Last week, I had the pleasure of attending our Ascot Roadshow, and it was a joy to connect with you, our sellers. These events strengthen the bonds within our eBay community, serving as an integral platform for exchanging ideas and gaining insights. Hearing sellers openly discuss their eBay journeys really drives home the impact of our role in your business—we only win when you win. This is why these events are essential for my team and me, as they provide the feedback necessary to continually enhance eBay as a place where your businesses can flourish.
As our transformation journey continues at pace, I thank you for your invaluable feedback, which has helped us maximise the benefits we aim to deliver. This month, I’m excited to share even more updates with you, as new features are rolled out on the platform, and we provide many more opportunities to connect with the seller community.
Thank you for being such a vital part of eBay.
Eve Williams, General Manager, eBay UK
Ship confidently & easily with Simple Delivery
Starting from 15 April, Simple Delivery will be the only delivery method available for private sellers when listing most items. It’s designed to reduce the effort that shipping takes and offers 20% off postage costs, on average*.
We recognise some of you haven’t yet experienced Simple Delivery first hand, so we wanted to share a bit more about what you can expect from the experience.
What is simple delivery
Simple Delivery is our all-in-one delivery solution, designed to cut out all of the effort and save you money. It’s also the fastest way to get paid on eBay. Plus, buyers will benefit from savings and enjoy the peace of mind that tracking offers. Here’s how it works:
- When listing, we’ll recommend the size and weight of your item. Just confirm and we’ll do the rest.
- Once your item sells, you won’t need to worry about buying a postage label. Instead, you’ll receive a QR code and prepaid printable label so you can choose what’s easiest.
- Drop off your item at the nearest carrier location, or schedule a home collection and you’re done!
Getting set up with Simple Delivery
- Choose the carrier which works for you: We know that some sellers have preferred carriers so we’ve made it easy for you to apply this in your Postage Preference settings. For your convenience, there’s also a link to do this during the listing process. Whilst you can select your preferred carriers, opting into all carriers will make your items available to the most buyers and unlock the cheapest rates. At the moment Royal Mail and Evri are available as part of Simple Delivery and we anticipate more carriers joining the program soon.
- Our size picker tool predicts the size and weight of your item: Rest assured that if your parcel exceeds the maximum size and weight of the label, you will not be charged additional costs, provided you listed using our recommended size and weight.
- Don’t forget to cover packaging costs in your listing price: Consider incorporating the cost of packaging supplies into your item price to cover any associated expenses.
- Shipping your item: Once your item sells, you’ll receive an email so you can simply choose to print your label at home or use your QR code at a drop-off location to generate your label for you - whatever suits you best. However if you can’t use a QR code your Evri labels can be generated at parcel shops using a 6-digit code. Royal Mail home collection is also available if you can’t get to a drop off location. After receiving shipping confirmation simply book a collection through Royal Mail’s website. At the moment you’ll need to print your label but we hope to provide a printerless collection option very soon.
- There is no need to edit your listing: From 7th of April, Simple Delivery will automatically apply to eligible existing listings, with the transition completed by the end of the month.
More about the items which will and won’t use Simple Delivery
- All the choice with better prices: With Simple Delivery you are able to access postage services at a competitive price. To get the best prices we recommend you don’t restrict carriers in your Postage Preferences.
- Items which can still use untracked service: There are a few categories of items where we’ll still permit untracked services if that’s your preference. This includes letter-sized items that meet both of the following criteria: they weigh up to 100 grams and are priced at a maximum of £10, excluding buyer fees.
- Items requiring custom delivery: There are specific items that are not eligible for Simple Delivery due to the special handling that they require. This includes bulky inventory with dimensions exceeding 61 x 46 x 46 cm or a weight greater than 20 kg. Additionally, items requiring an Authenticity Guarantee and those with a cost exceeding £750 (Buy It Now price, auction starting price or reserve price, all exclusive of shipping fees).
- Fragile items can be included within the Simple Delivery service: When you follow our packaging guidance, you benefit from the protection for damage in transit offered by Simple Delivery.
Discover more about Simple Delivery and how it offers a faster and easier experience:
Introducing automated positive feedback
The great service you provide to your customers deserves to be recognised. This is why we are excited to introduce automated positive feedback.
Starting late April, automated positive feedback will be added to your feedback profile 7 days after tracking confirms successful delivery, provided the following criteria are met:
- Tracking shows the item was delivered on time
- The buyer hasn’t left feedback yet
- The buyer hasn't reported an issue or opened a return on their order
There’s lots of benefits of automated feedback too, including the fact it contributes to your feedback score and improves your positive rating percentage. When you receive the feedback it’ll display the message on your page, “Order completed successfully - tracked and on time”, offering reassurance to prospective buyers that you offer great service.
Read more about these changes here.
Changes to feedback removal
We value accurate seller feedback and are committed to ensuring it reflects true service quality. To better align with global regulation, we’re making two changes to our policy around feedback removal.
From 23 April, we’ll no longer automatically remove feedback in the following two return scenarios:
- The item was returned used or damaged, and the seller deducted an amount from the refund.
- The seller offers free returns, handled the return, and issued a refund.
We want to assure you that you’ll still be able to request a feedback review, as it may qualify for removal under the numerous scenarios outlined in our Feedback policy.
Tariff updates for international selling from the UK to the United States
We’re closely monitoring how the new US import requirements and the 10% tariff affect buying and selling on our marketplace. We will update this page as we learn more about the impact for UK Sellers.
In the meantime, our Global Shipping Programme remains a great option to ensure consistent service to the US and over 100 other markets worldwide. It also makes international sales as straightforward as domestic ones. All you have to do is opt in to the service and then we’ll handle customs, tracking, and the calculation of duties and taxes.
You’re also fully protected as soon as your item is accepted at the UK Shipping Centre.
Connect with the eBay community: Join us at upcoming seller events!
As I mentioned above, we kicked-off our busy seller events calendar at the Ascot Roadshow. It was an amazing day, with over 200 sellers in attendance, who were able to connect with other sellers and the eBay team. Some highlights included our brilliant seller panel, one-to-one meetings with eBay’s expert Marketplace Advisors, and a standout session on all things regulatory - as kindly commented on this article: Why you should have attended the eBay Roadshow in Ascot!
If you missed it, fear not - we have plenty more events coming soon, with our next Roadshows at the iconic Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh (8 May) and Liverpool in Anfield Stadium (22 May). Our Local Seller Meetups, run by sellers for sellers, continue to spring up in more and more destinations, with our next event in Bristol on 24 April. Follow our eBay for Sellers UK Instagram to stay up-to-date with the latest goings on.
We look forward to bringing you more new features throughout 2025, to make our marketplace the best it can be for our vibrant community of buyers and sellers.
As always, thank you for shopping and selling on eBay.
*Buyer postage cost data from Oct 2024 to March 2025 comparing Simple Delivery and non Simple Delivery postage labels on eBay.
