Paid, shipped, delivered - customized logistics from eBay
One of the key elements of online selling and an absolute pain point for many sellers: shipping. How can sellers combine the speed and flexibility of e-commerce with the workflows of small and medium-sized merchants? What solutions are there and how do you prepare for peak times? You can find out all the tips and tricks around shipping and the solutions eBay offers its merchants in this episode.
To the Podcast overview
eBay shipping: https://verkaeuferportal.ebay.de/versand
eBay instant shipping by FIEGE: https://verkaeuferportal.ebay.de/versand/gewerblich/ebay-sofortversand
eBay Fulfilment by Orange Connex: https://verkaeuferportal.ebay.de/versand/gewerblich/ebay-logistik
Shipping costs for sellers: https://verkaeuferportal.ebay.de/versand/gewerblich#versandkosten
Set processing time: https://verkaeuferportal.ebay.de/versand/gewerblich#bearbeitungszeit
Isabell: Hello dear listeners and welcome to our second podcast episode for our merchants and, of course, for all those who want to become one. Joining us again are my two podcast colleagues David and Tino, and we’ve invited another expert for you this time again someone from our own internal ranks.
David: Exactly, Isabell. But first a quick hello from me, David. I’m really happy that today we can talk about an extremely exciting topic that will certainly interest all our merchants or anyone who’s into online retail.
Tino: Yes, my name is Tino and a warm hello from me too. Together with our logistics expert for Germany, Steven Marks, today we’re talking about “Paid, shipped, delivered - Tailor-made logistics from eBay.” Hello Steven and welcome to our podcast. Could you briefly tell us a bit about yourself and your job at Ebay?
Steven Marks: Gladly! Hello to all three of you first. As you already said, my name is Steven Marks. I take care of everything related to shipping at Ebay. On the one hand, that’s the buyer experience, so where can I actually see as a buyer whether I can expect fast, reliable shipping on eBay? Where is my item? Those are the kinds of questions, and of course also for sellers, where it’s partly about making it especially easy for private sellers on eBay, and what we’re talking about today, of course, are business sellers. So how can I, maybe from eBay’s perspective or overall as a merchant, stay competitive when it comes to logistics, namely offering free, fast, reliable shipping? Staying competitive with the competition.
Isabell: Thanks, Steven! Shipping is of course one of the most crucial elements when looking at online retail, and what we hear from merchants is that it can be very challenging to stay competitive. You just mentioned that too. So we brought a few questions for you today, and I’d say let’s get started right away. The first question I brought for you would be: what are buyers’ expectations of shipping these days?
Steven Marks: As mentioned briefly earlier, it somehow has to be fast and reliable and ideally also free. You might also ask me what “fast” means, and I’d say around 2-3 days on average is what merchants should really be offering, because that’s exactly what buyers expect. Reliability is another issue; if something doesn’t go wrong, then yes, in principle it means being on time, and if something does go wrong, I should still be able to see, for example via tracking, from the customer’s perspective, where my item is right now. Also to simply minimize inquiries to the seller, for example.
Isabell: And what’s your forecast for how this will develop over the next few years or the next few months?
Steven Marks: So faster is always better, and free is always better than having to pay. That won’t change. That means it makes sense to formulate a strategy from that perspective, from eBay’s perspective, but also from the merchant’s perspective. If you say, “It has to keep getting faster,” then yes, it’s certainly true that not everyone necessarily has to offer same-day delivery today, and next-day probably isn’t really standard either, although of course there are players pushing strongly in that direction. We actually see that these 2-3 days are a very, very good, healthy delivery speed that customers expect today. And also important: it just has to be on time, so rather say in an emergency that it’s going to take a bit longer if I know it’s simply going to take longer, because if it’s delayed, the item shouldn’t reach the customer at all.
Isabell: What do you think, you just said 2-3 days is the standard that should be met. How long are consumers at most willing to wait for their products?
Steven Marks: It always depends on the product. There’s certainly the low-price segment and the high-price segment. If I’m buying something very cheap, a bargain, I can also wait an extra day. That means as a merchant I might even ship it by letter, maybe even as a small goods shipment or something like that, if I’ve set the customer’s expectations accordingly. But if it gets a bit more expensive, yes, more than 10, 20, 30€, then we’re very quickly in that 2-3 day range, and people really don’t want to wait much longer. Then of course there’s also special inventory, so if I have something like a washing machine or something where I may want to make sure I’m home, there are some requirements or something even customized. Then, as a customer, I can כמובן understand that it takes a little longer, but on the whole 80% 2-3 days.
Isabell: You also work with sellers and deal with the seller experience. What challenges does that pose for merchants?
Steven Marks: A wide variety. We have a lot of merchants on eBay, from the really big, the biggest in the industry, all the way to newcomers who maybe also want to discover e-commerce alongside their brick-and-mortar store. And there we also see different challenges. I think very large merchants, for example, would always like a few more helping hands during peak seasons, yes, where they say: around Christmas I really have a lot of volume, but I don’t want to keep warehouse space around or hire staff all year just for that. We can help a merchant like that, for example, with fulfillment solutions, also from eBay. Then there are smaller merchants, and that’s of course a big chunk on eBay, so most merchants are relatively small, or are just at the beginning of their e-commerce journey, and there the issue is that, for example, the prices I get from shipping providers aren’t particularly good, and the service levels are usually quite poor compared with the big players. And that means, for example, that the shipping provider comes to pick up the parcels very early, which means I can still send relatively few orders on the same day, and that already puts me at a disadvantage compared with the big warehouse, where the shipping providers come by in the evening and a large part of the goods can simply be shipped the same day.
