eBay Seller Hub features most sellers miss, tab by tab, and how to use each one

Which eBay Seller Hub features do most sellers miss?

The eBay Seller Hub features most sellers miss are not hidden; they sit one tab away from the Orders and Listings pages people use every day. Seller Hub is eBay's own dashboard for selling, and eBay's Seller Centre lists its tabs for Overview, Orders, Listings, Marketing, Advertising, Shop, Performance, Payments, Research and Reports. Each tab has at least one tool that saves time or shows you something you would otherwise work out by hand.

This guide goes tab by tab, says what eBay describes each tool as doing, and suggests one thing to try with it this week. Tab names and features change from time to time and can differ between eBay sites, so treat this as a map and check your own Seller Hub on eBay.co.uk or eBay.com.

Overview: what should you put on your dashboard?

eBay describes the Overview page as one you can arrange to suit your business, with key tasks and data in one place: recent sales, orders awaiting shipment, traffic in the last 30 days and other updates. Many sellers never change the default layout.

Your monthly selling limits

The feature most worth finding on Overview is Monthly limits. eBay selling limits cap how much you can list and sell each month, and they apply even when you still have free listings left. Category limits can apply when you are new to a category. eBay says your current limit is in Seller Hub, on the Overview tab, under Monthly limits, and that sellers with strong performance can request an increase. See eBay's selling limits page and our guide to increasing eBay selling limits.

Try this: before a bulk upload, check how much of your monthly limit is left, so the upload does not stop halfway.

Orders and Listings: which tools save the most time?

Orders

eBay says the Orders tab lets you manage all your orders in one place, print postage labels, upload tracking, see returns and buyers' requests and review past orders. Working from the "awaiting dispatch" view each morning, and printing labels in a batch rather than one by one, is the simplest time saving.

Listings

eBay describes the Listings tab as the place to create new listings or revise existing ones, individually or in bulk, with listing templates for quick uploads. It also holds active listings, drafts, and unsold or ended items.

• Bulk revise: change postage, returns, prices or quantities on many listings at once instead of opening each one.
• Listing templates: save a set of choices you use often, such as postage and returns, and start new listings from it.
• Drafts: keep listings you have not finished, so work is not lost.
• Unsold and ended items: review what did not sell before relisting, rather than relisting everything as it was.

Try this: open your unsold items, sort by views, and look at the ones with views but no sales. They usually need a price, photo or title change rather than a straight relist.

Marketing, Advertising and Shop: what can you do without other tools?

Marketing

eBay says Shop subscribers can send coupons, sale events and other discount campaigns from Seller Hub, and that sellers can create segments of buyers using buyer groups. eBay also says all sellers can link their social media and manage their offers in one place.

Advertising

The Advertising tab is where you manage eBay advertising campaigns: create a campaign, choose a Priority or General strategy, get campaign recommendations and view your metrics. With a General campaign you pay only when the promoted item sells within 30 days of a click on the ad, and the fee is the ad rate as a percentage of the item's total sale amount, including item price, postage and taxes. Build that rate into your price before you promote.

Shop

For Shop subscribers, eBay describes tools to create discounts or markdown offers, build newsletters and personalise the Shopfront. If you pay for a Shop and have never opened this tab, you are paying for tools you do not use. Our guide to running an eBay markdown sale covers one of them.

Performance and Payments: what do the numbers tell you?

Performance

eBay says the Performance tab shows sales, selling costs, buyer traffic and more, and explains eBay's seller levels and performance standards. Two things are worth a regular look:

• Selling costs. Seeing fees as a share of sales, by month, tells you whether your pricing formula is using the right fee rate.
• Service metrics. eBay UK evaluates sellers on the 20th of each month. Checking your transaction defect rate, cases closed without seller resolution and late delivery rate before that date gives you time to act.

Payments

eBay describes the Payments tab as the place to track sales transactions, payouts, reports and tax information, adjust payout settings and check the status of your funds. Download a monthly payments report for your records rather than rebuilding it from orders.

Research and Reports: the most underused tabs

Research

eBay describes Product research (formerly Terapeak) as a free tool with three years of eBay sales and pricing data, available once you are opted in to Seller Hub, which needs at least one sale. It shows actual sold prices including accepted Best Offers, average sold price, sold price range, free postage share and average postage, the number of sellers, a price trend and a sell-through rate. eBay also describes a "Sell one like this" option that creates a draft listing from a previously sold item. Read more on eBay's Product research page. The Research tab also offers Sourcing Insights.

Reports

eBay describes the Reports tab as the place to use file uploads to update listings and orders, download reports for audits and insights, and automate reports. File uploads let you change hundreds of listings from a spreadsheet; scheduled reports send you the data on a regular basis without you having to remember.

Try this: schedule a monthly orders or sales report, and keep each one with your records. In the UK, gross trading income over £1,000 in a tax year means registering for Self Assessment; in the US, the IRS says income must be reported whether or not you receive a Form 1099-K. Check your own position with HMRC, the IRS or an accountant.

Which Seller Hub habits cost sellers money?

The features above help only if they are used. These are the habits that most often leave money on the table:

• Relisting unsold items unchanged. An item that did not sell at a price and with a title will usually not sell the same way again. Check sold prices in Research first.
• Promoting without pricing in the ad fee. A General campaign fee is charged on the total sale amount. If the price was set without it, every promoted sale earns less.
• Bulk uploading without checking limits. An upload that hits your monthly limit stops partway, and you then have to work out which rows went live.
• Paying for a Shop and not opening the Shop tab. Markdowns, coupons and newsletters are part of what the subscription buys.
• Checking performance after the 20th. By then the month's evaluation has happened. Look a week before.
• Keeping no reports. Rebuilding a year of sales at tax time takes far longer than saving a monthly download.

A worked example: one hour a week in Seller Hub

Example, with hypothetical timings: suppose you set aside one hour each Monday.

1. 5 minutes, Overview: check monthly limits and orders awaiting dispatch.
2. 10 minutes, Performance: check service metrics and selling costs as a share of sales.
3. 15 minutes, Listings: open unsold items with views but no sales and fix three of them.
4. 15 minutes, Research: check sold prices for your five best sellers to see if your price still fits.
5. 10 minutes, Advertising: check which promoted listings sold and whether the ad rate still leaves a profit.
6. 5 minutes, Reports: download the week's report into your records folder.

That routine uses tools you already have, at no extra cost, and covers limits, performance, listings, prices, ads and records.

When is Seller Hub not enough?

Seller Hub is strong for listing, orders, research and reporting on eBay. It does not watch an outside supplier's price or stock, so if your costs move often you either check them by hand or add a tool. Our comparison of Seller Hub and third-party tools sets out where the line usually falls. Before adding anything, make sure you are using the Seller Hub features above, because they are free and come from eBay itself.