Update to USPS Ground Advantage with the Bulk Edit Tool

[wastingtime101]

Starting Sunday, July 9th sellers have 30 days to update their listings, replacing USPS First Class Package and Retail Ground shipping services with the new Ground Advantage. Parcel Select service will be updated automatically. (eBay Announcement)

Unless a seller uses business policies, there is no direct way through eBay to sort listings by shipping services offered. If you have more than a few hundred listings, you may want to consider using business policies and can learn more about that here:

Setting up Business Policies / Update to USPS Ground Advantage

Having said that, there are ways you can sort listings, before pulling them into the bulk edit tool, to make the process more efficient.

SORTING AND FILTERING GROUPS OF LISTINGS:

1. Sellers offering calculated shipping are probably going to see the best results when filtering their active listings by category (store or eBay - whichever applies). Filtering by similar items is often the best way to pull listings into quick-revision groups.

From your seller hub active listings page https://www.ebay.com/sh/lst/active , expand the search section at the top and use the category filters.



2. Sellers offering flat shipping can sort active listings in seller hub by lowest shipping cost. That will generally bring their First Class listings to the top. Sort by clicking on the shipping column header. If you don't see a shipping column, click the customize link on the top right and add it.



3. The ever helpful @shipscript has been working on a tool that generates a spreadsheet of an individual seller's listings and their current shipping services. There are some technical challenges involved with the API and number of requests that can be processed daily, so the tool might not be shared publicly. If a seller is really struggling with these updates and needs more assistance than this discussion offers, they can ask ShipScript about that tool.

HOW TO EDIT USING THE BULK TOOL:

1. Go to your active listings page in seller hub. Use methods above to sort and filter your listings. Check off listings you want to edit in a single batch and pull into the bulk editor using the "Edit" navigation menu at the top of the page.



2. Once the bulk edit tool is open, check all the listings, then pull open the bulk edit menu and select "domestic shipping". A pop up will appear.



3. This part is key: Info you apply through the pop-up will overwrite whatever's currently in your listings. If you currently offer buyers a choice of First Class and Priority, entering Ground Advantage exclusively will replace both shipping options.

If you want to maintain the choice of those 2 shipping services, first select flat or calculated, then enter Ground Advantage as a shipping service. After that click the "additional domestic service" link (easy to miss - it's the light gray text above the Local Pickup field) and fill in Priority. Apply changes in the popup, then on the bulk edit window save the listing edits by clicking the button on the bottom right.

Repeat this process as needed until your listings are up to date.

Don't forget to update drafts and templates. Remember if you relist or sell similar from a listing created before Ground Advantage, you will have to manually update the shipping section to remove old shipping services.

eBay's bulk edit tool help page can be found here:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/bulk-listings?id=4160

FREQUENT QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS:

How many listings can you update at one time with the bulk edit tool?

2,000 although I recommend batches of 500 or less for quicker processing and lesser chance of human error.

What if you have too many listings and are overwhelmed by the amount you have to update and you don't want to use business policies?

The simplest advice I can offer in this situation is to not worry about what service is currently offered. Instead look at your listings fresh and apply bulk edits as if you were creating those listings and setting up shipping methods from scratch. Overwrite existing shipping. Filtering listings by category is a good way to move forward with that method.

What if you are not up to date with eBay listing mandates (category, item specifics, variation changes, etc) so you can't update shipping without fixing the other listing issues?

If you don't have that many listings, get those updates done. If you're in the tens of thousands of listings and can't reasonably manage everything within the next 30 days, start by prioritizing anything with calculated shipping. Listings offering calculated shipping are much more likely to start kicking out errors over time than listings with flat shipping costs. Make a plan to complete those necessary listing updates to avoid tech issues as time passes.

What happens if your listings with First Class Package and Retail Ground are not updated within 30 days?

If you offer flat shipping costs you'll probably be able to skate by for a while. If you offer calculated shipping, eventually the system will start to kick out errors. It can lead to issues with buyer checkout when they don't see a valid shipping cost/service. To avoid running into those issues and losing sales, do your best to get listings updated within the 30 days and before peak holiday selling season begins.

Will Ground Advantage be considered "Standard" or "Economy" under eBay's generic shipping time frames?

Ground Advantage with its average 2-5 business day transit time is under the "Standard" section, however if you currently offer a generic "Economy" with no service specified, "Standard" is considered an upgrade in service so you don't need to make changes in that area unless you want to. Check your rates to ensure the flat costs you're offering line up with the new rates.

What are the new rates?

Packages 15.999 oz and under will match the current First Class Package Rates. Packages 1 lb (16 oz) and over will see a mix of increases and decreases in rates compared to current Parcel Select rates.

For a full price chart, check the USPS DMM here*: http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm

Or use eBay's shipping calculator here*: https://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator

*Accurate Ground Advantage rates will be reflected on these links beginning tomorrow, Sunday,  July 9th.

[fern*wood]

Thank you ebay...I mean wastingtime101 for this awesome amount of help!!!   Clear and concise directions for what to do.   Maybe the ebay shipping crew can copy and paste this into the help pages.

Also thanks to shipscript and nobodys*perfect for all their shipping help.   Many of us would be lost without you guys.

