Why doesnt ebay make it mandatory for all sellers to use tracked shipping?

[combicraftaustralia]

I’m curious if anyone else is facing the same issues as us.

We sell a lot of low-value items, typically priced between $4 and $10.

Given the high competition for these goods, price is a crucial selling point. Our profit margins don't allow for the inclusion of free tracked shipping, so we use traditional stamp posts instead.

eBay discourages using stamp posts for these goods, but I've tried to explain that switching to tracked shipping would make us unable to compete with sellers who continue using stamp posts. Additionally, none of the suppliers of these goods can compete if they use tracked shipping, as it is often more expensive than the product itself.

I believe that if eBay required all sellers to use tracked shipping, it would level the playing field and enhance the customer experience. Although the products might become slightly more expensive, at least they would arrive with tracking, ensuring customers can monitor their orders. Just like on Amazon which is taking a lot of the market from eBay atm..

Just a thought—let me know what you all think.

[sugar249]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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I must admit as a buyer,  and when I have made a special purchase I like the tracking as I can see where it is and start to gleefully think, my item is just in my state, or at the local DC, and get prepared mentally for the excitement of getting the joy of the item,  than have the bubble burst when you get the failed delivery message.  LOL.    Yes I agree in general for a buyer it doesnt mean a lot, although it is good to know it has actually reached the mail system.

And really as a seller,  its a bonus for me to see that an item has arrived at its destination,  and I shouldnt get an INR,  but otherwise dont really care if it went via Timbuctoo to Geraldton.  I generally just have a quick scan thru the Mypost history once a week or whenever I can be bothered, to see any outstanding items, but dont even really check on them, just the knowledge that most are happy and dandy.

I think OP had some untracked go missing and as such to appease them, they want everyone to use tracking.  Which should be a business decision by each individual seller.  Next OP will want Ebay to mandate pricing so they can compete.

[digital*ghost]

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@marnotom! wrote:

I've read and re-read your post and I still don't understand why you feel mandatory tracking would be of benefit to buyers.

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Benefit to buyers is as varied as people are, as priorities are different for everyone. When I sent untracked as default, there were always people who upgraded to registered by their own choice, for a lot of different reasons, so there are buyers who place value on it, enough to pay extra voluntarily anyway. 

Tracking is  -for most people I warrant - less about knowing where the package is at any give time, and more about having more options to solve problems when they occur, and not just because there's no longer any compensation available on untracked services (which is primarily beneficial to sellers only, but it'd still inadvertently help reduce problematic transactions, with more resolving amicably from the start, as in fewer sellers wanting to insist "no responsibility taken once the package has left my hands" etc because they can mitigate losses with compensation where applicable)

Singular, anecdotal example, I've been able to get on to AP within minutes of something being marked as delivered but definitely not to me (being the buyer in this case), the driver was able to retrieve and deliver to me within an hour - while it would've been great if it never happened in the first place, it did and because I had tracking + notifications, a potentially bigger problem was avoided. 

Being able to track - and more importantly locate - a package  means options like mail hold, redirection, overriding SOD (where possible) and other things buyers can need or want, are much more readily available and easier to implement. It's not always about the tracking, although that can provide peace of mind for anxious types (or do the opposite if there's an anomaly in the tracking updates - speaking from personal experience 😅 ), but about the extra options tracking tends to provide. 

As a seller, I'd be happy enough with E-DELCON alone, as long as it didn't re-introduce the "have you sent it yet? where is it?" messages - answering those is time much better spent on other things lol. 

[springyzone]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

 (in fact I ended up going tracked only on my website because orders shipping without tracking seemed like a foreign concept to my website buyers).

Ultimately, I traded "Have you sent my order yet?", and "I haven't received my order yet" messages for "The tracking hasn't updated for 3 days" messages, which are thankfully considerably less frequent than the former two 

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That resonated with me!

It seems like a foreign concept to me too because on every other website I use (and I use a LOT), tracking is always there.

I don't obsessively follow the tracking but occasionally on some item I might click on it just to see if it is close to arriving.

I remember the bad old days on ebay before tracking was a regular thing and on just about every purchase, I would have to be messaging the seller to ask if the item was on its way yet. I asked politely, but it was tedious. I never mesaged till it had been over 2 weeks & believe me, back in those days, most sellers took their sweet time, it was nothing to wait for 2-3 weeks for an item to be posted.

But this, admittedly, applies to items that were well over the $5 mark.

I can understand sellers of very cheap items may wish to post untracked in an envelope.

I personally don't believe Auspost loses all that much, so some of the claims by buyers are scams.

If I were selling small untracked items on ebay today, I'd factor in something, like dave advised, to cover the occasional scam.

Probably one of the best things about ebay, its point of difference, is that you can still buy small items or small quantities of something for just a few dollars.