I'm working on a separate post with tips for using the bulk edit tool for non-business policy users. In the meantime, if you're not a current business policy user, you may want to consider this change if you have a lot of listings to update to the new Ground Advantage service.
Once your policies are set up it takes no more than a couple of clicks to update a policy. Any seller with more than a few hundred listings should (in my opinion) seriously consider using business policies if they're not already. If you opt in and hate them, you can opt out with a single click.
Business policies help me keep my sanity. Opt-in, manage and edit them (or disable them to go back to how you used to set up your listings) on this page.
When you first opt in, you will see an overwhelming mess, but after you take some time to get things set up you'll find how quickly you can mass update shipping without having to go into individual listings or the bulk editor. Well worth it, in my opinion, and you can always opt out if you don't like biz policies. Here's my advice for getting things set up after opting in:
1. First get your payments and returns policies set up. That should be pretty quick and easy.
2. Ignore all of the auto-generated shipping policies to start. The most efficient way to handle is to start from scratch.
a. Create your first shipping policy. Use a name that makes the policy easy to identify exactly what's offered. I typically use a format that includes calc vs flat vs free, shipping service, whether or not direct international is offered, and handling time at the end. Ex: Calc: USPS Priority / USPS Ground / UPS Ground - no INTL - (3 days)
b. Continue that process, creating policies for your most used shipping offerings.
3. Now that your shipping policies are created, start assigning them to your listings. The fastest way is to go through the bulk editor, but you can also do this from the biz policy mgmt page. Go to your active listings page and select in bulk a number of listings you want to assign to a single shipping policy. Pull them into the bulk editor.
a. On the bulk edit page, select all listings then on edit drop down choose shipping policy and assign the new policy. Save changes.
b. Repeat this process with your remaining listings.
4. Go back to the biz policy management page. Off to the right you will see how many listings are assigned to each policy. Any auto-generated policy that now has 0 listings assigned can be deleted. Any auto-generated policy that shows a number of listings assigned should be addressed.
a. Click on the number off to the right. That will show you all active listings tied to that auto-generated policy. You can pull those listings into the bulk editor and assign one of your new clearly named policies. Then go back to the policy mgmt page and delete the now unused auto-generated policy.
b. Repeat this process with your remaining shipping policies.
c. If you use listing templates, you will have to make updates to the shipping policies on your templates.
5. At this point you should have a very clean policy set up.
Now that your policies are set up, you can very quickly make changes to shipping services and switch any policy offering First Class or Retail Ground to offering the new Ground Advantage.
All policies with First Class and Retail Ground need to be updated starting July 9th, with a window of 30 days to make the changes. Parcel Select is being automatically updated to Ground Advantage.
GLORIOUS!Confused about the switch to eBay discounted shipping? Read
this discussion to make an informed decision about opt in / opt out.
