Multiple eBay Accounts — Guidelines and Tips

FEBRUARY 2, 2024 E-COMMERCE EXPERT OPINION
Multiple eBay Accounts – Guidelines and Tips
Robert Hall
E-commerce consultant
In 2023, eBay took the sixth place on the Global Online Marketplaces list. 135 million people buy goods on eBay, and the competition among the sellers is fierce: there are more than 18 million of them. Many decide to create several storefronts to get a competitive advantage. In this article you will learn how to safely and securely manage several eBay storefronts without getting banned.

Table of contents

Can you have multiple eBay accounts?

eBay allows having multiple accounts if they are managed effectively, i.e., if they are updated regularly, communicate with the clients and respond to inquiries. However, creating multiple eBay accounts with the sole purpose of circumventing the restrictions and policies of the platform is prohibited.

Here are other rules for people running multiple eBay accounts:
  • One eBay account means one email and user ID.
  • All listings should be unique, otherwise eBay might decrease your rating.
  • It is prohibited to advertise goods from one of your stores in another.
  • If eBay blocks a page, the seller needs to remove the ban before they register a new one, otherwise the platform might ban all the seller’s accounts.
  • eBay cross-references accounts using common names and IP addresses. A ban for one page means a ban risk for all the other pages on eBay run by the same person.

Benefits of managing multiple eBay accounts

Multiple eBay accounts can help you:
  • Circumvent restrictions. New eBay pages can post only 10 listings during the first month on the platform. Multiple accounts will increase the number of goods in your stores.
  • Develop and promote multiple brands simultaneously. Selling goods from different categories or to different audiences is more effective if done from different eBay profiles. E.g., you can post ads about office supplies in one store, expensive make-up in another, and home goods in yet another one. Thus you will be able to adapt your marketing strategy for different goods and increase your earnings.
  • Minimize risks. The more unrelated accounts you have, the less banning of one of them endangers the others. Let’s say company A sells all its goods using one eBay account, while company B decided to split its goods into three categories and created a separate page for each. Now, if they both face a complaint regarding a good or a profile, company A risks all its operations being banned, while company B risks only one third of its income.
  • Login from different devices and places. If there are several people in your team, and each of them uses their personal device (and its IP address) to log into an eBay account, this may raise the platform’s suspicions, which might in turn lead to bans. However, if each team member uses a separate profile, these issues simply do not arise.
  • Try out new strategies. Each eBay store can test its own marketing strategy: e.g., one account can try to sell as many goods as possible, another can try to optimize its ads, and the third one can prioritize a trading partner. After running these concurrent strategies for a month or two, you will be able to see which one performs better and stick to it in the future. Don’t forget to check out our article to learn more about this marketing strategy.

How to use multiple eBay accounts safely

eBay cross-links stores if they have matching names, IP addresses, bank cards or PayPal accounts, device models, cookie files and many other parameters. As we’ve said before, if one account is banned, all cross-linked ones may get banned too.

Creating a separate email, bank account, and a name for each account takes time, but it’s at least possible. But what can you do with the device model and IP address, if you use your personal laptop to manage each store? The solution is to spoof your device parameters that platforms use to track your accounts — your digital fingerprint. An antidetect multi-accounting browser will help you with that.

You can safely manage multiple eBay stores anonymously using such a browser. To do so, you will need to create a separate profile in a multi-accounting browser for each of your eBay accounts. A multi-accounting browser will spoof their digital fingerprints, and all your accounts will look like separate unlinkable entities to the platform.

Multi-accounting browsers often have other useful features. For instance, Octo Browser allows you to work in a team without worrying about device fingerprints, automate routine processes and use templates, and use tags for easier profile management. If you’re curious about other useful features Octo Browser offers to e-commerce, check out our article on the topic!

Creating multiple eBay accounts in a multi-accounting browser

Let’s create several profiles in a multi-accounting browser using Octo.
1. Sing up on the main page.
2. Provide your email, create a password, and click on Create account.
Creating multiple eBay accounts in a multi-accounting browser
3. Follow the link in the verification email.
Follow the link in the verification email
4. Install the anonymous Octo Browser on your device. Use the Octo guide if you have questions.
Follow the link in the verification email
5. Log into your Octo Browser account, and click on Create Profile.
Follow the link in the verification email
6. Set a profile name, add tags and starting pages. Use the Randomize button to generate a unique digital fingerprint, and then click Create Profile.
Follow the link in the verification email
Select your desired OS, screen resolution, fonts, geolocation, the number of cores, and other digital fingerprint parameters. If you decide to manually tweak your fingerprint, make sure that it is consistent: e.g., the timezone and geolocation should match. Otherwise, the Octo Browser-generated fingerprint should work great for your purposes.

7. Create your profile and click on Start. You will see the starting page; create an eBay account or log into an existing one.
Follow the link in the verification email
Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each eBay account. Each profile will be run in a separate browser instance, and eBay won’t be able to cross-link them.

Conclusion

eBay allows registering multiple accounts with different emails and user IDs. Multi-accounting helps you promote and develop various brands, test out various marketing strategies, diversify your risks, and work in a team. However, if eBay bans a single profile, all other profiles connected to the same seller might get banned as well. A solution for this is using an antidetect browser for multi-accounting: it spoofs the parameters that platforms use to identify a user, so that they can no longer identify and cross-link separate accounts to the same seller. Moreover, these browsers offer useful functions for automation and teamwork, so that you can save time on routine tasks and grow your business faster.

FAQ

Can I have two or more eBay accounts?
Yes, eBay allows creating several accounts, but each one must have a separate email and user ID. However, eBay prohibits creating several storefronts with the sole purpose of circumventing its restrictions.
How many eBay accounts can I have?
You can have as many eBay accounts as you’d like, provided that they cannot be cross-linked through their name, IP address, bank account or card, cookies, or digital fingerprint. Use an antidetect browser for multi-accounting to prevent eBay from banning your accounts.
Can I have two eBay accounts with the same bank account?
Yes, but each eBay account should have its own email and user ID.

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