Tino: Steven, we just heard the topic a few times already. Free shipping. And of course, from the consumer’s perspective, that’s the best for all items. What would that mean for me? As an eBay seller, what does it mean for me and for my eBay shop?
Steven Marks: Free shipping, first of all, in principle there’s really no such thing, because it always costs something; it just appears free to the customer, which means from a merchant’s perspective I naturally have to do my cost calculation, and shipping costs are always factored in there. What I should do is make sure I optimize the shipping costs and, of course, not overlook the service level I get from the shipping provider.
Tino: And how can I optimize my shipping costs to stay competitive too?
Steven Marks: As I said, there are various shipping providers that I can of course try out and test, and if I’m not satisfied with one, maybe really switch shipping providers. And as I said, especially for the group of small to medium-sized merchants, I think we now also have a very exciting offer from eBay, where we provide eBay logistics solutions that step in exactly where we believe merchants currently have a real disadvantage, and we want to offer something there, we want to support that.
Tino: Do you have any tips for our merchants or any best-practice sharing?
Steven Marks: If we set aside the logistics solutions we’ll talk about in a moment, I think there are two things that should definitely be considered regardless: taking a close look at the processing times I offer, so do I maybe have one day, or can I even map same-day shipping? Same-day shipping is exciting if, for example, I know my shipping provider comes, let’s say, fairly regularly at noon, then I can make use of that by setting same-day shipping on eBay and perhaps accept orders until 11:00 a.m., giving myself an hour to pack them and then hand them over to the shipping provider by 12. That way I can ship a few more items on the same day. We see that when someone offers same-day processing from the merchant side, and we reward that in search too, because then we can of course see that the item reaches the customer faster. If you want to call it a reward: I simply get found more often, am more likely to be clicked, and have higher sales at that point.
Isabell: Steven, you mentioned processing time. Could you briefly explain for maybe new merchants where they can set that on our platform?
Steven Marks: Of course, that’s either in Seller Cockpit or Seller Cockpit Pro, depending on what I’ve enabled on my account. And there under the shipping section, I can set processing times and, for example, activate same-day shipping there. And if I’ve activated same-day shipping, then I can enter order cut-off times, one per day. So for example I could say: Mondays are always very busy, so maybe I don’t trust myself to do same-day shipping because I have so much to get through. But maybe I can do that Tuesday to Friday, because my shipping provider comes fairly reliably at 12:00, then I can enter an 11:00 order deadline there and then the customer who orders from me on eBay will see, for example, if I order the items by 11:00, a little countdown appears telling me: if you order now, it will still go out today. We see that too, which means the shipping forecast will also be faster accordingly than perhaps with a competitor who has set one day of processing time.
Tino: And does eBay offer our merchants support here in a sense?
Steven Marks: Those are the logistics solutions we briefly mentioned, that for example, what we see is that especially with small merchants, the shipping provider comes by very early, usually. There we try, in a way, not to extend the merchant’s processing time, so that they can still ship relatively many more items on the same day. eBay instant shipping would be the keyword here, but before we go into that, very briefly, another best practice that’s close to my heart: we’ve talked a lot about free shipping. And many merchants will surely say, I’ve tried a lot, it just doesn’t pay off for me. I have low-priced items, or in my area, that just isn’t common. What can you do then? And there, shipping discounts, I think, are a very exciting option that isn’t used all that much on eBay. I’d like to see more merchants trying that. I can offer shipping discounts, for example via a minimum order value, saying that free shipping is available from 30 or 40 euros, so that I have a way to increase my basket size. So a customer is encouraged to add a second item because I then save on shipping costs. From a merchant’s point of view, that’s exciting because I can basically pass these discounts directly on to the customer without greatly affecting my margin, if I ship 2 items in one package. Another option, if someone is already among the 2/3 of our merchants who actually offer free shipping, is to take a look at multi-buy discounts and use them in principle to pass shipping discounts on to the customer. So if I buy 2 items, 2 T-shirts, I can also, through the form of a multi-buy discount, pass the shipping costs of the second item on to the customer, even though both items are free in themselves. In principle, the multi-buy discount is always a nice solution for people who already offer free shipping anyway. Now we wanted to talk about the logistics solutions, I’ve noted here, eBay instant shipping.
David: Exactly, you’ve already mentioned eBay instant shipping, could you go into a bit more detail? What is it and who is it for?
Steven Marks: Exactly, so I’d say we’re probably going to talk about two solutions now, so it’s getting a bit more complicated. All listeners need to close their eyes and listen carefully now. So we’re now going to talk about ebay shipping and eBay instant shipping. These are basically parcel solutions where a shipping provider comes by and picks up the parcels. That’s one block; the second, which we’ll talk about later, is eBay Fulfillment, where I send my goods to a fulfillment center, where everything is then processed automatically. But to your question: eBay instant shipping is our own product, created together with Fiege, which is intended to enable small and medium-sized merchants in particular to achieve same-day shipping. And that’s via collection of letters and parcels between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. That’s something many merchants really won’t get. Our prices are also very competitive there, so for example we have a letter product starting at €2.15, the 500-gram letter in this case, and parcels starting at €3.29. And there’s also a pickup flat fee of €4.99, which means this product, eBay instant shipping, probably isn’t necessarily worth it for the merchant who only sends one parcel a day. But from 3, 4, 5 parcels per day onward, it becomes a very exciting price structure because the pickup costs are spread across multiple parcels. What else is included? So instant shipping is good not only because it has a good price and later pickup, but also because seller protection is included. We have a guarantee that the scan by Fiege on the merchant’s doorstep actually happens that day, and through this scan, which we then have in tracking, the seller is protected. We see it and then know, for example, that you met your processing time. That’s a problem with other shipping providers, for example: during peak season we repeatedly see how many parcels are picked up. Then they’re often only scanned at the hub, so to speak, meaning at the shipping provider’s large center. And sometimes a container sits in a yard for a day, and then it naturally looks to us as if a merchant only shipped the next day, because we can only assess the data. As I said, that’s a problem a merchant may have seen before; if that’s the case, I really need to take a close look at eBay instant shipping.
