Dive Brief:

• EBay has trimmed shipping costs at recently acquired fashion marketplace Depop and rolled out a mix of delivery upgrades for sellers, President and CEO Jamie Iannone said on an earnings call last week.
• While Iannone didn't offer specifics on how much shipping rates have been reduced, he highlighted that Depop’s ability to leverage eBay’s carrier rates has fueled improvements. EBay provides discounted rates through the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS.
• "Access to eBay's carrier rates has already lowered Depop's shipping and parcel rates, making shipping investments more efficient and there's a lot more work for us to do there," Iannone said.

Dive Insight:

Shipping costs — which have climbed this year amid rising fuel fees — can represent a large portion of the total price for lower-cost fashion items, CFO Peggy Alford noted on an August earnings call. According to Alford, reduced rates could encourage more transactions for the Depop marketplace, which eBay acquired in July for $1.4 billion.

"So by increasing the affordability at a broader range of price points, we're seeing increased conversion, more customer acquisition, converting those buyers into enthusiasts," Alford said.

Beyond Depop, eBay has launched several new shipping features for sellers. The marketplace recently deployed an improved artificial intelligence-powered delivery date model in six major export markets, increasing the number of products the company can offer "with a fast delivery promise while maintaining reliability," Iannone said. The export markets are the U.S., China, U.K., France, Canada and Poland, an eBay spokesperson told Supply Chain Dive in an email.

Also through AI, eBay can now estimate a package's size and weight, generate a prepaid label and offer tracking as part of the marketplace's "magical listing" tool, Iannone said. It's another example of the growing prevalence of AI within online marketplaces and the shipping process.

"So historically, on eBay, you would have had to buy the label and go through that process yourself," Iannone said at a Goldman Sachs conference in September. "Now we just say, 'We leverage AI, we can figure out what it's going to cost to ship those speakers. We'll take care of the whole thing.'"

Additionally, the company launched eBay International Shipping in the U.K. and Germany in Q3, in which eBay handles transportation, customs, returns and post-purchase support, Iannone said on last week's call. For the U.K. specifically, eBay estimates the program can be up to 30% cheaper compared to its previous global shipping program.