eBay Canada is asking merchants to lend a hand and help them test a new feature related to shipping rates.
They say that merchants will be able to gain more control with the new shipping rate tables when they roll out later this year. They say it will make it easier for eBay merchants to offer free shipping and charge more accurately for shipping across Canada. Shipping can be one of the most intricate aspects of selling online, they note. With shipping rate tables, they say merchants will be able to offer free shipping more often, charge more accurate shipping rates, and ensure that sellers are less frequently out-of-pocket when shipping items.
You can read the full details here.
Shipping rate tables are a set of pre-determined shipping rates that vary according to the details of your shipment, such as item weight, surcharge, point of origin and destination. Shipping rate tables are set up by the seller, and allow you to specify shipping rates for up to 21 distinct destinations across Canada. You can define a single specific shipping charge for an area as granular as a single Zone in one Province and Region, or extend it across multiple Regions and Provinces—it’s up to you. For example, you could choose to offer Free Shipping to urban areas, which typically have lower shipping fees, and charge an appropriate rate to remote destinations with higher shipping fees.
– eBay Canada
Shipping in Canada, which is obviously an absolutely enormous country, is more complex an issue than in smaller territories. And this system looks like a good idea to a casual observer, but we’d love to here from an experienced user. Not least because it’s always a tricky business decision as to whether it’s sage to help out eBay by testing new features and functions for them. And that has has been amply demonstrated by those American merchants who have opted in to the eBay managed payments test in the past week or so.
One Response
Whilst I think that Royal Mail give a great service, their technology always lets them down, as do the CS staff.