golf Cars are moving to eBay Motors.
• Video Games: Removing Internet Games (Second Life, etc.)

Marketplaces Strategy Initiatives

• Everything Else: Creating a category for World of Good

Classification Initiatives

• Electronics: Dividing Stage Lighting & Effects from Pro Audio Equipment; Pro Audio Equipment moves to Musical Instruments
• Home & Garden: Dividing Wedding Supplies and Holidays, Cards & Party Supplies into separate L2s

Item Specifics

Significant updates

• Books: Antiquarian; Audiobooks; Children's; Fiction; Non-Fiction; Magazines
• Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop: Cards

Minor updates

• Electronics: Televisions

Adjustments to coordinate with new catalogs

• Cell Phones & PDAs: Cell Phones & Cell Phone Accessories
• Coins: US Coins
• Computers: PC Laptops; Apple Desktops; Apple Laptops
• Sporting Goods: Skis;Road Bikes; Mountain Bikes

Help us improve eBay.com - Send your suggestions for category and item specifics changes to taxonomy@ebay.com!

Thanks,
Categories Team

Special Developer Offer: New App Store for eBay Sellers

Greetings eBay API developers!

We’re introducing a special offer for developers who launch their applications on eBay.com for Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro subscribers in time for the upcoming holiday season. Selling Manager Applications are useful to any growing small business with needs around merchandising, customer service, mobile alerts, returns/ resolutions, bulk editing of listings, accounting, shipping, and more. eBay sellers need these tools even more around high volume times like the holidays.

So here’s the deal:

If you submit your Business Readiness Review and your Billing Plan by Friday, October 9th, then successfully complete your Application Review to launch your SM Application by Thursday, November 15th, you’ll get:

• four hours of premium DTS Support Requests and LiveHelp (a $300 value)
• premier marketing placement as a featured application for the month of December on the eBay Applications Directory (http://applications.ebay.com)
• we'll waive our eBay cut of the rev share (20%) through March 2010 –- so you get to keep 100% of your application fees earned through March 31, 2010

In order to take advantage of these incentives, you’ll want to join us for an informational webinar scheduled on Thursday, September 24 at 9:30am PT that will help you bring your application live to site, so you can take advantage of these incentives. Email us at developer-relations AT ebay.com to get the details.

Don’t delay! Email us to RSVP to the webinar on Thursday, September 24th and get in on our special deal by Friday, October 9th, so that you’re ready to access new customers and make more money in time for the busiest selling and shopping season on eBay.com.

- Delyn

635 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

Excluding Locations to Where You Ship Items

Starting with version 635, you will be able to use My eBay to create a list of the locations to where you will not ship items. Once set up, all items that you list on eBay will, by default, use the Ship To Exclusion List. If a buyer's primary ship to location is a location which you have listed as an excluded ship to location (or if the buyer does not have a primary ship to location), they will receive an error message if they attempt to buy or place a bid on your item.

You can override the settings in your Ship To Exclusion List using ExcludeShipToLocation fields in your item-listing calls. Use the ExcludeShipToLocation field to specify individual locations to which you will not ship. Including ExcludeShipToLocation in any AddItem family of calls overrides the default Ship To Exclusion List you might have set up in My eBay--only the sites specifically specified with ExcludeShipToLocation will be excluded. Specify NONE in ExcludeShipToLocation to open up all areas for shipping.

Specify locations to exclude using ISO Country Codes. The ExcludeShippingLocationDetails node in the GeteBayDetails response lists the valid ISO Country Code values that you can exclude for a given eBay site.

Here is an example of using the ExcludeToShipLocation field within an AddItem call:

...

  <ShippingDetails>
    <ExcludeShipToLocation>FR</ExcludeShipToLocation>
    <ExcludeShipToLocation>IT</ExcludeShipToLocation>
  </ShippingDetails>

...

With this call, bidders in France (FR) and Italy (IT) will be unable to buy the associated item; buyers in all other locations are eligible to buy the item, regardless of any settings in your global Ship To Exclusion List.

