The end of lettermail on eBay ?

[chicweb]

Things are at a standstill with the negociations between the CUPW and Canada Post. Even worse, the Minister doesn't seem to want to force them back.

When I first started months ago, I was only using shipping with tracking, since it was the way to do things correctly, here.

By seeing sales not going up that much, I decided to switch to lettermail to be more competitive. I then saw a drastic change in sales.

With the current situation, it's worse than ever. Even having switched back to tracked shipping, no sales.

All the sales goes to sellers still offering lettermail, even if they are in vacation or cannot provide timely shipping (Items sent through Canada Post won't be delivered before xmas, that's for sure, even if they would come back today). And the could be striking for months. I still cannot understand why some sellers still offer it...

Is it the end of lettermail shipping on eBay ? What do you think? Is it it time that eBay does something about it ? If so, eBay should provide us with the same promotion tools as the US (Buy X get 1 free, promo codes,  etc), so we can work with this new price structure.

[mrdutch1001]

"Lettermail" is still offered by other couriers and therefore is still accessable to those sellers who choose to use other courier companies. For these other courier companies it is business as usual so any packages sent through these other courier companies will get to their destinations in a timely manner...or at least as long as these other courier companies have the manpower and vehicles to provide their services...

This is eBay.CA not eBay.COM so we work with whatever we are provided with on this site. It is up to the seller to provide whatever shipping method suits their needs. You need to work out your own strategies and spend less time worrying about what you cannot control...

[chicweb]

What other carriers offers lettermail at the same price?

Cause, I don't see any prices change on my competitors... Still offering free shipping on a 4$ item.

So I'm very curious to know.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

The choice you have to make is whether it makes more sense to offer uninterrupted service at a higher shipping price, or whether it makes more sense to offer lettermail shipping prices that are attached to ridiculous 40-50 day shipping windows (20 day handling+18 business day generic economy shipping).

If you do the latter, you may have to devote additional time to customer service when people inevitably contact you to find out when their item will arrive, or to cancel. 

I understand that there are a lot of sellers whose listings still show standard lettermail shipping times that they have no way of meeting and they message people after they buy them to let them know that their item will ship when the strike is over. Or, they simply take the sale and don't do any of that. I personally wouldn't do this, but it's their risk to take I suppose. I understand how if you're doing things by the book with extended handling times, or more expensive Chit Chats/Stallion/UPS/Fedex shipping, it might rub you the wrong way to lose sales to people operating in a way that might be viewed as bad faith. 

Canada Post is going to be back after the strike. Lettermail will be available. With that said, I think that anybody who has built a business around lettermail should strongly consider looking into other platforms or business models that allow them to deliver value without needing to be able to ship a bubble mailer for $2-$4. I don't think Lettermail will go away anytime soon, but it is pretty clear that it is underpriced as it is now. We already have a massive raise in prices coming in the new year. It wouldn't surprise me if it eventually got to the point where Lettermail becomes expensive enough that the average eBay Lettermail seller isn't viable. 

[mrdutch1001]

It is best NOT to concern yourself with what others are doing and concentrate on what you are doing for your business and how you can make adjustments to your own business that will be economical and/or efficient and work for you...and remember the old saying about curiosity and the cat LOL!

[chicweb]

What is problematic, is that eBay said they will protect sellers during the strike. Which is good, don't get me wrong. Many of us have items stuck in the mail, right now. That's beyond our control.

But, will they also protect those who continued to use lettermail without tracking after the strike started?

You see what I mean? Will they remove bad feedbacks? What about late shipping claims?

This would be highly unfair... At a point where I would reconsider offering lettermail, because of no consequences at all if I offer bad service.

[chicweb]

We are very limited with tools on ebay.ca.

As an example:

I wanted to offer free shipping on orders of more than 100$... Well, I can't. 

I must use Calculated shipping because of how wide the range is in Canada for UPS and FedEx (Rural, Up north, etc). Just sending a package to Yukon would cost me 200$ right now.

I can't even chose to offer this free shipping on certain condition (specific carriers, province, etc). I would have to do it manually on each order on a case by case with refunds or cancel orders (which I don't want to do).

There's a lot of solution and possibilities... just not on ebay.ca

[reallynicestamps]

I was sympathetic until you mentioned selling $4 items.

Your costs should include at least the minimum wage for your time, and preferably a living wage, which is generally considered to be double the minimum wage.

Here in BC the minimum wage is $17.40.

That's 29c a minute.

Your $4 gross on a sale is eaten up in less than 12 minutes. And every minute you spend describing, uploading, photgraphing, packaging and shipping after that is a loss.

[mrdutch1001]

"would cost me" ...no it would cost the buyer

BTW "Free Shipping" is a gimmick and no seller has to think otherwise...

eBay is no different than Etsy or other online selling venues utilized by Canadian sellers...all are facing the need to adjust to the CP mail shutdown...

Accept,adapt,adjust, and carry on with what is available to you or take a holiday away from eBay as it seems that you are stressing out over things of which you have no control or unwilling to and/or choose not to accept, adapt or adjust to...

