topic Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch in Selling

Ebay delivery guarantee launch

jellybirddesigns — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 23:59:08 GMT

Just noticed the new "Ebay guanrateed delivery" offer banner at the top of my Seller overview page.

Will never opt in for such a scheme.

If the PO can't guarantee delivery within 2 days, why should I?

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

the4masters2013 — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 00:08:17 GMT

I had a similar banner on my page, wanting me to opt in.

This was despite a survey I did stating quite plainly that this is something doomed for failure.

As said by many others, no-one can guarantee delivery from point A to Point B.

My point has always been, if I can't get a letter with a priority stamp from one end of town to the other end (regional town, population 40',000), then no way will a parcel leave my post office and arrive in a remote area of WA or QLD. Or anywhere else for that matter.

A delusional idea at it's worst.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

springyzone — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 03:41:39 GMT

@jellybirddesignswrote:
Just noticed the new "Ebay guanrateed delivery" offer banner at the top of my Seller overview page.
Will never opt in for such a scheme.
If the PO can't guarantee delivery within 2 days, why should I?

They would be better off having something like a guaranteed shipping within 2 business days & holding sellers (who opt in) to it.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

the4masters2013 — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 03:44:35 GMT

Sorry but that requires common sense.
Something that any head office of any large company seems to lack!!

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 03:52:03 GMT

Ebay doubly so

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

digital*ghost — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 04:27:57 GMT

The success of failure of this is going to depend on buyer reception more than anything else, because there will always be businesses willing to meet a demand.

It's no secret that the "prime" service available eslewhere is often the main reason people shop there, which provides free 2 day shipping if I'm not mistaken, and generally compensates if it's not provided. Of course things that qualify for that have to be dispatched by the company, not individual sellers, and eBay is unlikely to ever invest in that kind of infrastructure.

I checked my main selling category (Jewellery & Watches) - currently there is a little under 5 million listings under the main category. I refined it to show items that had guaranteed delivery within 4 days, and it went down to just a bit over 13 thousand - obviously along with sellers who didn't opt in, this immediately eliminates pretty much all overseas sellers (extra bonus for shoppers who want to both refine searches to Oz only, and exclude sellers who only claim the item is located in Aus), so as much as I dislike the idea as a seller and am unlikely to ever particpate, the appeal to shoppers is undeniable.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

the4masters2013 — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 05:39:35 GMT

Goes without saying, sad as it is!

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

lm-entertainment — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 06:23:32 GMT

you must be one of the lucky ones digi - because i had an ebay rep contact me via phone about opting in and they said the "guaranteed delivery" search option is only available to a small amount of buyers at this point in time and is being rolled out gradually.

i've conditionally opted-in because you only need to offer it for one location if you like, or as many or little as you like - so since i live in perth and post everything via express post, i can almost guarantee that within 2 days, it'll get to it's destination (nearly everywhere in perth metro only takes 1 business day). i thought i'd see how it goes - because there's no penalty until june for sellers - as ebay are compensating buyers with a $10 ebay voucher should the delivery not arrive on time (a sweetener to suck sellers in).

for some sellers i think it will have benefits - ie those that may use an overnight courier service or express post with a guaranteed timeframe, but otherwise it seems not worthwhile in the slightest.

the first time it fails for me will be the last time i use it - but in the meantime, i'm waiting to get one of the 2-weekly reports which is supposed to show analytics of sales figures based on the guaranteed delivery buyers. it's easy enough to opt-out and i've got it setup now so i can opt-in or out at any time.

the one weird thing i have noticed is that estimated delivery times now show a rang rather than a particular date - because it uses the domestic postage rate table (which is what guaranteed delivery is based off) but also has your default postage options as well. ironically, it's seen a blowout in my estimated delivery times, though i guess that can only be a good thing providing people aren't looking at the estimated dates to decide whether or not to buy.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

jellybirddesigns — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 06:25:24 GMT

Just to add to my original post, the only way this could possibly work is by offering Express postage, but at the end of the day, how many customers are REALLY going to be willing to pay for that? In all my years of selling and 3000 transactions I can count on one hand the number of people who really needed their item quickly and were willing to pay extra for for Express Post.

Although Ebay probably expect us to absorb this cost now.....?

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

digital*ghost — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 07:52:14 GMT

@lm-entertainmentwrote:
you must be one of the lucky ones digi - because i had an ebay rep contact me via phone about opting in and they said the "guaranteed delivery" search option is only available to a small amount of buyers at this point in time and is being rolled out gradually.

They might still be testing where buyers look for refinements (I have them on this account, but I looked for it on my selling account which is older, and it's not there).

If anyone is interested, there's two places the refinement can be used, this one shows at the top of search results (just to note - it's switched off, and turns blue if you click it to switch on) :

And this at the side, which is under the item specific refinements, but before other refinements (like new or used, show only items with special deals, free post, free returns etc) :

As I was looking for long sleeve t shirts today, I checked what the stats were like on those - over 8 million results for just a general keyword search on 't shirt', down to a bit over 421 thousand when refined to 3 day guaranteed delivery. Those numbers don't really paint the best picture, though, especially for clothing, as every variation and possible combo in a single listing counts (eg one seller with only 10 listings but with 5 sizes and 5 colours in each listing will contribute 250 towards that listing / item count), so it's not the greatest representation of total number of sellers participating, nor truly how many individual listings are included.

