In the latest Seller Release, eBay note that delivery is an important factor when it comues to where buyers choose to shop. As delivery becomes increasingly competitive, eBay say that they are committed to rewarding sellers who ensure the best delivery experience for buyers. This focus on delivery has led eBay to make some changes to the criteria for eBay Premium Service.
Listings that have eBay Premium Service enjoy maximum visibility in Best Match search results as well as a 10% final value fee discount (See our post on eBay fee changes). You can choose to offer eBay Premium Service for some or all of your listings.
Cracking down on sellers gaming the system
Whilst eBay don’t say so, you can read between the lines and guess that the current criteria are being gamed by sellers and so not working for buyers.
Currently sellers have to offer a free domestic delivery service and a next day paid option. Some sellers are offering very long but free delivery options and extortionately priced next day options but are still qualifying for eBay Premium Service. Due to sellers playing fast and loose with the spirit of the offering, eBay Premium Service will have new requirements from the 1st of June, giving you plenty of time to update your listings.
Qualification criteria for eBay Premium Service
In short, the good news is that it will get easier for most sellers to meet the requirements. The free shipping option has to have an expected delivery within three days but eBay have added new services which will now qualify. The requirement to offer a next day option is changing to a 2 day option, but eBay are capping the delivery charge to a reasonable £10 or under. Finally, for items that sell for £20 or more, tracking becomes a requirement with a valid tracking number must be uploaded to eBay at the point of despatch.
| Current | From 1 June 2018 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seller Type | eBay Top-rated seller | eBay Top-rated seller | ||
| Returns | 30 days or better | 30 days or better | ||
| Shipping Option 1 | Free domestic delivery | Free domestic delivery within 3 working days | ||
| Shipping Option 2 | Paid for next day | Delivery within 2 working days for no more than £10 | ||
| Tracking | N/A | Listings have tracked delivery services and a valid tracking number is uploaded within the dispatch time for all items >£20 | ||
I’m looking at this thinking that free delivery within 3 days (taking into account your dispatch settings and chosen delivery service) is reasonably achievable. The £10 fee for a 2 day delivery is more than reasonable considering the free option means a 3 day delivery fee is built into the item price – for instance if you ship a 1kg 2nd Class small parcel via Royal Mail, from the 26th of March this will cost £3.95 and you’ll build that into your item price to offer free delivery. This effectively means you have up to £13.95 in order to offer next day delivery for £10.00 and that’s a very generous allowance.
Royal Mail services and updating your listings
If you use Royal Mail, you’ll be pleased to know that some of their services can now be used to qualify for eBay Premium Service.
If you have listed items with the following services, you’ll need to update them to new values if you wish to qualify for eBay Premium Service:
- Royal Mail 2nd Class (2 to 3 working days)
- Royal Mail 48 (2 to 3 working days)
- Royal Mail 1st Class (1 to 2 working days)
- Royal Mail 24 (1 to 2 working days)
Parcels sent via these services will qualify for the eBay Premium Service. Letter and Large Letter items sent via Royal Mail will not qualify for the eBay Premium Service as the 2D barcodes for letter and large letter items formats are not currently tracked.
eBay Premium Service qualifying Royal Mail services
| Service Type |
Current delivery service name |
New delivery service name |
Eligible for eBay Premium Service? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economy Service | Royal Mail 2nd Class (2 to 3 working days) |
Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter / Large Letter (2 to 3 working days) | No |
| Royal Mail 2nd Class Parcel (2 to 3 working days) |
Yes | ||
| Royal Mail 48 (2 to 3 working days) |
Royal Mail 48 Letter / Large Letter (2 to 3 working days) |
No | |
| Royal Mail 48 Parcel (2 to 3 working days) |
Yes | ||
| Standard services | Royal Mail 1st Class (1 to 2 working days) |
Royal Mail 1st Class Letter / Large Letter (1 to 2 working days) |
No |
| Royal Mail 1st Class Parcel (1 to 2 working days) |
Yes | ||
| Royal Mail 24 (1 to 2 working days) |
Royal Mail 24 Letter / Large Letter (1 to 2 working days) |
No | |
| Royal Mail 24 Parcel (1 to 2 working days) |
Yes | ||
27 Responses
This is really frustrating as I send large letter and parcels using Zenstores and they support Royal Mail Online Delivery Confirmation for Large Letter services and Parcels with 2D barcode labels.
I will lose my eBay premium service on all my large letters even though they are tracked!!
So if I read this right, there is now no way for low value items that are large letter to qualify for premium service. Happy I worked hard to get it now!
And does anyone have any info on if RM delivery confirmation counts as a tracked service?
Having spoken to ebay concierge the issue over Royal Mail large letters and premium service entitlement is already now under review after lots of sellers getting in touch.
The fact is that the information on ebays site is incorrect, it states:
“Why are you not accepting Royal Mail 2D barcodes for letter and large letter items?”
“These Royal Mail formats are not currently tracked.”
2D barcodes are working on large letters and this is statement on their site is incorrect, there should be no reason to disqualify large letters from premium service and i hope they with backtrack from the backlash they have already received.
It would be crazy to say that now only tracked parcels and Royal Mail parcels with a 2D barcode qualify for premium service.
Low cost items will never qualify without spending £2.20 ish on Royal Mail shipping if they stick with their current update.
