eBay Shipping Glitch Raises Questions About Simple Delivery Managed Shipping Coming To The US
eBay sellers are reporting a glitch in the listing form preventing them from adding package weight and dimensions and possibly hinting at Simple Delivery managed shipping expanding to the US.
Post have been flooding the eBay community forum this afternoon saying that the listing form currently does not provide an option for sellers to enter the weight and dimensions in the shipping section.
Shipping Options Just Disappeared?
Just tried to create a listing from my computer like always and when I went to indicate the weight/dimensions my shipping options disappeared along with weight/dimensions? Any idea what's up?
Also tried to revise an existing listing and again no shipping options are listed. Was a setting changed without my input?
shipping options missing when listing new items
is anyone else having trouble finding the shipping options mine is gone.. the area where you choose priority ground etc is gone on my pages when i try to list a new item
Others report that the boxes to enter weight and dimensions are still showing sporadically, but they've also noticed something new - a section that asks the user to choose between Simple Delivery and Custom Postage.
This likely has something to do with the "new" Simple Delivery option which has just shown up with no explanation of what it is or what it does. I would assume this latest "improvement" will cause untold problems until it's fixed or totally abandoned, whichever comes first.
I was able to recreate that experience myself from a US-based account - it shows a message that says "new" Simple Delivery on one side and Custom Postage on the other but if you try to click either one the page just refreshes and nothing else happens.
Simple Delivery is the managed shipping option that eBay introduced in the UK late last year, recently making it mandatory for all private sellers to ship eligible items this way.
Liz Morton
With Simple Delivery, the amount paid for shipping by the buyer goes to eBay and then eBay provides a pre-paid label to the seller to use for the shipment.
It's currently only mandatory for UK private sellers and while eBay's help pages officially still say it's only available for private sellers, at least one business seller on Reddit says they have also recently started seeing it being applied to their listings - though it's not entirely clear from that post if this was a glitch, confusion, or if eBay really is now expanding Simple Delivery to business sellers in the UK.
Interestingly, the text in the Shipping Setup module that US sellers are seeing seems to match what UK sellers are shown, including using language that is more common in the UK, like "postage" and "postal courier", where Americans would be more likely to say "shipping" and "carrier."
That could possibly mean this is a glitch which is inadvertently causing UK option to appear on the US listing form in error or it could mean that eBay is working on rolling Simple Delivery to the US, copying over the same design elements in the process and simply hasn't updated the wording for the US market yet.
If the latter ends up being the case, it won't be a surprise, as eBay has been testing US seller sentiment on a Simple Delivery type offering in recent surveys.
Liz Morton
Based on those survey questions, it appears eBay was considering primarily using USPS for the service, with the addition of FedEx for larger packages or express shipping, and they were keen to know if using FedEx would be an obstacle to adoption.
That's no surprise as eBay already has a deal with FedEx for mandatory pre-paid shipping for sneakers in the Authenticity Guarantee Program.
It was interesting to see that eBay would dangle the idea of deeper discounts on USPS rates than they currently offer as a benefit as well.
Back in 2019, it was revealed that eBay was at that time the second-largest customer of the US Postal Service, a position many sellers have said eBay could and should use to negotiate better discounted rates and (most importantly) pass more of those discounts on to them.
Liz Morton
It's important to note that in a managed shipping scenario, the shipping amount from the buyer is paid to eBay, then eBay purchases the label/pays the carrier and provides the pre-paid label to the seller to use.
That means any benefit or profit from negotiated discounted shipping rates for this service goes to eBay, not the seller.
CEO Jamie Iannone and new CFO Peggy Alford made it very clear on the Q2 2025 earnings call that Simple Delivery in the UK is seen as an important revenue center and the recent consolidation of Ads, Stores, Shipping, Payments and Financing teams into a new monetization-focused "Services" org within the company shows that expanding managed shipping is likely a high priority.
Liz Morton
The survey went on to ask what percentage of the seller's orders are items above $100, how important it is to them to know which carrier will be used for shipping when creating a listing, and what percentage of their orders wind up requiring them to file a claim with the carrier for lost, stolen, or damaged shipments.
Coverage for claims has been one of the major concerns amongst UK sellers with confusion over whether eBay will really honor their protection promises or use carrier exclusion lists as a "get out of liability" card to deny compensation.
Liz Morton
Strangely, this survey did not mention the possibility of having the carrier provide packaging services as well - an idea that was floated in a similar survey some sellers received earlier this year.
The other reason it won't be a surprise if eBay is in fact rolling out Simple Delivery to the US is the company has explicitly stated on recent earnings calls that they see the program in the UK as an important revenue driver - saying they expect it to "meaningfully contribute" to increasing take rate.
An eBay community rep has acknowledged the problem with the disappearing shipping settings and says the product team is working to fix the issue - but has not said anything about what the strange appearance of Simple Delivery settings for US users might mean.
Stay tuned for updates and let us know in the comments below if you are a US seller seeing options for Simple Delivery on the listing form!
