Channel management

This topic describes how to set up the channels where you will sell your products. A channel corresponds to an eBay marketplace, such as EBAY_US.

In the navigation pane of the MIP interface, expand Settings and select Channelmanagement. The Channel management page displays the settings for your warehouse location and business policies.

Adding channels

The default website where you will sell your products is set to EBAY_US.

To add a channel:

1. In the Channel management section, click the button Add Channel. The Add Channel dialog box opens.
2. Select one channel (other than the default site already selected) on which to sell your products.
3. Enter the rest of the required information and click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

Setting your warehouse location

For each channel, eBay needs to know the location of your warehouse in order to calculate shipping costs and so that the buyer can see where you are shipping from. (If you use flat-rate shipping costs and tables exclusively, however, no shipping location is needed.)

To enter or modify warehouse information:

1. In the Warehouse location column, click Set location beside the channel for which you want to enter information. (If you have previously set a warehouse location, the link text is the location name.) The Warehouse location dialog box opens.
2. Enter or modify the required location information for the warehouse and click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

Managing business policies

Business policies include payment, shipping, and return policies. You must specify at least one policy of each type (payment, shipping, and return) for each channel.

• Payment policies specify your payment settings, such as whether or not you require immediate payment and what offline payment methods you accept. Additionally, payment policies for motor vehicles state the required deposit, if any, and indicate when full payment on the vehicle is due.
• Shipping policies specify such things as your handling time, the shipping services you offer, and shipping costs.
• Return policies specify whether or not you accept returns and the return conditions, such as the amount of time the buyer has to return an item and whether the buyer pays return shipping costs.

You can create multiple policies of each type, such as a separate return policy for each category of item you sell. See the examples in the following section.

If you select a policy to be the default for that policy type, MIP applies the default policy to any listings that do not have a specific policy applied.

Creating business policies

Business policies apply to a specific eBay marketplace and are created through the Business Policies interface in My eBay. MIP makes your existing policies available for selection and provides a link to the My eBay site to create new policies where needed.

In each policy type column, the Create link appears if you do not already have at least one policy of that type. If you have existing policies of that type, the Add/Edit link appears. Both links open the My eBay web site.

To create a new business policy:

1. In the column for the type of business policy you want to create, click Create. The eBay business policy page opens (in a separate browser tab or window by default).

2. Click the Get started button. The My eBay page opens, displaying the Account tab and the Business policies subtab.

3. Click Create policy and select the type of policy to create on the drop-down menu. The Create policy page for the selected type opens.

4. Enter a policy name and description.

5. Complete the remaining required fields as needed for the policy type and click Save.

Applying business policies

MIP applies the last business policy you used unless you specify particular policies in the CSV file for the product feed or combined product feed.

If you have only one business policy of a particular type, MIP uses that policy for all of your product listings.

The default policy names are shipping, payment, and return.

Example 1: Default business policies - partial Product Feed CSV file

SKU	Attribute Value	Category	Shipping	Payment	Return	Condition
CAM-001	Cannon	31388	shipping	payment	return	USED

Specified business policies

The example CSV file contents in this section illustrate several ways to apply specific business policies to listings.

• To apply specific business policies to a product listing, in the product feed or combined product feed CSV file, enter the names of the shipping, payment, and/or return business policies in the row with each SKU.

• To apply different policies of each type to the listings in the CSV file, enter the names of the policies on the lines for each listing.

• To apply a single policy (for example, payment) to all listings, leave the default policy name in the CSV file, as shown in the last row of the example.

Example 2: User-created business policies - partial Product Feed CSV file

SKU	Attribute Value	Category	Shipping	Payment	Return	Condition
CAM-001	Cannon	31388	US_CamShip01	USpay01	USCamRet01	USED
CAM-002	Nikon	31388	US_CamShip01	USpay01	USCamRet02	NEW
LENS-001	Cannon Zoom	78997	US_CamShip02	USpay01	USCamRet02	NEW
LENS-002	Cannon Lens Hood	78999	US_CamShip02	USpay01	USCamRet02	NEW
BIN-001	Cannon Binoculars	28179	US_CamShip02	payment	USCamRet02	NEW