Life on eBay India is getting interesting with all the new policies and rules.  Long used as a testbed for policies that later appear on other sites, they’re now running capped despatch times, with the compulsory input of despatch details via sellers’ “My eBay”.

That said, I also noticed last week, that under the despatch date field in “My eBay”, on eBay US, had appeared a link to input despatch info … I must have a nosy between sites and find out how widespread the link has become – it might give a clue as to it becoming compulsory globally.

The Indian announcement explains that it has become recognised that certain product lines, particularly furniture which needs to be customized or made to order, by the nature of the product requires more time to manufacture and deliver to the buyers.

Based on “user input”, it has been announced that time-lines for entering dispatch details for all items in the ‘Furniture’ sub-category under Home, Décor & Furniture has been extended from 10 days to 14 days.  This means that by default, the time to enter Shipping Details for the “FURNITURE” sub-category is 14 days for both Indian & International dispatches.

I had to smile wryly when I also read that, “Overall this will provide a better selling experience to the sellers selling in the ‘Furniture’ category.”  It may be true that this offers furniture sellers some relief, but not as much as previously enjoyed when there was no deadline for entering shipping details, nor even a need to enter them.

Remember too, we’re not just talking about knocking up a table and chairs.  Custom-made furniture from India can be incredibly and intricately carved major “feature” pieces.  I’ve watched some of these carvers work, and the best quality units can take months to carve a single panoramic panel.  This time-line extension is only for the ‘Furniture “ sub-category and not for other categories or sub-categories.

Watch out for this compulsory input of shipping details, with time deadlines for inputting them, coming to an eBay near you next year – remember, you read it first on BuildaSkill, just as you read here first, about the introduction of the International Visibility Fee early this year.  If it does arrive, then it’ll bring extra pressure onto eBay to scrap buyers’ abilities to leave Despatch Time DSRs.

Ed