from Jan Griesel
New standards for images on eBay apply since November 2013. More changes will go into effect in 2014. The new regulations were established to optimize the display on mobiles devices, among other things. We'll inform you how these changes will affect your offers.
The new standards
- At least one image must be attached to each new, revised or re-uploaded offer.
→ Offers without images are no longer permitted and will therefore no longer be transfered to eBay by plentymarkets (An error message will be displayed.) - Moreover, images from the eBay catalog may no longer be used for second-hand items. The new regulation intends to ensure that the potential buyer is able to get a better and more realistic idea of the expected product.
→ This new rule only applies to you if you activated the option Add item images from the eBay catalog in the Settings > Markets > eBay > Basic settings menu. - If you can not take a photo of your item yourself (e.g. for a travel package), look for free images on the internet that you can use for your offer.
New minimum size for images
The longest side of an image must now be at least 500 pixels. In order for your images to be sufficiently large, the standard settings of your camera should be high or medium image quality. Your offers are best displayed on eBay with images that measure 1600 pixels on the longest side. This is currently the highest resolution used by eBay for displaying images. In addition, smaller image sizes will also be rendered for display on eBay.
Further quality standards that will become obligatory in 2014:
- Remove frames, texts and graphical elements from your images. Exception: Watermarks may be used for copyright protection.
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"Good Til' Cancelled" offers (GTC-Listings) are currently only affected by these changes if they are uploaded again (Relist function) or are manually edited or updated with the images option (and variant images where applicable) in plentymarkets. Automatically extending offers in GTC-Listings for 30 days does not cause any changes, since eBay does this itself.
→ Caution: Starting in spring 2014, all of the changes mentioned above will also apply to already existing "Good Til' Cancelled" offers, which may then no longer be extended automatically by eBay for an additional 30 days.
Why new standards?
One third of all eBay transactions are influenced by mobile technologies, e.g. because users search for items on their mobile devices, even if they do not purchase anything with it. With the new eBay image standards, you can achieve an optimal image quality for all of your offers on all devices.
Free supersize pictures
The option for supersize pictures will be free of charge for new and re-uploaded items starting December 7th, 2013. It allows potential buyers to see extra large images of your products on item pages, thus making the decision to buy even easier. Please note that the required minimum size for these pictures will be increased from 500 pixels to 800 pixels on both sides of the image.
For further tips about featuring your products the best possible way, please read the eBay guideline (available in German only).