Just out of curisoity, I refined the 't shirt' keyword search to 1 day guaranteed delivery, and got a total count of 761, but there were only 2 different sellers offering this, one located in Vic, and one located in NSW (I'm in SA), and both using express post. (Edited to add, they are charging less than the average cost for express, too, so if they have to compensate a buyer, the buyer will be refunded $4-$7, but they could be compensated up to $11 by Aus Post.... o.o )

Express post itself (at least via Aus Post) is only within a specifically designated network, though I ~~presume~~ hope the postage rate tables allow for this to be accounted for when opting in to guaranteed delivery, and at least you can get compensation from Aus Post if they fail to deliver next day, which is basically the only time I also compensate for a later delivery (i.e. if an express package doesn't arrive when it's supposed to, I refund the buyer's postage cost voluntarily, because it effectively cost me nothing and I don't see why it should cost the buyer, but none of my items are suitable for express by default and I won't guarantee delivery by specific dates when the buyer's postcode is within the network, regardless, as there will always be anomalies).

I prefer guidelines over guarantees when it comes to things I can't control, and have got into the habit of never saying "yes" to questions even if it sounds reasonable (eg buyer messages and asks if the package will arrive by some date that's 1-2 weeks away, I always respond by saying it's more than likely, but can't be guaranteed. On the handmade site, buyers can open INAD cases if the seller guarantees a delivery date and it doesn't arrive by then, so I'm mindful to never do it, I know it's lost me some sales at times, but I would rather miss the sale than risk problems with a highly time-sensitive purchase).

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

imastawka — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 07:54:39 GMT

I don't have either one of those refinements!

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

springyzone — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 11:55:44 GMT

Me neither. Not fretting at this stage as not sure I would use it, except in some sort of emergency.

I suppose we'll all get their refinements eventually.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

vproshop — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 13:40:42 GMT

Im not sure if this would work, but my idea on this is...

Create new listings of your existing ebay listings with a higher price that incorporates Express Post.

eg.

Listing 1. T-Shirt ABC $14.00 (FREE POSTAGE) normal postage is say $7.65, express is $10.65

Listing 2. T-Shirt ABC Express Postage Included (2-4 day delivery) $17.00

So you only apply guaranteed delivery on these new listings.

Any thoughts on that?

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

digital*ghost — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 14:48:31 GMT

@vpro That would technically breach eBay's duplicate listing policy, not that it seems to thwart a lot of sellers, as I see a lot of listings with different set ups like that from the same seller.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

collect247 — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 21:01:06 GMT

You should have it stawks,it shows up when a buyer looks at one of your listings and then the buyer turns on the 3 day thingy and the buyer can then choose one of the guaranteed days and then if you have any of those options on any of your listings then those listings will be shown to the buyer.

So if you had a 1 day delivery on any listing the buyer will see those listings.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

clarry100 — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 23:11:54 GMT

@digital*ghostwrote:
@vpro That would technically breach eBay's duplicate listing policy, not that it seems to thwart a lot of sellers, as I see a lot of listings with different set ups like that from the same seller.

Hi DG,

I'm not so sure it would breach the duplicate listing policy.

We got pinged a few years back for inadvertently listing the same item twice on our two different stores. Accidental, but true, we had duplicated.

At the time I called ebay for advice (such as it was) and one of the things that particular CSR stressed was that even tho a listing was for the same item, if it offered differences to cater for different buyer requirements then it would not be considered as a duplicate.

So in the example given above, if what they told me is true, then you could argue that the difference in the listing (ie express post included) would be satisfying a different buyer requirement.

**edited** to correct a typo.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

imastawka — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 23:32:36 GMT

@collect247wrote:
You should have it stawks,it shows up when a buyer looks at one of your listings and then the buyer turns on the 3 day thingy and the buyer can then choose one of the guaranteed days and then if you have any of those options on any of your listings then those listings will be shown to the buyer.
So if you had a 1 day delivery on any listing the buyer will see those listings.

As a buyer, I don't have those refinements.

Gee it's hard to keep up with your id's

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

collect247 — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 23:48:50 GMT

Haha not really that hard to keep up.

Yes as a buyer you do have those refinements on the items you're interested in buying from a seller,but the seller needs to accept those on their listings for them to be of any relevance to you as a buyer.

But I can't see many sellers doing that lol.

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

imastawka — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 00:39:39 GMT

Well I can't see any selller doing it, then

Re: Ebay delivery guarantee launch

collect247 — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 00:48:49 GMT

Perhaps AP should have the choice haha as they're the only one's that can get close to determining when they can deliver?

On the other hand perhaps not,so ebay good effort from some wiz but stupid, so back to the drawing board hey