Tri-Lateral Shipping Alliance Signed With eBay GC and China Post

Platform Established for Lightweight Goods Ordered by U.S. Consumers

SHANGHAI, May 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Postal Service entered into an international tri-lateral agreement today in Shanghai, China with eBay Greater China & Southeast Asia (eBay GC) and China Post Express & Logistics Corporation. The agreement creates a new, simplified shipping platform for international tracking and delivery of lightweight goods ordered by consumers in the U.S. from eBay sellers in China.

The collaborative service and marketing agreement for these lightweight shipments provides U.S. consumers with greater convenience and delivery confirmation information online at usps.com. Sellers using eBay GC can track their shipments with electronic notifications such as in-process and proof-of-delivery scans at ebay.cn. Upon arrival in the U.S., these shipments are processed as domestic First-Class Mail, with a one to three-day delivery standard.

Sellers in China using the shipping platform through eBay GC are expected to ship small items such as cellular telephone accessories and electronics weighing up to 4.4 pounds (2 kilos), with most in the range of 13 ounces and under.

"This collaboration will increase convenience and improve delivery consistency for American consumers ordering small shipments from merchants in China, and holds great potential for increasing international package volumes for the Postal Service," said Pranab Shah, managing director and vice president, Global Business. "We look forward to working with our business partners to build upon this agreement as we move forward."

The agreement is in keeping with strategies to increase revenue and meet demand in the global marketplace as outlined in a comprehensive plan announced recently by the Postal Service. Ensuring a Viable Postal Service for America, the Postal Service action plan for the next decade, describes a flexible, agile Postal Service that can adapt to America's changing mailing habits and preferences.

The global alliance positions China Post and the Postal Service as the preferred shippers and delivery agents of choice for eBay GC. eBay GC developed a seamless shipping application which allows its sellers to print online shipping labels, request pickups and track the status of shipments. China Post's alliance with the Postal Service includes development of cobranded, data-rich shipping labels integrated with barcoding technology readable by both China Post and the Postal Service, along with logistics planning and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) information exchanges.

Joining Shah today at the Shanghai Postal Museum for a signing ceremony to formalize the new agreement were Jeff Liao, CEO of eBay Greater China, and Mr. Wang, Biao, Managing Director of China Post Express and Logistics Corporation.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world's mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.

About eBay China

eBay China has also launched www.ebay.cn, an exchange, communication and sharing platform specially built for Chinese cross-border buyers and sellers. It not only provides training courses of eBay cross-border trade, shares trade news in each target market, helps Chinese sellers expanding overseas market, and also has user forum, making users improve their selling skills through exchange of experiences. The mission of eBay China is to open up a new online silk-road for Chinese enterprises and individual users and help more Chinese users reaching out to the world. In 2006, over tens of thousands of Chinese sellers had cross-border trade activities on eBay.

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service