Alternately, use a value of NONE in the ExcludeToShipLocation field to disable the Ship To Exclusion List and allow buyers from all locations to bid on or buy your item:

  <ShippingDetails>
    <ExcludeShipToLocation>NONE</ExcludeShipToLocation>
  </ShippingDetails>

Use GetUserPreferences to review the default set of ExcludeShipToLocations that you've set up in My eBay, and whether or not the default Ship To Exclusion List is in effect:

  <GetUserPreferencesRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
    <ShowSellerExcludeShipToLocationPreference> true </ShowSellerExcludeShipToLocationPreference>
  </GetUserPreferencesRequest>

Special $99 Offer for PayPal X Innovate 2009 -- Register by 9/15

Our friends over at the PayPal Developer Network are throwing their platform launch event, PayPal X Innovate 2009, over November 3 and 4 in San Francisco.

PayPal X Innovate 2009 is where you can learn how to leverage the new PayPal APIs to your advantage and easily monetize your ideas with more than 40 sessions, keynotes from technology leaders, hands-on labs, partner exhibits, and special networking events. Conference session descriptions and speakers now live on www.paypal.com/innovate2009.

Special offer to eBay Developers Program members that expires Tuesday, September 15th -- $99 conference registration for eBay API developers.  DON'T DELAY -- Use promo code 99EBAY915 and register now before this deal ends on September 15th.

For more information about the new open PayPal platform and the Innovate event – see the blog, news & announcements on www.x.com. 

- Delyn

Featured SM App Developer: My.ShipRush Ship Center

Another eBay Ink-featured SM App of the Day: My.ShipRush Ship Center -- a Selling Manager application that helps sellers centralize and optimize the post-sale process, including that DSR-buster -- shipping!

Richard's put together a fantastic and comprehensive look at this useful tool -- read his write-up.

- Delyn

NEW: eBay API Developer Success Stories

Here at the eBay Developers Program, we know that we're only successful when developers are successful. You may be wondering, especially if you are new to the eBay API platform -- what does success look like? So, we're launching a new series featuring developers of all sizes who are creating cool apps and making money with the eBay API platform. Our eBay API Developer Success Stories are now live on the developer.ebay.com website.

We're launching our eBay API Developer Success Stories series with four success stories, focusing on Selling Manager Applications developers: ahTEXT, HostedSupport, MyShipRush & Terapeak.

Are you an eBay API Developer Success Story? Share it with us! We'll be publishing the ones our team likes best, then providing easy access to social media tools, so that your success story can be dugg, tweeted, blogged, facebooked, bookmarked & stumbled by your customers, staff & general fanbase.

Video interviews, seller testimonial quotes, and print versions of the stories have also been built in.  Take a look, and if you have a suggestion or feedback, please let us know how we can make these even better.

Get acquainted to different business models and strategies developers have used to make money on the eBay API platform. Check out our Success Stories today.

- Delyn

Potential "appinfo" Breaking Change

The eBay API team is considering changing the case of the appinfo tags found in various wsdls—specifically, changing from upper to lowercase on the first letter only. For example, CallName could become callName, RequiredInput could become requireInput, and MaxLength could become maxLength.

Example... Before:

<xs:appinfo>
  <CallInfo>
    <CallName>AddItem</CallName>

After:

<xs:appinfo>
  <callInfo>
    <callName>AddItem</callName>

Note that schema elements such as names of calls, elements and types are not affected (e.g. AddItem). Our proposal is only about the names of tags unique to the xs:appinfo structure.

The eBay API team would like to hear from anyone who would be affected by such a change: characterize, if you would, the impact of such a change on your tools, etc.

Please contact    developer-relations@ebay.com

Thanks
John Darrow
API Tech Docs and Tools

Removal of the Shipping Insurance Option

In researching buyer satisfaction, eBay has found that the shipping insurance option in item listings causes many negative experiences for both buyers and sellers alike. Buyers are confused as to why they need to purchase shipping insurance, especially in light of PayPal's Buyer Protection service (which applies whether or not a seller uses shipping insurance).

