USPS Holiday Shipping Rates Catch Up To Pirate Ship, Mercari, Etsy & More
Many USPS label providers had previously announced their customers would be spared from 2024 holiday rate hikes for most packages under 21 lbs, but it appears the postal service may have changed the terms of their Negotiated Service Agreements with little notice, causing confusion for online sellers using these services.
eBay
eBay originally announced on October 1st that most zone 1-8 shipments under 21 lbs would not have USPS holiday surcharges added, but then posted an updated announcement on October 21st advising surcharges would apply for those packages, effective October 27.
Liz Morton
While it was short notice, it seems that was likely not eBay's fault - and credit where it is due, they took action to notify sellers of the change quickly after USPS apparently updated NSA with the new rates.
Other platforms have followed suit, with some doing better at communicating with their customers than others.
Mercari
Mercari sent out a notice to sellers a few days ahead of the change and also updated their help and policy pages to provide a chart of the holiday rates.
Pirate Ship
On October 1st, Pirate Ship showed the same information that eBay had announced - saying most shipments under 21 lbs would not be impacted.
But that page has been updated some time in the last week to say most services and locations will be affected.
Importantly, aside from the "updated this week" note (which was also on the page on October 1st), there is nothing to indicate the information was edited - which is especially confusing since they left with "starting October 6th" language when the reality is that these surcharges were not in effect at that time.
It's not clear if Pirate Ship sent an email announcement to customers to information them of the change, but if not, this quiet page edit isn't exactly transparent.
Etsy
I was not able to find any proactive announcements from Etsy to sellers about USPS holiday surcharges, but at least one seller on Reddit noticed a price discrepancy when shipping orders from over the weekend when the prices would have changed, pointing to this update being a likely explanation for the difference.
I am currently fulfilling our orders from the weekend and there is a $0.30-$0.35 difference between what the sellers paid versus what they're charging our shop. It's the second time I've had this issue in a row.
I know USPS prices can fluctuate (sometimes in our favor instead), regardless it's usually by <$.10. I spoke with a customer service representative, and they suggested that I check the package dimensions and weight on the listing (I have the profile set to "calculated") and label presets.
I humored him and confirmed that my settings are accurate, and they responded that they'll put in a ticket with their shipping department, but when I asked about follow up he said they don't contact sellers. I am very frustrated that I waited on hold for an hour for zero resolution. I know it doesn't sound like much money, but I typically get quite a few orders (on a product with already slim margins) over the weekends, so it will add up.
Etsy also didn't tell sellers about the zip code-based USPS changes that were implemented in September, so it's disappointing but not surprising if sellers received no announcement about the holiday surcharges too.
Liz Morton
Are you seeing USPS increases across the board across marketplace and third party label providers since last week? Let us know in the comments below!
