Coming Soon: Support for Digitally Delivered Goods PayPal Required

[mandy]

***Coming Soon: Support for Digitally Delivered Goods***

December 14, 2005 | 05:28PM PST/PT

Hi, I’m Mara Holian with eBay’s Product Marketing team. As more buyers and sellers have become interested in digitally delivered goods (such as songs, eBooks, etc.), we’ve recognized that we need to improve the way these items are bought and sold on eBay. In the next few days we’re going to make a few changes to our site to better accommodate these types of items.

If you aren’t familiar with the term, a digital item is a product sold in the form of a computer file that a buyer can access online or have delivered electronically via email. For example, the product could be an MP3 file of an original song that you wrote and recorded, or an original fitness video that you made. It’s important to note that these are both examples of items you created yourself. Strict copyright laws prohibit selling digital items for content that you didn’t create yourself or for which you are not a copyright owner. You can learn more about what is and is not allowed by reading our Frequently Asked Questions.

Here are the highlights of the site changes we’re making to support digital items:

    * “List as a Digital Item” option in the Sell Your Item form – Selecting this option when you start listing lets us know you’re selling a digital item, so you won’t have to fill out sections that don’t apply (such as “Shipping”). You’ll also see a “Digital Item Delivery” field in SYI, where you can provide delivery information to your buyers (such as how to access the file once they’ve completed their purchase).

    * Search filter for digital items in certain categories – Buyers in categories that are more likely to feature digital items (such as Movies and Books) will be able to filter their results to see just the digital items that meet their search criteria.

    * Digital Information Box on the item page – On listings for digital items, a new information area will help buyers identify digital items, confirm the file type and learn about any system requirements they will need.

For tips on buying or selling digital items, please visit our Digital Delivered Goods information page and our Frequently Asked Questions. We’ll also be holding a workshop on January 9th, where you can learn more about buying and selling digital items, as well as about the copyright laws that govern them. Stay tuned for more details about the workshop in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Mara Holian
eBay Product Marketing

info page: http://pages.ebay.com/choosingformats/di...me=CMDV:AB
FAQ: http://pages.ebay.com/choosingformats/di...me=CMDV:AB

Sellers must list using eBay's Immediate Payment Required format, which requires payment via PayPal to complete the transaction, or use eBay's Checkout Redirect function via eBay's API (license needed)

What are the seller requirements for listing a digital item?
To sell a digital item on eBay, you must:

    * Use either Fixed Price or Store Inventory format. (You cannot use an auction-style format.) You'll set a single Buy It Now price for the item.
    * Offer PayPal as a payment method and require Immediate Payment so that buyers can access delivery information once payment is confirmed.
    * Use a PayPal Verified Premier or Verified Business account. This means that you've placed your bank account on file at PayPal and you accept credit card payments from buyers. If you don't have a Verified Premier or Verified Business account, you can get your PayPal account verified and/or upgrade to a Premier or Business account.
    * Provide a file location or alternate delivery method for your digital item. In addition, you'll need to verify that you are legally authorized to sell the digital item when you list it.

Why are sellers required to list with PayPal only?
Immediate delivery is important to buyers purchasing digital items. For this reason, listings for digital items are required to offer only PayPal's Immediate Payment option so that delivery information can be exposed at the point of sale.

What is eBay's policy for selling digitally delivered goods and items?
The policy for the US is as follows. Digitally delivered items are restricted on eBay. In order to list digitally delivered items, the seller must comply with the following requirements:

    * Any digitally delivered item must be designated as such by selecting the digital item option during the listing process
    * Any digitally delivered item may not be pornographic in nature
    * The seller must be the owner of the underlying intellectual property, or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner
    * The seller's item may not include software that harms the buyer's machine (e.g., a virus) or uses it for malicious or unauthorized purposes (e.g., sending spam emails or spreading a virus) or violates the buyer's privacy (e.g., spyware, cookies) (per the HTML and JavaScript policy - http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/list...cript.html )
    * To help verify the identity of sellers listing digital downloadable items, eBay requires that sellers be PayPal Verified (www.paypal.com/verify)
    * Sellers must list using eBay's Immediate Payment Required format, which requires payment via PayPal to complete the transaction, or use eBay's Checkout Redirect function via eBay's API (license needed)

Listings of digitally delivered items that violate any of these requirements are in violation of this policy.

What type of digital items can I sell?
Provided that the item complies with the above policy, all types of digital items can be sold, from songs to recipes to images to written documents. To sell a digital item, the seller must be the owner of the underlying intellectual property or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner.

