Is Simple Delivery in every country

[johnwash1]

Is it just the UK that's being hit with Simpleton Delivery, or is it coming in worldwide?  Do the Yanks think that we have a 'special relationship' and will just roll over and take it?

In all my years on ebay I've seen some pretty daft changes and resulting outrage, but never anything like the way these forums have gone ballistic recently.

I think I saw somewhere that SD isn't being brought in in Ireland, nor in America.  Is that true?

[wintersdawn1]

So far, just us lucky ones:

Eligibility

Simple Delivery is available for eligible listings by private UK sellers listing on eBay.co.uk (including the eBay app).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575

[edwardian-dreams]

It’s just uk 

at the moment 

but I just googled for it and found this

Ebay Survey Hints At Simple Delivery Managed Shipping Possibly Coming To US

The proposed service would offer eBay pick up of my packages at my home; I'd have the option of even letting eBay do the wrapping for me. eBay would handle shipping (presumably drop off at the post office).

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-survey-simple-delivery-managed-shipping-us/

they might offer come round your house and wrap your items for you

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Anonymous]

It is time to boycott everything USA.

[kh-shakhib]

Hi everyone,

This discussion has gotten a bit off-topic. Please bring the discussion back to the subject established in the original post.

Thank you.

[johnwash1]

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@edwardian-dreams wrote:

It’s just uk 

at the moment 

but I just googled for it and found this

Ebay Survey Hints At Simple Delivery Managed Shipping Possibly Coming To US

The proposed service would offer eBay pick up of my packages at my home; I'd have the option of even letting eBay do the wrapping for me. eBay would handle shipping (presumably drop off at the post office).

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-survey-simple-delivery-managed-shipping-us/

they might offer come round your house and wrap your items for you

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

---

Thanks.  Yet another great article from @valueaddedresource , many thanks Liz.

That was written back in January, I wonder if they're now rethinking, seeing the fallout here.  Or maybe the forums here only represent a tiny fraction of users, and while many of us here pull the rip cord, 90% of private sellers will trot into the sheering shed oblivious.  Only ebay will see the true stats.

A slight digression: I was amazed by one little gem in that article.  In the US there is no private seller vs business seller.  Wow!  How different these forums would be if they stopped creating that resentment.

[valueaddedresource]

Thanks for the kind words @johnwash1 ! 

As for Simple Delivery expansion, my bet would be if anything eBay would launch it in Germany next as that is the only other market where they have gone fee-free for private sellers at this point. They have not brought in buyer protection fees there yet either, so both managed shipping and buyer fees could potentially be on the table there if eBay believes these changes in the UK are a "success" (however they define that for their corporate goals).

That being said, it would not surprise me if they eventually bring something similar to Simple Delivery to the US, at least on a voluntary basis, like they have done with the eBay International Shipping program.

I suspect the difference in how they break sellers out into different groups in different markets has a lot to do with regulations and tax laws, which is why they don't really make those distinctions in the US.

For example, in the US, there are just dollar amount/number of sales thresholds which determine things like when eBay must report tax information to the government and when they must provide seller contact information to buyers (which can be done in the order details instead of being displayed on the listing), and there aren't really major differences between different kinds of sellers as far as consumer rights regulations (most of our laws put the liability for defective/harmful products and recalls on the manufacturer of an item rather than the seller or marketplace).

So all of that adds up to eBay basically being able to handle most of that on the backend just depending on an account's annual sales figures rather than needing to have separate account types to accommodate different tax and regulatory requirements for different kinds of sellers.

There may be more to the story about why they split out business vs private in the UK that I'm not aware of, but that's what things look like from this side of the pond any way. 🙂

[derpybay]

As I understand it, postage is a lot easier (though not cheaper!) in the US through their post office at least. They have standard size boxes, which they'll give you for free, and then it's basically just whatever will fit into the boxes. I remember someone a while back questioning the weight limits because it turned out you'd need to ship the heaviest thing in the universe to go over 😂

Tracking seems to be standard too.

I can see how that would make at least a little more sense with the simple shipping, but even then I'm sure there are people who would prefer to go to the post office or prepay their labels or other concerns. No, I think once again we're lab rats. Hopefully it fails. Have you seen what they want to charge for a letter? £2.74! Same as a large letter, which is also taking the... taking something for sure.

