eBay proves virtual gold mine for Postal Service
Carol Johnson, of Centennial, laughs loudly when asked by telephone how she ships the products she sells on eBay.
"That's what I'm doing right now," she says.
"Fifteen of my items ended (their auctions) last night, and I'm wrapping them up."
Johnson, as it turns out, is the quintessential eBay seller: She ships mostly via the U.S. Postal Service but uses United Parcel Service and Federal Express on occasion, especially for large items.
eBay has been a boon to shipping companies, expanding business for the likes of the Postal Service, UPS, FedEx and others.
Says eBay spokeswoman Catherine England: "We're definitely a big contributor" to the U.S. package shipment industry.
The U.S. Postal Service is the clear shipper of choice and that's helped resuscitate a flagging mail- delivery operation.
Postmaster General John Potter says eBay shippers have generated more than USD1 billion of postage since the two started working closely together more than two years ago.
"We're huge with them, and we appreciate being with them," says Al DeSarro, the Colorado spokesman for the Postal Service.
Like many eBay sellers, Johnson can print labels and postage online through USPS' "Click-N-Ship," monitor shipments and order additional shipping boxes for free.
USPS provides priority mail flat-rate boxes, as well as a "shoe box" it launched this year in response to demand by eBay sellers. The box comes with an eBay and USPS logo.
Johnson, who resells items she's bought at estate and garage sales and thrift stores, says about the only USPS service she doesn't use is carrier pickup.
"For one thing, I live only a half mile from the post office. So I will load up the packages in the back end of my car, and off I go," she says. "Also, although they will pick up, I don't want (the packages) to wait on the front porch."
USPS is a gargantuan federal organization with USD69.9 billion in revenue in its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2005, and more than 700,000 employees. Unlike private companies, it doesn't face Wall Street pressure to achieve certain earnings or revenue growth, instead looking to cover its costs.
But even that has proved difficult in recent years, with more people e-mailing than sending letters. EBay has provided a boost to USPS' priority mail and other package services, through such products as the flat-rate boxes.
Priority mail revenue alone was up 9.2 percent in the first nine months of the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
USPS promotes its eBay relationship aggressively.
Last year, eBay and USPS hosted a free, three-day event in Denver and seven other cities to help would-be or existing eBay sellers learn how to list, sell and ship their products.
USPS also sponsored the "eBay Live!" convention in Las Vegas in June. Johnson says she and her husband attended the event and "U.S. postmaster (John Potter) spoke to us. And the (USPS) offered free shipping there for items we picked up at the convention."
For its part, eBay recently was promoting on its site a new "multi-order" shipping option that enables eBay sellers to print up to 50 U.S. Postal Service shipping labels at a time from their PayPal account (PayPal, founded in 1999, is the online payment service that eBay purchased in 2002).
"Drive repeat business from buyers by easily combining multiple eBay sales into one shipment," eBay states.
EBay also has a relationship with United Parcel Service, which outlines some similar buyer and seller benefits.
EBay sellers can integrate UPS shipping technology into their auctions, and prepare and print shipping labels while on eBay's site.
Says England of eBay: "Certainly we're interested in working with all the carriers."
INFOBOX
That's a lot of stamps
USD1 billion Amount eBay shippers have generated in postage since the the online auction site and the Postal Service started working closely more than two years ago, according to Postmaster General John Potter. EBay has been a boon to shipping companies.
