eBay have announced that moving forwards that if you describe shipping services as ‘Other 24 hour courier’ or ‘Other 48 hour courier’, . However you will still need to ship via one of the .
If you use a different courier described as ‘Other courier’, you will need to change to one of the approved 5 couriers or opt your listings out of Click & Collect to avoid the risk of items being returned to you.
Why?
We more more than a little taken aback at this announcement. Basically it means that if you use a courier which isn’t one of the approved couriers you probably correctly assumed you weren’t eligible for click and collect. Now having done the right thing you’ll be included unless you specifically exclude yourself. We asked eBay why they’ve done this.
eBay told us that they have conducted an overview of carrier market share on eBay and know that approximately 95% of sellers using the options ‘Other courier’ do in fact use one of the 5 Click & Collect eligible carriers but simply explain this in their listings as ‘Other courier’.
There may be many reasons for this, sellers may switch between based on rates negotiated, weight of items, value of items or using services like Metapack. Many times sellers will use two Click & Collect eligible carriers and use the ‘Other courier’ designation so they can select the most cost effective for different shipments. Other sellers may sometimes use an approved courier in conjunction with a courier not on the Click & Collect list.
Sellers may also use a fulfillment house and not even know for certain which courier their fulfillment partner will use to ship a specific order and so selected ‘Other Courier’ to cover all the angles.
eBay tell us that “Opting out at an account level is a very simple process and as such was deemed much simpler for the 5% than the changing of shipping services for the remaining 95% of sellers on their thousands of listings where this option is shown but the right carrier for Click & Collect is used“.
eBay added that they ensured that the carriers with largest coverage in the UK as were selected as eligible services, but we will look to work with Argos to see if we can expand the carrier set in the future to accommodate more.
What to do and what if you get it wrong?
If you describe your postage as ‘Other Courier’
If you currently describe your postage as ‘Other 24 hour courier’ or ‘Other 48 hour courier’ and use one of the 5 Click & Collect eligible carriers you need do nothing.
If you currently describe your postage as ‘Other 24 hour courier’ or ‘Other 48 hour courier’ and do NOT use one of the 5 Click & Collect eligible carriers, as soon as eBay opt you into Click & Collect you need to opt back out. The alternative is to change the courier that you use.
If you currently describe your postage as ‘Other 24 hour courier’ or ‘Other 48 hour courier’ and sometimes use one of the 5 Click & Collect eligible carriers you need to ensure any Click & Collect shipments are despatched with an eligible courier. We know this is going to be tricky in a busy warehouse and can foresee the odd Click & Collect parcel being sent to Argos by the wrong carrier.
Oops, I shipped with the wrong carrier
If you ship a parcel with a carrier that is not one of the specified set, when your item gets to Argos it may be rejected, although there is a likelihood that the item will be accepted anyway. On acceptance the system will send a message to eBay’s CS teams that the seller has used a carrier that is not one of the 5. The seller will then receive a call from the eBay CS team to let them know that this has happened and to talk them through opting out if they wish.
At worst the item is rejected by Argos and the item will be sent back with the carrier.
I use Interlink, isn’t that the same as DPD?
Well yes and no. Interlink Direct isn’t the same as DPD, although it has the same tracking on the same website and is delivered by the same driver in the same van. Whilst officially Argos haven’t approved Interlink as a Click & Collect courier with eBay, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to differentiate and in all likelihood will accept your delivery.
We wouldn’t want to advise you to use Interlink for Argos Click & Collect as doubtless it’s not in eBay’s contract with them. If you do however you do ship via Interlink no one is ever likely to notice!
I’ll simply opt out, I can’t risk the bad feedback or defects if my parcel is rejected
eBay have emphasised that in all cases they will protect the sellers feedback or defects if you accidentally ship with the wrong carrier and your parcel is rejected.
eBay’s CS teams will be notified by Argos and will then telephone you to help you opt out of Click and Collect or advise on which carriers you can use.
Why bother?
Click & Collect is going to be massive this Christmas. Consumers are going to be picking up their bulk Christmas buying at everyone from Tesco Direct (and most other supermarkets) and picking up in store to Waitrose for their John Lewis purchases, from Debenhams to Matalan for clothing and household goods and from Currys to Maplins for electronics. eBay don’t want to miss out on this massive trend and want to do everything that they can to make Click & Collect a success.
Click & Collect won’t cost you anything, you’ll pay for delivery exactly as if you despatched to a customer’s home address. If it increases sales and you do use one or more of the approved couriers exclusively all you need do is carry on shipping and stay opted in to Click & Collect.
If you don’t use the approved carriers (or only sometimes use them AND describe them as ‘Other Courier’) then you need to ensure you handle Click & Collect orders differently and that’s the only reason we can see for opting out.
9 Responses
Last week i had an email from ebay saying my listings have had click and collect added to them. i’ve searched all my listings and not one has the click and collect available even though they should. Is there somewhere in my ebay where I need to opt in?
The basic problem, in my view, is that the carrier configuration screen is too limited and rigid, and the “other courier” option is the only method available to retailers to set up the miriad of options they want to do.
I use Interlink Express, they are different depots, different vans and drivers. There is a difference, but as you say DPD is the sister company – so I am not sure why they have not included both of them really.
I think click and collect is an exciting move forward for Ebay and anything they do to make more customers buy has my thumbs up !
“Click and Collect is going to be massive this Christmas”.
I think the proof of the pudding will be in the eating as they say.
Ebay often overhype or misread what the customer wants.
So far I haven’t had a single request to use any kind of locker drop off or collect service despite them being much more widely available, so it will be interesting to see if Click and Collect is any different.
One question is if the customer already has satisfactory post arrangements for their ebay deliveries, and doesn’t have to go out of their way to get them, why would they then make a trip to Argos to collect?
Second, what percentage of the customers are actually anywhere near an Argos store?
From an analysis of my customer base I’d say take up will be very limited for my products.
We shall see.
Well from the trial I got loads of customers stating they though the product was in store to collect same day and ask to change the address to another to be delivered too. This may have been down to it being a new service and I’m sure ebay will do more to let them know now.
However, this is really annoying. We use Interlink Express and have to use the ‘Other Courier’ selection as Interlink is not available. But, we want to be included for the click n collect. Surely ebay so add the couriers required as a selection and leave the other courier alone so it can be used.
What’s great is that all our clients who want to use Click & Collect haven’t been opted in, yet the “managed accounts” who don’t want it got paid to.
Having asked a few sellers, many of them don’t realise DPD is an option because you have to choose “See more delivery services” in the drop down, then click on it again (when listing within eBay).
Does anyone know why the Argos Outlet on ebay do not offer Click and Collect on their listings?