Best Practices

Online buyers consider the total cost—item price and the cost of shipping—when deciding what and where to buy. Buyers especially love free shipping; many will only purchase items that ship for free. In fact, buyers are more likely to choose an item with free shipping over an item with a shipping charge, even if the total cost is the same. Free shipping can pay for itself in many ways.

When you offer free shipping, you get:

• More buyers likely to choose your item.
• Lower Final Value Fees when applied to the full amount of sale, including shipping.
• A boost in search results for your Fixed Price listings.
• Automatic 5-star rating for shipping cost when your buyer chooses free shipping.

Buyers also like a choice. Now you can offer 4 domestic and 5 international shipping services in your listings. Garner the most sales and deliver really great customer service with FREE standard shipping as your first option and a 1-day service for buyers in a hurry.

You won't pay a higher Final Value Fee if your buyer chooses 1-day (or international) because when you offer these services, your fees are calculated on the first shipping option you specify. So if you specified free shipping as your first option, you pay zero fees on shipping even if your buyer chooses 1-day or international.

For example:

• You offer free standard shipping as your first domestic shipping option and 1-day shipping for $20.00 as your second option in your item listing.
• Your buyer chooses and pays for the 1-day shipping option for $20.00.
• Even though your buyer chose the more expensive 1-day option, your final value fees are calculated on your first domestic shipping option. In this case, your fee will be calculated on free shipping—you do not pay a fee on the $20.00 1-day shipping option your buyer selected.

1-day services offer next day delivery:

• USPS
  • Express Mail
  • Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope
• FedEx
  • FedEx Priority Overnight ^®
  • FedEx Standard Overnight ^®
• UPS
  • Next Day Air Saver
  • Next Day Air (offers Saturday delivery)

Expedited services offer a maximum estimated delivery time of three business days.:

• USPS
  • Priority Mail
  • Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope
  • Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box
  • Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box
  • Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box
  • First Class Mail
• FedEx
  • FedEx Express Saver^®
  • FedEx 2Day^®
• UPS
  • UPS 3 Day Select
  • UPS 2nd Day Air

As a rule of thumb, ship the item the same day your buyer pays. You'll automatically receive a 5-star shipping time detailed seller rating (DSR) as long as:

• You specified 1-day handling.
• You upload U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, or UPS supported tracking information by the end of the next business day Pacific Time after the buyer's payment clears.
• You upload U.S. Postal Service, UPS, or FedEx supported tracking information by the end of the next business day Pacific Time after the buyer's payment clears.
• Delivery Confirmation or tracking shows confirmed delivery 4 business days from when the payment clears—or within your estimated delivery time if it's less than 4 days (for example, overnight shipping).

It's easy to deliver the shipping options your buyers want—and lower your overall costs at the same time.

• Take advantage of online discounts:
  
  
  • USPS discounts for qualified eBay sellers. eBay Top-rated sellers and any seller with an average of 2,500 or more transactions per month now get Commercial Plus Pricing—savings of up to 32%—on domestic Priority Mail and Express Mail shipments. No enrollment is necessary—qualified sellers automatically receive the discount when you pay for postage and print your shipping labels with eBay Labels.
    
    
  • FedEx^® volume discounts for all eBay sellers. Get eBay's exclusive FedEx^® volume discount rates automatically when you print labels on eBay—up to 37% savings on select services. No need to sign up. Choose from a variety of FedEx^® services including: FedEx Priority Overnight^®, FedEx Standard Overnight^®, FedEx 2Day^®, FedEx Express Saver^®, FedEx Ground^®, FedEx Home Delivery^®.
    
    For international FedEx^® shipments, sign up for the FedEx Advantage^® Savings Program for eBay Sellers and you can save 25% to 37% on eligible FedEx Express^® shipments.
    
    
  • UPS discounts for eBay sellers. The UPS Special Pricing Program for eBay Sellers gives you discounts off the UPS Standard List Rates—up to 32% for Air shipments, up to 25% for International shipments, and up to 23% for UPS Ground shipments. PowerSellers can save even more.
  
  
• Use USPS Priority Mail Regional Rate boxes to cut the cost of short-distance shipping in half.
  • Ship packages of up to 20 lbs. within your own region using USPS Priority Mail^® Regional Rate boxes—available online only.
    
    
  • For example, if you ship a 10 lb package from San Jose to Sacramento:
    Priority Mail^® costs $9.80
    Priority Mail^® Medium Flat Rate Box costs $10.50
    Priority Mail^® Regional Rate Box A costs only $4.97
  
  
• Get free shipping supplies and zero-out your handling fees:
  • Order free shipping supplies online from the U.S. Postal Service delivered right to your door including Flat Rate boxes, Regional Rate boxes, and other shipping supplies.
    
    
  • Self-adhesive labels, air shipping packaging and more are available free of charge from UPS. Order supplies at ups.com
  
  
• Offer combined shipping discounts: The combined shipping discounts feature gives you a variety of ways to offer your buyers a discount on shipping when they purchase more than one item from you:
  • Charge for shipping the item with the highest shipping cost, and then add an additional lower cost for each additional item.
  • Subtract shipping costs for each additional item purchased.
  • Offer free shipping on additional items. Combine items into one shipment.

• Make sure to upload tracking information to My eBay for every item you ship. You can do it for virtually any carrier. Your buyers receive tracking information via an automated email, and they can access it from My eBay.
  
  
• When buyers are able to track the progress of their shipment, they tend to be more satisfied and leave higher DSRs. Plus, you spend less time answering one of the most common buyer questions: "Where's my stuff?"
  
  
• Tracking information and Delivery Confirmation also protects you in the event of an eBay dispute and is one of the qualifications for getting an automatic 5-star rating for ship time.
  
  If you pay for shipping and print shipping labels on eBay or PayPal, this information is uploaded automatically to my eBay. You can also upload it manually.
  
  
• If you use third party services or bulk tools to list your items, uploading tracking information to eBay is easy. Most major third party label printing tools can be integrated with eBay to automate the process.

Take full advantage of eBay's online global marketplace by specifying that you'll sell and ship to buyers in other countries. Later this year, items offered internationally that specify international shipping will get displayed in the main search results for eBay sites in Australia, Canada and the UK.

• USPS First Class Mail International service saves you big on international shipping. For example, ship a 3 oz package from the US to Canada for just $1.75 (vs. $11.35 for Priority Mail).
  
  
• You can specify different services for different countries—starting in June, specify up to 5 international services.
  
  
• Use eBay label printing and you can also print pre-filled customs forms.
  
  
• For your international shipments, your Final Value Fees work the same way as for 1-day (see #2 above). When you offer international shipping, you pay Final Value Fees on the first shipping option you specify, even when your buyer chooses international.
  
  For example:
  • You offer free standard shipping as your first domestic shipping option and First Class Mail International to Canada for $12.85 as your first international option in your item listing.
  • Your buyer chooses and pays for the international option for $12.85.
  • Even though your buyer chose the more expensive international option, your Final Value Fees are calculated on your first domestic shipping option. In this case, your fee will be calculated on free shipping—you do not pay a fee on the $12.85 international shipping option your buyer selected.
  
  
• If you sell internationally, you can get insight in your Seller Dashboard into the service you provide to buyers from other countries to help improve your service and boost your international sales.
  
  
• Remember, your US seller performance rating is based only on your transactions with US buyers.

You can pay for discounted postage, print shipping labels, and upload tracking right from My eBay—with just a few clicks.