If you have concierge access i suggest you put in a complaint to push ebay into backtracking on this.
I have no issues with setting my shipping to large letters etc and uploading the 2D barcode data going forwards providing i get the premium service status, as it stands the update says this is not the case, i hope they will backtrack asap.
This is annoying! I mainly sell L.L friendly items so I will end up loosing eBay premium service on almost all my listing 🙁
Are their any changes to “other 48h courier” and “other 24h courier”?
I only sell items which fit into a large letter box, and send all my items within one day by Royal Mail first class post.
This has never been a problem until these new changes appeared.
Now (unless I want to put off my customers by charging ridiculous shipping prices) I will lose my Premium Service status.
It would appear that whenever eBay impliment new changes, sellers are always left worse off.
im still confused by this ‘eBay delivery options on the listings just say “Royal Mail 24”. We don’t specify on the listing if it’s letter, large letter or parcel on the actual listing. Am I missing something.’
also what if you send a letter /large letter not tracked for low value items for your standard free post option then offer special delivery for the express options?would that still qualify?
any help appreciated please
Yepp 99% of my items are RM letter and large letter and seem to be excluded from getting the 10% discount.
We also had put delivery as courier 3 to 5 days as we got so many people contacting us on the morning of day 3 saying where was their item
You can take this 2 ways.
1.Either ebay is trying to push standards up OR
2.They want more sellers to fall outside the premium service and therefore raise their revenue by not giving the discount.
My opinion is to keep doing the same as always, offer 3 to 5 day delivery but maybe now scrap 1st class and special delivery. Hell, I might say 2-day dispatch as well.
If I’m getting nothing of for my service I might as well do as want when I want. This way I might get the weekends off.
Like others here 90% of the items I sell are Letter or Large Letter and low value so don’t require tracking and I am now going to be penalized for this!
Another headache from eBay. I send around 40% of our items as Large Letter format through Zenstores and we have benefited from delivery confirmation as we do for the parcels for some time so it makes no sense to me.
Also, I had to stop updating the Royal Mail delivery confirmation number with eBay as my late delivery metric went through the roof even though every item was being sent on time. As the Royal Mail collect the orders from my workshop it seems that the barcodes were not being scanned into their system on the same day they were being collected which resulted in late delivery metric. If a customer is not in on the day of delivery and the parcel was taken to the Royal Mail collection office this would also go against me. Has any other Zenstores users had similar issues?
This is crazy! ALL my mail is letter and large letter and I use a Franking machine as it saves 30% and I can offer good value. franking machines dont have 2D
Now 95% of my ebay sales wont qualify for Premium.
So, I am going to migrate more of my listings to other platforms
I aqm sick to death of ebays badly thought out concepts
I thought that might be the case Tim. I really hope that it is fixed before the 1st of June or I will be losing all of my premium benefits as it is its impossible to update the delivery confirmation with the Royal Mail and keep my on-time delivery metric low which is currently at 0.5% .
So frustrating. Why do they have to make it so hard.
Exactly the same issue as brice!thin we all need to ring up and complain try and get this overturned…
Am I missing something with this? Surely royal mail letters and large letters where the item value is less than £20 will still quailify for premium service as they have said tracking is not required for items less than £20. Only the 3 day delivery, paid for next day and 30 day returns need to be offered.
Its very badly worded, that table on about parcels being ok seems to be in respect of the tracked element but none of it is particularly clear at all.
totally agree with peter a better explanation would be appreciated?its worded terribly
It clearly says
Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter / Large Letter (2 to 3 working days)…….
Premium service “NO” so no discount.
ok so on ebay it says
”
What do I need to do?
To qualify for eBay Premium Service you will need to amend your listings to meet all of the following criteria:
Offer a free domestic delivery option within 3 working days.
Offer an express delivery option within 2 working days for no more than £10.
For items over £20, all the delivery services must be designated tracked services and valid tracking must be uploaded within the dispatch time (this includes auction-style listings and Best Offers where the final price is over £20).
IT SEEMS THE ABOVE ONLY APPLIES TO PARCELS.
as on the ebay site it says “PARCELS sent via these services will qualify for the eBay Premium Service. LETTER AND LARGE LETTER items sent via Royal Mail will not qualify for the eBay Premium Service. ”
SO IN A NUTSHELL LETTER AND LARGE LETTER ARE NOT PREMIUM SERVICE FROM THEN.
ignore last message . this pages information is lacking all the details.
I think the problem is this tamebay page is not complete.
original link is here https://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/business/news/spring2018/ebay-premium-service-criteria
The green box
“For items ABOVE £20, Letter and Large Letter items sent via Royal Mail will not qualify for the eBay Premium Service.
If your sold item is BELOW £20, as we do not require tracking details for items below £20, you will still be eligible for the Premium Service badge and you should amend your listing to reflect the fact that it is a Large Letter item.”
Seems you will get the discount if item is under £20
If the item is over £20 you need to get tracking which we do over £15 anyway.
theyve changed it thats why!lol
Hahaha! So the original release, as thought by many was written by an idiot. You would have though that something of such importance would have been made clear and checked by the teacher before being published and emailed to millions. We don’t even work for this lot and know pretty much straight away it’s all wrong.
we decided quite some time ago that striving to obtain ebay TRS
premium service , final value fees etc etc was just not cost effective
when you take into account the extra admistration ,shipping costs,
and general extra stress