Recently Ebay has done some updates to the item location policy and more specifically whether to use multiple locations or zip code on your listing. Item location information must accurately state where the item will be shipped from. To make sure buyers have a clear understanding of shipping charges and delivery times, sellers must provide accurate information in their listings about where their item will be shipped from.
What is the Item Location policy?
Clear and accurate information about where the item is located, including the postal code, city and country where the item will ship from, must be included in listings. This can be different from the seller’s registered address, registered business address, or the address provided for returns
Item location information must be consistent across all areas of the listing including title, description and item specifics
A tracking number uploaded after an item has sold must match the shipping location provided in the listing
Activity that doesn’t follow eBay’s policy could result in a different range of actions including: ending or canceling listings, hiding or demoting all listings from search results, lowering seller rating, buying or selling restrictions, loss of buyer or seller protections, and account suspension.
All fees that have been paid in relation to these listings or accounts on which eBay takes any action will not be refunded or credited to your account.
Why does eBay have this policy?
eBay also states that they are trying to crack down what they call “Item Location Misinterpretation” which is related to international sellers who are saying that they are located and shipping from US, but they are not and this is causing a lot of discrepancies with the shipping time and it’s overall a bad experience for everyone.
Who is most affected?
The policy will affect mostly the ones that are doing retail dropshipping from Amazon or Walmart for example and also people dropshipping from AliExpress, but using US zip codes for their listings. When doing this type of dropshipping you have the least control of your business since the retailers send out their products from various locations and it’s almost impossible to know exactly where your item has been shipped from.
eBay has considered that some people are using different suppliers and these suppliers have various warehouses. They’ve stated that for example if you have one item that has been shipped from two or three different locations, their algorithm will take that into consideration. At the moment you should be using the primary zip code where you believe most of your items will be shipped from.
If you are dropshipping from a place like Walmart or other supplier that has a ton of different warehouses it will almost impossible to find the primary location. One thing you could do is to check your recently sold items and more specifically the tracking numbers in order to see if there is a certain destination that is overwhelmingly being shipped from the most and use that zip code.
eBay is still working on implementing new changes regarding this policy and since there is not enough official information, it’s best to be aware of potential changes in the future.
For now, we recommend you to check if you have any policies that need to be resolved from here:
Also, another thing that you should review is if some of your listings are required to have a zip code added. It’s important to have all of your listings up-to-date in order to avoid getting your account flagged.
See the screenshot below for more information.
As an alternative if you are using AliExpress as a supplier, then this new policy will not affect you because it’s not obligatory to enter a zip code information for items located in China. You just have to make sure you have selected the area where your supplier’s business is registered. You can check that by going to AliExpress and pressing on “Business Information” from the product web page.
If you still haven’t started dropshipping from China, now it’s a good time to do so. If you would like to know everything that’s related to dropshipping from AliExpress before you start, go ahead and check out this article with detailed insights.
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