Examples of items that sellers are not permitted to list on eBay:

    * An MP3 file copied from a purchased CD or a concert the seller attended
    * An eBook for which the seller is not the copyright owner or an authorized reseller
    * A song purchased through iTunes
    * A movie copied from a purchased DVD
    * A video game that you copied from the original CDROM
    * A PDF file of a product's manual for which the seller is not the copyright owner or an authorized reseller

Examples of items that sellers are permitted to list on eBay:

    * An MP3 file of a song a seller wrote and recorded (and owns all rights to)
    * An eBook of recipes created by the seller
    * A home-made movie, in which the seller owns all rights
    * Computer software created by the seller, in which the seller owns all rights
    * Software listed by an authorized software reseller who has online distribution rights
    * A digital picture of the Golden Gate bridge taken by the seller

Additionally, the item may not include software that harms the buyer's machine (e.g., a virus), uses the buyer's machine for malicious or unauthorized purposes (e.g., sending spam emails or spreading a virus), or violates the buyer's privacy (e.g., spyware, cookies). Finally, the item may not be pornographic in nature.

[Nat]

Why are sellers required to list with PayPal only?
Immediate delivery is important to buyers purchasing digital items. For this reason, listings for digital items are required to offer only PayPal's Immediate Payment option so that delivery information can be exposed at the point of sale.

They forgot to give the other reason why Paypal is required - so that eBay can guarantee more income from the Paypal fees.

If they are going to demand that Paypal is required on certain types of auctions then those types of auctions should have a discounted insertion fee or discounted final value fee - I know, not likely.  This sounds like another cash cow for eBay.

I have to wonder, what's their next "brilliant" idea going to be?

[iron_chick]

To get the PayPal fees is the ONLY reason they are requiring payment via that method.

Sellers can still deliver products via email - the seller can opt that the buyer gets an immediate request for their email address instead of providing a download link.

A friend of mine sells a  LOT of digital products.  Like has PS status in a store that sells only  Make Your Own recipes and other digital products.  100s of them.  She had to go to immediate payment a few months ago when she had a stalker and it HURT her business badly because she has a LOT of folks who buy multiple items.    She was able to return to normal after a few months when he stalker went elsewhere, but she lost big money because folks stopped buying multiple items when they had to pay immediately.

Not to mention the fact that she'll have to redo all of her ads.

And I wonder if her listing service will be updated in time to accomodate this enhancement.

It's the first step.  I've predicted that by the end of 2006 PP will be the only payment method accepted with immediate pay on everything.

Now, I LIKE selling on Amazon because there are no NPBs.  It's not a sale until I get paid.  :-)  But Amazon isn't pretending to be "just a venue". 

[Jen]

Also, will paypal be updating their policies to actually include digital goods in the seller's protection plan?  Or will every digital good be subject to a paypal dispute that the seller just can't win?

[sneakymagenta]

will paypal be updating their policies to actually include digital goods in the seller's protection plan?

[bargainbloodhound]

They forgot to give the other reason why Paypal is required - so that eBay can guarantee more income from the Paypal fees

I think that's the only reason.

it HURT her business badly because she has a LOT of folks who buy multiple items

No multiple orders, no international payments.  :  Amazon requires that sellers only use Amazon payments but they have a shopping cart and international buyers can use it...Amazon payments actually helps sales unlike PayPal Immediate Payment.

[quote author=sneakymagenta link=topic=1738.msg6129#msg6129 date=1134689319]
will paypal be updating their policies to actually include digital goods in the seller's protection plan?


[/quote]

If you placed a hidden video camera in PayPal's headquarters they probably are laughing. 

[xppman]

[quote author=Jen link=topic=1738.msg6120#msg6120 date=1134672801]
Also, will paypal be updating their policies to actually include digital goods in the seller's protection plan?  Or will every digital good be subject to a paypal dispute that the seller just can't win?
[/quote]
Good question Jen. I was thinking the same thing when
I saw this post / news earlier today.

They forgot to give the other reason why Paypal is required - so that eBay can guarantee more income from the Paypal fees.

No doubt about that Nat.
I would hope folks who do digital downloads WOULD READ the PP UA.

The one's who haven't or DON'T...
Well... We will be ale to see
them rant on the feebay PP boards daily. >

[xppman]

If you placed a hidden video camera in PayPal's headquarters they probably are laughing.

We must of been posting at the same time BBH.
I was thinking that too just didn't say it.

All I can say is:

[vitalfinds]

Well on first glance, this is looking good to me.  I've been a technical failure so far trying to do downloadables.

[iron_chick]

I wonder if this is going to apply to sales of templates, storefronts, logos, etc? 
(I wonder if anyone at eBay has even wondered about this yet.)