Account API v1 Overview

The Account API v1 is used by sellers to:

• Create and manage business policies used with their listings to set/control payment, shipping, and return policy settings/values
• Create and manage sales tax rates for different tax jurisdictions
• Retrieve various other seller account settings including eBay managed payments eligibility, selling limits, shipping rate tables, and other selling features

Technical overview

The Account API v1 provides methods in each of the following resources:

• advertising_eligibility
• custom_policy
• fulfillment_policy
• payment_policy
• return_policy
• payments_program
• privilege
• program
• rate_table
• sales_tax
• kyc

See the Business use cases section that follows for the details on how you can use these resources.

Business use cases

This section outlines the high-level use cases addressed by this API.

Check seller eligibility for eBay advertising programs

The getAdvertisingEligibility method of the advertising_eligibility resource provides developers with a way to check the seller eligibility status for eBay advertising programs, which include: 

• General strategy campaigns
• Priority strategy campaigns
• Promoted Offsite campaigns

The response from this method returns a SellerEligibilityEnum, which indicates whether the specified seller is eligible or ineligible. If a seller is determined to be ineligible for the specified Promoted Listings program, the reason is specified by the SellerIneligibleReasonEnum type.

In order for a seller to become eligible for a Promoted Listings program, they must have an established sales history on eBay and be an Above Standard or Top Rated seller. This means that sellers who are new to Promoted Listings and do not meet these criteria will not be able to access Promoted Listings to create and/or edit campaigns.

Create and manage custom policies

Custom policies describe policies a seller creates for compliance and other purposes.

Two custom policy types are currently supported:

• Product Compliance - Discloses product information as required for regulatory compliance.
• Takeback - Describes the seller's legal obligation to take back a previously purchased item when the buyer purchases a new one.

For each marketplace, sellers can create and manage multiple policies of each type where each policy describes specific product compliance or takeback policies. It is important to note that multiple policies may be applied to each item offered.

Create and manage fulfillment policies

Fulfillment polices (previously called "shipping policies") describe the shipping options that a seller offers to their buyers.

Shipping options in each fulfillment policy define the type of the shipping service (such as free, flat-rate, or calculated shipping) being offered by the policy. The policies also list specific shipping carriers and services being offered. Sellers can define both domestic and international shipping services, allowing them to fully customize the fulfillment policies they offer.

Sellers can configure multiple fulfillment policies, where each describes a different set of shipping options. The individual fulfillment policies each targets a marketplace and item category type, but importantly, sellers can configure multiple fulfillment policies for a single marketplace. This lets you configure a set of shipping options to satisfy the different shipping needs of the items you sell.

Create and manage payment policies

Payment policies define how sellers handle the payments for the items they sell, and the payment types they accept.

Like fulfillment policies, payment policies can be set to specific category types and different marketplaces. Also, like fulfillment policies, sellers can create multiple payment policies, giving them flexibility in the policies that they assign to different items.

Create and manage return policies

Return policies define how sellers handle returns, such as how many days a buyer has to return an item and who pays for the return shipping cost.

Like the fulfillment and payment policies, you can create multiple return policies for different category types and marketplaces.

Get the privileges of a seller

Seller privileges cover the rate limits set for an eBay Seller account. Use the getPrivileges method to review the status of an eBay Seller account registration and the selling limits set for the account.

Opt in to or out of seller programs

As an eBay seller, you can opt-in to the different seller programs offered by eBay.

Currently, these programs include:

• Out of Stock Control - Enables eBay to keep your fixed-price listings active even when you temporarily run out of inventory for the product.
• Partner Motors Program - Enables registered business users to create motor vehicle listings. This program is currently only supported in the UK marketplace, and sellers must complete the eBay Motors Pro registration flow in order to create motor vehicle listings.
  
• Selling Policy Management - Enables the use of business policies for your selling account.

Get the seller's status for eBay managed payments

The getPaymentsProgram method returns the status of whether or not a seller is opted-in to the eBay managed payments.

The getPaymentsProgramOnboarding method retrieves the seller’s onboarding status for managed payments, and provides the next step(s) in the onboarding process for eligible sellers.

The getKYC method allows a managed payments seller to discover any 'Know Your Customer' (KYC) check action items. Action items may include providing company details, personal details, or bank account details.

The getPaymentsProgram method returns the status of whether or not a seller is opted-in to the eBay managed payments specified in the request. Currently, the only eBay managed payments available is eBay Payments, a program that eBay offers as a way to transfer funds and complete transactions between buyers and sellers.

The getPaymentsProgramOnboarding method retrieves the seller’s onboarding status and, for eligible sellers, provides the next step(s) in the onboarding process.

Retrieve the shipping rate tables created by the seller

Sellers can create shipping rate tables that establish the shipping rates they use to ship items. The rate tables can be referenced in the seller's fulfillment policies, making it easy to update a set of policies by refreshing their rate tables.

The getRateTables method returns the shipping rate tables defined by the seller for the country specified.

Create and manage sales tax tables by jurisdiction

Some countries levy one sales-tax rate across their entire country, while others, including Canada (CA) and the United States (US), have multiple sales-tax jurisdictions. Sellers may be able to simplify the process of adding sales tax to the price of items sold by creating sales-tax tables for each jurisdiction into which they sell.

For more information, refer to Establishing sales-tax tables.

Use the getSalesTaxJurisdictions call in the Metadata API to retrieve a complete list of the jurisdictions for the counties that have multiple sales tax jurisdictions. You can create and manages sales tax tables for the different jurisdictions with the methods in the SALES_TAX resource.

Account API v1 requirements and restrictions

With the exception of Custom Policies, which are currently supported by only 5 marketplaces, the Account API v1 is supported by all eBay marketplaces.