eBay shipping software for dropshippers: dispatch deadlines, tracking and parcels

What “eBay shipping software” means for a dropshipper

Search for eBay shipping software and most of what you find is built for sellers who pack their own parcels: it prints postage labels, compares carrier rates and books collections. That is the right tool if you post from your own stock.

A dropshipper’s parcels are packed and sent by the supplier. You never hold a label, so what you need is different: a clear list of which orders to place today, a warning before eBay’s dispatch deadline passes, somewhere to put the tracking number once the supplier gives it to you, and a way to see whether the parcel is moving. That is what this page covers, and it is the part of the job Sellhelm is built for. If you also post some orders yourself, use a label tool for those: Sellhelm does not print labels.

The three jobs

1. Meet the dispatch deadline. eBay gives every sale a dispatch date based on the handling time on your listing, and orders dispatched late count against your seller standards. With a supplier in the middle, the clock starts when the buyer pays, not when you remember to order. You need the orders sorted by how many days are left.
2. Put tracking on the eBay order. Buyers expect a tracking number, and eBay uses it to confirm the parcel moved. The number has to be attached to the right order with a courier that eBay recognises. Typing it in by hand works for ten orders a week and breaks down at a hundred.
3. Know where the parcel is. A parcel stuck for days is the start of a “where is my order?” message. The sooner you know, the sooner you can tell the buyer before they ask.

What Sellhelm does about it

Everything in this section works by hand, with no add-on and no extra cost.

• An order desk sorted by stage. Each sale appears on the Orders page. Cards across the top count orders To order, Waiting for tracking, On their way, Delivered and Need attention, and they double as filters.
• The dispatch deadline on every order. Each order shows the days left to dispatch by eBay’s own date, and an order past it is flagged, so the urgent ones are never buried.
• One place for the whole order. One button opens the supplier’s product page; the buyer’s name and address are read from eBay just then and shown in copyable parts, and never stored by the program; and there is a box for what you paid the supplier, so your profit stays accurate.
• Tracking straight onto the eBay order. Choose the courier, enter the number and press Send to eBay and mark dispatched. eBay keeps every number you add. If a parcel genuinely has no number eBay accepts, tick “No tracking available” and the Overview stops asking you for one.
• An Overview that tells you what is waiting. “Needs you” cards list an order to place, a tracking number to add or a product that has gone out of stock, most urgent first, and say so when there is nothing to do.

The optional add-on: Tracking & auto orders

For sellers who want the typing done for them, there is one optional add-on at £4.99 a month plus a one-off £9.99 setup. You can cancel at any time and keep it to the end of the month you paid for. The tracking parts of it are:

• Parcel tracking. Sellhelm reads each parcel at the shop several times a day and adds the tracking number to eBay only when the courier is one eBay recognises. It never converts or disguises a number.
• Your own tracking page on an address you own, where your customers type their eBay order number and see a courier-style page that follows the parcel. It can show the driver’s delivery photo if you allow it.

The add-on also includes automatic buying from Amazon, which spends money on your own accounts and may go against a shop’s conditions of use. Read the caution on the Features page before switching it on. You never need the add-on to run an order desk or to send tracking to eBay.

What it does not do

• It does not print postage labels or book carriers. If you post some orders yourself, use a label tool for those.
• It does not control the supplier. If a supplier is slow or sends nothing, Sellhelm shows you the late order and the days left; getting the parcel moving is still your job.
• It only sends a number eBay accepts. If a courier is not one eBay recognises, the number is not forced onto the order.
• It is Windows software that runs on your own PC, not a website, and does not run on a Mac.

Setting it up

Allow about half an hour from download to a working setup; the longest part is waiting for eBay to approve a developer account, which can take up to a day. The steps, in order, are on the getting started page: install, activate, connect your eBay account, add the Chrome extension, set your rules and list your first product. When the first sale arrives it appears on the Orders page and you are ready to place it, add the tracking and mark it dispatched.

You can see the order desk working before you buy anything: the live demo is the real program on a made-up shop, in your browser. Sellhelm itself is a one-off payment from £79.99 with a 14-day money-back guarantee, and the complete guide to dropshipping on eBay covers the rest of the job around dispatch.

Questions people ask