eBay Shipping Policy

Challenge

Bells Bike Shop (BBS) uses ChannelAdvisor (CA) to manage its Shipping Policy for eBay.  They use CA attributes to define “Vendor Lead Time” for use on the marketplaces.  This works great for Amazon and Walmart, but not so much for eBay.

In order to calculate the correct Estimated Ship Dates and Must Deliver by Date for eBay orders, a more elaborate system was needed.  Unfortunately, this elaboration made it more difficult for BBS staff to manage accurately and timely.

Furthermore, BBS developed another process which calculated turnaround times based on warehouse location and product availability to reflect vendor lead times more accurately for a product.  This meant turnaround times were continuously fluid depending on the warehouse and product availability, which meant the eBay Ship policy was also fluid and required updating.

It soon became unmanageable when changes to turn around times occurred faster than staff could update CA and eBay.

BBS realized something had to be done to streamline and automate their eBay Ship Policy updates quickly to accurately reflect the true Estimate and Deliver by dates for purchases on eBay.  They asked us to develop a system to automate eBay Ship Policy updates as close to real time as possible.

Solution

We analyzed the entire eBay Ship Policy process and quickly realized that there were additional subcomponents for this process which were crucial for success.

The eBay Ship Policy relies entirely on CA product attributes defined in “eBay Shipping Class” and “Vendor Lead Time” in order to set the correct “EBAY_BUSPOLICY_SHIPPING” for a product.

The vendor lead time aka turnaround time internally was straight forward.  We were already calculating that value and sending it to CA via a distribution center upload process we created for them.  We could use the latest value and apply it to this process.

The CA attributes were a different matter.  We did not have direct access to the “eBay Shipping Class” values so we created a process to download those attributes for each listed product on CA.  Not all products were listed on eBay, so policy changes did not apply to those.  With the turnaround time and eBay shipping class in hand we were ready to build the eBay Ship Policy Synch.

We created the eBay Ship Policy Synch which checks every 10 minutes for any products listed on eBay whose turnaround time changed since the last upload.  Once a product has been identified as changed, the ship policy is recalculated for that product and uploaded to CA.  CA then propagates these changes direct to eBay.

The eBay Policy Synch is a native windows 10 application running on BBS’s server.  It is designed to operate 24/7/365 uploading eBay Ship Policy updates to ChannelAdvisor automatically.  Though it runs automatically in the background, it contains controls to allow for user configuration as necessary.  The user controls include shop options, credentials, notifications emails, and ship policy options.

In the event an error or upload failure occurs during processing and uploading an eBay Ship Policy, the error and message is recorded.  A notification email is sent to an admin account with the error message.  Once notified, the admin can take appropriate action to rectify the failure.

Bottom Line

The eBay Policy Synch we created for BBS calculates the correct eBay ship policy using the current turnaround time for products queued for policy changes.  These changes are automatically uploaded to ChannelAdvisor and pushed to eBay without any staff involvement.

When this project began, BBS had no effective means to update eBay Ship policies dynamically. Once we implemented the eBay Policy Synch, the policy change queue is checked every 10 minutes for changes and uploaded as necessary.

eBay customers now have a more realistic expectation when their purchase will ship and when they can expect delivery.

This process is one less concern for BBS staff allowing them to focus on other aspects of operating their business.  This project is good example where automating is the right answer and best course of action.

To learn more about how we can help with your business automation, 3rd party integrations, custom development, and reporting, contact us.