eBay Takes Aim At INRs With New Shipping Performance Policy

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


Comments

eBay is implementing a new Shipping Performance Policy aimed at cutting down on item not received cases and holding sellers accountable for timely shipping, effective July 24.

While the announcement does not specify specific countries this new policy will apply to, the fact it was posted on the eBay Exports site indicates this policy is likely meant for global sellers who sell on eBay.com but are not based in the USA or Canada.

As noted in eBay Exports News:

Shipping Performance Policy — Item Not Received Rate

Starting from July 24, 2023, eBay will launch the Shipping Performance Policy – Item Not Received Rate.

Sellers with a higher than market average “Item not received” rate may be subject to a range of actions, such as eBay ending or removing your listings, enforcing buying or selling restrictions, adjusting your selling limits and/or suspending all relevant accounts.

Shipping Performance Policy — Item Not Received Rate

What you need to know
Starting from July 24, 2023, eBay will launch the Shipping Performance Policy – Item Not Received Rate.

Sellers with a higher than market average “Item not received” rate may be subject to a range of actions, such as eBay ending or removing your listings, enforcing buying or selling restrictions, adjusting your selling limits and/or suspending all relevant accounts.

Evalutions will be based on buyer reports that an item did not arrive or wasn't available for collection.

Evaluation metric
The "Item Not Received" or “INR” rate, namely, the percentage of transactions where a buyer reported that the item didn't arrive or was not available for collection.

How are you being evaluated
Evaluation Frequency: Monday on a fortnightly basis.

INR Evaluation Window 1: All paid transactions during a 31 day lookback period commencing 45 days before the evaluation date.

By way of illustration, where the evaluation date is Monday 27 March, we will review all paid transactions during the period commencing Wednesday 8 February and ending Friday 10 March.

eval1


INR Evaluation Window 2: All transactions with an estimated delivery date that falls within the 31 day period commencing on the immediate past Saturday before the evaluation date.

By way of illustration, where the evaluation date is Monday 27 March, we will review all transactions with an estimated delivery date falling within the period commencing Thursday 23 February and ending Saturday 25 March.


eval2

eBay will evaluate the seller's INR% for deliveries to specific countries (US, UK, Germany, Australia, Other) as well as the total performance across all countries.

Evaluation will begin on July 24 and will not include transactions before July 2.

Evaluation result

  • Action taken: INR% of window1 or INR% of window2 is higher than corresponding market average INR% and eBay decides to take action.
  • Non-compliant: INR% of window1 or INR% of window2 is higher than corresponding market average INR% but eBay will hold action this cycle.
  • Compliant: Both INR% of window1 and INR% of window2 are lower than corresponding market average INR%.

Please note that eBay will start implementing the above evaluation from July 24, 2023. Transactions before July 2, 2023 will not be subject to the evaluation.

Sellers will be emailed a copy of their evaluations so they can keep track of their performance.

How can I check my performance?
The evaluation result will be sent to the accounts which are evaluated in each evaluation cycle by email. Please check your accounts status from time to time for any updates.

You will see the evaluation result on a fortnightly basis after this policy launched:

The Status of Shipping Performance Policy – Item Not Received Rate: Action taken

Evaluation Status: You may have all of these three status in one evaluation, and multiple actions may be taken. The most serious status will be selected as the result of this evaluation cycle.

Action taken: INR% of window1 or INR% of window2 is higher than corresponding market average INR%.

Non-compliant: INR% of window1 or INR% of window2 is higher than corresponding market average IN% but eBay will hold action this cycle.

Compliant: Both INR% of window1 and INR% of window2 are lower than corresponding market average INR%.

If a seller faces restrictions due to not meeting performance requirements, eBay will automatically remove the restrictions once performance improves.

What should I do if my account has been restricted due to performance issues? Will the actions be removed if my INR% improves in the next evaluation cycle?

eBay will still evaluate the INR% performance of your accounts as long as there are eligible transactions. The restriction will be removed automatically once your INR% performance is lower or on par with the market average in subsequent evaluation periods.

Sellers are discussing the new policy in the eBay community, with some suspecting this move may be a step in addressing the massive amount of dropshipping from China on the platform.

eBay wants to implement a new policy
Hello, eBay wants to implement a new policy: which is Starting from July 24, 2023, eBay will launch the Shipping Performance Policy – ​​Item Not Received Rate. I ship from Jordan and provide fast and economical shipping service. But I just want to make sure, can you explain this policy to me in deta…

What do you think of eBay's new Shipping Performance Policy? Let us know in the comments below!

eBayShipping

Liz Morton Twitter Facebook
LinkedIn

Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.

4 comments
Avatar Placeholder
Phosuma
What if a buyer refuses to claim item from the post office and then returned to sender and buyer open a INR case .

Who is responsible in this case and will ebay count this as item not received ??
12
Avatar Placeholder
lessthanthreerecords
I'm not sure how this specifically targets Chinese dropshipping. It sounds like they are holding the seller responsible for carrier problems. If the seller ships on time, what more can be expected of them?
3
Hide Replies 2
Avatar Placeholder
Banned in Chat
No way eBay got permission from the CCP to hold Chinese sellers to the same standards as everyone else.
2
Hide Replies 1
Avatar Placeholder
Lion5124
Chinese logistics is the best, I'm more inclined that eBay wants to become like amazon. Probably by suppressing sellers, eBay wants to make money so that sellers would place goods in eBay warehouses and pay a margin for this, while any case of non-delivery of goods from the eBay warehouse does not bear a negative for the seller.

Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderConcernedYesterday
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks3047Yesterday
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar Placeholdercwi2 days ago
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.