Another Platform Joins the 'Mandatory Official Shipping Label' Trend? eBay US Plans to Launch Unified Shipping Model

Ebrun Exclusive: On June 7th, cross-border e-commerce platform eBay released an updated user agreement, set to take effect on June 28th. A new section within this agreement, detailing upcoming changes to US logistics rules, has garnered significant attention.

According to the terms, eBay plans to introduce a new shipping label system for eligible items, which will require sellers to use platform-designated shipping labels for fulfillment. The shipping fees paid by buyers at checkout will be collected by the platform. For sellers offering free shipping, the corresponding shipping costs will be directly deducted from their accounts.

The agreement states: "eBay may add certain shipping options to your listings to improve the experience for both sellers and buyers when selecting shipping labels; for eligible listings, eBay will require sellers to use eBay shipping as the delivery method and to use the shipping label provided by eBay."

Under this model, buyers can choose between standard or expedited shipping, or opt for carrier pickup. After a sale, the shipping fee paid by the buyer at checkout will be paid to eBay to cover the platform-provided shipping label. If a seller offers free shipping, the fee owed to eBay will be deducted from their account, and the buyer will not pay any additional shipping for that label.

As this user agreement targets eBay's main US site (eBay.com), it likely signals the imminent formal launch of some form of unified logistics model in the US market.

The announcement quickly sparked discussion within seller communities. In response, eBay community staff reassured sellers that most current shipping methods would not change immediately. The new clause in the user agreement is primarily to support potential new logistics experiences eBay may introduce in the future, such as the "Managed Shipping" model currently being tested with a small number of sellers in specific regions and categories.

While public details about the specific form of the US version of "Managed Shipping" are still scarce, eBay has been surveying sellers since last year to gauge their attitude towards expanding the "Simple Delivery" unified logistics model—already in place in the UK for two years—to North America.

In these surveys, eBay highlighted numerous potential benefits. According to its promotion, advantages of this new model include: automatic label generation, eliminating the need for sellers to purchase postage separately, immediate access to labels and QR codes after a sale, automatic upload of tracking information, and no manual entry of tracking numbers.

Regarding logistics protection, eBay claims it will provide coverage for lost or damaged items, and platform intervention for cases where buyers do not receive their goods.

However, in the US market, one key difference from the UK is that the maximum reimbursement for items lost or damaged under the unified logistics model will be only $200—this likely indicates eBay plans to initially restrict eligible items to those valued below this amount.

In fact, this US market reform is not a sudden move by eBay, but a significant, long-planned step to transplant its UK experience.

In the UK, one of eBay's most important and controversial reforms in recent years has been "Simple Delivery." This model essentially marks eBay's shift from an open platform model where "sellers choose their own logistics" to a semi-managed model of "platform-unified labels and logistics management."

It is understood that Simple Delivery is an integrated logistics solution launched for individual sellers in the UK. When listing items, eBay recommends package dimensions and shipping services. Upon sale, a prepaid shipping label and QR code are automatically generated, and tracking is uploaded automatically.

After Simple Delivery's implementation, shipping fees belong to eBay, labels are provided by eBay, carriers are designated by eBay, and tracking information flows directly into the system. This means eBay begins to control data and revenue from the logistics chain.

In terms of rollout, the project began piloting in 2024, initially only for a small number of individual sellers. By April 2025, eBay began mandatory promotion, making Simple Delivery the default—and often only—shipping method for the vast majority of UK individual sellers.

eBay then gradually expanded its scope. By 2026, Simple Delivery had become the default logistics solution for the majority of items sold by UK individual sellers.

In a broader context, major cross-border e-commerce platforms forcibly promoting platform shipping labels, controlling logistics chains, and restricting merchant self-fulfillment has become a common industry practice over the past half-year—with multiple platforms working to bring the logistics process under their own management systems.

Taking the US market as an example, Temu moved earliest and most aggressively, mandating US sellers to use platform labels starting in March 2025 and repeatedly upgrading penalties for fake labels.

TikTok Shop phased in its approach starting in the second half of 2025, completely shutting down self-fulfillment by March 31, 2026, requiring all orders to be fulfilled through official logistics.

SHEIN adopted a gradual tightening strategy, planning to fully restrict the export address shipping function for semi-managed and self-operated merchant orders by June 30, 2026, supporting only online orders through platform-partnered logistics.

Ebrun continues to track and report on this development. To learn more information related to this article, please scan the QR code to follow the author's WeChat.