Sellers Discuss Costs Of eBay Fulfillment With Orange Connex
Sellers in the eBayUK community are discussing eBay's fulfillment partnership with Orange Connex after receiving messaging from eBay promoting the program.
This seller was particularly concerned about the "no hidden charges" part of the message, as they believed the rate chart was less than transparent and still left a whole lot "hidden".
Got some blurb from ebay trying to flog their partner fulfilment service today, probably along with every other business seller.
https://cloud.forbusiness.ebay.co.uk/fulfilment
From the above link...
OK, I'm getting interested, all nice and simple. But, from the linked rate card...
I don't even understand what some of these are, and when they're charged. Is there a "Labeling Fee" for each order? I've got no idea what a "Batch Outbound Handling / Palletisation Fee" is.
The smallprint says you may be charged a "Bulky" surcharge if the goods are "super small"!
The storage fees increase by 7X after 12 months, basically this is a "go away" price. But I haven't seen any advertised fee for getting the goods returned at this point, it seems that the options are to sell out or to pay for them to "dispose" of them.
It all sounds uncontrollably expensive, especially bearing in mind that this is all on top of ebay's standard fees that we all pay.
My issue is not with the level of the headline fees, it's the lack of clarity and the contradiction between the "no hidden charges" statement and the massive list of hidden charges, some of which aren't even defined.
I've tried FBA, it's incredibly expensive and almost impossible to get an overview of the likely costs. It looks like this lot have cloned Amazon's (lack of) transparency. I'd say the aim is to fool the gullible, those who want turnover and don't care about making a profit.
If you're unfamiliar with the eBay Fulfillment partnership with Orange Connex, here's some important info about the program:
Improved performance score
All INR related issues are protected and reset once a seller joins our fulfilment programme and later in Q2, further logistics related measures will be incorporated into the protection and reset model.Fully tracked service
Offer full delivery transparency to your customers to gain their trust and improve your seller rating.Seller protection
Delivery of your items under eBay fulfilment by Orange Connex will benefit from full seller protection for delivery related defects.Next-day delivery & weekend operations
Add speed to your shipping with a late, same-day dispatch cut-off time of 6 pm and the option of next-day delivery, as well as dispatch on Sundays.Multi-channel capability
eBay fulfilment by Orange Connex will take care of the storage, packaging and shipping of your products on eBay, or on any of your other selling platforms.International shipping
There is a direct international service, allowing you to ship to 24 EU countries, as well as the option to use GSP (Global Selling Programme).Multi SKU capability
Optimise your product catalogue management through fulfilment. You have the ability to opt in any variations of your stock, for example, your best selling lines.
It's difficult to put an exact dollar (or pound) figure on it, and of course it will be different for every business, but the seller protections outlined above could be well worth the costs for some sellers.
eBay has also indicated Fulfillment with Orange Connex can integrate with 3rd party services from Ad-Lister, Channel Advisor, Linnworks, Pentagon, Volo, and Webinterpret.
The full rate card for UK as of March 25. 2022 can be found here.
eBay Australia also announced a new series of how to videos about eBay Fulfilment by Orange Connex
We’ve released an eight part series on how to set-up eBay Fulfilment by Orange Connex.
eBay Fulfilment by Orange Connex is a new solution helping you deliver an exceptional delivery experience to your customers through end-to-end management of your inventory, both on eBay and across other selling platforms.
In the video series, we'll walk you through how to:
- Sign-up for an Orange Connex account
- Link your eBay account and the Orange Connex portal
- Register your SKUs
- Print your SKU labels
- Create an inbound order
- Print carton pallet labels
- Manage multi-channel orders
- Creating Value Added Services (VAS)
Have you used eBay Fulfillment with Orange Connex? If so, do you find the total costs to be transparent and easy to understand and are you happy with the service? Let us know in the comments below!
