New eBay combined shipping for Auctions

The biggest complaint with eBay Payments has been that it’s impossible to combine shipping for Auctions if the buyer’s payment is taken the second the auction ends. Now, on the eBay.com announcement board, a solution has been announced with the introduction of a 7-day shopping window to allow you to offer combined shipping, encouraging buyers to buy more of your items.

When bidding in Auctions, buyers may choose to:

• Shop and ship separately to have their payment process automatically 1 hour after winning an auction, or
• Shop more, ship together, to get up to 7 days to shop other items from the seller that qualify for combined shipping.

With either option, buyers can still choose to check out manually at any time. eBay are testing this experience with a subset of buyers, and will continue to increase the audience over the next several months

Shop more, ship together effectively delays payment on a winning Auction for up to 7 days, allowing extra time to add more items from the seller that qualify for combined shipping… including time for more auctions to end. It’s worth noting again that this is currently in testing and not all buyers will get the new experience. When placing a bid, buyers that see the option can opt into the 7-day combined shipping window, and the seller experience will adjust based on this choice.

Once a buyer wins a second item within the 7-day window, they can send a combined shipping invoice request to the seller. It makes sense to send your invoice as early as possible after receiving a request from a buyer as it’s a strong indication that they’ve finished shopping, any auctions they were bidding on have ended, and they’re ready to pay.

We’re in the early stages of testing this solution, so you might start seeing buyer requests as combined shipping is gradually introduced. Don’t worry if it’s not visible to you yet! 

Further improvements are coming to the experience, so stay tuned for future updates to be announced next year.

We hope these new combined shipping requirements will significantly reduce your unpaid items, while increasing buyer predictability and giving them more time to shop your inventory. We’re committed to lowering the rate of unpaid items on eBay, leading to a smoother and more rewarding selling experience for all. 

– eBay