Having your own online business as an eBay seller has a lot of perks: flexible working hours, lower operating costs, profitable reselling avenues, a global shipping program, and more.
But what if you want to go on a vacation? Is it possible to put your eBay store on hold while you take a break?
The good news is, yes, you can. eBay makes it easy for sellers to do this with the eBay store vacation mode.
My in-depth guide will show you how to enable vacation mode on eBay. I’ll also discuss the different eBay vacation settings.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
What Is eBay Vacation Mode?
eBay Vacation Mode is a feature that allows sellers to schedule time away from eBay, pause their sales, and let customers know they are away.
It’s similar to the “out of office” automatic response office employees use when they’re on leave.
eBay notifies customers via an automated response if they buy something from your store while you’re on vacation.
It automatically adjusts the estimated delivery date so customers know what to expect.
How Does Vacation Mode Work on eBay?
eBay offers sellers the option to Allow item sales or Pause item sales while they are away. Here is what you can expect from each setting.
Allow Item Sales
This setting lets you continue selling your products even if you put your store on vacation mode.
Potential buyers will still be able to see and purchase your items. However, they will see a message at the top of your listings informing them that you are on time away.
Pause Item Sales
With Pause Item Sales, the process is entirely different.
eBay hides fixed price listings from the search results page when you enable Pause Item Sales, so customers won’t see and buy your items.
If a buyer added one of your products to their cart or watch list previously, they would no longer be able to buy it while Pause Item Sales is in effect. Instead, they will see a note stating that you aren’t processing orders until the end date indicated in the message.
Setting your time away well ahead of its start date is best because it can take several hours for eBay to hide your fixed-price listings.
Similarly, it can take a few hours for your listings to appear again in search results when your time away ends.
eBay also recommends setting your end date a day later than your return date to process any pending orders.
However, you should know that eBay will continue charging fees regardless of your vacation settings. You’ll still have to pay your eBay store subscription fee and other listing-related fees.
How Long Can You Put Your eBay Store on Vacation Mode?
The answer to this question depends on the setting you choose.
eBay gives up to 15 vacation mode days for sellers who allow item sales to continue.
On the other hand, time away eBay can be up to 30 days for those who choose to pause item sales.
How Do You Put Your eBay Store on Vacation Mode?
Here’s how to set eBay to vacation:
1 – Sign in to your eBay account.
2 – Click My eBay at the top right side of the screen.
3 – Go to the Messages tab in My eBay.
4 – Choose Change settings in the upper left corner.
5 – Click Turn ON in the Store vacation settings section.
6 – To hide your fixed price listings, click Hide and block purchases from my fixed price listings (This doesn’t affect your auction-style listings.).
7 – To allow buyers to see when you’ll be back and ready to ship orders, select Display a return date. Then, enter the date in the box provided.
8 – In the Message to display on your storefront section, edit the default text in the automatic response box if you want to customize your eBay away message.
9 – Click Apply.
How Do You End Time Away on Your eBay Store Early?
Here are the steps for changing your scheduled end date to earlier.
- Go to the eBay Time away settings section.
- Click Cancel time away or set the End date to an earlier date.
- Select Apply.
The Bottom Line
Knowing how to fix your eBay store vacation settings is essential to manage buyers’ expectations regarding handling time and delivery dates.
Hopefully, this guide has helped show you how to turn on your eBay vacation mode so you can enjoy a worry-free break.