[johnwash1]

@valueaddedresource 

Thanks for that explanation.  In the US is it not possible for an ebay seller to get the parcel collected from their home, the way it is in the UK with Royal Mail?

BTW, commiserations about your "liberation day".  I guess a lot more people in the US will soon be ebaying to try to keep the wolf from the door as prices soar.  [off topic, does not need replies, let's keep the thread on track, folks]

[valueaddedresource]

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@johnwash1 wrote:

@valueaddedresource 

Thanks for that explanation.  In the US is it not possible for an ebay seller to get the parcel collected from their home, the way it is in the UK with Royal Mail?

---

@johnwash1  the US Postal Service is in most areas/at most homes 6 days a week for delivery any way (though this may change under the new administration), so for most smaller consumer sellers it's easy enough to simply hand off outgoing items to the carrier if they are home at the time or if the package is small enough, just put it in the mail box with the flag up to signal to the postal person there is outgoing mail in the box.

For those who only need an occasional pick up, they can request it through the USPS website like you can with Royal Mail and for businesses of all sizes who need regular pick up, they can put in a request with their local PO to put in a standing order for a daily pick up.

Other carriers like UPS and FedEx also have similar options to request one off pick ups if you only need it once in a while or if you have a business account with them, you can get daily pick up service as well - but those options may come with extra costs or needing to have a business account or contracts based on shipping volume.

The biggest difference in the service suggested in that survey would be not just collection, but possibly having them do the packaging for you as well.

I suspect for something like that, eBay would partner with UPS, FedEx or any number of other providers who are already set up to facilitate "box-less, label-less returns" - it would be simple enough to retool those existing programs into an offering which would package the item, print the label, and ship it to the buyer.

[Anonymous]

So why oh why do they have that here?  So they can make more money.

The Americanos probably wouldn’t stand for it.

[valueaddedresource]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So why oh why do they have that here?  So they can make more money.

The Americanos probably wouldn’t stand for it.

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@Anonymous  you're not wrong. 😂 

If you take the whole ball of wax together (transitioning from seller fees to buyer fees, delayed payouts for private sellers so eBay earns more interested, and mandatory managed shipping), the US market would absolutely not stand for it.

In fact, Mercari and Poshmark both tried something similar here with the fees and it was an absolute disaster for them.

Poshmark reverted back within 2 weeks after massive user backlash.

Mercari stubbornly tried to keep it going for ~7 months before finally admitting defeat, firing their US CEO (along with laying off ~45% of US staff), splitting the baby with a hybrid system that has fees on both sides now and isn't making either side happy, and now their facing pressure from their stockholders in Japan to close or sell off the US marketplace and only focus on Japan where they are actually successful.

Those very public train wrecks made investors nervous about eBay saying they were going to forge ahead with their plans, to the point where CEO Jamie Iannone had to reassure them that eBay recognizes the US market is different from UK (code for wouldn't stand for it) and they have no plans to introduce fee-free selling here.

From Q3 2024 earnings call:

"To your questions on the US, we have no plans to launch free selling in the US. The US is a different market from the UK. UK buyers and sellers are more open to buyer fees, it's more standard in the market."

"There may be certain aspects of the product experience to streamline selling that we bring to other markets and as you know we look at each market and categories and think about the specifics of what's the optimal set of initiatives to unlock more supply and demand for that specific market."

I noted at the time that while it was a very direct and definitive answer about fees, that last part about product experiences definitely leaves the door open for them to introduce something like Simple Delivery to the US market, though I still believe it would likely be on a voluntary basis if they do - a mandate would be a step too far and I don't believe they will risk that in the US.

[Anonymous]

Wow.  

Time to buy a bag of popcorn and watch the carnage!

[theelench]

As I think I replied to one of your previous posts where you quoted CEO Jamie Iannone as saying "UK buyers and sellers are more open to buyer fees, it's more standard in the market".  

There's no such thing as "more standard".  Something is either the standard, or it isn't.

Time to turn this experiment with UK buyers and sellers being used as lab rats to see how much ebay can get away with into another train wreck.

Time for UK sellers and buyers to light up their SM to family, friends, other buyers and sellers who don't come here and keep those listing, selling and buying numbers dropping.

My listings have gone, haven't bought a thing for months and my Saved Search that I've used to get a feel for what's going on isn't looking too good.

