eBay test estimated delivery date options

eBay are testing a new way of displaying expected delivery times on listings.

Rather than the familiar “Estimated within 5-7 working days” they are showing “Estimated within Wed. 10th Oct and Fri. 12 Oct”.

I quite like this, eBay are picking up the seller’s stated dispatch time and delivery method to give an actual date when you might expect to receive your parcel. As a buyer the 10th of October means a lot more to me than 5 days, and of course after a couple of days I’ll have probably forgotten when the 5 days started from. It also gets rid of the confusion of what’s a “working day”, for instance do we count Saturday’s as a working day?

What do you think? Would you prefer an estimate in the form of the number of working days or do you prefer to be given an actual date when you’re likely to receive your purchase?

Many thanks to John of who spotted the change. It appears to be a trial as it’s not appearing on all listings, but as with all things eBay will be testing the effect of both options and will settle on whichever produces the best results.

11 Responses

  1. Noticed this showing on my listings this morning. Made it seem like delivery was quite slow, as in the example above my estimated delivery is basically showing as 1 week becuase I used second class. I know from my feedback that my normal delivery time is much faster than this, so it kind of reflects badly on me and is more noticeable than the old 5-7 days.

    eBay should give us the option of choosing ‘same day’ dispatch, rather than the lowest being 1 working day.

  2. Don’t agree with it. Very often 2nd class post arrives next day the day following despatch which is much quicker than the estimated delivery dates shown.

    As has already been stated the estimated date can reflect poorly on the seller from a buyers perspective.

    What happens when it snows or during the pre Xmas period? ebay won’t adjust these dates will they?

    All ebay need to show is the despatch date and the service used.

  3. I would rather have estimated 1 week and receive it in 4 days than estimated in 4 days and receive it in one week.

  4. My sales have gone down towards the end of this week and I think this might be to blame. In my opinion ebay should not mess around too much with things that work perfectly the way they are.

    Example..I posted an item yesterday 1st class.. Ebay stated delivery next week and it arrived today.

  5. get real folks buyers only use this information as evidence at a sellers execution,
    otherwise it matters little how its presented

  6. Well since I noticed this middle of last week my sales have gone down very noticeably. But over the weekend have jumped. But ebay show a friday-monday delivery most of my second class arrive in next day.

  7. something isn’t quite right with this ‘new’ system. a 3 day seller handling time + royal mail 2nd class standsrd (3-5 working days) service should show a 6-8 working day delivery schedule ie ‘Wed 17 Oct and Fri 19 Oct’

    well it does not. it shows a 5-7 working day schedule (Tue. 16 Oct and Thu. 18 Oct)

  8. Me and the Mrs operate accounts from Thailand, and our ads have been working this way for about 2 years. It didn’t make a scrap of difference. You’d be amazed what buyer’s miss, some are oblivious even to what country they are ordering from. I think they have been on the grog. I contacted Ebay because during summer, the amount of ordering errors reached epidemic proportions. I believe info. even appears in commit to buy page in block capitals. As I said not a scrap of difference.

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