What I have observed till now in the Empowerers eBay Facebook group, the biggest issue of existing eBay sellers is “new account MC 113 suspension”! It happens because users are unaware of the steps eBay account for, and the seller account gets suspended. Out of every 10 posts, 1 is of new eBay account suspension. Please take care of your HIGHLY SCALEABLE GLOBAL SHOP, EBAY, and read and comprehend all the following.
Remember, eBay earns when you sell. eBay does not enjoy your account suspensions but in actual it faces loss when it suspends your account. It does this just to keep the eBay community safe from scammers.
For the last 6 years being an eCommerce seller, for approx. last 2 years being the seller on eBay and for the last 8 months being the founder of the Empowerers, an “eBay focused” organization, and “the Leaders of eBay training in Pakistan”, I have tried my best to cover all the possible steps which may save you from the suspension of the new eBay seller account. Empowerers will keep empowering you so you can dominate the eBay global market. For eBay freelancers, eBay consultants, and eBay VAs, if you follow all the following steps, you can charge a better fee from your International clients of Upwork, Guru, Fiverr, people per hour, toptal etc.
Straight to point, do the following:
-(For new account do the following points:)
1. Try your best to sign up for an account on the verifiable details of any of the English-developed countries (USA, UK, AUS, etc). Other countries work too but I am talking about more stability of the accounts. USA details for account sign-up should always be your top priority. If you are from any of the developing or third world countries you may signup for the eBay account but try to Signup for the USA, UK, AUS, or any other developed country eBay account even if you need to make a partnership in the eBay accounts of these countries. To make an individual eBay account, you need: (watch: This Video )
1.1. First and last name (verifiable )
1.2. A verifiable address
1.3. A verifiable email ID
1.4. A verifiable contact number
1.5. A Charge method (an active debit, credit card, it must be in working condition and you at least have done one transaction on this card)
1.6. A payment method (PayPal/ High street bank account/ Payoneer (where Payoneer is active), before attaching any of these payment methods to eBay, you must have done at least one transaction)
Note: eBay is replacing PayPal as a payment method with a “managed payments” program in which eBay will be managing the payments for most of the sellers and then for all of the sellers. This replacement is being done step by step and will be rolled out globally till Dec 31st, 2021. For managed payments registration, watch This Video on Empowerers youtube channel now “
2. For the first 60 days, one machine, one internet connection (static IP is preferred), one browser. I call it the “1/60 rule”. MUST FOLLOW! This is necessary so eBay can trust that you are a legit seller. Browser cookies will help eBay to trust you by using these cookies to track, personalize and store your browsing history including your browsing behavior on the eBay site. If you do not follow the “rule 1/60” there are chances that you might get your account suspended. Being an eBay service provider (freelancer), if you want to access/ create an account of your customer, must use VPS or access his machine remotely or you may use virtual machines with good health proxy IPs.
3. Now signup for your eBay buyer account and must follow points 1 and 2. Provide all correct, legit, and as per documents verifiable details.
4. After signing up for the eBay buyer account, at least for 14 to 21 days, daily log in to the account and do some surfing on eBay for 20 mins or more (you can do it in one or more than one session a day). Read its terms, policies, see the products listed, and open the product pages. Keep doing some add-to-carts, let the items be there for days. This activity will generate enough data to fill the eBay cookies.
5. Along with point 4, in 14 to 21 days, do purchases of more than $50 in total in 7 or more transactions. Try your best to buy the daily usage items and if you are not in the country where you want to sell on eBay (e.g. you are in UAE and want to sell in the USA), then you may buy the virtual products e.g. soft copies of books, games/ software licenses etc so that you may receive the products you have ordered.
