In 2021, eBay introduced the eBay Guaranteed Delivery program. This offer allows eBay sellers to guarantee the delivery of orders within three days or less.
This feature allows eBay customers to filter their search results to include only listings with eBay Guaranteed Delivery, facilitating an improved customer buying experience. Since this is a relatively new feature, eBay sellers have several questions about eBay’s guaranteed delivery program.
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In this blog, we’ll discuss how eBay’s guaranteed delivery program works and how eBay sellers can use it to attract more eBay buyers to your store.
Article Overview:
Key Takeaways
How Does eBay Guaranteed Delivery Work?
Types of eBay Guaranteed Delivery
How to Offer Guaranteed Delivery on eBay?
Fulfilling Guaranteed Delivery Orders on eBay
What if Your Item Does Not Arrive Within the Guaranteed Delivery Dates?
Benefits of Guaranteed Delivery Program on eBay
What Items Are Qualified for eBay Guaranteed Delivery?
Final Thoughts on Guaranteed Delivery Options
FAQs on eBay Guaranteed Delivery
Key Takeaways
- The eBay guaranteed delivery program helps sellers generate more sales by promising a guaranteed date.
- Sellers must meet specific criteria to become part of this program.
- Serious repercussions face sellers who fail to meet guaranteed delivery dates, such as negative feedback.
- Sellers with guaranteed delivery transactions get more visibility on the eBay platform.
How Does eBay Guaranteed Delivery Work?
The eBay guaranteed delivery program is precisely what it says: it is a promise to eBay buyers that they will receive their purchased items at a guaranteed date. The delivery date is one to four days from the time of purchase.
The customer will be compensated if the delivery is not made within the specified delivery date.
The eBay guaranteed delivery program is only available to eBay US and eBay Australia.
eBay introduced the delivery guarantee to boost the customer service experience on the e-commerce platform. It also offers benefits to eBay sellers.
Sellers who can successfully offer guaranteed delivery to their customers can boost the visibility of their listings. The more guaranteed delivery you can fulfill, the higher the chances that your listings will appear in the top five search results.
Types of eBay Guaranteed Delivery
It’s crucial to fully understand eBay’s guaranteed delivery information before choosing this option for your eBay buyers. You have the option to choose either one of two types of guaranteed delivery: handling time and door-to-door.
Handling Time
When you choose to offer a guaranteed date on handling time, eBay sellers must prepare, pack, and ship orders within the same day. They must use eligible delivery services and use eBay tracking labels.
It is up to eBay to determine the guaranteed delivery date and process a full refund if anything goes wrong with the order.
This guaranteed delivery option is less risky for eBay sellers. However, it limits your delivery services and won’t allow you to add the ‘fast shipping’ tag to your eBay listings.
Door-to-Door
The next option requires more responsibility on the seller’s end. You must set the guaranteed delivery date for the listed items, which should be four day shipping (or less) once immediate payment is made.
When anything goes wrong that could result in late delivery, you must cover the refund or handle returns. Therefore, you must avoid late deliveries using eBay’s guaranteed delivery service.
It’s a great way to generate more sales because customers prefer fast shipping on purchased items. However, it works best for larger sellers who can handle orders fast and are closely tied with eligible carriers to ensure faster delivery times.
It also allows you to add the fast shipping tag on your listings.
When the seller meets deadlines, it can result in a positive rating and boost your rankings, providing more visibility to your listings.
How to Offer Guaranteed Delivery on eBay?
While the eBay guaranteed delivery program is available in the US and eBay Australia, not all sellers are eligible for this program. eBay has set four distinct criteria for guaranteed delivery, outlining the qualified sellers who can offer guaranteed delivery times for their orders.
The main criteria to offer guaranteed delivery to eBay buyers are:
- High-performance score
- Eligible delivery services in compliance with eBay’s guaranteed delivery program
- Must accept returns
- Requires immediate payment
In addition to the above requirements, qualified sellers must have at least 100 transactions annually. Your late shipment rate should be less than 5%.
If you meet the above requirements, you can opt into the program and pick between Handling Time or Door-to-Door options for eBay’s guaranteed delivery.
You must closely monitor your performance metrics once you qualify for eBay guaranteed delivery. eBay will also monitor your performance while part of this program. It is essential for eBay, and you can check this status on the guaranteed delivery dashboard. It is crucial to maintain your eligibility for the guaranteed delivery program.
Therefore, you must address any issues regarding return requests or handling problems in your eBay seller account. You don’t want these issues to affect your seller performance or lose your eligibility in the program. eBay checks the performance metrics every two weeks to ensure eligibility criteria are met for qualified sellers.
Sometimes, eBay sends invitations to qualified sellers who do not automatically opt in to the program.
Once you successfully opt in to the program, here are the following steps.
Step 1: eBay calculates the delivery dates.
EBay will calculate each eligible listing to determine the guaranteed date of delivery. eBay uses the listing data from the seller to determine this date.
Step 2: Buyers can filter listings based on which seller offers eBay guaranteed delivery.
Some eBay buyers prefer to get items with faster delivery times. A filter option is available to find items with the guaranteed delivery listing to show up on the eBay search results.
For example, buyers who need an item on a specific date can refine their search results based on this guaranteed date. You can find the Guaranteed Delivery option on the left side of the eBay page.
