eBay

pierrelebel · ‎05-25-2015

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m05/i25/s03

PS - I have not been invited (maybe due to the fact I refuse to use PayPal shipping labels as I get my postage cheaper!)

In my opinion eBay-Canada should try to help Canadian sellers find the cheapest way to ship (or buy postage) instead of trying to force them to use PayPal "postage" which is more profitable to their organization.

rosscd57 · ‎05-27-2015

I find that "focus groups" generally, are used to sway the participants to a particular way of thinking or doing or purchasing etc.

The result is almost always in concert with the thoughts of those that paid for the "focus groups".

Ralph Klein used "focus groups" every time he had to make an unpopular decision as Premier of Alberta and guess what? The result was always what Ralph wanted anyway and he never got bashed for the result and the public bought it.

I suspect the decision re the eBay "focus group" has already been made - the "focus group" will reflect it - eBay will implement it and this is eBay's way of ducking the flack.

__________________________________________________________

Old enough to know better. Young enough to do it again. Crazy enough to try

thebarterersdog · ‎05-28-2015

Shipping is what it is, I agree Ebay cannot control this cost, but Ebay sellers do use CP so you would think an arrangement between the two big companies would come together to help sellers use both services. It benefits both and the seller. However, and I can't stress this enough... the fees on shipping is ridiculous and adds to a cost that is already sky high. This fee should not be in effect and only applied as a penalty to those who choose to inflate their prices for shipping so that their item can be listed at a lower price. Calculated shipping is the best but I still get buyers asking me for the rate because "the calculator isn't working for my area."

Janet and Paul

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎05-28-2015

I agree that eBay, PayPal and Pitney-Bowes are large enough players in the marketplace that they could arrive at a much better contract with Canada Post for shipping labels purchased through PayPal. There is a small Canadian on-line venue for vintage clothing and accessories re-sellers that has a negotiated rate of $8.00 to send any parcel that falls within CP size and weight limits to anywhere in Canada by Expedited shipping with delivery confirmation. Buyers have the $8.00 added to their purchase by the site. Upon payment, the site sends an email to the seller with an attachment that allows the seller to print the label. I don't see why a similar deal could not be struck for US-bound packages. The better the deal, the more sales by Canadian sellers. It is not impossible, but there needs to be willingness on the part of eBay and it's partners to engage in negotiations with Canada Post.

This is the type of issue that needs to be taken to the Focus Group meeting in Toronto.

pierrelebel · ‎05-28-2015

"much better contract with Canada Post "

OK - Let's pretend for a moment that you are in charge of Canada Post. Your job is to make money for Canada Post. Why would you give a bigger discount to Canadian eBay sellers? What's in it for Canada Post?

More business? No. Get some business away from competitors? No.

Think about it. Why would Canada Post give more discount? Because eBay asks? They do not care, nor should they.

It would be different of course if eBay were ONE seller, ONE shipper, using ONE or a few locations, etc... Here we are talking about thousands of sellers, spread across the country. There is nothing in it for Canada Post. End of story.

tobyshitzu · ‎05-28-2015

shes right that cp already does give bigger discounts to a relativley small comparable site. And all the courier do to a number of resellers like e shipper. Cp also gives a large discount to chitchat to resell

altimateoutlet · ‎05-28-2015

i HAVE COMPARED PRICING FROM cANADA POST SOLUTIONS TIER 1 TO EBAY CP SHIPPING AND EBAY IS LESS EXPENSIVE.

it doesnt look as though you can tie cp shipping to ebay to create labels though and requires filling in everything

pierrelebel · ‎05-28-2015

Maybe you should go to Canada Post and negotiate on behalf of all Canadian sellers. Good Luck.

snidley7 · ‎05-30-2015

Nobody knows what rates pp or Pitney Bowes actually pay to Canada post. I guarantee you though they have a substantial discount over the rates they offer us through PayPal shipping labels. I talked to cp a few weeks ago, and they told me if I were to process all my parcels through my venture account I would get a 26 percent discount over published rates. Plus If you ship over 1200 parcels a year you can negotiate even better rates.
PayPal could offer us better discounts on labels but they probably won't unless it makes sense for themselves.
I believe pp could offer much better label prices, however I don't think they want

mr.elmwood · ‎05-30-2015

@snidley7 wrote:
Nobody knows what rates pp or Pitney Bowes actually pay to Canada post. I guarantee you though they have a substantial discount over the rates they offer us through PayPal shipping labels. I talked to cp a few weeks ago, and they told me if I were to process all my parcels through my venture account I would get a 26 percent discount over published rates. Plus If you ship over 1200 parcels a year you can negotiate even better rates.
PayPal could offer us better discounts on labels but they probably won't unless it makes sense for themselves.
I believe pp could offer much better label prices, however I don't think they want

That is not quite precise. That is for upgraded services. Most of my mail goes Small Packet with no discount applicable. Out of my 1200 per year, maybe 5% are upgraded to Expedited or Xpressspost.

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snidley7 · ‎05-30-2015

I will have give them a call and double check the numbers. Maybe the phone rep gave me the incorrect info, he didn't speak very good English so it was difficult to understand.

Mr. Elmwood do you still use PayPal for your labels, or do you process your labels through your own CP account?

mr.elmwood · ‎05-30-2015

@snidley7 wrote:
I will have give them a call and double check the numbers. Maybe the phone rep gave me the incorrect info, he didn't speak very good English so it was difficult to understand.
Mr. Elmwood do you still use PayPal for your labels, or do you process your labels through your own CP account?

