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eBay will offer sellers a complete storage and shipping service

The company chief says eBay is aiming to offer free two-day deliveries.

eBay is (at long last) launching its answer to "Fullfillment by Amazon" sometime next year, starting in the US. It's called "Managed Delivery," and it will offer sellers in the country what it says is a cost-effective warehousing and shipping service. Sellers can store their inventory in any of the strategically located eBay-managed warehouses around the country, allowing them to offer faster shipping to customers who'd have to wait a while for their purchases to arrive otherwise.

The e-commerce platform's logistics partners will take care of packing and shipping out purchases, and sellers will be charged for warehousing and shipping whenever they sell an item. eBay chief Devin Wenig told Reuters that around 40 to 50 percent of the items sold on the website will qualify for the program, so buyers can expect new shipping options for half of its listings in 2020. He said the company is aiming to offer free two-day shipping under the program, though it's unclear if eBay will be able to offer that option at launch. Wenig admitted outright, though, that the platform will likely never be able to offer super-fast, hour-long deliveries:

"What this is not about is us trying to win a fast shipping war. Our 182 million consumers shop on eBay because of the value and uniqueness of our inventory. We're not the one-hour delivery guys. We're never going to be that, but consumer expectations are changing."