Isabell: What’s the difference between eBay shipping and eBay instant shipping?
Steven Marks: Yes, good question. eBay shipping itself refers to our shipping label platforms for all our parcel services. On that shipping platform we offer services from DPD, which is very heavily used, for example, by newcomers. They say: okay, if I’m sending a parcel again, I even go to a parcel shop, so there I have a DPD parcel for €3.23 that I can drop off at the parcel shop. Pickup for €3.95 with DPD is also possible, we also have UPS Express on the site if it needs to go fast, and also eBay instant shipping. So eBay shipping is basically our platform for business sellers with pre-negotiated rates, and eBay instant shipping is our in-house product in cooperation with Fiege, where we really go the extra mile and say, this is something you simply won’t find elsewhere on the market, and we say that’s really the innovation of the platform itself.
Isabell: I’d say we’d also put the link to the platform in the description, then people can take a look at home in peace.
Steven Marks: Very gladly, and because it’s also a new product. We’ve got exciting promotions again, both for instant shipping and for eBay shipping, so exciting discount campaigns—just try them out. And as I said, no minimum volumes, no contract terms, so you’re very flexible. Your orders are picked up automatically, and the eBay orders, the tracking, is uploaded to eBay automatically. So I think it’s an “all-round-happy package,” if I may say so, from a merchant’s perspective.
David: And the special thing, I’d like to emphasize this again, is that you really get the promise: your parcels will only be picked up from 2:00 p.m. onwards. And that means a merchant could really say, I offer same-day shipping, which with other shipping providers, if you don’t use eBay instant shipping, is simply not guaranteed because you depend on: when does the shipping provider come by?
Steven Marks: Perfectly summarized, and as I said, especially as a small merchant, because it’s unreliable there—sometimes the provider comes a bit earlier, sometimes a bit later—but we can really guarantee not before 2:00 p.m. at the earliest, maybe even only at 6:00 p.m. That’s the time window we can currently offer, yes.
David: Now we’ve talked about eBay instant shipping and also eBay shipping as a platform in general. You already mentioned it earlier, eBay Fulfillment. What is behind that or what does it involve, and for whom would it be interesting?
Steven Marks: We’re now moving, so to speak, from the people just getting started to the professionals, I’d say, who sell so much on eBay or online in general that it’s worth bringing in a shipping provider, a fulfillment provider. That means I may have a few fast-moving items, where I can say, altogether I might sell a hundred a week or so. That’s where it really starts to get fun, and you should take a look at a shipping provider, a fulfillment provider. And eBay Fulfillment is I think a very good one to include. If you’re already a bit further along and already have a few fast-moving items, this solution is a pretty good fit. All three solutions are not only suitable for eBay, but are fully multichannel capable. And Orange Conexx is the partner that manages this fulfillment business for us. We at eBay also work very closely together on that. The colleagues are also based in Berlin. That means when it comes to merchant outreach, when it comes to scaling, we’re right there in the thick of it. And Orange Conexx, in the logistics world, is what they call the VPL, they manage the whole network. From a merchant’s point of view, that’s exciting because you have one point of contact, you pay them, you talk to them. But you don’t have the complexity of talking to a shipping provider or to fulfillment providers. In this case, it’s not like a shipping provider comes to your home; instead, you give me a pallet of your fast-moving items, send them to the fulfillment center, and the system you use—a third-party tool like JTL or plentymarkets, for example—is fully integrated with this solution, so that orders are then handled fully automatically by our fulfillment center. So the customer orders, the order comes in, the fulfillment center sends the goods out, and at the same time the inventory is updated. That means you send your goods there once and, in principle, have a fully automated process behind it. Here too, of course, we have even more options in the fulfillment center; pickup is of course even later there too. There are also large-customer contracts behind that, where shipping providers also make sure the goods are really processed quickly in the hub. And we’ve been up and running with eBay Fulfillment for almost 2 years now, so you can already see really good momentum in the program.
David: Are there minimum requirements for merchants that have to be met to participate?
Steven Marks: Actually not. I think everyone has to do the math for themselves to see whether it’s worth it. That means we can also link the prices here in the show notes—just take a look. I think the prices there are very attractive too, and if you then compare my own costs, my storage costs or maybe a third-party provider’s costs against the eBay Fulfillment rate, then you’ve got the entry point via costs, so to speak, and then just try it out. There too, there are no minimum volumes, no contract terms; you can get convinced by the service, and our job is then, so to speak, to be good enough that at some point you say, okay, this fits, this works, I’ll give you a large part of my goods and store them with eBay Fulfillment.
David: Now you said it’s meant for multichannel merchants. So also for merchants who are active on other marketplaces. Isn’t that actually a bit contradictory from eBay’s perspective?
Steven Marks: No, not at all. We really think from the merchant’s point of view, because we say if I’m a merchant, I have to go where the customers are—that’s exactly the consensus we share. We have many customers, so merchants, come to us. But of course other marketplaces also have many customers. And as a merchant, I have to go where the customers are. And by the way, they’re not only on other marketplaces, but maybe also in my own online shop. And there we say that the logistics solution we offer should support all channels. We don’t make a distinction there. And we really want to offer a complete multichannel service across all the services we just discussed. I think that gives us a small unique selling point in the market as well.
David: Now you said eBay instant shipping is still relatively new. How far along is the whole project, or what phase are we in here?
