Last month we launched the new Time Away feature for all sellers so they can let their customers know almost in real-time when they’re on vacation or away from selling.
Like an “out of office” reply, the new Time Away feature allows sellers to schedule their absences and notify customers with an automatic message while they’re away, so buyers know what to expect. Additionally, through the tool, sellers can choose if they’d like to pause or continue their listings on eBay. For our buyers, they can see updated estimated delivery dates for items by a seller who has turned on the Time Away feature.
As we innovate on behalf of our customers in creating features like Time Away, we strive to be the seller platform of choice across our marketplace as part of our tech-led reimagination.
How It Works
Sellers can access the Time Away feature through several ways, including their Account Settings, the Seller Hub and My eBay pages.
For sellers who’d like to hide their listings while on break, they can use the Pause Selling options in Time Away to automatically hide and unhide their listings based on their time away start and end dates, with only 1-2 hours for the changes to take effect.
Pausing sales will hide a seller’s fixed-price listings from search results on eBay and block checkout on their listings while they’re away. Please note that auctions will continue unless a seller manually cancels them.
Sellers who’d prefer to continue selling while away will no longer need to manually update their shipping and handling time for their inventory. Our new Time Away feature will automatically adjust the handling due/dispatch timeline and the estimated delivery date so that buyers know what to expect. A message will be displayed on the listings letting buyers know about their absence, return date and the expected delays, including an updated estimated delivery date.
Sellers also can adjust their settings, change their end date or cancel their Time Away status at any time.
This feature rolled out in September as the holiday season approaches, so sellers can prepare in advance for any well-deserved breaks, allowing them to relax and enjoy their vacation.
The new feature is available to all eBay sellers worldwide on desktop and is an update of our original “Vacation Settings” feature experience, which previously had only been available to Store subscribers.