eBay Labels Holiday Season Surcharges for 2022 – USPS, UPS, FedEx

eBay released information about upcoming temporary peak season shipping surcharges that will affect sellers using the eBay Labels platform to purchase shipping labels.

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The good news is that the company’s contracts with carriers minimize the impact of holiday season surcharges when sellers purchase labels through its eBay Labels platform.

Here is what eBay sellers should expect by carrier this year.

eBay Labels – USPS Peak Season Surcharges

USPS has announced temporary increases from October 2, 2022 to January 22, 2023 for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, First Class Packages and Parcel Select Ground.

But the good news is that sellers shipping with USPS Priority Mail will not have to pay a surcharge if their shipments fall into one of these categories:

• No peak season surcharge for zones 1-6, 0-2 lbs
• No peak season surcharge for zones 1-5, up to 3 lbs
• No peak season surcharge for zones 1-4 up to 10 lbs
• No peak season surcharge for Flat Rate Boxes and Envelopes

USPS First-Class Packages will be assessed the following peak season surcharges: 

• $0.25 increase for Zones 1-4 
• $0.40 increase for Zones 5-9

Unfortunately, all USPS Priority Mail Express, USPS Parcel Select Ground and USPS Priority Mail for weights and zones not mentioned above will have the temporary rate increase for peak season added as published by USPS.

In addition to limiting the peak season surcharges, eBay also announced the other day that some USPS Priority Mail base rates are decreasing on September 26, 2022.

eBay Labels – UPS Peak Season Surcharges

eBay sellers shipping with UPS will not have to worry about the UPS announced peak season surcharges for this holiday season when using the eBay Labels platform.

However, sellers will see a general UPS rate increase from 1% to 3% when shipping with eBay Labels, effective October 2, 2022.

 eBay Labels – FedEx Peak Season Surcharges

Sellers will not have to pay a per-package peak season surcharge for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground or additional surcharges for Residential Delivery when they use the eBay Label platform.

However, there are other FedEx peak season surcharges that will still apply.

• FedEx Ground Economy will have a peak surcharge of $2.00 per package from October 31, 2022 – January 15, 2023.
•  Additional peak season surcharges for Additional Handling, Oversize packages, and Ground Unauthorized shipments will also apply to all FedEx shipments. Please see this link for more information about when and how these surcharges apply.

The 2022 Holiday Season Is Just Around the Corner

Overall, it seems eBay has negotiated some good rates to help sellers through the holiday season and minimize the impact of peak season surcharges, now so common among carriers.

eBay sellers that offer free or fixed-price shipping should review all these temporary surcharges and may want to check for new rate sweet spots to help them save money.

What may have been cheaper to ship with one carrier all year, maybe now be cheaper with another carrier.