2011 Spring Seller Release: Shipping Changes

Starting in June 2011, you'll be able to specify carriers and costs for more international buyers. Adding this information helps set buyers' expectations regarding shipping costs when ordering from another country, and it will reduce the number of buyer questions around international shipping costs.

Starting in August 2011, only items containing an international shipping cost to Australia, Canada, or the UK will be visible to buyers on those sites. If you want your item to be visible to buyers on those sites, you need to add the appropriate international shipping details with AddItem.

More Shipping Services Available

Starting in February 2011, FedEx domestic and international shipping services were added, as well as new USPS domestic and international shipping services. Other new shipping services were added for Germany and UK.

2011 Spring Seller Release: Electronics and Technology

To improve the finding experience for buyers, eBay is requiring sellers to list with the eBay catalog in selected categories. If the seller's item matches a product in the eBay catalog, the seller must list with the product by using the ProductListingDetails container, with a supported product ID (e.g. an ePID, UPC, or ProductID) that corresponds to the catalog product. Not listing with a product may result in the listing being taken off the site.

 

We're co-hosting a Tweetbyte!

Are you a new developer to eBay's platform? Or have you had a burning question you've been wanting to get answered? Well TOMORROW IS YOUR CHANCE!

Together with PayPal, we are co-hosting a Tweetbyte tomorrow, March 23, at 11 am PST.

You’ll get first-hand knowledge on how to integrate eBay and PayPal APIs. You will learn how to monetize your apps using PayPal and with eBay APIs you will learn about the eBay API suite and get recommendations about the right API to use to build your next killer eCommerce App.

Learn more here.

Got questions on this event? Leave them in the comments section!

 

 

 

713 Trading, Shopping, 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.

2011 Spring Seller Release: eBay Shopping Cart

The new eBay Shopping Cart is already available to some buyers, and will become the standard way for buyers to purchase items later this year. The new Shopping Cart will make it easier for sellers to up-sell and cross-sell their products and will virtually eliminate all unpaid items in fixed-price listings, since the listing (or inventory in multi-quantity, fixed-price listings) remains active until the buyer actually pays for the item(s). Sellers are not required to alter their auction or fixed-price listings to accommodate the new eBay Shopping Cart. However, eBay is recommending the following.

Use GetOrders for Order Management

Use the GetOrders call exclusively for order management. This call can be used to track and process all single and multiple line item orders. In the past GetItemTransactions and GetSellerTransactions were used to retrieve single line item orders (transactions), and GetOrders was used to retrieve multiple line item (Combined Payment) orders. Starting with the 705 release, GetOrders returns all single and multiple line item orders, making the initial calls to GetItemTransactions and GetSellerTransactions unnecessary. Sellers who use GetItemTransactions, GetSellerTransactions, and GetOrders should switch to GetOrders exclusively, since further enhancements may only be added to GetOrders.

Specify PayPal as a payment method

Specify PayPal as a payment method. Until Summer of 2011, PayPal is the only supported payment method for the Shopping Cart.

Specify multiple shipping service options

Specify multiple domestic and international shipping service options, and possibly offer free shipping when it makes business sense. Shipping service options and combined shipping discount rules will be displayed prominently for each item in the buyer's cart. Clearly defined and multiple shipping options and discounts may accomplish two things: encourage multiple purchases; eliminate the buyer's need to contact the seller to find out more about shipping options and details.

Confirm Other Settings

Make sure that the Combined Payments feature is turned on and that Flat, Calculated and/or Promotional shipping discount rules are specified at the user level. The Combined Payments feature is turned on with the SetUserPreferences Trading API call, and shipping discount rules are set with the SetShippingDiscountProfiles Trading API call. Combined Payment preferences can also be set in My eBay. As stated in the previous item, shipping service options and combined shipping discounts will be prominently displayed in the buyer's Shopping Cart, and combined shipping discounts may encourage multiple purchases.

New Versions of eBay SDKs for Java and .NET

New versions of eBay's .NET SDK and Java SDK are now available. These SDKs are updated with features and fields available in version 705 of the Trading WSDL.