As @goodibags already said Eve already has "...the best available metrics..." and will also be getting regular FB from the Community Team about seller's reactions on here. So she knows exactly how SD is effecting Sellers and the effect on ebay.uk's bottom line, both now and compared to ebay's projections on how these changes should be improving ebay's cash flow by whatever week number this is after their introduction.
Hence a few tweaks and concessions to get the actual numbers back on track to meet those projections.
For years ebay has wanted all sales delivered by Tracked services, both because it increases ebay's 'take' from every item sold and as it simplifies ebays response to INR claims, saving them time/money. They've tried persuasion, they've tried punitive metrics. They've also wanted to dragoon all sellers into same day / next day dispatch and tried to get that by lying to buyers about when their purchase will arrive using the Late Delivery Metric.
In all probability they also have an eye on the cost of compliance re. HMRC Sales Reporting costs, for which they introduced a new fee (can't remember what they called it) and are looking to at least break even but might be seeking to make a profit on that as well.
With this chaos producing ample smoke to cover their tracks they are moving towards all three in one fell swoop, because by still using ebay, sellers have now agreed to use SD, agreed to the limited time period of dispatch and with many not continuing to use ebay, cutting the number of HMRC reports they must compile and send. Ebay has, at last, succeeded in some long sought-after objectives, increased its Take from each transaction and reduced its costs of compliance.
But for those who are prepared to be mollified or even those few who think SD is a good idea or try to persuade private sellers to embrace the change, even though some of them are not affected by it, should remember this.
It's only the beginning. Anyone using SD has lost their right to set their own Dispatch Window and decide how they send their sales to their buyers. Ebay will incrementally increase the cost and tighten their control.
I predict they will extend SD to businesses, especially if they are not giant sites but depend on ebay for a large proportion of their sales. Will they be any more concerned to lose a few business sellers who have their own arrangements with delivery companies than they are with private sellers who need to make their own arrangements due to their needs? I doubt it.
Ebay is playing its usual game of divide and rule. Start with .uk and only private sellers. Move on to other ebay regions and business sellers. There is really only one end to this road and it doesn't include any sellers that aren't willing to allow ebay to control almost every aspect of their selling.
