Detailed explanation of eBay platform item description rules and listing fees

On the cross-border e-commerce platform eBay, sellers not only need to abide by strict item description rules, but also need to understand and manage item listing fees. This article aims to integrate these two aspects to help sellers better understand and operate.

First of all, when describing the items for sale, you need to pay attention to the following points to avoid infringing third-party intellectual property rights:

• Unauthorized use of another eBay user’s item description or image;
• Unauthorized use of images from manufacturers or other Internet sources;
• Improper use of all eBay intellectual property rights, including names, icons, or links to eBay websites;
• Include an “authenticity disclaimer” in your listing information, or deny responsibility for the listed items;
• Encourage or promote others to infringe third-party copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights.

eBay users cannot use text or image content created by others unless authorized by the owner. The recommended approach is to take your own photos and write your own item description, or use information from the eBay product catalog.

Next, let’s take a look at how eBay seller listing fees are calculated. The listing fee mainly consists of two parts: the listing fee and the additional option fee:

• Listing fee: Charged based on the number of items and listing type (such as fixed price, auction, multiple attributes, etc.). For example, the fixed price listing fee is $0.35 per item and the auction listing fee is $0.25 per item;
• Additional Option Fees: There is a specific fee for each of the additional options you choose (such as bold headlines, larger images, expedited listing, etc.). For example, bolding titles costs $0.10 per item and enlarging images costs $0.15 per item.

Assume that a seller plans to list 10 items, 8 of which are fixed price types, and 2 are auction types, and chooses the two additional services of bold title and enlarged image, then the total cost is calculated as follows:

• Fixed price listing fee: 8 * 0.35 = $2.80;
• Auction listing fee: 2 * 0.25 = $0.50;
• Bold title fee: 10 * 0.10 = US$1.00;
• Enlarge image fee: 10 * 0.15 = $1.50;
• Total cost: 2.80 + 0.50 + 1.00 + 1.50 = $5.80.

In order to better manage listing fees, the following measures are recommended:

• Selected publishing type: Choose the appropriate publishing method according to product characteristics;
• Optimize listing options: evaluate the actual effects and costs of each service;
• Bulk listings: Increase efficiency and enjoy discounts with bulk tools;
• Review expenses regularly: Make sure expenses are reasonable and accurate.

Through the above steps, sellers can effectively control costs while improving the performance of their products on the eBay platform.