The USPS Inspector General is studying the Postal Service's practice of providing free expedited packaging supplies. Will free Priority Mail boxes become a thing of the past?

The USPS OIG (Office of Inspector General) published an Audit Asks blog post recently titled, "Does USPS's Expedited Packaging Supplies Program Effectively Increase Revenues and Manage Costs?"

It initiated a project titled, "Expedited Packaging Supplies Program Costs" on September 24, 2019. It estimates it will publish the results of in March 2020.

"Free packaging is a unique selling tool, differentiating the Postal Service from its competitors," it wrote.

The Postal Service says the program generates new revenue, grows business, increases ... Read More

eBay made progress on the technical issues that hit the site on Tuesday, it announced this evening, but some sellers on the eBay discussion boards said they have already spent many hours working to fix their listings.

eBay explained that on October 15, it rolled out changes meant to make it easier for buyers to find items and give sellers guidance about Item Specifics. One example: "the various item specifics that represent size in the sub-categories of clothing, shoes and accessories (ie: Size (women's), Size (men's)) were updated and consolidated into one normalized item specific - size."

During the rollout, some ... Read More

eBay finally published its new affiliate marketing rate card, and feedback from participants in the eBay Partner Network program (ePN) indicate that traffic to the eBay site could be a casualty. The disincentive to drive shoppers to eBay comes at a time when eBay marketplace sales growth has been stagnant.

In July, eBay had notified affiliates of changes to the program. As we reported at the time: 

"eBay is changing how it pays affiliate marketers for traffic and will publish a new rate card for the eBay Partner Network (ePN) program that takes effect this ... Read More

eBay acknowledged it had a couple of technical issues today - see this Newsflash article- but sellers have been reporting other issues since last week. Let us know if you're experiencing any issues.

There were a few problems reported with Markdown Manager. On October 7, a seller emailed that there were delays in sales starting ("created a sale today and it is now going on 7.5 hours and it is still showing pending"). Another seller reported via Ecommerce EKG on October 9 that a 35% off sale was still running 5 hours after they had ended ... Read More

A seller published a cautionary tale on the eBay boards about the new Multi User Account Access tool. Be sure you learn from his mistake if you're thinking of using the feature yourself. 

eBay officially announced the feature (which it refers to as MUAA) as part of the Fall Seller Update in September. "Now you can grant permissions to other users to access your account and perform specific functions on your behalf. Multi-User Account Access can improve your business efficiency by providing additional support for basic listing functions without exposing your password and critical business information to designated users."

It's a feature that ... Read More