Stamps.com Backs eBay Guaranteed Delivery Program

Earlier in the year eBay announced they would introduce Guaranteed Delivery to the platform for eligible sellers that are able to match the handling time requirements.

In November about 20 million items went live on this new eBay program, and early indications are it is helping lift sales for some sellers.

eBay offered two options for sellers to participate in the Guaranteed Delivery program.

1. Door-to-Door: If a seller elected to use the door-to-door guarantee option, the seller was fully responsible for selecting the right carrier to arrive by the promise date.
2. Handling Time: With this option, sellers would select the handling time (either same day or next business day) and they would need to prepare the shipment and use eBay shipping to print the label.

The biggest complaint by sellers about the Door-to-Door service was that if a shipment was late, and they used USPS 1st Class Package or Standard 2-3 Day Priority Mail services, the mail carrier did not provide refunds on late deliveries.

FedEx and UPS do provide delivery guarantees on all their shipments, but using those couriers is not a price competitive option for many sellers.

To fix this “problem” for sellers, Stamps.com decided to back select USPS shipping services with its own delivery guarantee and refund sellers if the product arrives late.

If you use the Door-to-Door option on eBay to participate in the eBay Guaranteed Delivery program and use Stamps.com to print your label, the company will now refund your postage fees if the item shows up late at your customer’s door.

Here is a full chart as provided by Stamps.com on how the program works:

Guaranteed Delivery Boosts Sales

Customer expectations are changing, and most eCommerce businesses can thank Amazon for that.

So, while eBay Guaranteed Delivery is still an optional feature on eBay, competitive pressure will force more sellers to participate in the program.

And since so many sellers use the postal service for deliveries, Stamps.com realized an opportunity to help sellers become more comfortable with eBay’s Guaranteed Program.

Of course they also hope that this will lead to more sellers using Stamps.com instead of UPS or FedEx.

And presumably, the company must have internal data showing that on-time delivery by USPS is far better than commonly assumed by the public.

The new guarantee is available for the most popular traceable USPS services which are Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail and First Class Package Service.

Note: Specialized shipping services like Media Mail and Bulk Mail are not included because USPS does not provide reliable delivery times for them.

Also, the postage refund guarantee only applies to orders sold through the eBay Guaranteed Delivery Door-to-Door Program. The company is not guaranteeing other shipments sold on eBay or the seller’s website.

ShippingEasy and Shipstation, both owned by Stamps.com, will offer this guarantee in the future. If you use those shipping managers today, shipments processed through those platforms are not included in the guarantee right now.

To learn more about Stamps.com Shipping Cost Guarantee for eBay Sellers click here.

What do you think about Stamps.com providing backing eBay’s Guaranteed Delivery program? Drop us a line in the comments section below.

Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.