Buyers can filter the search results based on delivery dates of one to four days. All delivery dates are not guaranteed until buyers have immediately paid and completed the checkout process.
You can see the orders with a guaranteed delivery date on your eBay account and purchase history.
Fulfilling Guaranteed Delivery Orders on eBay
Once part of the eBay guaranteed delivery program, you must process and ship the items immediately to achieve your guaranteed delivery date.
If you choose the Handling Time option for the guaranteed delivery, you can choose the same-day or one-day handling for the applicable listings. You should also specify the eligible carriers for those listings. All guaranteed delivery dates follow the business day format, which means holidays and weekends might be excluded from the guaranteed dates.
You must add eBay labels when shipping the orders within the guaranteed handling time.
Meanwhile, for the door-to-door option, you must use the shipping rate tables provided by eBay to determine the guaranteed delivery date for each region. Therefore, buyers outside the said regions won’t be eligible for guaranteed delivery.
When setting up door-to-door guaranteed delivery on eBay, double-check to see if the area you want to ship to has a delivery speed of four days or less. You can calculate the shipping rates based on the region.
Then, choose the flat rate for each applicable shipping option and the appropriate rate table. You can also specify delivery services or carriers for this.
You can provide the sellers with the tracking details once the sale is finalized and you have the items ready to be shipped out.
What if Your Item Does Not Arrive Within the Guaranteed Delivery Dates?
Before a buyer places an order with a guaranteed delivery, it is crucial to check if the guaranteed delivery refers to handling time or the door-to-door option.
If the delay was due to the handling time, it is outside the seller’s control, and eBay covers the refund and returns. eBay will activate its late delivery protection for this purpose.
This protection provides buyers with a voucher for future purchases or a free return, whichever is applicable.
Meanwhile, the seller won’t receive negative or neutral feedback for the late delivery.
However, eBay sellers who choose the door-to-door option will be responsible for late deliveries. If the item arrives later than the guaranteed date, the buyer has the option to keep the item, but the seller will pay for the shipping costs.
But if the buyer opts to return the item, the seller must refund the shipping cost and pay for the return label.
Another option is to provide the buyer with a guaranteed delivery late voucher if the buyer opts for free shipping. However, this only applies if the buyer decides to keep the item.
If they wish to return the item, eBay will process the return and refund.
For both late deliveries on the door-to-door option, the seller can expect a negative impact on their seller performance due to the poor service.
Benefits of Guaranteed Delivery Program on eBay
There are notable drawbacks for sellers who become part of the guaranteed delivery program on eBay. However, the benefits outshine them, making it one of the most powerful tools that eBay sellers can use to generate more sales.
1. Faster Delivery to Customers
Customers love to get their items fast! Therefore, the guaranteed delivery option will make your listings more attractive to buyers and could potentially boost your sales.
The assurance of four day shipping means buyers are more likely to purchase from your listings than others listing the same item without the guaranteed dates.
2. Greater Visibility for Sellers
A significant advantage of the guaranteed delivery for sellers is the opportunity to appear higher on search results. eBay prioritizes the listings of eBay sellers with a guaranteed delivery over other similar listings for a relevant search.
Hence, you can leverage this opportunity to put your listings before more potential buyers.
3. Extra Protection from eBay
If you opt for the Handling Time category for the guaranteed delivery, you can get extra protection from eBay. They can remove negative or neutral feedback from your account if the seller meets their obligations.
eBay will handle the customer service related aspects of the issue, and even issue refunds to your customers (if required).
What Items Are Qualified for eBay Guaranteed Delivery?
Your listings must meet specific requirements before you can offer guaranteed delivery. The requirements are:
- Fixed-price listing
- Same-day or one-day handling time (provide a reasonable cut-off time for same-day handling)
- eBay eligible carriers or delivery services
- Postal code for the delivery location
Final Thoughts on Guaranteed Delivery Options
The eBay guaranteed delivery option is a fantastic tool for sellers to increase visibility and increase sales. Customers love getting their orders fast, so knowing you have this option can convince them to purchase an item from your store!
However, there are responsibilities you must shoulder when offering guaranteed delivery. One is to ensure you can process and ship orders within the guaranteed date.
Otherwise, it could have serious negative impacts on your store rating.
If you have any questions about the guaranteed delivery options for your eBay account, the eBay customer service team is available to respond to your concerns.
FAQs on eBay Guaranteed Delivery
What are the drawbacks of eBay’s guaranteed delivery?
The biggest drawback to the guaranteed delivery program is the possibility of late deliveries. Once you hand over the items to the carrier, you have no control over the item anymore.
For unexpected reasons, delays could happen, resulting in a negative buying experience and seriously hurting your reputation as a seller.
How do I opt out of the eBay guaranteed delivery?
Whether you’re scaling back your business or want to reassess your handling methods, opting out of the program is possible. Go to your account settings and choose Site Preferences.
Click the eBay Guaranteed Delivery setting and choose Show > Edit. Select the ‘I want to opt out of eBay Guaranteed Delivery’ option and click Continue.
Opting out of the program won’t hurt your eBay standing.
Should you offer guaranteed delivery on eBay?
It depends on where you are in your eBay selling journey and your capabilities. If you are a small business with limited manpower, it might be over-achieving to promise a guaranteed delivery date on all orders in your account.
It might be better suited for larger businesses with more manpower to facilitate a faster and more efficient handling and shipping process.
