UPS announced new fees, including a $25 surcharge for paying invoices by check or wire transfer. And while UPS is eliminating the 2% fee it charged for invoices paid via credit card, it will begin charging all shippers a Payment Processing Fee equal to 2% of their invoice amounts.

It's not clear that those particular surcharge fees would affect online sellers who purchase online shipping labels through third-parties, since sellers pay the marketplaces or shipping service providers rather than UPS directly. Even so, providers of online shipping labels could pass along any higher costs they experience to sellers.

Smaller sellers had ... Read More

Amazon slaps a warning badge on products with high return rates as a notice to potential buyers. On Monday, Amazon introduced new features to help sellers more easily identify products with growing rates of returns so they could avoid the "Frequently Returned" badge on their products.

But sellers reacting to Monday's post said Amazon needed to do more to prevent bad buyers and scammers from abusing returns and needed to do more to prevent rival sellers from sabotaging their listings.

Amazon described the new feature rolling out to the Voice of the Customer seller dashboard to help improve return rates:

Quilters and crafters are lamenting the pending closure of all 800-plus JOANN stores where they purchase their supplies. How are online sellers of handmade goods reacting? It's difficult to determine since Etsy and Amazon Handmade forums are closed off to everyone except those who are registered to sell on those platforms. But many people with a love of sewing expressed their dismay online.

NPR wrote about the closing on Tuesday, reporting it was the result of JOANN's second bankruptcy filing in less than a year. 

As news spread, people began sharing personal stories of going to stores with mothers and grandmothers ... Read More

Amazon sellers are experiencing problems with USPS shipping labels purchased through its Buy Shipping and Veeqo platforms. Since Monday, sellers say tracking numbers provided are ones the USPS already used to ship other sellers' packages. The problem of USPS recycled tracking numbers rears its head occasionally, and this week, it's hitting Amazon sellers hard. 

"Not sure if it's just my luck but for 2 orders, seems USPS labels purchased through Amazon have been recycled for items (not mine) that were delivered some time ago in the recent past," a seller reported on the Amazon discussion boards on Monday. "Going ... Read More

President Trump will reportedly disband the Board of Governors overseeing the Postal Service and move the independent agency under the control of executive branch's Commerce Department. The Washington Post spoke to people familiar with the situation and said Trump is expected to issue an executive order as early as this week.

The hijacking report comes 2 days after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced he would step down from his post heading the USPS after 5 years of service. 

"When you control the mail, you control - information," sitcom Seinfeld's fictional mailman Newman famously said. But online sellers don't find shipping matters ... Read More