eBay Ends Shipping Supply Coupon For Canadian Store Subscribers
UPDATE 1-30-25
Canadian sellers made their voices heard & eBay backed down in ~24 hrs, restoring shipping supply coupon benefit to Store subscriptions.
That's the fastest and best seller engagement I've seen from eBay in over a decade - keep it up eBay Canada GM Garry Thaniel!
For extra bonus points though - next time, make it a regular forum topic that accepts replies. 😉
seller_news_team
eBay Canada sellers received notice today their Store subscriptions are about to lose an important perk with quarterly coupons for eBay branded shipping supplies being phased out by the end of the year.
The exact end date will depend on when a seller's Store subscription began, whether the seller is on the monthly or annual cycle, and when it next comes up for renewal.
Sellers who are yearly subscribers received the following notice, while those on the month to month cycle will apparently no longer receive any additional coupons after the one which is already available for the current quarter.
An update on your eBay Store subscription
Hi XXXXXX,
We’re reaching out to inform you of a change to your eBay Store subscription benefits. Effective February 28, 2025, Canadian Store subscribers will no longer receive quarterly shipping supplies coupons.However, as a current yearly Store subscriber, we will continue to issue the quarterly shipping supplies coupon throughout the term of your existing subscription.
For example, if your annual Store subscription ends on September 30, 2025, you will receive the shipping supplies coupon in April and July 2025.
If your upcoming Store subscription renewal occurs after February 28, 2025, you will not be eligible for future shipping supplies coupons. You can view your current Store subscription renewal date on the “Store” tab within the Seller Hub.
What this means for you
No other changes are being made to the Store subscription benefits. As a Store subscriber, you will continue to receive the same tools and support to grow your business.If you have any questions or concerns, just get in touch—we’re here to help.
Thanks for being part of the eBay community.
So far there has been no similar announcement for the US and it appears this update only applies to Canada at this time, but it could always be expanded to other sites in the future.
Sellers are discussing the update on the eBay Canada community, with most expressing disappoint but not surprise and remarking that the coupon amount had not kept up with rising prices of the items offered by eBay's chosen supplier, so the value of the perk had been significantly diminished over the last few years any way.
joels-retrocade
Once again, Canadian sellers not being offered the same support/services from eBay as other countries. Not an even playing field. In lieu of this perhaps they should lower subscription fees (yeah right).
The coupon was 65% shipping costs. 35% overpriced supplies.
This is absolutely awful news. I used a lot of the bubble mailers and I’m going to incur more costs now sourcing them from somewhere else.
Those of you who are making nonchalant posts regarding your backlog of shipping supplies should be looking at the bigger picture here: this is not a good sign for the future of eBay in Canada.
Others suggested ways eBay could replace that value for Store subscribers - like offering FVF discounts on shipping when labels are purchased through eBay.
You know what would be helpful? If we purchase shipping lables through eBay, they should credit back selling fees related to the cost of the label.
I'm old enough to know that the reason they started charging on shipping was because people were selling items for 99 cents and $500 shipping to avoid fees. They couldn't police the policy preventing that, so just started billing fees on the whole transaction.
Now that they have labels on-site (some even reasonably priced!) it would be very simple to impliment a fair selling fee based on the item, not the item+shipping+VAT...(they won't but I like to dream)
How will this change impact your decision to renew your Store subscription and what would you like to see eBay offer to make up or add to the value for subscribers? Let us know in the comments below!
Originally higher fees were positioned as being balanced with a package/ box credit. So we paid more and got the coupon. Now the coupon is disappearing and there is no off-set. If this goes well for eBay it will simply be rolled out later in USA. The saving of 4Q x coupon goes straight to ebay bottom line.
As such its just a giant fee price hike to Canadian sellers. These are the same sellers who just got hit with a month long postal strike, which signficantly impacted Christmas sales. So this is just a second kick to the Canadians.