Steven Marks: Good question. So eBay instant shipping is actually, as of today—and today is August 20, in Berlin and Dresden only—and we’re making sure to activate more cities before the Christmas shopping season, and you can expect that within about a year we’ll have a large part of the country enabled for this service. But as of today, Berlin and Dresden. If someone is listening now and says, wow, that’s exciting, they can already find out more in the seller portal. They can also register already and say, maybe I’m in Munich or Cologne or Frankfurt, wherever—it’s possible to have us put you on the list, and then we’ll get in touch as soon as the service is enabled there, so you’re in from the very beginning and can try it out.
David: One last question from me. Delivery problems. Big topic, everyone knows it. They also often reflect badly on merchants, even though it may not have been their fault at all, but rather a problem with the transport provider, or bad weather, or an accident. What does eBay do to support merchants here?
Steven Marks: Good question and an important topic too. So the first thing a merchant should always do is provide eBay with the tracking information. So you can upload the number, third-party tools do it automatically, our logistics services of course also fully automated, but as soon as we have the tracking, then we know, for example, that you met your processing time. If then, so to speak, on the second leg, namely the shipping provider, the goods are perhaps delivered late, we don’t hold that against the merchant. They’re protected in that case, so that’s basically the first automatic safeguard. That doesn’t always work, of course—for example, we had severe flooding recently, and then of course we also look behind the scenes, so we know where the flooding is, for example, and can automatically adjust shipping transit times. We know it just takes longer; we can really break it down by postal code areas, the regions affected. That’s the first point. The other point is that we also proactively protect merchants, meaning we say: okay, I’m in this area, then delayed deliveries should not become the merchant’s disadvantage, because in principle, for us too, or as you said, if the merchant actually isn’t to blame, then we don’t want to punish them either. And if none of that helps, there’s always customer service. You can also reach out there in an emergency.
David: So it’s really important to upload the shipping information as soon as you have it. You just mentioned shipping transit time—what is that and how is it calculated?
Steven Marks: There are two components. One we’ve already discussed: the merchant’s processing time and then how long the shipping provider actually needs. Those two together are the total transit time, so to speak. For the second part, meaning the part involving the shipping provider, we now have some very exciting, or rather good, artificial intelligence behind it that looks at various factors—for example, it knows exactly where you are as the seller. Where is the buyer located? That’s interesting information because, for example, shipping to Sylt takes a bit longer than maybe from Berlin to Berlin, but also many other factors, and we then forecast the total transit time based on these input factors.
David: So basically, if nothing changes for the merchant, they don’t have to change the shipping times, but the artificial intelligence does that automatically for the shipping transit time.
Steven Marks: Or as a rule of thumb, a DHL parcel, for example, has a transit time of one to two days; the AI usually won’t differ dramatically from that. But if I’m shipping from Berlin to Berlin, that’s fast, then we’ll even make it Next Day. And that’s of course good in search, I sell more there. Conversely, we also make it a little slower sometimes, saying it can take one to three days if we know it’s in an area where it takes longer, or if, for example, someone really lives out in the back of beyond where it just tends to take a bit longer.
David: Steven, today we learned a lot about eBay logistics solutions. That was, for example, eBay Fulfillment by Orange Connex, eBay shipping, and eBay instant shipping—you explained the differences to us earlier—and of course also all the benefits for our merchants and, of course, the benefits for our customers, who naturally receive the goods quickly and safely. Toward the end, though, we still have the very last question for you, the one we always ask our guests at this point in our podcast, and that’s the exciting question: what was the last thing you bought on eBay?
Steven Marks: Yes, that’s really exciting. It was an iPad Pro, the one with the 12-inch display. It was Sunday evening, and I saw there was one from 2020, so last year’s version, and it was on deal right then, plus there was another €50 discount from eBay, and then I had a credit card that I also use to collect cashback, and then I added it all up and thought, wow, what a bargain. Then I just ordered it on Sunday, and that was my last exciting purchase on eBay, and I saved a lot of money doing it.
Isabell: Very nice, I have to say, when I bought my iPad, it really improved my online shopping experience a lot. How quickly did the product arrive for you?
Steven Marks: It arrived on Tuesday, so the merchant did an incredibly good job there. Like I said, I ordered on Sunday, Monday is always very busy, but they must have actually done same-day shipping that day, so it was with me on Tuesday. So the carrier, or shipping provider, was good too—it really couldn’t have been better.
Isabell: Yes, I’d say that wraps it up for this week, and we hope our listeners were able to take away a lot for themselves, and we’re looking forward to the next episode. That will be in 2 weeks
David: We’re of course very happy to hear your feedback on our podcast. Feel free to write to us in the eBay Community about your experiences with the services and leave your questions there too. We’d also be very happy if you leave us a subscription or a like on your favorite podcast platform, the one you’re listening on right now. And don’t forget, all the links and information are of course available again in the description. If you missed it, you don’t have to rewind—you can just read it there.
Isabell: Thanks, Steven, for being here today and goodbye from us.
Steven Marks: Thank you all, it was really fun.
Tino: Yes, it was really fun, thank you very much! And not only in Hamburg do people say goodbye, but also in Berlin, so goodbye!
David: Exactly, Isabell. But first a quick hello from me, David. I’m really happy that today we can talk about an extremely exciting topic that will certainly interest all our merchants or anyone who’s into online retail.
Tino: Yes, my name is Tino and a warm hello from me too. Together with our logistics expert for Germany, Steven Marks, today we’re talking about “Paid, shipped, delivered - Tailor-made logistics from eBay.” Hello Steven and welcome to our podcast. Could you briefly tell us a bit about yourself and your job at Ebay?