Beginning with version 635, sellers will no longer be able to list shipping insurance as an optional service for domestic or international items. This restriction affects the following eBay sites:

• BEFR
• BEBL
• CA
• CAFR
• HK
• IE
• IN
• MY
• Motors
• NL
• PH
• PL
• SG
• UK
• US

While you do not have to update existing listings, you will be unable to add shipping insurance as a separate cost to new, revised, and renewed listings. If you attempt to add a shipping insurance option to an item listing on one of the above-mentioned sites, the item listing will succeed, however, the insurance option will be removed from the item listing and a warning will be generated.

Sellers are responsible for safely delivering an item into the hands of the buyer. Sellers may wish to work with bulk shipping insurance providers for low cost insurance that they can include in the item price. Also 3rd party developers of listing tools may find an additional revenue stream by providing bulk shipping insurance to their customers.

eBay to sell Skype… Deal puts Skype value at $2.75 Billion

As published on eBay Ink this morning, eBay has announced it will sell Skype to receive approximately $1.9 Billion in Cash, while retaining an approximate 35 percent stake.

eBay announced back in April that it planned to separate Skype from the company with anticipation of an IPO in 2010. According to a press release issued by eBay this morning, an investor group led by Silver Lake, that includes Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board, will purchase Skype giving them 65% ownership of the communications.

- Delyn

631 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

Featured SM App Developer: vzaar

eBay blogger, Richard Brewer-Hay, over at eBay Ink kicked off his developer series featuring an SM App of the Day this week as we launched Selling Manager Applications on Monday. Read his inaugural post on video listings tool developer, vzaar, offering a great video listings tool at http://applications.ebay.com.

Read RBH's post for the full write-up.

- Delyn

VIDEO: Selling Manager Applications on Fox Business News this AM

Kristina Klausen, senior director of the eBay Seller Efficiency team and Fred Speckeen, CEO of Terapeak, on Fox Business News this AM discussing Selling Manager Applications launch to sellers this week. (IE6 users may need to install a plug-in to view, in case you needed another reason to upgrade).

- Delyn

eBay Sellers Access Third-Party Applications within My eBay for the First Time

Back in April, eBay announced at Web 2.0 Expo that it would no longer charge sellers to subscribe to Selling Manager and would turn the tool into an open platform called Selling Manager Applications, where third-party developers could embed their applications into My eBay and allow them to connect with sellers directly.

Today, Dinesh Lathi, Vice President of Seller Experience, announced that eBay is opening up Selling Manager Applications to sellers. The first wave of about a dozen applications from third-party developers are available to hundreds of thousands of subscribers of Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro, looking to make their eBay business easier to run. Sellers seeking ways to make their eBay business more efficient, improve customer service or streamline shipping will find embedded applications for these and many other critical areas available starting this week.

The Selling Manager Applications opportunity gives developers the following benefits:

• Exposure to hundreds of thousands of professional sellers

          Be listed in our applications directory, viewable from My eBay.

• Robust integration

          Have your application be an integrated part of sellers' Selling Manager experience.

• Simplified billing

          Focus on building great applications and eBay will manage subscription and billing.

• Enhanced access

          Get access to a set of enhanced and exclusive seller-focused APIs.

• Make money

           You choose how much to charge, whether a one-time fee or ongoing subscription.

Developers -- get started by taking a look at our documentation, participation requirements and how you can participate in an upcoming application release. Check out our samples to help you get started, and use our sandbox environment as you build your application. eBay is continuously reviewing and accepting new applications to the program.

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to us in the Selling Manager Applications forum for developers -- this may just be the right opportunity for you!

- Delyn

Video Interview with 2009 eBay Star Developer Award Winner Mercent

"We understand how retailers operate, and we work directly with our retailers to integrate into their systems specifically."

-- Joel Mosby of Mercent on working with retailers to grow their businesses on eBay

Mosby joined us in June for the eBay Developers Conference 2009 at eBay's campus in San Jose to discuss their recent win in the Early Adopter category of the eBay Star Developer Awards.Mercent's experience in the retail space recognizes that retailers rely on custom development to connect their existing systems in order to efficiently sell online across numerous e-commerce channels, including eBay. 