[marcman2]

Hi, I don't get the domestic shipping pop up. I think I may have opted in to business policies a long time ago and forgot about it. Could that be the case? Should I opt out of business policies since this bulk editing seems fairly straight forward?

[wastingtime101]

Biz policies are much faster and easier to update @marcman2. Go to this page and edit any policy that currently offers First Class Package and/or Retail Ground:

https://www.bizpolicy.ebay.com/businesspolicy/manage

Any listing tied to the policy will be updated automatically.

If you never organized your policies, check the link near the top of my original post above for tips on getting that done.

[martin2001]

Your effort is appreciated but you should have waited until there is an actual option to change whatever service to GA. As of right now, it is not there. Some people who don't bulk edit often, will just get confused more.

[wastingtime101]

eBay created confusion by naming the service Parcel Select / Ground Advantage instead of straight up naming it Ground Advantage.

Despite that, any seller can update their listings today. There's an issue with the listing form where it's showing incorrect rates for PS/GA, but that issue is exclusive to the listing form. Once the listing is live correct rates are shown. You can also get correct rates from the eBay shipping calculator. https://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator

So any seller that wants to make updates today can select Parcel Select / Ground Advantage

I asked eBay on another discussion thread to confirm they'll eventually be dropping Parcel Select from the name and to let us know when First Class Package and Retail Ground will be removed from the shipping options. My assumption on the latter is after the 30 days, but the name change on the former I hope they'll get done this week. 🤷

[shado-x]

Don't know why the USPS just couldn't name it First Class Ground Advantage?  I hope American Airlines makes claim to their AAdvantage Frequent Flyer program over this USPS stuff later on, it really is confusing to their trademark.

[mtgraves7984]

@wastingtime101 

I'm skeert. 

[fern*wood]

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I'm skeert. 

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I needed that!!😁

[wastingtime101]

You have about 200 listings @mtgraves7984 . If you update 14 listings every other day you'll be done within 30 days. You won't have to update listings that don't have First Class or Retail Ground so that might cut down your numbers. Definitely manageable if bulk edit is too intimidating. But I have faith in you guys. You can make bulk edit work if you want.

[shipscript]

@mtgraves7984 

Yours look easy because you offer only a single shipping service for each item and because most of your items are First Class with flat rate shipping.

Sort your Seller Hub list by shipping cost, lowest to highest.

Select the first 135, and exclude the remainder that appear to cost 8.50 and up.

When sorted by shipping, this listing appears to be the beginning of the ParcelSelect group that you don't need to edit, so you don't select this one or anything beyond:

233568737451    DC Comics-Justice League T-Shirt-Men's S-Flash/Batman

Then, within your selected group of 135, deselect these item numbers:

Item number	Title	Format	ShipCost	ShipType	Ship Service
234643046727	TCP Athletics Dept-Varsity-Full Zip Jacket-M 7/8-Faux Fur Lined-3/4 Sleeves-Pink	FixedPrice	9.99	Flat	USPS Priority Mail
234097095994	CHASE MONTGOMERY-ARCA-DAYTONA-NASHVILLE SPEEDWAY-ALICE COOPER SPONSOR-Mint NOS	FixedPrice	6.99	Flat	USPS Parcel Select / Ground Advantage
333136970031	LOWE'S RACING -'06 / '07 / '08 CHAMPIONSHIP-JIMMIE JOHNSON-NOS -CIRCA '08	FixedPrice	4.99	Flat	USPS Parcel Select / Ground Advantage
334378098537	Hattitude-Fedora/Trilby-Paper/Straw-Natural/Black Band-Adult O/S-Adult Kept-NWOT	FixedPrice	5.99	Flat	USPS Parcel Select / Ground Advantage

The remaining listings are all First Class and can be sent to eBay's bulk editor.

[sapphire_studio]

For those of you that are concerned about your descriptions saying "First Class" you can bulk edit the descriptions and use the find and replace feature. So for example all my descriptions said I will ship by "USPS First Class or Priority Mail" so I replaced "First Class or Priority Mail" to "Ground Advantage".

Right after you update all your listing to replace a phrase a pop up will ask if you want to review the listings that did not get changed. If you click that quickly before it disappears you can see your other listings that maybe used a different phrasing (a few of mine were more specific and only said Priority for example). You can keep hitting that pop up each batch of changes until all your listings are changed.

I have a question. Is there a good reason to use Priority Mail (besides having it as a second option they pay more for) if Ground Advantage is insured for $100? 

[nobody*s_perfect]

Free boxes and allegedly faster shipping time.  And buyer perceptions, which are so subjective.

[wastingtime101]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

Free boxes

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Precisely. I have a few lines of product that rely on Priority boxes. I haven't switched those listings over to Ground because I'll have to either up my prices or tack on a handling fee for the added box cost. I'm still deciding what to do for those items.

[sapphire_studio]

So if you use calculated shipping, If you give them the option of either Priority Mail or Ground Advantage with an added handling charge for the Box, they will still save a lot of money total for choosing Ground Advantage (even with a box fee), and that could make the difference of making the sale or not. It seems like once buyers have full understanding of the new Ground Advantage system they won't like listings that restrict them to Priority only if they are the ones paying the calculated shipping.

Then of course in the other scenerio where you have free shipping then I don't think you would need to worry too much about the cost of a box based on how much the ground Advantage would save you.