Steven Marks: Gladly! Hello to all three of you first. As you already said, my name is Steven Marks. I take care of everything related to shipping at Ebay. On the one hand, that’s the buyer experience, so where can I actually see as a buyer whether I can expect fast, reliable shipping on eBay? Where is my item? Those are the kinds of questions, and of course also for sellers, where it’s partly about making it especially easy for private sellers on eBay, and what we’re talking about today, of course, are business sellers. So how can I, maybe from eBay’s perspective or overall as a merchant, stay competitive when it comes to logistics, namely offering free, fast, reliable shipping? Staying competitive with the competition.
Isabell: Thanks, Steven! Shipping is of course one of the most crucial elements when looking at online retail, and what we hear from merchants is that it can be very challenging to stay competitive. You just mentioned that too. So we brought a few questions for you today, and I’d say let’s get started right away. The first question I brought for you would be: what are buyers’ expectations of shipping these days?
Steven Marks: As mentioned briefly earlier, it somehow has to be fast and reliable and ideally also free. You might also ask me what “fast” means, and I’d say around 2-3 days on average is what merchants should really be offering, because that’s exactly what buyers expect. Reliability is another issue; if something doesn’t go wrong, then yes, in principle it means being on time, and if something does go wrong, I should still be able to see, for example via tracking, from the customer’s perspective, where my item is right now. Also to simply minimize inquiries to the seller, for example.
Isabell: And what’s your forecast for how this will develop over the next few years or the next few months?
Steven Marks: So faster is always better, and free is always better than having to pay. That won’t change. That means it makes sense to formulate a strategy from that perspective, from eBay’s perspective, but also from the merchant’s perspective. If you say, “It has to keep getting faster,” then yes, it’s certainly true that not everyone necessarily has to offer same-day delivery today, and next-day probably isn’t really standard either, although of course there are players pushing strongly in that direction. We actually see that these 2-3 days are a very, very good, healthy delivery speed that customers expect today. And also important: it just has to be on time, so rather say in an emergency that it’s going to take a bit longer if I know it’s simply going to take longer, because if it’s delayed, the item shouldn’t reach the customer at all.
Isabell: What do you think, you just said 2-3 days is the standard that should be met. How long are consumers at most willing to wait for their products?
Steven Marks: It always depends on the product. There’s certainly the low-price segment and the high-price segment. If I’m buying something very cheap, a bargain, I can also wait an extra day. That means as a merchant I might even ship it by letter, maybe even as a small goods shipment or something like that, if I’ve set the customer’s expectations accordingly. But if it gets a bit more expensive, yes, more than 10, 20, 30€, then we’re very quickly in that 2-3 day range, and people really don’t want to wait much longer. Then of course there’s also special inventory, so if I have something like a washing machine or something where I may want to make sure I’m home, there are some requirements or something even customized. Then, as a customer, I can כמובן understand that it takes a little longer, but on the whole 80% 2-3 days.
Isabell: You also work with sellers and deal with the seller experience. What challenges does that pose for merchants?
Steven Marks: A wide variety. We have a lot of merchants on eBay, from the really big, the biggest in the industry, all the way to newcomers who maybe also want to discover e-commerce alongside their brick-and-mortar store. And there we also see different challenges. I think very large merchants, for example, would always like a few more helping hands during peak seasons, yes, where they say: around Christmas I really have a lot of volume, but I don’t want to keep warehouse space around or hire staff all year just for that. We can help a merchant like that, for example, with fulfillment solutions, also from eBay. Then there are smaller merchants, and that’s of course a big chunk on eBay, so most merchants are relatively small, or are just at the beginning of their e-commerce journey, and there the issue is that, for example, the prices I get from shipping providers aren’t particularly good, and the service levels are usually quite poor compared with the big players. And that means, for example, that the shipping provider comes to pick up the parcels very early, which means I can still send relatively few orders on the same day, and that already puts me at a disadvantage compared with the big warehouse, where the shipping providers come by in the evening and a large part of the goods can simply be shipped the same day.
Tino: Steven, we just heard the topic a few times already. Free shipping. And of course, from the consumer’s perspective, that’s the best for all items. What would that mean for me? As an eBay seller, what does it mean for me and for my eBay shop?
Steven Marks: Free shipping, first of all, in principle there’s really no such thing, because it always costs something; it just appears free to the customer, which means from a merchant’s perspective I naturally have to do my cost calculation, and shipping costs are always factored in there. What I should do is make sure I optimize the shipping costs and, of course, not overlook the service level I get from the shipping provider.
Tino: And how can I optimize my shipping costs to stay competitive too?
Steven Marks: As I said, there are various shipping providers that I can of course try out and test, and if I’m not satisfied with one, maybe really switch shipping providers. And as I said, especially for the group of small to medium-sized merchants, I think we now also have a very exciting offer from eBay, where we provide eBay logistics solutions that step in exactly where we believe merchants currently have a real disadvantage, and we want to offer something there, we want to support that.
Tino: Do you have any tips for our merchants or any best-practice sharing?
Steven Marks: If we set aside the logistics solutions we’ll talk about in a moment, I think there are two things that should definitely be considered regardless: taking a close look at the processing times I offer, so do I maybe have one day, or can I even map same-day shipping? Same-day shipping is exciting if, for example, I know my shipping provider comes, let’s say, fairly regularly at noon, then I can make use of that by setting same-day shipping on eBay and perhaps accept orders until 11:00 a.m., giving myself an hour to pack them and then hand them over to the shipping provider by 12. That way I can ship a few more items on the same day. We see that when someone offers same-day processing from the merchant side, and we reward that in search too, because then we can of course see that the item reaches the customer faster. If you want to call it a reward: I simply get found more often, am more likely to be clicked, and have higher sales at that point.
