Tag: eBay

NetDespatch makes express firms into e-traders

Posted by | Jun 11, 2008 | |

The British technology firm NetDespatch has announced Velocity eTrader, a new service for courier and distribution companies, based on its Velocity web shipping and tracking platform.

The new Velocity eTrader website will allow shippers to book any services online, without having an account, and pay for them by credit or debit card. After entering all details, customers receive a quote based on mileage or weight from the Velocity eTrader pricing engine. Online payment is made through PayPal.

To help run an eTrader business, there is also an administration area that provides reports of both successful and failed transactions. With the new website, the company aims at capturing new business from eBay traders, cottage industries and business start-ups.

“eTrader opens up important new business opportunities for our courier and distribution customers, as more and more goods are bought and sold online and the number of local Post Offices dwindles. With payment by credit card, a formal account does not need to be opened, helping to attract a broad range of new customers, some of whom will undoubtedly eventually open a credit account,” said Becky Clark, CEO of NetDespatch.

As part of the NetDespatch Velocity “on demand” applications platform, eTrader adds to the wide range of NetDespatch web services that courier and distribution companies can provide to their customers, depots and suppliers. These include intuitive web booking, systems integration, pre-labelling, address management, mileage and weight based pricing, manifests, event tracking, management reporting, POD management, mobile data and eCommerce solutions. The services are all provided in real-time and fully integrated with other systems such as sales order processing, warehouse management and e-shopping cards.

The main courier partners of NetDespatch are TNT, Amtrak, APC Overnight, Priority Express and Expressair International.

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La Poste launches new services and cuts paper usage

Posted by | Apr 11, 2008 | |

La Poste has signed several partnerships with the supermarket chain Casino, EBay France and WWF France in the last few weeks to expand its network, enhance services and reduce its environmental impact.
Coliposte, the French parcels division of La Poste, entered into a partnership with the supermarket chain Casino to test its automatic parcel pick-up service “Cityssimo” in two supermarkets in Lyon and Paris.
Through the introduction of the Cityssimo service into the Casino supermarkets, La Poste aims at extending its network of parcel pick-up points to offer its customers the possibility to choose their preferred type of delivery of Colissimo shipments. The customers can thus pick up their parcels in their Casino store at the time most convenient for them.
In addition, La Poste and eBay in France have signed an agreement to enable customers to buy and to prepay online their express shipments saving time and ensuring traceability. Chronopost signed a similar agreement with eBay a month ago.
Meanwhile, La Poste has teamed up with the environmental organization WWF in France to promote a responsible mail policy. It has pledged to reduce considerably its CO2 emissions by 15% and to recycle 80% of its paper by 2012 as part of its overall environmental activities.

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French Post Office makes Ebay despatches simpler

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

French postal operator ‘La Poste’ has launched a new service which allows French Ebay users to sort all their parcel needs online, through Ebay itself.

With only a few clicks, users can decide on how the item should be delivered, the weight, destination and whether the item is to be insured, before paying via PayPal – the method of payment preferred on eBay.fr.

The form is then printed on a simple A4 sheet of which a part will attached to the parcel, the other stamped by the counter clerk in post office and used as proof of sending. Once the parcel is prepared, the shipper merely has to leave it with a local post office – where many fast counters dedicated to parcels have been available in France since 2006.

The brand new service is free to eBay.fr users, costs no more than normal parcel rates but saves sellers time in preparing parcels ready for despatch. The parcels can also be tracked online.

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eBay requires specified shipping

Posted by | Mar 25, 2008 | |

eBay posted an update about shipping policies and features on its Announcement Board on Monday. Beginning this week, eBay will begin requiring that all new sellers who are listing for the first time specify their shipping costs using the Shipping Details section. A few months from now, specified shipping costs will become a requirement for most listings on eBay, including listings from third-party listing tools. (Exemptions will apply to certain categories like Vehicles, or services such as Freight.)

eBay’s shipping calculator supports only certain USPS and UPS services. eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman said, “For sellers who prefer to use shipping services or carriers not included in eBay’s calculator, they can specify “Standard Flat Rate Service”, “Expedited Flat Rate Service”, “Overnight Flat Rate” or “Other (see description)” in their listing and set a flat rate cost. This is something many sellers do already.” However, FedEx and DHL are not flat-rate services, so sellers who use such major carriers are forced to either select flat-rate shipping or select UPS (http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-options.html).

eBay also said Best Match would begin taking into consideration how the shipping cost for an item compares to other items in the same sub-category, and also whether the shipping price is specified. “Items with shipping costs significantly above the average cost for other items in the same sub-category may receive less exposure,” according to the announcement.

One seller writing on eBay’s discussion boards about the policy said, “items in the same sub-category can still be very, very different and have very different packing needs, and shipping weight. This stuff is ridiculous and best of all – will punish the larger size and fragile items of each subcategory. Not for gouging, but just for being big and delicate” (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000671785).

eBay said the new USPS Priority Mail Large Flat Rate box is now included in the eBay Shipping calculator, but sellers on the AuctionBytes Blog wondered why the new box won’t be incorporated into the PayPal shipping labels solution until later in the summer.

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