The lost listings that happened when the BPF was added have been made good (possibly because there is a growing back-log of unsold items?).  But sales are down to 2-3 a day, some days zero.  I also notice that auction prices are down.

Watched an auction for a Uranium glass bowl and figurine and was amazed that it sold for just over £100.  Normally either the bowl or the figurine would get close to that, both together would have sold for somewhere between £150 - £200.  

[lucy_farmer]

'Time for UK sellers and buyers to light up their SM to family, friends, other buyers and sellers who don't come here and keep those listing, selling and buying numbers dropping.'

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I think there is more of a pother going on about this, on Social Media, than I've ever seen before. This *might* explain why the viewing and selling numbers are so down (along with the general 'it's April, all the bills are going up' etc)

My husband's Social Media of choice is a rather staid, elderly and slightly scholarly coin collecting forum (they generally find it hard to get worked up about anything, unless it's a 1954 penny....)  : even they're a bit gobsmacked at what is happening  over here!

[lilwat_91]

omg we have ebay police like 1984 watching what you type *bleep*

[fotherbale]

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@johnwash1 wrote:

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A slight digression: I was amazed by one little gem in that article.  In the US there is no private seller vs business seller.  Wow!  How different these forums would be if they stopped creating that resentment.

---

Sorry for continuing the digression, but the important point to note is that in the UK it is legal requirement for trade/business sellers to make that status readily apparent to potential buyers.

It is not an ebay only thing, it applies to all forms of advertising items for sale, whether online or within printed newspapers or magazines 

It is the Law.  

The resentment on these boards is principally from business sellers when they see others who are clearly trading as a business but who illegally masquerade as private sellers, and ebay seem unwilling to take any action against them - I think the resentment there is fully justified!

As to SD being extended to the USA - they haven't even got anywhere near making it work smoothly (or even correctly) here yet; talk about them trying to run before they have even learned to crawl!

[johnwash1]

@fotherbale 

Yes, it's the law.

"The resentment on these boards is principally from business sellers when they see others who are clearly trading as a business but who illegally masquerade as private sellers, and ebay seem unwilling to take any action against them - I think the resentment there is fully justified!"

No, you've failed to look at the root cause.  If business and personal sellers were clearly marked,  but the charges were identical, those sellers would have no incentive to masquerade.  The resentment should be focussed on ebay.  Don't imagine anything else or you're being hoodwinked by ebay into being a shill for them.

[fotherbale]

No, I haven't - you are missing the point that it is business sellers illegally masquerading as privateers who are the root cause of the resentment.

The fee issue is a red herring - there has not always been a big fee difference between private and business sellers, and when business sellers were charged higher fees, they had access to options for selling that were not available to private sellers. 

The principal reason for untrustworthy businesses masquerading as private sellers had (and still has) very little to do with ebay fees (or indeed anything much to do with ebay at all) - it is principally because by masquerading as a private seller they can sidestep all their legal obligations regarding consumer protection regulations, statutory warranties, rights for no-fault returns etc.   I would guess that most of those types of seller will also be illegally avoiding paying any tax (either VAT or income tax) on their sales/profits.   With cost savings of that kind of magnitude, the difference in ebay fees is pretty small beer.

If you think insulting people who you don't agree with by accusing them of being an ebay 'shill' means you win the argument, you had better think again. 

[johnwash1]

@fotherbale 

We'll have to agree to disagree.  I'm not missing the point that "business sellers illegally masquerading as privateers" is a problem.  We disagree on why they do it.  And neither of us have a mind probe to survey why they do it.  Your guess is that they do it primarily to avoid obligations.  Ebay could easily apply those same obligations, ebay chooses not to.  Some personal sellers take on additional responsibilities voluntarily, for example I accept change of mind returns, even though I don't need to.

I wasn't trying to accuse you, I was saying that you're inadvertently acting as an ebay 'shill', but perhaps I used an inappropriate word.  You said yourself "ebay seem unwilling to take any action against them" and we agree about that.  What we disagree on is why this situation arises, why it suits ebay to have peons like us squabbling amongst themselves, diverting attention from where the root blame lies.  This is not a novel topic, and I've seen plenty of others who share my view, just as there are plenty of business sellers who are happy to voice similar views to yours.