Best Practices

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
• UPS
  • Next Day Air Saver
  • Next Day Air (offers Saturday delivery)
• FedEx
  • FedEx Priority Overnight ^® (offers Saturday delivery)
  • FedEx Standard Overnight ^®

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
• UPS
  • UPS 3 Day Select
  • UPS 2nd Day Air
• FedEx
  • FedEx Express Saver
  • FedEx 2Day

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, 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:
  • Pay for shipping and print shipping labels right on eBay or PayPal. You get discounted rates, and it's free to print labels pre-filled with your buyer's shipping address. In the Sold section of My eBay, click "Print shipping label" to get started printing your shipping label on eBay. If you prefer to print your label using PayPal, click the link at the top of the Print a Shipping Label page to take you to PayPal.
  • Sign up for USPS discounts for qualified eBay sellers. eBay Top-rated Sellers and Platinum and Titanium PowerSellers can get Commercial Plus Pricing —savings of up to 32.5%—on domestic Priority Mail and Express Mail shipments. Enrollment is easy—you can sign up the very next time you pay for postage and print your shipping labels with eBay Labels.
  • Sign up for 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.
  • Sign up for FedEx discounts for eBay sellers. Enroll in the FedEx Advantage^® Savings Program for eBay Sellers and you can save 8% to 20% on eligible FedEx Ground^® and FedEx Home Delivery^® and 25% to 37% on eligible FedEx Express^® shipments.
  
  
• 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.