Sendle delivers early Xmas present to eBay sellers

Parcel delivery start-up Sendle has reinforced its existing partnership with eBay.

James Chin Moody, founder and CEO of Sendle Picture: John Feder

Parcel delivery start-up Sendle has reinforced its existing partnership with eBay, giving small merchants on the e-commerce platform a premium option.

The latest move will see eBay offer small merchants the ability to print Sendle labels and book deliveries directly from their eBay dashboard for the first time. The integration offers the merchants a more affordable shipping option ahead of the Christmas season.

Sendle co-founder and CEO James Chin Moody said consumer expectations around delivery of their online purchases had risen significantly, putting many small and medium online retailers under pressure.

“Shipping is a big thing in the world of e-commerce so we’ve been working with eBay to remove friction,” Mr Chin Moody said.

“We basically built Sendle to solve problems for small sellers, who don’t want to be spending most of their time trying to deal with the complexity of delivering their wares.

“What they really want is a simple reliable and affordable shipping solution.”

The new integration comes hot off the heels of strong periods of growth for Sendle. In the past 12 months, Sendle raised $20m to continue its growth, launched new dashboard tools and became the first courier service in Australia to offer compostable satchels, tackling the e-commerce industry’s plastic pollution problem.

Mr Chin Moody added that forging a partnership with the likes of eBay had been a coup for Sendle.

“EBay is basically the hottest seat when it comes to online commerce, it’s one of the most recognised brands in Australia and there’s an item sold every five seconds on eBay,” he said. “With a shared commitment to helping small businesses thrive, we can’t wait to help all eBay’s sellers build their business, particularly in the critical lead-up to Christmas.”

However, eBay is also looking to leverage Sendle’s capabilities to power its membership program, eBay Plus, giving more options and control to its 40,000 Australian sellers.

The integration will give eBay sellers access to Sendle’s free door-to-door delivery (no more waiting in line), low, flat rates Australia-wide, free tracking and a carbon neutral parcel delivery service, the first time this has been available on eBay.

“Given the rise of e-commerce in Australia, the membership program is going to be huge,” Mr Chin Moody said.