Whether new or experienced, pay attention to how you create a listing on eBay. A well-designed listing will make your business stand out in this dynamic marketplace, as customers can conveniently find the product they need. On the contrary, certain practices during the process may lead to eBay demoting or even deleting your listings altogether.
One of those taboos is creating eBay duplicate listings. Since this behavior goes against the platform’s policy, you should have a thorough understanding of it to avoid future complexities. In this article, we will walk you through:
- The definition of eBay duplicate listings
- How to detect eBay duplicate listings
- Things you should be aware of to avoid duplicate listings
- Simple steps to remove eBay duplicate listings and limit any potential incidents
Without further ado, let’s get started!
What are eBay Duplicate Listings?
eBay duplicate listing definition
In a nutshell, an eBay duplicate listing is a listing that bears no critical difference from another.
Unauthorized sellers often take advantage of duplicate listings to profit from the popularity of an item already featured on this top marketplace. However, not all duplicate listings are intentional or nefarious. Since the eCommerce giant is strict when it comes to scanning this type of listing, retailers may make mistakes without being aware of them. Some international sellers, for instance, tried to list the same item in more than one language, which eBay considers a duplicate.
For this reason, the practice is more common than you think. However, it may lead to serious repercussions, which include:
- eBay account suspension;
- Drop in revenue;
- Drop in inventory ranking;
- Negative impact on linked account.
eBay duplicate listing policy
All the consequences above are every seller’s worst nightmare, and following eBay duplicate listing policy is the best way to avoid it.
What is the policy?
On the Customer Service page, the marketplace makes it clear that it doesn’t allow more than one identical listing of the same item at the same time from the same retailer. This includes:
- Listing the same product under various categories;
- Listing the same product using several accounts;
- Listings that don’t significantly differ, such as adding an inconsequential bonus item with the same identical item in various listings).
In addition, there can’t be more than one listing with a set price for the same generic or universal product. For instance, a seller is prohibited from creating multiple fixed-price listings for AA batteries.
You may still create multiple listings for one item on various eBay sites, but only when such listings don’t clog up any individual site’s search results. Variations of the same product (different sizes, colors, etc.) can be grouped into a single fixed-price listing.
Falling foul of these will result in the following consequences:
- Administrative termination or cancelation of the listings that go against eBay policy;
- Removal of all your listings from the search result;
- Limitation or account privileges;
- Suspension of account.
Under some conditions (as detailed in eBay’s duplicate listing policy), sellers can create several auction-style listings for the same item. Nonetheless, buyers will only see one listing without the bid at a time. After each listing has a bidder or expires, the next one will be shown to buyers.
How can the policy benefit eBay sellers?
We all see that eBay duplicate listing policy is one of the notable benefits of eBay. Since multiple listings from the same sellers no longer dominate the search results, they now have more product variety across more than one vendor. But how does the new policy affect eBay sellers?
While it may seem complicated and frustrating at first, the policy’s purpose is to create a fair marketplace. As mentioned, a small number of eBay sellers have been using duplicates to capitalize on a popular item with a fixed price. These are the sellers the platform wants to crack down on.
By imposing new rules, eBay ensures that a single seller can’t monopolize the top ranking of a product. Not only does it reward eCommerce buyers with choice, but it also grants sellers more visibility. All in all, it contributes to eBay’s reputation as one of the best-selling platforms in the market.
To avoid duplicate listings when selling multiple items, follow our comprehensive guide on how to list multiple items on eBay. This will help you maintain a clean and organized seller profile.
How to Detect eBay Duplicate Listings?
You can identify eBay duplicate listings when you encounter listing errors or warnings without any eBay fees spent. Unfortunately, the alert doesn’t tell you exactly what the problem is. Duplicate listing is just one of the things sellers may encounter when they receive an “Error” message, and they have to review each of their listings in order to find out the issue.
Another sign you have some duplicates is a loss in visibility for your inventory. Sometimes when eBay detects a duplicate listing in your vendor, it will simply dump all of your listings toward the bottom of search results. So, when you suddenly suffer from a drop in sales, it’s time to track down a duplicate listing in your inventory.
While avoiding duplicate listings is crucial for maintaining a healthy eBay account, it’s just one aspect of optimizing your eBay presence. To maximize your visibility and sales potential, explore our comprehensive eBay SEO Guide, which offers proven tactics to boost your listings’ performance in eBay’s search results.
How to Avoid eBay Duplicate Listings?
This is the biggest problem with eBay duplicate listing policy: The platform doesn’t provide sellers with any means to identify the mistake quickly. You either have to go through the whole inventory trying to find one problematic listing or get your whole revenue dragged down.
It would seem very reasonable for eBay retailers to have access to a tool that can detect any listing that eBay considers to be a duplicate. This allows them to immediately take action and prevent any trouble that may happen.
