eBay Reassures Sellers that USPS Discounts Will Remain

An article in Linn’s Stamp News on Friday had online sellers scrambling to find out if they would lose postage discounts when they purchase USPS labels on online marketplaces and postage providers.

Amazon told EcommerceBytes on Saturday that the end of the USPS Reseller program scheduled for October would have no impact to Amazon or its sellers, and on Tuesday, eBay posted the following announcement on the Shipping area of its online discussion boards:

“Hi everyone! We know there has been some chatter and concern over the possibility of the USPS ending discount programs and we’d like to assure you that any changes made will not impact the eBay label rates for USPS.”

As we had reported on Friday, there’s a difference between the USPS Reseller program that incentivizes companies for bringing business from “smaller” shippers that the USPS’s own sales force does not attract and the ePostage and PC Postage Provider programs like those from Stamps.com (Auctane), Pitney Bowes, and online marketplaces that accommodate shippers such as online sellers.

Auctane has yet to respond to our request for comment; Pitney Bowes declined to comment.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.