Among the relevant rules of the eBay platform, sellers should pay attention to the transaction behavior rules and buyer communication rules, which are described in detail as follows.
1. Transaction behavior rules
Because transactions can be conducted in the form of auctions on the eBay platform, the transaction behavior rules are different from those on other platforms, mainly including the prohibition of sellers not selling after the transaction is completed and the prohibition of sellers raising the price themselves.
(1) Strictly prohibit sellers not selling after the transaction is completed
When a buyer successfully bids on an item posted by a seller on the eBay platform, the buyer and seller are equivalent to signing a transaction contract, and both parties must complete the transaction on the basis of good faith. According to this contract, the seller cannot refuse to actually complete the transaction after the buyer successfully bids or fail to ship the goods after receiving the payment.
If the seller cannot complete the transaction due to the product itself, such as damaged goods, the seller needs to communicate with the buyer in a timely manner, explain the reasons and provide solutions to obtain the buyer’s understanding. Although in this case, the eBay platform encourages buyers to communicate with sellers and obtain new solutions. However, buyers are not required to accept the seller’s new suggestions, and this may be recorded as a bad transaction behavior of the seller. Therefore, sellers should ensure that the goods are in stock when posting goods, and ship the goods in a timely manner after receiving the payment to avoid violating this rule.
(2) Sellers are prohibited from self-bidding
Seller self-bidding refers to artificially raising the price of goods. It is the bidding behavior of sellers for the purpose of increasing the price of goods or increasing demand. That is, during the auction process, sellers register new accounts or manipulate other sellers’ accounts to make false bids, or the sellers themselves or people related to the sellers make false bids, so as to achieve the purpose of raising the price.
Since the seller’s family, friends and colleagues can obtain product information from the seller that other buyers cannot obtain, even if such people are interested in purchasing the goods, in order to ensure fair bidding, they should not participate in the bidding. Therefore, when selling goods in the form of auctions, sellers should pay attention to this situation and avoid violating the rules.
2. Buyer communication rules
Seller communication rules are mainly to protect buyers and prevent sellers from causing trouble to buyers. They mainly include prohibiting the use of bad words, prohibiting spam without permission, and prohibiting the abuse of eBay contact functions.
(1) Prohibition of using bad words
eBay does not allow any bad language, such as insults, hateful language, etc., to appear in the public areas of the website. The so-called public areas refer to all areas on the website that buyers can access, including product pages, store pages, discussion areas, chat rooms, etc.
(2) Prohibition of sending spam without permission
eBay prohibits sellers from sending spam. Spam refers to unsolicited and advertising emails. Sellers should note that eBay prohibits sending emails that propose private transactions outside the eBay platform, which also constitutes spam.
(3) Prohibition of abusing eBay’s contact function
eBay provides a contact system for buyers and sellers to contact each other if they have any questions about transactions. The contact system includes functions such as “Contact Member” and “Ask Sellers Questions”. The purpose of these functions is to provide buyers with an open communication channel, so information can only be communicated through this system in order to facilitate the smooth progress of transactions. Sellers may not use it for personal purposes such as promoting stores and products.