Talking at the eSellerPro customer conference today eBay spoke about how they will be supporting seller’s growth in 2012. In common with eSellerPro CEO Keith Bird’s opening comments, cross border trade is where sellers are seeing the greatest growth.
That’s why eBay are offering free insertion fees on European eBay sites and eBay Australia. Any Top Rated eBay seller will be able to open an Anchor shop and from the end of October access the free international insertion fees for the EU and Australia as well as $0.03 insertion fees for eBay.com (3 cents matches the lowest insertion fees for US sellers on eBay.com).
Global Shipping Program Pilot
To support sellers with cross border trade eBay are currently running a shipping proof of concept program which currently three eBay sellers are participating in. The program is designed to offer quick, cheap and tracked 2-5 day international shipping.
Supported by a shipping partner the pilot enables sellers to despatch their international items to a local UK shipping hub. From there they’re shipped abroad as a consignment and delivered using local distribution partners in each country.
Returns
The shipping pilot includes easy returns ability for overseas buyers. The buyer would pay to ship the item back to a local distribution hub and then eBay’s shipping partner collect the products and return them to the UK as a consignment.
Size & Weight Limits
Currently the program is designed around fashion, so the weight limit is 5kg and cubic sizes are limited. eBay are looking to expand this should the proof of concept work and the Global Shipping Program is rolled out to more sellers.
eBay support for 2013
Traditionally eBay has been pretty much a self service platform. eBay supply the buyers, you not only supply the products but also manage your sales with rudimentary tools or use third party services.
I’m finding it remarkably refreshing to see eBay stepping up to the plate and start partnering with retailers. eBay are in a pretty good position to start knocking down some doors and setting up discounts and services with third parties to assist their retailers expand their businesses.
Easy, cheap, tracked overseas shipping will make a lot of sellers lives simpler. I look forward to finding out what eBay’s next partnership to negotiate services and discounts that really benefit sellers will be.
3 Responses
Probably part of ebays plans to ditch the small volume sellers – they need something to attract the high volume sellers, and taking them into new markets might just do it. with Amazon to offer ‘same day’ delivery it does beg the question how long is the delivery going to take? Typical time scales for Freight forwarders are typically up to 4 weeks, and that just wont cut the mustard for ebays demanding buyers. Sound idea though, lets hope they can make it work, or scare Royal Mail into doing something similiar.
We’ve just renegotiated our FedEx contract & the prices are cheaper than Royal Mail for 2Kg via Int’l Signed For.
I’m sure eBay could do better & offer collection from Business sellers own locations