eBay Active Content cleansing

Are you ready for eBay's changes on active content ?

In early 2016, eBay announced that the use of Active Content in their product listings would no longer be supported across all devices on June 2017. Now, only a few more months before this new development will roll out, not many sellers are making a move to address this problem.

Anyone anticipating the major eBay updates this June will know that disabling Active Content in the entire website influences the future of eBay and its users. This is going to affect a billion products posted on the site, and hence will change the status of about a million sellers.

If you are an eBay store owner, why should you be concerned about the suspension of Active Content?

What is Active Content ?

Active Content includes third-party applications that a product listing uses to provide animations and an interactive user experience for their pages. These include Javascript, Flash, plug-ins and other form actions. It enhances the visual effect of a listing to the buyer, engaging them to consider purchasing a product.

To provide you with a picture of how eBay Active Content is used in pages, here are common items that require these third-party apps: scrolling item galleries, feedback and live chat widgets, video and graphic animations, search toolbox, and other extra interactive features found in the item description page.

This is the issue of Active Content—third-party apps cause a multitude of problems to a page visitor. Javascript can cause the page to load slowly. Videos and animations slow the responsiveness of a webpage, especially when clicking a certain button. Flash is not mobile-friendly. Active Content makes a page open to security attacks such as phishing.

It is normally advantageous for a seller to use Active Content on their page. Any business that prioritizes its branding and how consumers perceive their store are usually the ones that receive the most love in the market. However, the buyer takes the brunt of the negative effects of an Active Content. It inhibits mobile purchasing, making pages leggy with slower response rates, and increasing the vulnerability of the user to security issues.

This is the main reason why eBay decided to scrap Active Content in their site—they want to improve the overall buyer’s experience. After all, an eBay store can never flourish without purchasers who patronize their site. The customer is top priority to any business.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Active Content phase-out

Advantages

  • Faster load times
  • Compatibility of all product listings across all devices
  • More secure marketplace
  • Better exposure of your pages in search engines such as Google
  • Increase a likelihood of purchase for your page because of enhanced visibility to the users

Disadvantages

  • Sellers are prompted to check their pages for Active Content, and create the necessary eBay changes to make their page viewable for buyers

Planning your next step

If you are a seller, check your page for Active Content as soon as possible. eBay provides a new item description preview tool for you. This allows you to view your page without active content rendering. This preview link is only available to a signed in seller. To use it, open your item page and click the preview option found in the item description tab.

If you find that your page relies heavily on Active Content, eBay advises you to remove or replace the content by alternatives such as HTML and CSS3, which are safer and more mobile-friendly. They use codes to achieve the effect active content renders, and as such are more convenient to use. Additionally, they can be used across all platforms so the HTML and CSS3 are the best alternatives to the Active Content.

This is where we come in

We at Imara Software Solutions have already developed the necessary softwares to aid a seller in editing their product pages to accommodate the resulting eBay changes in June 2017. We took a step ahead of competition to provide you the services necessary to move your page out of the Active content.

As a company specializing in eBay store management, we are equipped to make your page as interactive and user-friendly minus the issues of eBay Active Content. We will take care of your business the way a manager pays attention to the tiniest details about a store.

Imara Software Solutions is composed of tech experts that can get the coding needs done for your eBay product listing. We guarantee 100% compliance to the “no Active Content” policy, and we assure you that your page will be ready and compatible across all devices in no time.

Make your eBay page attractive and Active Content-free today. We at Imara Software Solutions are always ready to serve you!