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Exciting News for Auction Sellers Who Offer Combined Shipping
Since last year, we have eliminated over 50% of unpaid items on the platform, with excellent feedback from sellers. Building on this success, we are excited to announce the latest improvement that moves us closer towards our goal of eliminating unpaid items on eBay.
While eBay began requiring buyers in most auctions to keep a payment method on file before placing a bid, this requirement did not apply to auction listings for sellers that offered combined shipping. This is because automatically charging buyers immediately after each auction ended would have prevented you from offering shipping discounts to buyers of multiple items.
We’re pleased to announce we now have a solution for auction sellers that offer combined shipping.
Introducing a 7-day shopping window to help buyers combine more purchases of your items!
When bidding in Auctions, buyers may choose to Shop and ship separately to have their payment process automatically 1 hour after winning an auction, or choose Shop more, ship together, to get up to 7 days to shop other items from the seller that qualify for combined shipping. With either option, buyers can still choose to check out manually at any time.
We are now testing this experience with a subset of buyers, and will continue to increase the audience over the next several months.
Here’s a specific example of how combined shipping works
The buyer lands on an item page and bids on a trading card.
The buyer sees that this seller offers combined shipping discounts and chooses to bid on the item.
If the buyer wins, they can select Shop more, ship together to delay payment on their winning Auction for up to 7 days, allowing extra time to add more items from the seller that qualify for combined shipping.
After successfully winning their first card, the buyer bids on a second card and wins.
In the buyer’s Shopping Cart, the option to request combined shipping becomes available. Note: This feature is now accessible to buyers on mobile in addition to the web.
The seller logs in to Seller Hub to view their latest orders.
They see the won auction items.
The next morning, the seller prepares and sends an invoice.
The buyer receives a notification that the seller has sent them an invoice.
The buyer sees this invoice in their cart, where they review it, pay for it, and complete their order.
The seller can prepare the order for shipment.
Note: Again, this is currently in testing and not all buyers will get the new experience. Additionally, when placing a bid, buyers can opt into a 7-day combined shipping window, and the seller experience will adjust based on this choice.
Increase buyer predictability and give them more time to shop
As we collaborated with sellers to gather feedback, iterate, and create this combined shipping solution, we decided to implement a 7-day shopping window to give your buyers an opportunity to engage with your listings and continue shopping.
This standardizes the amount of time your buyers have to pay, simplifying your selling process and increasing predictability. The window presents an opportunity to encourage more purchases from your inventory by giving buyers more time to shop during the 7-day shopping window.
Pro tip: send your invoices as early as possible!
Once a buyer wins a second item within the 7-day window, they can send a combined shipping invoice request to the seller.
Be sure to send your invoice as early as possible after receiving a request from a buyer. While it’s beneficial to allow your buyer to shop more and take advantage of the 7-day shopping window, a significant delay in sending the invoice may result in the buyer being automatically charged when the time frame ends, potentially leading to a request for a partial refund.
Stay tuned, we’re enhancing this experience
We’re in the early stages of testing this solution, so you might start seeing buyer requests as combined shipping is gradually introduced. Don't worry if it's not visible to you yet!
Further improvements are coming to the experience, so stay tuned for future updates to be announced next year.
We hope these new combined shipping requirements will significantly reduce your unpaid items, while increasing buyer predictability and giving them more time to shop your inventory. We’re committed to lowering the rate of unpaid items on eBay, leading to a smoother and more rewarding selling experience for all.
FAQs:
How do I enable combined shipping?
To participate in this test, you’ll need to turn on combined shipping and also require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid.
To turn on combined shipping: log in to Shipping Preferences in your browser, select ‘Edit’ next to ‘Allow combined payments and shipping’, select ‘Allow buyers to send one combined payment for all items purchased’, and select ‘Save’. Please see our help page for more details.
If you had opted out of “requiring buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid” in your Buyer Management Settings, opt back in now so you can experience the benefits described above.
For sellers who have products with similar shipping requirements – such as trading cards or other items where shipping weight and cost are consistent – setting up Shipping Rules in your Account Settings allows buyers to check out smoothly without needing a manual invoice. These rules can be applied across various types of items, using either flat or calculated shipping, and sellers can link these rules to appropriate listings to enable automatic shipping discounts for buyers at checkout.
Are all buyers eligible to participate in the 7-day shopping window?
Many buyers are eligible to take advantage of the 7-day shopping window to combine purchases of your items. However, because this is a buyer-based test, not all eligible buyers will enter the combined shipping flow — some will remain in the 'control' group, experiencing our legacy checkout process. Additionally, a small percentage of buyers who are new to the site or have a history of unpaid items will be unable to participate.
When the buyer purchases a second item within the 7-day shopping window, does the 7-day window start over?
No, the 7-day window is calculated based on the purchase timing of the first item; it’s fixed and does not start over when a buyer purchases an additional item.
When will buyers be charged at the end of the 7-day window?
The buyer will always be charged at a fixed time of 7pm PDT at the end of the 7-day window. This may add a few extra hours to the 7-day window, depending on the time of day the first item was purchased.
What happens if the buyer fails to make the payment within the 7-day shopping window?
For your protection, if the buyer fails to pay within their 7-day shopping window, they will automatically be charged for each item independently to ensure you receive payment. There are two ways this can happen:
- If the invoice contains only auction items, we will automatically charge the total amount at the end of 7 days.
- If the invoice includes both auction and Fixed Price items, we will charge the auction items individually. The Fixed Price items will stay in the cart and not be charged until the buyer completes their purchase at checkout. In these cases, the buyer will incur separate charges for each auction item and will pay the individual shipping costs for each. Please note that any shipping discounts applied by the seller on the invoice will not be applied to these charges.
Why are we not able to automatically charge a mixed format invoice?
Since we’re not getting consent to automatically charge the buyer for Fixed Price items at this time, we will not be able to automatically charge a mixed format invoice.
Does the 7-day window apply to sellers who have structured shipping discounts on their listings?
Yes, the buyer will be automatically charged with the discount applied at the end of the window, and can manually check out anytime before that.
When will this solution launch for all auction sellers?
We are now testing this solution with a subset of buyers. Stay tuned for updates on the timeline for reaching all buyers in 2025.