6. As you are done with point 5 now it’s time to convert your eBay buyer account to an eBay seller account. Nowadays, eBay is in a transition phase of the “Managed Payments” program. When you convert the account into the seller account it may ask you to attach your bank account, Paypal or Payoneer account whatever it asks, you must have that account ready with you. For developed countries, it may straight away ask you for a Bank account (or Paypal), and for developing and third world countries it may ask you for Payoneer (or Paypal), so keep both accounts ready with you while converting the account to a seller account. Keep the things ready in advance, complete the seller account creation process in one go. Keep your bank account, PayPal, or Payoneer ready beforehand. REMEMBER, IF EBAY ASKS YOU FOR THE PAYPAL ID, YOUR PAYPAL AND THE PRIMARY EMAIL ADDRESS MUST HAVE TO BE THE SAME. Also, read point no 1.6 again.
7. After converting to a seller account, Empowerers strongly recommends you to subscribe to the “eBay Basic store” immediately. Though in strat you do not need it due to your lower selling limits, you need to build trust in the eyes of eBay.
8. Now, do a listing of an item, with images taken from your mobile phone or a digital camera (does not matter if the picture quality is not professional), keep this listing in the draft for 2 days, and then list the item. If you are unable to ship the item then increase its price so no one can buy it and at the same time you show yourself to eBay as a legit seller. Remember, Empowerers does not recommend the use of images directly downloaded from the internet. If somehow you need to do it, clean the image data (metadata) with some app (e.g. Exifpurge)
9. Your Ship from address must have to be the same as your primary address. It means if the primary address of your eBay account is not the same as your item location, you may face MC 113 suspension. You can add more “Ship from” address later.
10. In the first 60 days, if for example, you are from the UK and signup for your account on www.ebay.co.uk, you have a friend in the USA with some inventory, and you try to sell on www.ebay.com (USA), you may face account suspension. For the first 60 days, Empowerers recommends selling on the same domain where your primary address belongs to.
11. For the first 90 days (and even after it, if possible), Sell stock products (products which you physically have with you or with your 3PL/ fulfillment center), upload the tracking IDs asap, right the same day when it is sold, keep handling time as low as possible, if you can, make it same day handling or the next day handling. Offer fast shipping, 3 to 5 days.
12. For the first 60 days, the items you have with you on your primary address, try your best to buy the shipping from within eBay (eBay shipping labels). This increases your authenticity in eyes of eBay. eBay automatically uploads the tracking for that item.
13. Do not list more than 70% of your listing limit in the first 60 days. When the limit is reached, wait for eBay to increase it automatically. Though you can ask eBay on chat or by other means to increase your listing limit, Empowerers recommends that let eBay increase this listing limit automatically. Let eBay do this for you during its periodic listing limit updates.
14. If your account is new, do not sell more than 400% than your previous month. Keep this 400% formula for the first 3 months, and after 3 months sustain the sales of the last month and do not cross 20% of the last month. E.g. if in the first month your sale is $100, next month it must remain under $400, next month it must remain under $1600 and the next month it must remain under $6400, then sustain this $6400 and do no go above $7680 (20% growth of last month) and keep this 20% formula going. Grow slowly, otherwise, eBay will strike you MC 011 suspension. Empowerers recommends this as eBay wants new sellers to grow slowly so they can handle all the shipping, tracking, customer care, and all other issues well serviced.
15. Actively engage your customers if there is some delay in the order or if there is some complaint from the customer. Do not hesitate even if you need to offer a partial or full refund to the customer.
16. Do not let negative feedback come on your account, if it comes, then do whatever it takes and get it removed asap.
17. Address the issues in the Resolution center there and then, never delay it at least for the first 90 days.
18. Everday when you start your eBay work, first see your seller matrices and solve the issues if there are any. There are so many old eBay sellers who still can properly handle their eBay seller matrices, this is a gapped area where you can earn well in terms of services.
19. Actively write feedbacks for buyers for the first 90 days at least. A lot of things have been covered here, eBay keeps improving its strategies and data points and we also keep improving ourselves along with eBay, Alhamdulilah, and keep observing the patterns of account creation and suspension. There are so many other small things to take care of but if you keep managing these major steps, these will be enough to avoid the account suspension (in a lot of cases), In sha Allah.