As a high-growth ecommerce business, you’re always looking for ways to optimize your business and improve customer experience.  

But how do you ramp up your business with the extra logistical complexity that comes with fulfilling orders globally on eBay, especially when orders need to be fulfilled outside of traditional business hours? 

It turns out that you can sell on eBay with a similar approach to selling via Amazon FBA. 

In this article, we’ll cover what eBay fulfillment is, the benefits of using it, and how it can help you overcome challenges in your business.

What is eBay fulfillment service? 

More consumers today are demanding the instant gratification that comes from fast shipping. Amazon Prime has set the bar high for retailers everywhere, even those selling on different platforms. This includes eBay.

Fast and accurate shipping is one of the best ways to get positive feedback as a seller. Fortunately, eBay sellers now have the option to utilize a fulfillment service to streamline their shipping process. 

Here’s how it works:
Once you register with a fulfillment service, you’ll enter the SKUs of your products then ship your inventory to the eBay fulfillment center. From there, you’ll have full visibility of your inventory status.

You will continue to manage and monitor your sales, but the fulfillment center is responsible for picking, packing, and shipping the order on your behalf. In this way, it’s similar to how Amazon FBA works. However, Amazon FBA is provided directly through the platform. 

In addition to relying on the service to fulfill your orders, you can also trust that your customer will be provided with tracking information and fast delivery. Essentially, the service takes the heavy lifting of shipping and fulfilling orders off your hands. Keep in mind that these services do charge a fee, but it tends to be straightforward. Most will only charge a fulfillment fee to handle your inventory plus a storage fee to keep it in their warehouse.

What are the benefits of using the eBay fulfillment service? 

Online sellers will see many advantages to using an eBay fulfillment service in place of shipping the orders themselves. Here are some of the most common benefits for ecommerce merchants:

Improved operational efficiency 

It’s not always possible to ship your orders the day they’re placed or to get “Prime-like” delivery speeds, especially if you fulfill all orders out of your warehouse. 

With an eBay Fulfillment Service, you don’t have to worry about not having time to pick and pack your order when it comes in. The service handles it for you. The sooner the order is out the door, the sooner it can get into your happy customer’s hands. This can also get you closer to next day delivery times, which improves customer satisfaction and reduces delivery issues and complaints. 

Later cut-off times for deliveries 

Through your fulfillment provider, a late cut-off time can be established for same-day shipping. This means your customer will be able to see what time their order must be placed to have it ship at an expedited speed. This sets realistic expectations while still giving your customer the option for fast, same-day shipping.

Cost savings

Partnering with an eBay Fulfillment Service can give you access to savings that wouldn’t be possible for a smaller company. For example, eBay Fulfillment Services manage more shipments than you would as a small business so they’re able to negotiate lower shipping rates through their carriers.

Seller protection

Most eBay Fulfillment Services will stand by their work by offering seller protection to you. If the item is damaged or there is a shipping issue, you won’t absorb the loss. You’ll need to check with the provider you use for their specific protection policy details.

It helps sellers improve shopper experience. 

Why is the eBay Fulfillment Service important for ecommerce businesses for overcoming challenges? 

Utilizing an eBay Fulfillment Service is a way for merchants to step up their game in the current competitive landscape of ecommerce. It can really help improve business performance and the shopper experience. The service is particularly useful for those looking to scale their current eBay operations or looking to add the platform into their sales channel mix.

Here are some of the most important challenges that working with an eBay Fulfillment Service can help merchants solve:

Delivery disruption

Issues with shipping providers can cause disruptions in the delivery process. The pandemic made delayed shipping a major problem that sellers still have to deal with today. With an eBay Fulfillment Service, the service provider works with carriers to monitor shipping delays and communicate the delays to the customer on your behalf through tracking details. This transparency helps improve customer satisfaction, even when shipping time expectations aren’t met.

Cross-border trade

If Brexit has taught us anything, it’s that cross-border trade can become volatile overnight. You may not have the resources or negotiating power to operate in different countries and navigate different trade laws, but a dedicated fulfillment center does. They can help you establish whether it’s viable to sell your product in certain areas, and if it is, they can make it happen.

Manual high volume sales management

At a certain point of business growth, it becomes impossible to operate your business on your own or with only a small team. In order to scale and manage a high volume of sales, particularly during the busy Q4 holiday season, you’ll need to either hire more staff to manually fulfill orders or outsource the tasks instead. Outsourcing to an eBay Fulfillment Service is typically more cost-effective than hiring employees.

Late evening sales

Orders placed late at night for same-day shipping can hurt your seller rankings if the customer’s expectations are unable to be met. Instead, eBay Fulfillment Services use a late cut-off time that still allows customers to select expedited shipping options, but after a certain point in the day, it’s made clear that same-day shipping will become next-day shipping instead. Late-night orders are no longer an issue when customer expectations are clear.

What is the Linnworks eBay fulfillment integration? 

Our new eBay fulfillment integration by Orange Connex offers visibility over your inventory and orders with Orange Connex. 

So, as a merchant, you’ll send a portion of your stock to eBay Fulfillment and the provider completes all the warehouse management processes: picking, packing, shipping, and after-sales support. 

Then, you’ll be able to track available stock levels, sync order updates (including returns and cancellations) and have full visibility of eBay fulfillment order management. This process is fully automated and there is no need to manually double check your inventory and orders. 

Start using the eBay fulfillment integration with Linnworks

There’s never been a better time to diversify and add another channel to the mix. Selling on eBay using our integration eliminates many of the risks, especially around order management and shopper experience.

The Linnworks eBay fulfillment integration also saves you valuable time because you eliminate manual tasks of cross checking data with your Orange Connex account. 

If you’re ready to streamline your operations and reduce the overwhelm of manually fulfilling orders, then eBay Fulfillment is the right service for you. If you are already an existing Linnworks user, get started with channel integrations.