Sellers who choose not to print shipping labels through Bonanza will pay an additional $2 in fees. The marketplace justified the policy by telling sellers it would make their lives easier: “Our USPS, FedEx and UPS labels will be automatically generated and available within your dashboard, at the lowest prices available, whenever there is a sale. Seamless.”
Note that no mainstream marketplace charges sellers a fee for not using its shipping labels.
Wednesday’s announcement was met with immediate resistance from sellers, many of whom use multi-carrier shipping services to manage their orders across all of their channels.
“Forcing sellers into your program will not work,” one seller wrote. “This change does not save me more money. I will be suspending my store at the end of the month. Not giving sellers a choice is a bad idea. I sell way more elsewhere anyway.”
“Not a fan of a forced $2 fee. I prefer Pirate Ship to manage my shipments on multiple platforms. I don’t need to be punished or forced into using Bonanza shipping, and making me rely on this platform to maintain my shipping data, when I already do that with Pirate Ship. Guess I’ll raise all my prices $2 to cover the $2 charge.”
Bonanza CEO Quincy Faison responded to individual comments from sellers, noting in one response, “If you are selling on Bonanza we are giving a guarantee of the lowest shipping costs or we will refund the difference!”
He also clarified that sellers who do print shipping labels through Bonanza would see the $2 charge applied to the cost of the shipping. That means only sellers who don’t print shipping through Bonanza will pay the extra fee. “The $2 is a deposit on the label,” Faison replied to another seller. “So if the label costs you $4 you have already prepaid $2. You will not be charged anything more.”
Another seller worried about the record-keeping implications: “Sounds like an accounting nightmare for sellers… Why “A $2 non-refundable shipping label deposit…” More for me to track. Who needs that? Doesn’t seem worth it. Just a disappointment and what has been a fine relationship.”
Bonanza explained in its announcement how the new program will work:
“A $2 non-refundable shipping label deposit will be charged for each completed transaction. When you pay for your shipping label the $2 is applied as a credit on the purchase. The $2 deposit will be collected at the same time as your monthly FVF fees are collected.”
However, there will be a few exceptions to the policy:
“Exempt will be sellers who manage their order fulfillment through a third-party Bonanza approved API partner, sellers who obtain and fullfill their inventory through a dropshipper service, and sellers who ship from outside the U.S.A.”
The new policy takes effect on November 8, 2023, details are found in the Bonanza announcement.
So what, when I get better rates elsewhere I have to email them to price match?
When I find it easier to batch ship elsewhere I have to use their clunky system or lose $2?
Is this legal?
When they provide me the wrong size PDF’s I have to open them and edit them down to the right size to print on a Rollo myself?
WHAT FOOLS.
Maybe not worth the time to sell there.
lol, i know its a joke, to small seller’s saving $1 on shipping is worth it,
chasing down someone at Bonanza for the $1, NOT worth anyones time
I was reading the responses and I have to laugh at qfaison responses .
One of them was :
” We will reach out to you directly about your situation. Like Pirate Ship we are on one the largest partners of USPS, FedEx, and UPS and can also provide multi-platform shipping”
*** One of the LARGEST partners of USPS . . .
On some of the replies, on those that the sellers use a third party shipping, qfaison keeps stating that they will provide the lowest shipping cost, but skirts that if you want to use your 3rd party shipping that they will be keeping that $2 non-refundable label deposit. SNEAKY
But then, they really haven’t been driving buyers to the site?
I like Bonanza. I have had a booth there for years and have liked everything about the site EXCEPT THE SHIPPING LABELS. The last time I tried to use them it was a disaster. I don’t like this new policy at all!
I guess I can pay an extra $2 for a shipping label, which would make my total extras $2/year. I guess I will just close the shop to avoid this totalitarian move.
This strikes me as kind of like the recent-but-now-apparently-retracted TMobile move to automatically “upgrade” some legacy customers to a higher cost plan. Pure greed. Bonanza’s new owner is doing everything he can to squeeze new revenue from sellers, without doing much if anything to boost buyer traffic to the site.
I don’t sell enough on Bonanza to make it worthwhile with this new $2 tax since I use my own preferred and cost efficient shipping options. I think I will be closing my store before November 8.
If eBay and Mercari et al are smart they’ll highlight to sellers this boneheaded move by Bonanza.
NOT MENTIONED- you also pay a surcharge when you DO use their shipping labels
Just removed all of my ebay-synced listings from Bonanza and canceled future syncing. I would close my shop but I can’t figure out how to pay them the $.80 I owe from the ONE sale I made there in the past year. They won’t let me close my shop while I owe them money and they won’t bill me for the $.80! LOL! Guess I’ll message their help desk to get my shop closed.
Since the items that I sell are in the $10+/- range, their shipping, in the rare instance that I make a sale, has never worked for me with the surcharge and now the $2 deal (if I could even figure out how that convoluted plan works) clinches it.
Just closed my Bonanza booth over this shipping fiasco. I use Pirate Ship and Bonanza says they are not an approved API. I just purchased 2 labels through Bonanza and was charged a 25 cent payment processing fee per label on top of the price of the label. I was already on the fence about Bonanza because of having ti deal with PayPal or Stripe for payment processing and after paying Bonanza FVF and the PayPal fee the selling costs are close to that of eBay. It just isn’t worth it for the few sales a month that Bonanza brings. BYE BYE BONANZA….