#1. Use LitCommerce to sync eBay inventory
LitCommerce is the exact solution you need. This eCommerce inventory management software includes an eBay listing checker. When you use LitCommerce’s single-listing and multiple-listing features to list products on eBay, the tool will match each item’s SKU from an uploaded eBay inventory file. This ultimately prevents eBay duplicate listings while saving your precious time and effort.
Aside from that, LitCommerce comes with an innovative toolset that streamlines your online store and keeps your inventory well-ranked in any marketplace:
- Templates and recipes: By utilizing templates, which are sets of features and settings, you can effortlessly manage your product listings. When you modify a template, the changes will be updated on all the listings to which it was applied. Recipes are sets of templates for a particular marketplace, which helps you save more time.
- Multichannel connection: LitCommerce can connect with various marketplaces, such as eBay, Etsy, Amazon, etc. All the orders and listings from your sales channels can be handled on a single dashboard.
- Live sync: With LitCommerce live sync, inventory counts are immediately updated across all of your marketplaces as soon as they occur. What’s more, any change in price during eBay holiday sales will also be updated on your online stores.
- Quickgrid: The quick grid feature is a spreadsheet-style interface that allows you to view, modify, and manage all listings from one screen. It is a simpler and more advanced way to quickly edit your listings.
With LitCommerce’s listing solution, eBay duplicate listings can never wreck your store’s ranking again. Not only that, this versatile tool also automates the selling process, saving you valuable time so you can focus on what truly matters: The products’ quality.
#2. Follow eBay’s best match
Another way to avoid eBay listing the same item multiple times is to follow eBay’s Best Match. Using the following factors, the algorithm determines which items should be at the top of the search results:
- Whether or not the listing is a duplicate;
- How compatible the listing is compared to buyers’ search terms;
- How popular is the item;
- The competitiveness of the item’s pricing;
- The quality of the product description and the number of pictures supporting the description;
- Whether or not the listing is complete or has omissions.
If your listings reach Best Match results, you know you don’t have any duplicates. Here’s how to optimize your listings:
- Use bulk listing to list several items with the same price;
- List all the variations (size, color, etc.) under one fixed-price listing;
- If you post items that are compatible with different vehicles, refer to the part’s compatibility guide.
Nonetheless, most eCommerce retailers don’t have time to manually update their inventory and ensure that their listings are 100% compliant with the Best Match requirements. That’s when eCommerce software that streamlines the listing process comes in handy.
To avoid duplicates and ensure a smooth listing process, follow our comprehensive guide on how to create a listing on eBay: a step-by-step tutorial.
How to Remove eBay Duplicate Listings?
When you detect a duplicate listing, you can delete it from your inventory by following these steps:
- Access your My eBay page.
- Click Selling and select the duplicate listing you wish to remove. A menu will drop down, showing more actions.
- Select End My Listing Early to remove the repetitive listing. If the duplicate listing already has bids on it, you have the option of ending the listing or selling the item to the highest bidder, provided that there are at least 12 hours remaining. If you have less than 12 hours left in the listing, selling the item to the highest bidder is your only choice.
- Explain your reason for ending the listing. Then, click End My Listing to confirm.
eBay Duplicate Listings: FAQs
- How to remove duplicate listings on eBay?
You can remove eBay duplicate listings by visiting My eBay page, locating the duplicates, then select End My Listing Early to remove it from your inventory. The process is simple and only takes you a few minutes.
- What are eBay Duplicate Listings?
Simply put, eBay duplicate listings are listings that are not significantly different from each other.
While it might sound simple, eBay has enforced a special policy on duplicate listings, and you may accidentally violate the rules if you are not familiar with them.
- How to avoid eBay Duplicate Listings?
The best way to avoid duplicate listing is to take advantage of listing tools that include a duplicate listing scanner, such as LitCommerce.
Another way is to strictly follow eBay’s Best Match, but it will take time for you to manually optimize your listings to follow all the criterias.
Final Words
eBay has enforced the policy against duplicate listings to guarantee that customers are exposed to various options from different sellers. This will prevent any vendor from monopolizing the search results, ensuring a fair marketplace for all retailers.
Thus, it is crucial to follow the guidelines regarding eBay duplicate listings. Doing so doesn’t only keep you from getting into trouble with the platform but also boosts your seller rank in eBay’s Best Match sort order. Soon, your vendor will gain more visibility, and you can increase eBay sales in no time!
To effortlessly manage all listings from various marketplaces, check out LitCommerce – the all-inclusive eCommerce listing software. Our solution can help you with professionally-designed listing templates, order management, and inventory syncing, all from a central dashboard.
Don’t hesitate to contact our customer service – we are always willing to help you with your business! Additionally, don’t forget to join our community and follow our Retailers Blog for the best eCommerce practices and updates.
