eBay announces new “on-time delivery metric” and returns policy

Online giant eBay – which celebrated its 20th birthday yesterday (10 September) – has informed participants at its Sellers Summit in San Jose, California that it is introducing a new on-time delivery metric and changes to the returns policy. In a post on its website entitled “Simpler, more objective seller standards”, eBay said that it was introducing the changes so that sellers’ performance (particularly with regard to delivery) would “rely more on objective data instead of subjective buyer inputs”.

With regard to the new on-time delivery metric, eBay told sellers:

“An order will be counted as being on time as long as it meets any one of the following criteria:

• Item tracking status shows as ‘Accepted’ within your stated dispatch time.
• Item tracking status shows as ‘Delivered’ within your estimated delivery time.
• The buyer confirms that the delivery was made on time.

“Deliveries will be considered late only when:

• You do not upload tracking information and your buyer states that the item arrived after the estimated delivery date.
• Tracking shows that there is no acceptance scan within your stated dispatch time and the item arrived after the estimated delivery date, plus your buyer either does not confirm that the item arrived on time or states that the item arrived after the estimated delivery date.”

The new system will come into effect from 20 February 2016.

In the same website post, eBay also announced that, from 1 May 2016, it will be extending the required returns period for eBay Top-rated sellers from 14 days to 30 days for most listings.