I use PP Shipping.It is fast and easy. CP and their ship in a click, or whatever, is a labourious process. The first time I tried using their "simple and easy" system took a half an hour. Second time took a half an hour.

My understanding of Venture1 is that it only applies to upgraded services, the ones CP sells for additional profit. The services no-one needs.

I can ship, under 250 grams for $8.13, no discount. Tracked packet is about $7 (88%) more. I should pay 88% more to get a 26% discount? Hang-on a second while I run this through my abacus.

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pjcdn2005 · ‎05-30-2015

Canada Post small business rate plans

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/pages/smallbusiness/default.page

In many/most cases, Paypal has less expensive shipping than these plans show.

mr.elmwood · ‎05-30-2015

Small Packet is 0%. I am already getting nothing.

Tracked Packet up to 5%. I am already getting more with PP.

Expedited up to 10%. I am already getting that with PP.

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tobyshitzu · ‎05-30-2015

"venture 1 card" is trivial discounts on some service with no volume commitment. snidly is meaning with a volume commitment (not huge) there are much larger discounts available and on all services

momcqueen · ‎05-31-2015

I too am generally pleased with Paypal shipping. Whatever issue I might have with the service from time-to-time is not significant enough to warrant considering looking elsewhere. Ship-in-a-Click on the Canada Post site, on the other hand, made me want to hurt myself. I used it exactly twice.

Like every other buyer ands seller alike, I want to know what the deal will be with Canada Post and parcels once 'home delivery' is phased out. Obviously, lettermail is dead; parcels are the wave of the future. But many people still want their parcels delivered to their door. They don't want to have to go to some depot to pick things up; if that's the case, they might as well go straight to the store and be done with it.

Canada Post has just introduced some new program where they offer to save your parcel for you at the postal counter of your choice. I'm not sure it's adequate compensation for having to retrieve the item that you bought online and wanted brought to you but so be it. Right now, I offer only Canada Post domestically. After the change it more fully phased in, I'll start considering alternatives. Some of my customers are house-bound by young families; dragging three kids to the post office (and back with boxes) is a pain of unimaginable proportions. It won't be a feasible solution.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-31-2015

I don't know what will happen in the future but we have always had community mailboxes where I live now. If I have a small or medium parcel they use a separate parcel box and leave the key to the parcel box in my regular community mailbox. Each parcel box is used for one household at a time so there isn't a security issue.

momcqueen · ‎05-31-2015

What happens if you share a box with neighbours who do a lot of online shopping so that the parcel box(es) are continually full? Does that happen?

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-31-2015

I don't think it has ever happened. But there are community mailboxes every couple of blocks in this area. I haven't ever counted them so I'm trying to picture it...but I think that where I pick up there are 18 boxes + 4 parcel boxes (or maybe 2 parcel boxes??)

But this area is under 15 years sold and these mailboxes were put in before all the houses. In established areas they are probably going to have a limited amount of land to use so the groups of boxes might be larger.

rose-dee · ‎05-31-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I don't know what will happen in the future but we have always had community mailboxes where I live now. If I have a small or medium parcel they use a separate parcel box and leave the key to the parcel box in my regular community mailbox. Each parcel box is used for one household at a time so there isn't a security issue.

In principle this should be true, but it wasn't my own experience. I lived for years in the "outer circle" of Victoria (not the City itself, but not the countryside either). A security issue did arise a number of times -- actually fairly regularly over 15 years we had the community mailbox/parcel boxes.

Either our mail and/or key would be left in someone else's box, or vice versa. I always felt this violated the code of principles of postal security. In one case I recall having to go from door to door to find out who got the key; in others, it was the helpful neighbours who brought us our mail. Although these people were always good enough not to open our mail or take our parcels without saying anything, the potential was certainly there. If you have a less than caring neighbour, it could be a real problem -- do you want someone else snooping into your bank statements?

At any rate, I was actually glad to move to the semi-rural area in Nova Scotia where we now live because -- ironically -- such security issues haven't been a problem here. Our mail is placed in the box at the end of drive, we know roughly when it will be delivered, and our mail delivery lady knows us personally (just like the old days!).

We were actually able to work out a system here with her, where she pulls into the drive if she has a parcel that won't fit in our country-style mailbox, and honks her horn. If we're here and we notice, we go out and meet her, if we're not, she knows she should leave a card and return to town with the parcel. I honestly didn't expect to have far more secure postal delivery out here in our area, but we've had no problems at all in the 3-1/2 years we've been here. Sad to say, but personal service relationships do make a difference.

'mj' -- I think your concerns about over-stuffed suburban "super boxes" are well founded. This happened to us as well. The box was left on top of the mail boxes (not good) rather than taken back to the P.O. The problem also seemed to be that we'd talk to one delivery person about these flaws during one month, then suddenly we'd have a different delivery person. I finally gave up trying to convince them to change.

momcqueen · ‎06-01-2015

rose-dee wrote:

'mj' -- I think your concerns about over-stuffed suburban "super boxes" are well founded. This happened to us as well. The box was left on top of the mail boxes (not good) rather than taken back to the P.O. The problem also seemed to be that we'd talk to one delivery person about these flaws during one month, then suddenly we'd have a different delivery person. I finally gave up trying to convince them to change.

I think Canada Post is shooting itself in the foot. I am always home and I have mobility issues, so walking a city block to my new Community Mailbox to hump home a parcel of any size like a camel is not my thing. As a consumer, I'll be sticking now to retailers that use couriers so that the stuff comes to my door. Whenever possible. As a seller, I'm prepared to do the same.