The eBay Integration connects your Orbit Commerce store to your eBay seller account so you can list your products on eBay, keep stock levels and prices aligned, and pull eBay orders back into Orbit. It runs in the background once connected, and you control which of the three syncs are switched on.
Features
- Product sync: lists your active Orbit products on eBay as live fixed-price listings, with title, description, photos, price, stock, condition and item specifics. A product with variants becomes one listing with variations. Existing listings are updated rather than duplicated.
- Stock sync: sends current stock and prices to your live eBay listings in batches, using your price and stock rules.
- Order import: pulls orders placed on eBay into Orbit as new orders, with buyer email, line items, shipping, tax and discount totals carried across. The buyer is added as a customer with their delivery address.
- Price and stock rules: adjust eBay prices by a percentage or a fixed amount, round them, hold back a stock buffer and cap the quantity you list.
- Link existing listings: if you already sell on eBay, scan your eBay account and link the listings that match your Orbit products.
- Automatic background syncing: once a sync is switched on, it runs on a schedule you choose without any manual action.
- Live product updates: when you edit a product in Orbit, its eBay listing is updated shortly after while product sync is on.
- Dashboard and status widget: an eBay section in your dashboard for managing the connection and settings, plus a home-screen eBay Sync Status widget.
How many new listings you can create, and how many orders are imported each month, depend on your plan.
Before you start
You will need:
- An active eBay seller account with selling privileges on the marketplace you intend to list on.
- Business policies for postage, payment and returns on the eBay site you sell on. If they are not switched on yet, the plugin can ask eBay to switch them on, which can take up to 24 hours.
- A ship-from address on eBay. You can create one from the plugin.
- Products already created in your Orbit Commerce store. To be listed, a product must be active and have a name, at least one photo and a price. Some eBay categories also require item specifics such as Brand or Size. Products without a SKU are still listed, but eBay receives an automatically generated reference instead.
- Permission to authorise third-party access to your eBay account (you complete this during setup).
Getting started
- Install the plugin. Find eBay Integration in the Orbit Commerce plugin store and install it. An eBay entry appears in your dashboard menu.
- Open the eBay section. Go to the eBay menu. The Connection tab opens first.
- Connect your eBay account. Select Connect to eBay. A secure eBay window opens asking you to sign in and authorise access to your seller account. Approve the request.
- Confirm the connection. Once authorisation completes, the window closes and the tab shows eBay account connected with your seller username, user ID and the date connected.
- Finish the listing setup. In the listing setup card, choose your ship-from location, your postage, payment and returns policies, and a default eBay category. If you do not sell on eBay UK, change Marketplace in Sync settings first, because changing it clears the policies.
- Choose your sync settings. In the Sync settings card, switch on the syncs you want (Product sync, Stock sync, Order import), pick How often to sync and the Item condition, then select Save settings.
All three syncs are off by default, so nothing is sent to eBay until you switch on Product sync or list a product yourself from the Products tab.
How syncing works
The plugin keeps a local copy of your Orbit products and uses it to feed eBay. Each sync run is recorded so you can see what happened.
Products to eBay. When product sync is on, your active products are sent to eBay as live fixed-price listings. Each listing uses the product name (eBay titles are limited to 80 characters, so longer names are shortened), description, photos, SKU, price and stock quantity, listed under the item condition you set. A product that already exists on eBay is updated in place; the plugin tracks the link between each Orbit product and its eBay listing so it is never duplicated. Products that are not ready, for example because they are missing a photo or a required item specific, are marked Needs attention with the reason. Excluding a product, or making it draft or archived, ends its eBay listing.
Stock and prices to eBay. When stock sync is on, current stock quantities and prices are pushed to every live listing in batches, after your stock buffer, maximum listed quantity and price rules.
Orders into Orbit. When order import is on, the plugin fetches recent eBay orders and creates a matching order in Orbit for each one. On the first run it looks back over the last 7 days; after that it imports only orders placed since the previous run. Buyer email, item names and quantities, shipping, tax and discount totals, and payment status are mapped across, and the buyer is added as a customer with their delivery address. eBay sometimes hides the buyer's email, and then a placeholder address is used. Each eBay order is imported only once. Orders already brought in are skipped automatically.
Scheduling. Once a sync is switched on, it runs automatically at your chosen interval (see Settings). The plugin also keeps its local product copy refreshed in the background, and you can refresh it yourself with Refresh catalogue on the Products tab.
Live updates. When you create, update or delete a product in Orbit, the plugin is notified. Created and updated products have their cached copy refreshed and, while product sync is on, their eBay listing is updated shortly after. Deleting a product in Orbit ends its eBay listing.
Manual runs. As well as the schedule, you can start a product sync with Push to eBay on the Products tab, or an order import with Import Orders Now on the Orders tab. These need the matching sync switched on. You can also list or update a single product from its drawer on the Products tab.
A run can finish as Finished, Finished with problems (some items synced, some failed) or Failed. Individual item results are logged so you can identify any products or orders that did not go through.
Settings
The Connection tab holds these cards:
- Listing setup: your ship-from location, business policies and default eBay category.
- Price and stock on eBay: Adjust price (none, add a percentage or add a fixed amount), Round prices, Stock buffer, Maximum listed quantity, Use sale prices and Suggest categories automatically. Select Save rules after making changes.
- Already selling on eBay?: scan your eBay account and link existing listings to your Orbit products.
- Sync settings:
- Product sync: on or off. Lists and updates your products on eBay. It can be switched on once the listing setup is finished.
- Stock sync: on or off. Keeps eBay stock levels and prices aligned with Orbit.
- Order import: on or off. Imports eBay orders into Orbit.
- How often to sync: Every 15 minutes, Every 30 minutes, Every hour (the default), Every 6 hours or Once a day.
- Item condition: Brand new (the default), Used or Refurbished, applied to all your listings.
- Marketplace: the eBay site to list on. eBay UK is the default. If you change marketplace, choose your business policies again.
Remember to select Save settings after making changes. You can change these at any time.
Troubleshooting
An orange banner says my eBay login has lapsed or runs out soon. The plugin renews eBay access by itself while your eBay login is valid. When the banner shows, select Reconnect eBay. Your settings are kept. Do not use Disconnect for this, because it switches all syncs off.
Nothing is appearing on eBay. Check that the listing setup is finished, that Product sync is switched on and that you selected Save settings. Newly enabled syncs run at the next scheduled interval, or you can start one straight away with Push to eBay. Also check the Products tab for products marked Needs attention and the reason shown.
A run finished with problems. This means some items synced and others did not. Commonly because a product is missing information eBay requires, or eBay temporarily rejected a request. Open the affected product on the Products tab to see its issues, correct the product details in Orbit, and run the sync again; successful items are not duplicated.
eBay orders are not importing. Confirm Order import is switched on and saved. The first import only looks back 7 days, so older orders will not be pulled in. Orders already imported are skipped by design, so re-running will not create duplicates. How many orders are imported each month depends on your plan.
Support
For help with this plugin, visit the Orbit Commerce Help Centre (opens in a new tab), or use the Support link below.