Getting Mercent's first eBay customer up online using Mercent Retail in November 2008, just in time for the 2008 holiday season, was a result of great teamwork. By working collaboratively with the eBay API platform and Large Merchant Services teams using the asynchronous transaction model along with great support allowed them to get the job done in time for the big holiday shopping season -- success!

Watch our interview with Joel filmed on location at eBay DevCon (clip is 4:17 in length).

-Delyn

Important Security Update: developer.ebay.com

This is Kumar Kandaswamy, and I manage the eBay Developers Program. I'd like you to read this important message about account safety.

The safety and security of the eBay Developers Program is a top priority. While we believe that people are basically good, we also must live with the reality that there are fraudsters out there who have made it their illicit "profession" to find ways to exploit others on the Internet.

Occasionally, fraudsters attempt to gain unauthorized access to the eBay Developers Program. eBay has recently identified a means by which someone could gain access to eBay Developers Program account information. This type of access DOES NOT allow the capture of financial or other sensitive information, such as credit card or bank account information or Social Security numbers.  Fortunately, we have not detected any unusual activity with any Developer account.

Out of an abundance of caution and to help ensure the security of the eBay Developers Program, we are requiring that all developers take the following steps:

• Take advantage of our new, stricter password standards and change your eBay Developers Program (developer.ebay.com) passwords. It is not necessary to change eBay (www.ebay.com) passwords.

If you believe you or your customers have been the victim of fraudulent activity, contact us immediately at developer-relations@ebay.com.

Sincerely,
Kumar Kandaswamy

629 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

Reminder: Breaking Change: GTC Listings must Include Return Policy and Handling Time Starting Mid-September

Just a reminder that we rolled out the requirement to specify Return Policy and Handling Time in two phases. The first phase, where they are required for new and relisted items, was enforced in June. The second phase, where they are required for Good Til Canceled (GTC) listings, will be enforced in mid-September.

In mid-September, when GTC listings are renewed, they will be checked for Return Policy and Handling Time. If they are not included, the listing will break.

It is likely that you have some customers that will break if they do not take any action. Please make sure that your application supports Return Policy and Handling Time in the structured data, and that your sellers are specifying it. If Return Policy and Handling Time is mentioned only in the Item Description and not the structured data, it will not count toward enforcement and the listing will break.

Also, if you have a lot of listings to update, make sure that you have left enough time to make the updates by the compliance deadline of mid-September. Your bandwidth constraints may limit you in how many revisions you can do in a day, so you may need to start your revisions as early as mid-August to make sure you have enough time to do all the revisions.

Note: Return Policy and Handling Time are not required in categories like Vehicles or Parts & Accessories.

For more information on how to specify Return Policy and Handling Time, see the API Documentation on Return Policy and Handling Time.

627 Trading, Shopping, Client Alerts, Merchant Data API Docs Now Available

Please remember to use a test environment when updating applications to use a new schema version.

To find out when a version of the API will be available, see the table at the top of the Release Notes for that API.

You can find the latest API documentation at the eBay Developer Documentation Center.

eBay Announces Top-Rated Seller Status and Selling Manager Applications

Developers building applications on the eBay API platform should be aware that eBay today announced a number of changes coming over the next few months, including Top-Rated Seller Status, a new BestMatchItemDetails API, and that Selling Manager Applications will be available to subscribers of Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro later this summer.

Laurel Kline has posted a fantastic and detailed API impact write-up for developers. Don't get caught off guard -- know how these product and policy announcements will impact your applications.

If you are interested in building  your own Selling Manager application, see Selling Manager Applications.

- Delyn

Developer Impact: Summer 2009 Updates

Today, Stephanie Tilenius announced the Summer 2009 Updates. Here is the developer impact for those announcements. Watch the developer blog for more details on these changes.

As announced in April, in the spirit of partnership, eBay is now consolidating changes that impact your business into two or three major releases a year, with two months advance notice. This post introduces the second and final major release of 2009. Most of these updates will launch between September 22 and October 1, 2009.

In some cases we will launch these features to the eBay Sandbox before the September 22 release. Watch the blog for a list of those features. Also note that "September 22" means "the week of September 22" as it takes time to roll code to all the eBay servers.