[chicweb]

Don't worry about my calculation 🙂

This is why handling fees are important.

[chicweb]

If you offer free shipping, the customer does not pay shipping (unless hidden in the selling price). 

It's up to the seller to absorb the cost of the shipping either my upping the selling price or taking it from profit. 

And you understand that I don't want to offer free shipping over 100$ if the shipping would cost 200$. I'm not selling at a lost, here. And I won't offer free shipping over 500$ just to make sure. Nobody would use that promo.

So, how do I do if I want to offer free shipping only to the one using UPS carrier? Well, there's no way. So I can't offer that option at all. Not risking it.

[mrdutch1001]

well apparently you have not adapted a shipping model that will work for you and there are times when one must admit that there is an impass and another route must be taken...

[chicweb]

"Editing my reply"

You are talking about the Free shipping on 100$ and more.

Sorry, kind of hard sometime to follow on this forum.

Yes true. This won't work unless eBay provide more tools. 😉

[recped]

@chicweb 

I don't understand you thoughts on lettermail....AT ALL!

Once the strike is over everything returns to normal, nothing will have changed. If your items qualify (weight / dimensions) why would anything be different that it was up until 10 days ago?

If you triple or quadruple your shipping charge it will obviously affect sales. You were charging $4.00 to ship a CD, now you are charging over $14, that is a 72% increase, what did you expect to happen?

[chicweb]

And what is the solution then?????

Stop selling? No. I won't stop selling. So yes, I'm using UPS with calculated shipping. This is the only thing I can do. I won't mislead my customers making them think they will get it before xmas by using lettermail. That's bad business, and I care about my customers. 

Even after lettermail comes back, it will take months before the backlog is processed. Everyone will go back bringing their packages at the same time.

Will eBay promote bad business behaviors by removing INR and bad feedbacks for months? Customers will lose trust in the platform and we will all be impacted.

[mrdutch1001]

Why is it you think Customers don't understand the status of mail delivery right now? Why is it you think customers are going to lose trust in eBay, Etsy or any other platform because of the CP shut down? There are still customers in this world that do understand the situation. Not all customers live under a rock!

[recped]

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@chicweb wrote:

Even after lettermail comes back, it will take months before the backlog is processed. Everyone will go back bringing their packages at the same time.

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The backlog won't take more than a few days to be mostly cleared up. The only "backlog" would be for stuff  stuck in the system when the strike began plus incoming International Mail. There may be a short period initially due to volume but it won't have too much effect.

In previous strikes where there was a full shutdown, timely deliveries resumed without issue in just a short period of time, during that time deliveries were delayed by a couple of days.

[chicweb]

That's whishful thinking.

I don't operate on "best case scenario" and no packages will be delivered before xmas. That was said many times, even in the news. They will not be able to ship in time. I still see estimates of december 5 using lettermail. Ridiculous.

As soon as lettermail is back, of course I will use it if ebay still allows it. I have personnally nothing against it. I have against misleading customers, tho.

eBay should at LEAST fix their estimates correctly, promote more about combined shipping... Shows who is in vacation in the searches, and basic changes like that. 

That would help a lot businesses still operating and offering alternative shipping methods.

You said 14$ shipping. Sure. On a single item. With combined shipping, it's as cheap as lettermail.

[mrdutch1001]

It is not up to eBay to make seller's decisions for them about their shipping methods...We do NOT need anymore eBay interference and/or dictating how a seller conducts every detail about their business!

Many of the estimated delivery dates are based on the seller's own choices of shipping method,handling time etc. Granted there are some sellers who may not have adjusted their shipping details but that is Their business not yours,not mine, NOT eBay's....

If you want things to work better for you, then you find the means to do so and without expecting eBay to coddle you and hold your hand every step of the way!

Perhaps it is time to take a step back, take a deep breath, enjoy some quiet time away and come back when you can put things into perspective.

At this point I am done with this topic as there no longer is any point to continue with any attermpt to discuss in a logical fashion.

[chicweb]

What are you talking about?

We depend on their platform. That's features that need to be implemented. You understand that I cannot code them myself? I would, since I'm a developper. But I can't.

You don't seem to understand some things, here.

1. eBay provide the estimates. They calculate it. They need to fix it for reality. If not, they will lose customers... and YOU and me will also lose them. They will buy elsewhere because they would have been mislead.

2. Yes, sellers can take that decision to still show lettermail... but if eBay side with them by removing bad feedbacks or INR, then I have a problem with it. That's promoting bad sellers at the expense of the good ones.

3. Yes, I want eBay to promote good sellers more than bad sellers. That's right. Because that's for the good of the overall platform (and the good of my business on the long run).

4. What other sellers do affects you too. Not only they are competitors, but they also provides an overall image for the eBay platform. More bad sellers = less customers. It's easy to understand.

You are using their platform, you depend on them. Me too.

They NEED to update the features to be competitive and promote good sellers.