Seller Centre

Get ready for the rush

Your peak season delivery guide.

Prepare for peak season

As shoppers gear up for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas shopping, it’s an important time to prepare for peak season and provide your customers with a great delivery experience. So, we’ve put together a useful guide to help you thrive during this busy shopping period.

Brush up on delivery essentials

Focus on Retail Standards
Retail Standards help you deliver great buyer experiences and sell successfully on eBay. This season, boost your performance by offering the features buyers look for: free delivery in under 3 days, click and collect, 30-day returns, tracked delivery and a premium service badge.
See how to get started
Don’t worry about estimated delivery dates
Our team works closely with carriers to monitor delivery service levels. If any unexpected disruptions arise, such as severe weather, eBay will protect your delivery performance where necessary. Learn more about estimated delivery dates
Input tracking delivery details
Tracking lets you and your buyer follow an item’s journey through to delivery. We’ve updated our ‘Setting up your postage options’ help page with a step-by-step guide to upload tracking. Follow the steps here
Review last postage dates for Christmas
No one wants to miss out on their Christmas gifts, whether giving or receiving. As we get closer to Christmas, make sure to check the last postage dates. Find last postage dates
Monitor seller standards
Keeping an eye on your seller performance can help you provide a better delivery experience. Check your recent Late Delivery Rate evaluation to see if you can make any improvements ahead of a busy sales period.

How to stand out this peak season

Connect with your community

Building a community creates trust and keeps your Shop front of mind, making buyers more likely to choose your listings. Reach more buyers and keep your audience engaged by automating posts with our Social Sharing tool. As a Shop subscriber, you can strengthen loyalty by sending personalised offers and updates via Seller Hub Newsletters.

Enable Seller Initiated Offers

As peak season approaches, buyers are ready to spend and are looking for deals. If someone adds your item to their cart without checking out, adds it to their watchlist or views it multiple times, you can send a personalised offer to help close the sale. See eligible listings in Seller Hub and enable automatic offers to reach new interested buyers.

Expand your reach globally

With the Global Shipping Programme (GSP), selling internationally is simple. Just send your item to our UK Shipping Centre and we’ll take care of everything else, from customs to delivery. GSP also makes selling to the US easier by handling tariffs. Learn more about the Global Shipping Programme

Get expert advice tailored to your business

We know every seller’s business is unique with its own set of needs. For real human support and tailored guidance to help you prepare for peak season, book up to three free 45-minute Seller Clinic sessions with an eBay Marketplace Advisor.

Secure your spot

Extra helpful tips

Review postage preferences

It’s important to have your preferences set up correctly, such as item postcodes, working days or same-day cut-off times. This will enable us to surface the most accurate estimated delivery dates to buyers. Check your preferences and learn more about postage options.  

This applies to Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter services. Keep your listings up to date to provide accurate delivery time promises. Find out more about 2nd Class Letter updates.

Speed up handling time

Set your dispatch time to same-day or one-day to speed up delivery time. Capture last-minute orders by choosing the latest possible same-day cut-off, and pick the shortest handling time you can consistently meet to ensure your delivery promises are accurate.

Check your business policies

Using business policies can help you manage your listings more efficiently. As we move into peak season, it’s important to review your policies to make sure they accurately represent your delivery operations. Review your policies

Set time away

Everyone occasionally needs some time away, whether it’s to recharge your batteries or catch up on orders. When you indicate you’ll be away, your handling and estimated delivery times will automatically be adjusted. Set your away dates

Buy and print postage labels via the eBay platform

In addition to Royal Mail services, you can now access Evri, Yodel and DPD labels through the eBay label platform. No printer? No problem. Save time by using QR codes to access over 15,000 drop off locations. Learn more about delivery services on eBay.

Offer express delivery

We encourage you to offer express delivery options. In December, additional Christmas delivery badging will help the discovery of faster delivery items and drive last-minute sales. This can also help you qualify for eBay Premium Service, boosting visibility and offering a 10% discount on final value fees. Learn more about eBay Premium Service.

Check delivery carrier updates

Make sure to keep track of important updates from your delivery carriers throughout the peak season. You can check on our community page, or find out the latest updates directly from our carrier partners: 

Royal Mail
Evri
Yodel
UPS
DHL
FedEx
DPD