• Rewards for sellers delivering great buyer experiences

• New way to look at DSRs
  • Avoid getting low DSRs—1s and 2s. Buyers have different ideas about what constitutes a high rating, but most leave a 1 or a 2 only when they experienced a significant issue with their transaction. eBay will be shifting focus from average DSRs to the number of low DSRs as a more accurate measure of customer satisfaction.

The Feedback API allows you to get insight into your seller DSR ratings, including which group of transactions may have resulted in 1s or 2s. It is a good idea to add this functionality to your application so your sellers can carefully monitor their DSRs.

• Only domestic DSRs will count toward requirements for eBay.com. International transactions can be subject to factors outside a seller's control and we want to make sure sellers can expand globally without undue impact to their standing on eBay.com.

There are no specific API changes for this feature, but the API will reflect eBay site behavior.

• PowerSeller program update: rewarding quality over quantity
  • Starting in October, a new eBay top-rated seller status will be added to the PowerSeller program to recognize and reward sellers providing great buyer experiences based on the new way to look at DSRs (very few 1s and 2s). eBay Top-rated sellers will receive the highest PowerSeller Final Value Fee discounts (20%), increased visibility in search results for Fixed Price listings, exclusive access to purchase Featured First and a prominent Top-rated seller badge on item pages. The Top-rated seller badge will be tested in search results pages this summer. The current PowerSeller icon will no longer be displayed on buyer-facing pages including item pages.
  • All sellers with 100 or more annual transactions and at least $3,000 annual sales who meet the requirements for Top-rated seller status will be invited into the PowerSeller program and can start receiving Top-rated seller benefits in October.
  • Next April, the PowerSeller program will also include a requirement for sellers based on the new way to look at DSRs (very few 1s and 2s). PowerSellers that don't have Top-rated seller status will get 5% Final Value Fee discounts.
  • Meanwhile, the current PowerSeller discount structure will continue until April 1, 2010 to give sellers 8 full months to keep their current discounts while they adjust business practices to qualify for the new Top-rated seller status.

Information about top-rated sellers will be returned in Trading API and other API calls, just as it currently is for PowerSellers. We are currently planning to make more information about Top-Rated Sellers available via a dedicated API in a future release.

• New minimum standards for all sellers:
• Starting in October, there will be a new minimum standard for all eBay sellers based on the number of low DSRs (1s and 2s) received. The minimum standard will be stricter in April, 2010.
• A new Selling Practices policy will define guidelines for professionalism and accuracy in all aspects of listings and transactions.
• Optional buyer charges for shipping insurance will no longer be allowed. Sellers can still buy shipping insurance and add the cost to the item or shipping price.

As of SR2, any insurance charges including in listing calls like AddItem will automatically be dropped from the listing with a warning. The listing will not fail.

• Updates to the Seller Dashboard: You can now see a snapshot of your low DSRs (1s and 2s) and standing toward the new Top-rated seller requirements updated monthly through a link at the top of your Seller Dashboard. In September, you will be able to see daily updates.

For SR2, this additional information will only be available via the Seller Dashboard on the ebay.com website. We are currently planning to add this information to a dedicated API in a future release.

• Enhanced search presents more relevant listings

• Best Match, eBay's default sort order, will look at listing's recent sales in relation to the number of recent impressions it received as a key factor for Fixed Price listings. An "impression" is any time a buyer sees a search results page that includes the listing.

This new Best Match behavior will be reflected in the new Finding API for searches with a Best Match sort order specified. However, for technical reasons, will not be reflected in other Search calls.

• In addition, single quantity and newly listed Fixed Price items will be given exposure in Best Match even though they have no sales history. These listings will be given initial impressions based on the performance of similar listings. This change will improve the exposure of new Fixed Price listings that are relevant to buyers.
• Auction-style listings will still get a boost in exposure as they are about to end. To keep auctions enticing, Auction with Buy It Now listings will be required to have a BIN price at least 10% higher than the auction start price.

Listing calls that do not meet this criteria will fail with a blocking error.

