Why eBay Thinks Sellers Might Opt Out of Its New Shipping Policy

eBay sellers have inundated EcommerceBytes with emails sharing their reaction to eBay’s new shipping policy that will become the default policy on May 15, 2024. Instead of allowing sellers to enjoy a discount on shipping costs offered through Calculated Shipping, eBay will pass the discount on to the buyer.

As we noted in our coverage of the news in today’s EcommerceBytes Blog, many sellers used the discount to offset some of the commission fee eBay charges for the total cost of shipping.

The email eBay sent sellers on Wednesday included a link to opt out of the policy – meaning sellers could choose to keep the status quo (although many expressed skepticism that they would be able to do so).

The link to opt out of the policy led to a page with the following message:

“Starting May 15, 2024, your listings with calculated shipping will default to show eBay discounted shipping rates. By filling out this form by May 13, 2024, you are confirming that you would like to be excluded from this change. Thank you.”

In addition to asking sellers to enter their name (optional) and email address, eBay asked them to provide their reason for opting out and provided a drop down box with the following options:

• I use the price difference to compensate for my handling and shipping fees
• I don’t always use eBay discounted labels
• I don’t understand this update
• I don’t want to change my shipping preferences
• Other

Did eBay show an understanding of sellers’ concerns in the options they provided sellers as reasons for wanting to opt out of the new policy? Let us know in the comments below. You can also read the fulltext of the message eBay sent to sellers and catch up on what sellers are saying in today’s EcommerceBytes Blog post.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She’s a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of “Turn eBay Data Into Dollars” (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, “Blogging Heroes” (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 – present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 – present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to [email protected]. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.