Isabell: Steven, you mentioned processing time. Could you briefly explain for maybe new merchants where they can set that on our platform?
Steven Marks: Of course, that’s either in Seller Cockpit or Seller Cockpit Pro, depending on what I’ve enabled on my account. And there under the shipping section, I can set processing times and, for example, activate same-day shipping there. And if I’ve activated same-day shipping, then I can enter order cut-off times, one per day. So for example I could say: Mondays are always very busy, so maybe I don’t trust myself to do same-day shipping because I have so much to get through. But maybe I can do that Tuesday to Friday, because my shipping provider comes fairly reliably at 12:00, then I can enter an 11:00 order deadline there and then the customer who orders from me on eBay will see, for example, if I order the items by 11:00, a little countdown appears telling me: if you order now, it will still go out today. We see that too, which means the shipping forecast will also be faster accordingly than perhaps with a competitor who has set one day of processing time.
Tino: And does eBay offer our merchants support here in a sense?
Steven Marks: Those are the logistics solutions we briefly mentioned, that for example, what we see is that especially with small merchants, the shipping provider comes by very early, usually. There we try, in a way, not to extend the merchant’s processing time, so that they can still ship relatively many more items on the same day. eBay instant shipping would be the keyword here, but before we go into that, very briefly, another best practice that’s close to my heart: we’ve talked a lot about free shipping. And many merchants will surely say, I’ve tried a lot, it just doesn’t pay off for me. I have low-priced items, or in my area, that just isn’t common. What can you do then? And there, shipping discounts, I think, are a very exciting option that isn’t used all that much on eBay. I’d like to see more merchants trying that. I can offer shipping discounts, for example via a minimum order value, saying that free shipping is available from 30 or 40 euros, so that I have a way to increase my basket size. So a customer is encouraged to add a second item because I then save on shipping costs. From a merchant’s point of view, that’s exciting because I can basically pass these discounts directly on to the customer without greatly affecting my margin, if I ship 2 items in one package. Another option, if someone is already among the 2/3 of our merchants who actually offer free shipping, is to take a look at multi-buy discounts and use them in principle to pass shipping discounts on to the customer. So if I buy 2 items, 2 T-shirts, I can also, through the form of a multi-buy discount, pass the shipping costs of the second item on to the customer, even though both items are free in themselves. In principle, the multi-buy discount is always a nice solution for people who already offer free shipping anyway. Now we wanted to talk about the logistics solutions, I’ve noted here, eBay instant shipping.
David: Exactly, you’ve already mentioned eBay instant shipping, could you go into a bit more detail? What is it and who is it for?
Steven Marks: Exactly, so I’d say we’re probably going to talk about two solutions now, so it’s getting a bit more complicated. All listeners need to close their eyes and listen carefully now. So we’re now going to talk about ebay shipping and eBay instant shipping. These are basically parcel solutions where a shipping provider comes by and picks up the parcels. That’s one block; the second, which we’ll talk about later, is eBay Fulfillment, where I send my goods to a fulfillment center, where everything is then processed automatically. But to your question: eBay instant shipping is our own product, created together with Fiege, which is intended to enable small and medium-sized merchants in particular to achieve same-day shipping. And that’s via collection of letters and parcels between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. That’s something many merchants really won’t get. Our prices are also very competitive there, so for example we have a letter product starting at €2.15, the 500-gram letter in this case, and parcels starting at €3.29. And there’s also a pickup flat fee of €4.99, which means this product, eBay instant shipping, probably isn’t necessarily worth it for the merchant who only sends one parcel a day. But from 3, 4, 5 parcels per day onward, it becomes a very exciting price structure because the pickup costs are spread across multiple parcels. What else is included? So instant shipping is good not only because it has a good price and later pickup, but also because seller protection is included. We have a guarantee that the scan by Fiege on the merchant’s doorstep actually happens that day, and through this scan, which we then have in tracking, the seller is protected. We see it and then know, for example, that you met your processing time. That’s a problem with other shipping providers, for example: during peak season we repeatedly see how many parcels are picked up. Then they’re often only scanned at the hub, so to speak, meaning at the shipping provider’s large center. And sometimes a container sits in a yard for a day, and then it naturally looks to us as if a merchant only shipped the next day, because we can only assess the data. As I said, that’s a problem a merchant may have seen before; if that’s the case, I really need to take a close look at eBay instant shipping.
Isabell: What’s the difference between eBay shipping and eBay instant shipping?
Steven Marks: Yes, good question. eBay shipping itself refers to our shipping label platforms for all our parcel services. On that shipping platform we offer services from DPD, which is very heavily used, for example, by newcomers. They say: okay, if I’m sending a parcel again, I even go to a parcel shop, so there I have a DPD parcel for €3.23 that I can drop off at the parcel shop. Pickup for €3.95 with DPD is also possible, we also have UPS Express on the site if it needs to go fast, and also eBay instant shipping. So eBay shipping is basically our platform for business sellers with pre-negotiated rates, and eBay instant shipping is our in-house product in cooperation with Fiege, where we really go the extra mile and say, this is something you simply won’t find elsewhere on the market, and we say that’s really the innovation of the platform itself.
Isabell: I’d say we’d also put the link to the platform in the description, then people can take a look at home in peace.
Steven Marks: Very gladly, and because it’s also a new product. We’ve got exciting promotions again, both for instant shipping and for eBay shipping, so exciting discount campaigns—just try them out. And as I said, no minimum volumes, no contract terms, so you’re very flexible. Your orders are picked up automatically, and the eBay orders, the tracking, is uploaded to eBay automatically. So I think it’s an “all-round-happy package,” if I may say so, from a merchant’s perspective.
