Sendle’s Sudden Shutdown Leaves Australian eBay Sellers in Limbo

The sudden shutdown of Sendle has left Australian eBay sellers scrambling, with unanswered questions over parcels already in transit.

For years, Sendle positioned itself as a cost-effective, carbon-neutral alternative to traditional parcel carriers, particularly attractive to small and medium sellers and its tight integration with eBay’s label platform made it an easy default choice for domestic shipping in several markets.

But the carrier's future is now up in the air as its new parent company, FAST Group appears to be suffering a post-merger meltdown as funding has been frozen due to alleged due diligence gaps and financial deficiencies.

Last mile provider FAST Group’s post-merger meltdown: PE-backer freezes fund amid financial red flags

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce logistics, mergers are often hailed as game-changers, promising synergies, expanded networks, and economies of

FreightWavesFreightWaves Staff

Sendle customers report receiving emails on Sunday saying it would no longer be completing deliveries, according to the Daily Mail.

I am sorry to let you know that, effective immediately, Sendle will be halting all bookings for parcel pickup and delivery.

Any parcels that have already been picked up and are in transit will be delivered at the discretion of the delivery partner.

Any existing bookings scheduled for pickup on January 12 or later will be cancelled.

eBay users in Australia have mixed feelings about the move and some have raised concerns about what will happen to packages that are currently in transit.

Sendle will be halting all bookings for parcel pickup and delivery

I and many other buyers actively avoid sellers that use Sendle since they will use the cheapest possible courier to deliver items, with the resulting problems with seamless delivery compared to AP.

You pay for what you get

Not for me, this is disappointing and now we lack competition. I will now revert to all sent via mybusiness AP account now as all the sendle parcel have been cancelled that I made over the weekend. I believe Sendle may have gone into liquidation by the looks.

Personally never had any real issues with Sendle after sending 1000's with them over the years. Not any more issues then I would have with AP. I also found the drop off convenient, my local newsagent wont get the business anymore either.

And what happens to all the parcels currently in transit? Will CouriersPlease / Aramex actually deliver the parcel?

eBay Australia has reportedly disabled purchasing Sendle labels through the platform, but has not yet made any public announcements about what users should expect going forward and whether there will be any seller protections extended for shipments already in transit that may not be delivered.

Stay tuned for updates in this developing story and let us know in the comments below how the Sendle shutdown is affecting your online business!