eBay’s new Shyp partnership will make life easier for sellers
Sellers on eBay in America were cheered last week by the news that on-demand delivery start-up Shyp announced it has partnered with the online marketplace to ease the burden of shipping their sold items during the busy Christmas shopping season. Shyp will incorporate all of its solutions directly into eBay‘s existing account management systems, so sellers can have personal couriers begin their shipments without having to pay the normal $5 fee that Shyp charges other clients. While Shyp will only offer eBay sellers fee-free deliveries until the end of January, the two companies plan to continue their partnership for the foreseeable future. Various reports suggest that if Shyp can convince sellers that the service is worth the $5 fee before February (when the free deal ends), it may have cornered an entire marketplace of sellers for future growth.

Shyp

eBay is a great way to buy and sell things online. But until now, packing and shipping items has always been a hassle, requiring an extra trip to your local post office or shipping store just for a box and a label.

That's where Shyp, the popular on-demand pickup and packaging startup, comes in.

On Tuesday, Shyp announced a partnership with eBay, which relieves eBay sellers of most of the hard work.

All you have to do is open your Shyp app and connect your eBay account. From there, you can see all the items you've sold recently. Just choose the items you want to ship, request a pickup from Shyp, and that's it. A courier from Shyp will arrive at your location to pick up your items, "professionally package your items with custom materials and ship them via the best-priced carrier," according to Shyp.

(You can see how Shyp works in our tour of the service here.)

From now until Jan. 31, 2016, Shyp will pick up and package your eBay shipments for free. The company will reintroduce its usual $5 service fee after that period ends, but Shyp promises "our eBay integration is here to stay."

This eBay-Shyp integration is clever and useful, but it's unfortunately limited for now. Shyp is only available in a handful of major cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, and Chicago. And if you purchase a shipping label with eBay, you'll be ineligible to use Shyp's services.

That said, eBay users in these major cities where Shyp is available should love this integration. It offers the best aspect of on-demand services — someone doing a difficult/annoying task so you don't have to — and it comes right to your door. And thanks to the free pickup and packaging during this promotional period, this holiday season is the perfect time to sell your stuff on eBay.