• A new Search Visibility tool will help you evaluate how your Fixed Price and auction-style listings are performing in search results.

A new, dedicated Best Match API is being released with SR2. This API offers the same functionality as the Search Visibility Tool that will be offered on ebay.com.

• Several features will be discontinued including Featured Plus, Border, and others to save you money and keep the focus on relevance.

If discontinued listings enhancements such as Border are included in your listing calls, they will be dropped with a warning. The calls will not fail.

• Product pages are rolling out to more buyers, so list with product details to make sure your listings are included. Also, eBay will start selecting sellers' photos for inclusion in the eBay product catalog on September 1. If your photo is chosen, your user ID and a link to your profile page will appear on the product page. If you'd prefer not to have your pictures selected, opt out no later than August 31.

Listings must include a valid Product ID to be shown on Product Pages. Product catalogs are being rolled out to more categories, so there are more items that are eligible to be shown on Product Pages when you include their Product ID.

Also, there is no way via the API to opt out of sharing photos. Sellers must go to their My eBay to opt out.

• Easier, more profitable selling on eBay

• Faster recourse for unpaid items. A streamlined process will cut the resolution time in half. We are also working on a new automated option that will make the process even more efficient, cut the time to resolution to as little as 8 days and block negative feedback when a seller opens a claim and a buyer doesn't pay. This automated option will be tested in late September and our goal is to gradually make it available to all sellers by the holidays.

This new process also applies to items listed via the API. LeaveFeedback will be blocked in cases where this new process applies.

• eBay dispute resolution for buyer claims is expanding to more buyers to make the process faster and easier for sellers and buyers.

No additional dispute-management functionality is being added to the API with SR2. We are exploring the option of adding it in a future release.

• Buyer communications will be faster and easier to manage with enhancements to My Messages and streamlined post-transaction emails.

There are no API changes as part of this change, but developers who offer email management will want to be aware that fewer emails will be generated for each transaction.

• Get more control over international ship-to locations. You'll have the same ship-to choices you have now, plus you'll be able to specify countries you do not want to ship to.

With SR2, sellers can specify a list of countries they will not ship to. They can specify this globally, and on a per-item level. Global preferences can only be set via the ebay.com website, but per-item preferences can be set in the AddItem call. To take advantage of this feature, sellers must select the option in My eBay to exclude countries that they will not ship to.

• Upload tracking and delivery confirmation numbers for more shipping carriers.

Currently shipping carriers are selected from a list of enums. With the SR2 release, you will be able to specify the shipping carrier in a string. This will allow sellers to include more shipping carriers in their listings, including ones that the eBay site does not currently support. You can also specify a tracking number for that shipping carrier. Where eBay can identify the carrier, the tracking number will be displayed as a link to more shipping information.

• Editing listings, even multi-quantity listings with a sale and listing descriptions, will be faster and easier.

Currently it is not possible to edit live, Fixed Price listings once there has been a sale. As of SR2, this will now be possible. Also, when retrieving listings via GetItem, and so on, you have the option of retrieving a specific version of the listing. If no version is specified, the latest version will be returned.

• New Selling Manager applications boost efficiency for sellers of all sizes-try them free!

Selling Manager applications will be generally available to sellers shortly after SR2. To build your own Selling Manager application, see Selling Manager Applications.

• Category and Item Specifics changes are now consolidated with the rest of updates. Find out if there are changes to your categories.
• Stores subscribers-now you can put all your Fixed Price listings on vacation.
  

Get more details on all these updates You're also invited to:

• Take part in one of several upcoming webinars on Tuesday, July 28 and Thursday July 30.
• Join me and other leaders from eBay and PayPal in a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, July 29. Check the Announcement Board soon for more details.
• Talk with members of my staff during the next two days on a special discussion board we've set up for this purpose.

Watch the developer blog for more details on these changes.

Planned developer.ebay.com outage today

Update (Monday, 7/27/2009 12:40 pm PT): The outage is now over.

There is a planned developer.ebay.com site outage today while we do some technical maintenance. We expect the outage to last from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PST.

For Summer 2009 Update news during the outage, please see the special eBay discussion board.

Thank you for your patience!