eBay UK postage policy setup: business policies, delivery services and dispatch times step by step

What is an eBay UK postage policy?

An eBay UK postage policy is a saved template that holds your delivery services, what each one costs the buyer, the locations you post to and your dispatch time. You build it once and attach it to as many listings as you like, so a change in one place reaches every listing that uses it. Postage policies sit alongside payment and return policies under the heading eBay calls business policies.

Private sellers can use them too: the name refers to the feature, not to your account type. If you list more than a handful of items, policies save time and, more usefully, stop the slow drift where every listing ends up with slightly different delivery terms that you no longer remember setting.

How do you turn on business policies?

eBay's business policies help page says you need to opt in before you can use them. Once you have, you manage everything from the business policies dashboard in the Account section of My eBay, also reachable from Seller Hub.

1. Opt in to business policies from the help page or your account settings.
2. Open the dashboard and choose Postage from the Create policy dropdown.
3. Give the policy a clear name and a short description.
4. Add the delivery services, costs, dispatch time and excluded locations.
5. Save, then attach the policy to new listings or bulk edit existing ones.

One detail catches sellers who trade on more than one eBay site: each marketplace needs its own policies. A policy built on ebay.co.uk can only be used on ebay.co.uk listings.

Which postage policies should a UK seller create?

Start from the way your parcels really differ, not from every combination eBay offers. Most stores need three to six policies: one per parcel size band, and sometimes a second version of each for a faster or free option. Name them so you can pick the right one without opening it.

The names in the table are only examples. What matters is that the name tells you the parcel band, whether postage is free and the dispatch time, because those are the three things you check when you attach a policy.

Choosing services inside a policy

eBay's postage options page lists the carriers you can choose, from Royal Mail 1st and 2nd Class, Royal Mail 24 and 48 and Tracked 24 and 48, to couriers such as Evri, DPD, Parcelforce, Yodel and InPost, plus heavy goods carriers. The same page says that to be protected against item not received claims under eBay Money Back Guarantee you should use a carrier that is integrated with eBay and upload the correct tracking number and carrier name.

• Offer one standard service as the default, ideally tracked.
• Add one faster service as a paid upgrade if the parcel band allows it.
• Add local collection only if you can really hand items over at your address.
• Exclude locations you do not post to, such as overseas areas you have not priced.

Free postage or a charge?

Ticking free for buyer means you pay the delivery cost, so it has to be inside your item price. eBay's postage page suggests free 3-day delivery can make a listing more appealing and reduce abandoned baskets. Whether that pays depends on your margin. Example: suppose a small parcel costs you £3.20 to send and you sell at £14.99 with a £2.95 postage charge. Moving to free postage at £17.99 keeps the buyer's total almost the same, but now every eBay fee that is charged on the total is charged on £17.99. Run your own numbers before switching a whole policy.

How do you set a dispatch time you can always meet?

The dispatch time, also called handling time, is the number of working days you have to post the item after payment. eBay recommends no more than 1 working day on its estimated delivery dates page, and it uses your dispatch time with the service speed to work out the delivery date buyers see.

Three settings shape that date:

• Working days. The default is Monday to Friday, but you can add Saturday or Sunday if you really post on those days. eBay only counts the days you select.
• Same-day cut-off. If you offer same-day dispatch, the cut-off is the time by which a purchase must be made. eBay recommends no earlier than 2pm.
• 1-day handling. This runs to the end of the next working day, not 24 hours. A Monday payment must be dispatched and scanned by Tuesday at 11.59pm.

Pick the dispatch time from your worst normal week, not your best day. Late deliveries count against your seller performance: with tracking, a parcel is late if the delivery scan comes after the latest estimated delivery date and there is no carrier scan within your dispatch time. A carrier scan inside the dispatch time protects you even if the carrier is then slow. Our guide to choosing an eBay handling time goes through the trade-off in detail.

What happens when you edit an eBay UK postage policy?

When you update a policy, every listing using it is updated automatically. That is the main reason to use policies, and also the main risk: a typo in a cost or a dispatch time spreads to hundreds of listings at once.

Some listings cannot take the change. eBay says listings that cannot be revised, for example one with a pending sale or a Best Offer, or one that ends in less than 12 hours, keep their old terms. eBay creates a policy named "Copy of..." or one with an odd-looking name to hold the original settings. If your policy list suddenly contains copies you did not make, that is usually why. Reassign those listings to your real policy once the blocking sale or offer has cleared.

You also cannot delete a policy that active or scheduled listings use until you move those listings to another policy. The dashboard has an option to delete inactive policies, which clears out ones that no live listing uses.

A safe way to change a policy

1. Write down what you are changing and why, with the date.
2. Make the change on one policy, not several at once.
3. Open two or three listings that use it and check the delivery section buyers see.
4. Check for new "Copy of" policies over the next day and reassign them.

How do postage rate tables and Premium Service fit in?

A postage rate table lets you charge different amounts to different regions, such as the Scottish Highlands, Northern Ireland or the islands, and buyers see the rate for their own address. You attach a rate table to a postage policy, which is tidier than making a separate policy for each region.

eBay Premium Service is a badge for UK business sellers who are Top Rated. eBay's Premium Service page lists the listing requirements: a free domestic delivery service within 3 working days, an express option within 2 working days costing no more than £10, tracked services for items listed at £20 and above, 30-day returns and a UK return address. eBay says qualifying listings receive a 10% discount on final value fees. If you are close to Top Rated, it is worth building one policy that meets these terms so you can attach it to the listings that qualify. Our page on eBay UK postage options compares the carriers in more depth.

What to do next: a postage policy checklist

• Opt in to business policies and list the parcel bands you actually send.
• Create one policy per band, named with size, free or paid, and dispatch time.
• Put a tracked service with an eBay-integrated carrier in each policy where the value justifies it.
• Set working days and the same-day cut-off to match the days you really post.
• Choose a dispatch time from your worst normal week.
• Add a rate table for remote areas instead of extra policies.
• Bulk edit existing listings onto the new policies, then spot check a few.
• After any edit, look for "Copy of" policies and reassign those listings.

Done once, this turns postage from a per-listing chore into a short list of settings you can review in a few minutes each month.