UPS is offering the eBay selling community the opportunity to receive UPS's Daily Pickup rate, with no minimum volumes and no commitments. This program offers a savings of up to 31% for eBay packages shipped using the PayPal label printing solution, and is offered to eBay sellers who are currently paying non-discounted UPS published rates.

To get in on the savings, sellers need to go to www.ebay.com/ups.

There you can:

1. Sign up for the UPS Special Pricing Program.
2. Get a UPS account.
3. Learn how to change your account preferences in the PayPal label printing solution in order to have the discounts apply to your shipping labels.

The new lower rates will apply to packages shipped during the week following your sign-up for the UPS Special Pricing Program. (Sign-up must be completed by Friday at 8 a.m. EST to apply to the following Monday's shipments). More information about the program is included in our Frequently Asked Questions.

Sellers who use the eBay Shipping Calculator in their listings to automatically calculate ZIP to ZIP delivery rates can modify their eBay preferences to have the Special Pricing Program reflected in their listings. Just change your UPS settings to "Daily Rates." Please read our FAQs for more details.

Price + Shipping Sort
Bill also mentioned an important test underway. We’ve all been frustrated by excessive shipping and handling charges. Price + Shipping Sort is a new search option that sorts search results according to the total cost of the item, including shipping and handling charges. That way, buyers can choose to have the full price picture sorted by either highest total cost or lowest total cost.

We will be testing this over coming weeks with a small sample of eBay buyers. If our tests are successful, we expect to roll the Price + Shipping sort option out more broadly. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Adding eBay Stores to the Site Header
As Bill mentioned, recently we launched a new header (the links at the top of eBay pages) across the site. Our new design did not include a link to eBay Stores, and many of our Stores sellers did not agree with this decision. You made your opinions heard, and we listened. I'm pleased to let you know that we are putting eBay Stores back in the header in the next 30 days.

More Value for Featured and Anchor Subscribers
Featured and Anchor Stores are our top-of-the-line offerings, and we've been working to make them even more valueable. Beginning in September, we're going to include more business tools and resources for these tiers, as well as make a few other changes:

• Featured Stores renamed to Premium. We're changing the name of the Featured tier to "Premium." It's a minor cosmetic change, but we feel it more accurately reflects the benefits, namely the advanced business tools, this tier offers.
• Free Marketplace Research. Both Premium and Anchor Store subscribers will receive eBay Marketplace Research free with their subscriptions.
• Increased Email Marketing allotment. Both Premium and Anchor Stores will receive a larger Email Marketing allotment. Premium subscribers will be able to send 7,500 emails per month, and Anchor subscribers will be able to send 10,000 per month.
• Dedicated 24/7 phone customer support for Premium Stores. Premium subscribers will now have access to customer support by phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week!
• 40% Off the Anchor Store price. We're cutting the Anchor Store subscription fee to $299.95 a month. That’s a savings of 40%!

For more details, visit www.ebay.com/comingtostores.

Showcase your Store with eBay Stores To Go
Based on our popular eBay To Go widget, we've just launched eBay Stores To Go! eBay Stores To Go lets you share your eBay Stores listings, as well as your Store's look-and-feel beyond eBay. Simply add the widget to your blog, website, social networking site, or just about anywhere on the web to give your viewers a convenient window into your Store. They can even bid and buy right from the widget itself! To learn more, visit www.ebay.com/storestogo.

Spruce up your Store at the eBay Stores Design Center
Whether you're looking for ways to improve your Store's appearance, or trying to build an eye-catching storefront from scratch, the eBay Stores Design Center is for you. Here you'll find design Do's and Don'ts, as well as FREE eBay Stores design templates. If you need a little outside help, check our Certified eBay Stores Designer Directory for designers who can help your vision become reality. We've even provided a few examples of eBay Stores that went through an "extreme makeover" to inspire you about the possibilities.

Our eBay Stores Design Center has just launched, so check it out at www.ebay.com/designcenter.

• New eligibility requirements for Seasonal and High-volume/Low ASP sellers - You've asked for these changes for a long time. Sellers who have a high-volume seasonal business, or who specialize in items with low average selling prices (like trading cards, media, etc.) want to get recognized for their hard work, and we agree. Starting this fall, we're adjusting the eligibility requirements to accommodate these groups of sellers. Edurne Jorda who manages the PowerSeller program will be back to give you more details.

• Unpaid Item Rebate on Auction Feature Fees – For years you've asked us to insure you from losses on those occasions when a buyer doesn't pay. Well, we've heard you, and starting on August 1st, PowerSellers will get a rebate on unpaid item feature fees for auction listings (where Immediate Payment is not an option) when they accept PayPal and specify reasonable shipping & handling fees.

I also told the audience last night that we're currently evaluating how a seller's PowerSeller status and excellent track record serving customers might be factored into our search logic on eBay. It's something our best sellers have been wanting for a long time. We're not ready to do this yet – but it is something we're moving towards.

So these are some of the ways we're investing in our sellers, and we'll be announcing more throughout the coming months. By investing in the success of our sellers, we're investing in the eBay marketplace.

And on that note -- before I close -- I'm pleased to offer our sellers a little summer relief to your selling costs. Starting June 19th and continuing through August 5th, we will LOWER the first tranche of Final Value Fees from 5.25% to 4.5%. This applies to auction, auction BIN, or pure fixed price format listings. Consider it a little eBay Live! gift to our fantastic community.

eBay Stores
First I'd like to acknowledge that after eBay Live! last year, we did something unusual and raised our fees for Store Inventory format listings. Many of our Stores sellers weren't happy about that – but as I said then, there was a pressing need to rebalance the marketplace. I'm pleased to say we're seeing the results we wanted, and we appreciate our sellers for their support. While growth in overall listings has slowed (as we expected), conversion rates have improved, due in part, to better quality inventory on the site.

Now, for those who may be wondering, I want to share with you what I shared last night – there will be no increase in selling fees this July.

We're doing a number of important things to make it worth your while to have an eBay Store. Darlene Clementz of the eBay Stores team will be following up this letter with information about some great new Stores improvements, but I'd like to personally let you know about one change I mentioned last night.

A few weeks ago we launched a new header design. Our Stores sellers have made it clear that they don't like it, because there is no eBay Stores link. Well, you're right – you should have one. Within the next 30 days, we plan to put eBay Stores back where they belong – in the header at the top of every eBay page.

Message from Bill Cobb