Running client eBay stores as an agency: roles, access and reporting

Agencies that run client eBay stores sell a promise as much as a service: orders go out on time, buyers get answers, listings are right, and the client can see what they're paying for. Keeping that promise across several stores and a team of people is mostly a question of structure.

This guide covers how to organise the team, give access safely, keep a clear record of who did what, report time and work to clients, and bring a new store on board without upsetting its standing.

What clients expect from an eBay agency

Most clients hand over their store because they don't have the time, not because they don't care. They'll judge you on a few things they can see:

• Orders dispatched on time, with tracking on eBay.
• Buyers answered quickly, in a tone that sounds like their business.
• Fewer problems: fewer returns caused by wrong descriptions, fewer cases left to escalate.
• Clear reporting: what was done, by whom, how long it took and what changed.
• Their store kept safe: no shared passwords, and no one with access who shouldn't have it.

The last two are where agencies tend to fall short. The work gets done, but the client can't see it, and access builds up over time until no one is sure who can do what.

Roles in an eBay agency team

Small agencies blur roles, which is fine as long as each store still has one person who answers for it. A structure that scales looks something like this:

• Owner. Holds the client relationships, the contracts and the final say on access.
• Account managers. Each responsible for a set of client stores: the weekly review, the client report and anything that needs a decision.
• Specialists. Listers, customer service, dispatch. They work across several stores, but only in the areas they're trained for.

Write down, for each store, who the account manager is and who covers when they're away. When a client asks a question, everyone should know who answers it.

How to give staff access to a client's eBay store safely

Never share a client's eBay password in chat, email or a spreadsheet. A shared password means everyone who has it can do anything on the account, there's no record of which person did what, and removing one person means changing the password for everyone.

Instead, connect each store to the tools you use through eBay's own sign-in, so the password stays with the client, and give each person access through those tools. Two principles help:

• Per store. A member of the team sees only the stores they work on.
• Per area. Someone who answers buyers doesn't need to change prices; someone who lists doesn't need to issue refunds.

Review access every month, and whenever someone joins, leaves or changes role. Taking access away should be as quick as giving it.

Accountability: knowing who did what in each store

When a client calls about a refund they didn't expect, you need to answer within minutes, not after asking around the office. That needs a record of every action, by person, on every store: orders dispatched, refunds issued, buyers answered, listings changed.

A good activity record does three jobs. It answers client questions with facts. It shows where training is needed, because patterns of mistakes become visible. And it protects your team, because a disputed action can be checked rather than argued about.

Treat the record as a habit, not a punishment. People work better when it's used to fix processes rather than to find someone to blame. The record should build itself as people work, as it does in SellingSquads, because a log someone has to remember to fill in is always incomplete on the day you need it.

Reporting time and work to clients

Clients who pay for hours want to see hours. Clients who pay a monthly fee want to see results. Either way, a short monthly report built from real records keeps the relationship healthy. A useful one covers:

1. 1Orders: how many, how many dispatched on time, any that were late and why.
2. 2Buyers: conversations answered and how quickly.
3. 3Returns and cases: opened, resolved, and anything still open.
4. 4Listings: new, revised and ended, with notes on what changed.
5. 5Time: hours spent on the store, split by area such as orders, listings and the inbox.
6. 6Next month: what you plan to work on and anything you need from the client.

On time, be honest about what's active work and what's a tab left open. Reporting idle time as working time is the quickest way to lose a client's trust the day they ask for detail. For the money side of the report, our guide to working out real eBay profit explains what belongs in the numbers.

Onboarding new client eBay stores: a checklist

The first two weeks set the tone. A store can have open cases, stale listings and late orders waiting for whoever picks it up, so look before you act.

1. 1Kick-off call. Agree goals, what you'll handle, what the client keeps, how you'll report and who to call in an emergency.
2. 2Connect the store through eBay's sign-in. The client approves access to their own account, and their password stays with them.
3. 3Read the store's service metrics in Seller Hub. Note where it stands today, so later reports compare against a fair starting point.
4. 4Clear what's already open. Late orders, unanswered messages, and returns and cases with deadlines come first.
5. 5Check business policies. Handling time, postage and returns should match what the team can actually deliver.
6. 6Set up quick replies in the client's voice. Order confirmations, dispatch notes and answers to common questions, signed with the store's name.
7. 7Give the team access. Only the people who work on this store, and only in the areas they need.
8. 8Review after week one and week two. Then hand over to the normal weekly routine.

If the client has several stores, bring them on one at a time. Our guide to managing multiple eBay stores has a routine that works across many.

How SellingSquads supports agencies running client stores

SellingSquads is built around workspaces. The workspace owner runs it, co-managers run the team alongside them, and members do the work. Each person joins by invitation and sees only the stores and areas they're given: orders, listings, the inbox and so on. Stores connect through eBay's own sign-in, so no one in the agency ever needs a client's eBay password.

Each client's stores sit as circles on a rail at the left of the screen, so moving from one client to the next is a click, and Ctrl/Cmd+K finds any store by name, site or currency. SellingSquads connects eBay UK, US, Germany, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Spain and Ireland, so a client's stores abroad sit alongside their home one.

Every action each person takes is recorded: orders dispatched, buyers answered, products hunted and more, in an activity log you can download for a client report. SellingSquads also records each person's time: every minute a tab is open counts as working or idle, and after half an hour idle it counts as away. You see day-by-day hour strips and where the time went by area, which is the honest breakdown clients ask for.

The rest of the report comes from the same place. Orders download as a CSV exactly as you've filtered them, with eBay's dispatch deadlines flagged on every order before they're missed. Finances shows each store's payouts, fees, refunds and money on hold, and a monthly statement is emailed on the 1st.

Customer service stays in each client's voice. The eBay Inbox brings every buyer conversation from every store into one place, with the order and any open return or case beside the chat. Saved quick replies fill in the buyer's name, order, item and tracking, and team notes the buyer never sees keep the context when a conversation passes between shifts.

Day to day, the team talks in team chat, with channels, direct messages and threads, and orders or listings shared as cards. Announcements keep everyone up to date on a new rule or a client's holiday, and notifications reach the right person in the browser or on their phone.

Offboarding a client store cleanly

Contracts end, and how you leave matters as much as how you started. Hand over anything still open, with notes. Export the records the client might need, such as orders and listings as CSV files. Remove every team member's access to the store, then disconnect it from your tools so the account is back in the client's hands alone.

A clean exit is often what earns the referral to the next client.