David: And the special thing, I’d like to emphasize this again, is that you really get the promise: your parcels will only be picked up from 2:00 p.m. onwards. And that means a merchant could really say, I offer same-day shipping, which with other shipping providers, if you don’t use eBay instant shipping, is simply not guaranteed because you depend on: when does the shipping provider come by?
Steven Marks: Perfectly summarized, and as I said, especially as a small merchant, because it’s unreliable there—sometimes the provider comes a bit earlier, sometimes a bit later—but we can really guarantee not before 2:00 p.m. at the earliest, maybe even only at 6:00 p.m. That’s the time window we can currently offer, yes.
David: Now we’ve talked about eBay instant shipping and also eBay shipping as a platform in general. You already mentioned it earlier, eBay Fulfillment. What is behind that or what does it involve, and for whom would it be interesting?
Steven Marks: We’re now moving, so to speak, from the people just getting started to the professionals, I’d say, who sell so much on eBay or online in general that it’s worth bringing in a shipping provider, a fulfillment provider. That means I may have a few fast-moving items, where I can say, altogether I might sell a hundred a week or so. That’s where it really starts to get fun, and you should take a look at a shipping provider, a fulfillment provider. And eBay Fulfillment is I think a very good one to include. If you’re already a bit further along and already have a few fast-moving items, this solution is a pretty good fit. All three solutions are not only suitable for eBay, but are fully multichannel capable. And Orange Conexx is the partner that manages this fulfillment business for us. We at eBay also work very closely together on that. The colleagues are also based in Berlin. That means when it comes to merchant outreach, when it comes to scaling, we’re right there in the thick of it. And Orange Conexx, in the logistics world, is what they call the VPL, they manage the whole network. From a merchant’s point of view, that’s exciting because you have one point of contact, you pay them, you talk to them. But you don’t have the complexity of talking to a shipping provider or to fulfillment providers. In this case, it’s not like a shipping provider comes to your home; instead, you give me a pallet of your fast-moving items, send them to the fulfillment center, and the system you use—a third-party tool like JTL or plentymarkets, for example—is fully integrated with this solution, so that orders are then handled fully automatically by our fulfillment center. So the customer orders, the order comes in, the fulfillment center sends the goods out, and at the same time the inventory is updated. That means you send your goods there once and, in principle, have a fully automated process behind it. Here too, of course, we have even more options in the fulfillment center; pickup is of course even later there too. There are also large-customer contracts behind that, where shipping providers also make sure the goods are really processed quickly in the hub. And we’ve been up and running with eBay Fulfillment for almost 2 years now, so you can already see really good momentum in the program.
David: Are there minimum requirements for merchants that have to be met to participate?
Steven Marks: Actually not. I think everyone has to do the math for themselves to see whether it’s worth it. That means we can also link the prices here in the show notes—just take a look. I think the prices there are very attractive too, and if you then compare my own costs, my storage costs or maybe a third-party provider’s costs against the eBay Fulfillment rate, then you’ve got the entry point via costs, so to speak, and then just try it out. There too, there are no minimum volumes, no contract terms; you can get convinced by the service, and our job is then, so to speak, to be good enough that at some point you say, okay, this fits, this works, I’ll give you a large part of my goods and store them with eBay Fulfillment.
David: Now you said it’s meant for multichannel merchants. So also for merchants who are active on other marketplaces. Isn’t that actually a bit contradictory from eBay’s perspective?
Steven Marks: No, not at all. We really think from the merchant’s point of view, because we say if I’m a merchant, I have to go where the customers are—that’s exactly the consensus we share. We have many customers, so merchants, come to us. But of course other marketplaces also have many customers. And as a merchant, I have to go where the customers are. And by the way, they’re not only on other marketplaces, but maybe also in my own online shop. And there we say that the logistics solution we offer should support all channels. We don’t make a distinction there. And we really want to offer a complete multichannel service across all the services we just discussed. I think that gives us a small unique selling point in the market as well.
David: Now you said eBay instant shipping is still relatively new. How far along is the whole project, or what phase are we in here?
Steven Marks: Good question. So eBay instant shipping is actually, as of today—and today is August 20, in Berlin and Dresden only—and we’re making sure to activate more cities before the Christmas shopping season, and you can expect that within about a year we’ll have a large part of the country enabled for this service. But as of today, Berlin and Dresden. If someone is listening now and says, wow, that’s exciting, they can already find out more in the seller portal. They can also register already and say, maybe I’m in Munich or Cologne or Frankfurt, wherever—it’s possible to have us put you on the list, and then we’ll get in touch as soon as the service is enabled there, so you’re in from the very beginning and can try it out.
David: One last question from me. Delivery problems. Big topic, everyone knows it. They also often reflect badly on merchants, even though it may not have been their fault at all, but rather a problem with the transport provider, or bad weather, or an accident. What does eBay do to support merchants here?
Steven Marks: Good question and an important topic too. So the first thing a merchant should always do is provide eBay with the tracking information. So you can upload the number, third-party tools do it automatically, our logistics services of course also fully automated, but as soon as we have the tracking, then we know, for example, that you met your processing time. If then, so to speak, on the second leg, namely the shipping provider, the goods are perhaps delivered late, we don’t hold that against the merchant. They’re protected in that case, so that’s basically the first automatic safeguard. That doesn’t always work, of course—for example, we had severe flooding recently, and then of course we also look behind the scenes, so we know where the flooding is, for example, and can automatically adjust shipping transit times. We know it just takes longer; we can really break it down by postal code areas, the regions affected. That’s the first point. The other point is that we also proactively protect merchants, meaning we say: okay, I’m in this area, then delayed deliveries should not become the merchant’s disadvantage, because in principle, for us too, or as you said, if the merchant actually isn’t to blame, then we don’t want to punish them either. And if none of that helps, there’s always customer service. You can also reach out there in an emergency.
