Royal Mail Institutes 30p Charge For Collection In Blow To eBay Simple Delivery Service
Royal Mail have finally instituted 30p charge for home collection after years of offering free service - how will this change impact eBay UK's Simple Delivery managed shipping?
The plan to charge for at home collection has apparently been in place for several years, but Royal Mail has consistently extended the "free collection" promotion - until now.
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine shows as recently as April 7, 2025, Royal Mail still showed collection service was free.
But the website has since been updated and many UK shippers report they are now being charged the 30p per parcel fee starting on May 1, 2025.
To be clear, this change impacts all shippers who use Royal Mail collection service, regardless of whether or not they sell online - but I have to wonder if the timing of Royal Mail deciding to remove the "free promo" was at least partially influenced by eBay's recent expansion of Simple Delivery managed shipping.
Simple Delivery was introduced in May 2024 and was initially limited only to clothing sales, but eBay quickly expanded the program to include most categories on the platform and is in the process of making it mandatory for all private sellers of eligible items to use Simple Delivery with a phased rollout that started April 15, 2025.
Liz Morton
The initial rollout of mandatory Simple Delivery has not gone smoothly,with many reports that Post Offices were refusing to accept these shipments due to the fact eBay uses estimated weights and dimensions that may not exactly match the actual package.
Liz Morton
eBay later clarified that their agreement with Royal Mail requires Post Offices to accept these packages if the label says "Marketplace Seller" on it and that as long as the seller is using eBay's label with the eBay provided estimates and the size/weight are within the maximum allowable limit, they will not be charged for any postage cost overages which may occur.
While the details of eBay's deal with Royal Mail are not published publicly, it's possible the additional volume and/or hassle of handling packages which may have these kinds of variations in size and weight could have been a consideration in Royal Mail's decision to start charging the long put off fee for collection.
By default, eBay Simple Delivery may use either Evri or Royal Mail, depending on a variety of factors and while eBay does allow sellers to set their preferences to include both or only one of those carriers, there are some important caveats sellers will need to consider - including that eBay may not honor their preferences in all situations and if they choose to limit their preference to Royal Mail only, buyers will be shown higher shipping costs than if they leave both options enabled.
Liz Morton
When Simple Delivery was first introduced, many sellers raised concerns that mandated usage of the service would unfairly disadvantage and discriminate against those with disabilities or in remote areas without easy access to transportation to a drop off point.
eBay's answer to that was that sellers who required collection for those reasons could limit their preferences to Royal Mail only and then once they receive the label, they could go to the Royal Mail website to book free collection at their convenience.
While the option for collection was a positive addition to the program, it was far from a complete solution to those discrimination concerns due to the higher postage prices that will be shown to buyers if the preference is limited to Royal Mail only.
And now that Royal Mail has done away with free collection and instituted a 30p per parcel fee, that puts disabled and remote sellers at an even further disadvantage.
eBay has yet to make an official announcement about how they plan to handle this change, but sellers in the UK community forum are hoping it might make the company reconsider mandating use of Simple Delivery for private sellers.
royal mail Now started charging 30 pence for collecting Simple delivery ebay parcels
This really puts a hole in eBay's Simple Delivery boat.
How they must wish they had been better prepared, and managed to get SD introduced for all private sellers before this hit.
I am in no way in favour of SD (my own private account has not yet been converted), but previously had accepted that it would eventually settle down, and we would all just get on with it. Some of the postings on this board have been laughable in their over-reaction.
However, this does change things a little. It will be harder for eBay to claim they are not discriminating against disabled people now; their previous response had always been that Royal Mail will pick up for free.
I wonder if eBay will react. Could this be the reason the roll-out seems to have stalled?
Unfortunately, I don't believe this hiccup will dissuade eBay from their Simple Delivery plans as CEO Jamie Iannone and CFO Steve Priest made it clear on yesterday's Q1 2025 earnings call that the UK Buyer Protection Fee and Simple Delivery are expected to meaningfully contribute to achieving 1-3% Revenue growth in Q2.
How will Royal Mail getting rid of free collection service impact your selling on eBay or other marketplaces? Let us know in the comments below!