David: So it’s really important to upload the shipping information as soon as you have it. You just mentioned shipping transit time—what is that and how is it calculated?
Steven Marks: There are two components. One we’ve already discussed: the merchant’s processing time and then how long the shipping provider actually needs. Those two together are the total transit time, so to speak. For the second part, meaning the part involving the shipping provider, we now have some very exciting, or rather good, artificial intelligence behind it that looks at various factors—for example, it knows exactly where you are as the seller. Where is the buyer located? That’s interesting information because, for example, shipping to Sylt takes a bit longer than maybe from Berlin to Berlin, but also many other factors, and we then forecast the total transit time based on these input factors.
David: So basically, if nothing changes for the merchant, they don’t have to change the shipping times, but the artificial intelligence does that automatically for the shipping transit time.
Steven Marks: Or as a rule of thumb, a DHL parcel, for example, has a transit time of one to two days; the AI usually won’t differ dramatically from that. But if I’m shipping from Berlin to Berlin, that’s fast, then we’ll even make it Next Day. And that’s of course good in search, I sell more there. Conversely, we also make it a little slower sometimes, saying it can take one to three days if we know it’s in an area where it takes longer, or if, for example, someone really lives out in the back of beyond where it just tends to take a bit longer.
David: Steven, today we learned a lot about eBay logistics solutions. That was, for example, eBay Fulfillment by Orange Connex, eBay shipping, and eBay instant shipping—you explained the differences to us earlier—and of course also all the benefits for our merchants and, of course, the benefits for our customers, who naturally receive the goods quickly and safely. Toward the end, though, we still have the very last question for you, the one we always ask our guests at this point in our podcast, and that’s the exciting question: what was the last thing you bought on eBay?
Steven Marks: Yes, that’s really exciting. It was an iPad Pro, the one with the 12-inch display. It was Sunday evening, and I saw there was one from 2020, so last year’s version, and it was on deal right then, plus there was another €50 discount from eBay, and then I had a credit card that I also use to collect cashback, and then I added it all up and thought, wow, what a bargain. Then I just ordered it on Sunday, and that was my last exciting purchase on eBay, and I saved a lot of money doing it.
Isabell: Very nice, I have to say, when I bought my iPad, it really improved my online shopping experience a lot. How quickly did the product arrive for you?
Steven Marks: It arrived on Tuesday, so the merchant did an incredibly good job there. Like I said, I ordered on Sunday, Monday is always very busy, but they must have actually done same-day shipping that day, so it was with me on Tuesday. So the carrier, or shipping provider, was good too—it really couldn’t have been better.
Isabell: Yes, I’d say that wraps it up for this week, and we hope our listeners were able to take away a lot for themselves, and we’re looking forward to the next episode. That will be in 2 weeks
David: We’re of course very happy to hear your feedback on our podcast. Feel free to write to us in the eBay Community about your experiences with the services and leave your questions there too. We’d also be very happy if you leave us a subscription or a like on your favorite podcast platform, the one you’re listening on right now. And don’t forget, all the links and information are of course available again in the description. If you missed it, you don’t have to rewind—you can just read it there.
Isabell: Thanks, Steven, for being here today and goodbye from us.
Steven Marks: Thank you all, it was really fun.
Tino: Yes, it was really fun, thank you very much! And not only in Hamburg do people say goodbye, but also in Berlin, so goodbye!
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5 comments
endwuerfeneu
·3 years agoSmall addendum to my comment from 09-01-2022 21:22
"Need for improvement" did not mean that the "Shipping" area should now pile on top of itself, as I just had to realize today! That could then create new pain points for many sellers and buyers.-
wwafri-0
·3 years agoOn 26.08.22 I bought a chimney cap .Flue cap D 250mm from ieBay.
The dealer Schornstein-zentrale sent me the invoice on 28.08.22.
Paid via eBay Managed on 26.08.22.
I was told by eBay that delivery time would be 10-12 days. The dealer Schornstein-Zentrallager
did not specify any delivery time on the invoice that was sent. I have already tried several times by phone
to reach the company in order to get a delivery date, but without success. The phone was always
busy. I will wait 2 more days, then I will speak with my lawyer.
kerrner-h_0
·4 years agoI sold a TV, which went smoothly, but unfortunately I’m still stuck with about €34 in shipping costs to this day. The buyer simply doesn’t reply or respond anymore since he received the item. I sent him all the receipts twice, since eBay said that even if the shipping turns out to be more expensive, I’ll get it back from the buyer. I think that’s pretty cheeky; the purchase price was transferred quickly, just not the shipping costs. eBay unfortunately isn’t getting back to me either. 😢 It’s already making me wonder whether I’ll sell anything on eBay again under these circumstances, probably not. But that’s never happened to me before either
garmar2
·4 years agoAfter some time I listed items again. Unfortunately, in the meantime the whole process has changed so much that it’s no longer any fun to keep selling on ebay. Everything is way too cumbersome,
buyers are constantly being asked to pay as soon as they’ve won the item,
it takes a while until the money shows up in my account and then I can’t see who paid.
It’s just endless back-and-forth clicking to see what’s going on. It only wastes time and nerves and I simply think it’s unacceptable.
Why did it become so complicated? I can’t understand it, and it would be worth considering whether this shouldn’t be changed back and made simpler again.
When my auctions have ended, I probably won’t be listing any more items. I don’t need to put myself through this unnecessary hassle.
Just disappointed now
Maria Garnitz
endwuerfeneu
·4 years agoNeeds improvement!
Unfortunately, customer access to shipment tracking falls far behind the current logistics mark's visibility options! -