Selling to the US, from the US, using a UK account

[asmc-ind]

Crossposted from Powerseller Business, where there doesn't appear to be much traffic. Maybe I will have better luck here...

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There was a thread on the main Selling board about this a couple of weeks ago (now gone, presumably mod deleted). The thread started as a rant about sellers putting phone numbers in listings, then someone pointed out that UK business sellers were not only allowed to, but requried by law to have the contact info in the listings.

Then, someone mentioned that UK anchor stores inlcude unlimited FP listings, with search visibility on the US site, and larger sellers were setting up UK accounts to sell to the US, from the US, using a UK account.

This piqued my curiosity, so I researched it a bit. Read to the bottom to know why. Here's the skinny:
An ebay.co.uk account, with a registered address in the UK (easy to get) can subscribe to an anchor store for around $600 US a month. This gives unlimited FP insertions with zero insertion fees. Compare that to ebay US; 10K insertions a month, after that 5 cents a listing. It adds up to big money if you have a lot of SKUs ($5,000 per month in insertion fees for another 100,000 listings).

Then, another benefit of a UK anchor store, is you can list directly on 13 international ebay sites, and get the benefit of the same store subscription level as local users get, for no charge. That means, that in addition to unlimited listings on ebay.co.uk, you can create 10,000 listings directly on ebay.com for no extra charge.

If you have a need to make that many listings (and if that concept is alien to you, please don't bother to add comments to this thread about clogging up searches, etc., because this thread is not for you) it seems that there is no downside... RIght?

So as a test I created a ebay.co.uk account. Created a few test listings. They show up on ebay.com in the default search. Still show free shipping and a reasonable transit time. I can also log into ebay.com with the UK credentials. So far, so good.

Downside: new account, lose all feedback. Not the end of the world I guess. I'm not in this for the feedback, but buyers would be understandably hesitant to purchse from a 0 feedback seller. Selling limits are a bigger issue. In effect, you start over.

After a few chat sessions with ebay UK support, I discovered that a US account can be transferred to the UK site, all feedback intact. US support needs to do it. Sounds like a solution!

Called anchor store support. Waited the requisite 30 minutes on hold. Got my answers... Yes, a US account can be moved to the UK site. Just change the registered address to a UK address and call back, we will take care of it. Great, right?

After I explained to the rep what I was aiming to do, being completely candid, he informed me that I could run into problems. Apparently UK accounts with only a paper presense in the UK, that sell into the US will eventually be suspended for fee avoidance. Don't really want that.

The irony of “fee avoidance”: The whole point of this is to drive sales, on which ebay makes money. I don't know about others, but there is no way I'm paying $5K per month in insertion fees... But I will gladly pay that much and more in sales commissions (FVF).

So... In the original thread there was talk of sellers doing this, successuflly, not getting suspended. How? Anyone doing this? I'd love to know. Please feel free to message me if you don't feel comfortable responding in a public forum.

As to why I want to do this?

Years ago we were getting 100K per month in free insertions, pretty much all the time. We ran about 125,000 FP listings, and our sales were 3-4 times what they are now --- on ebay.

Then a couple of years ago that stopped dead. For a couple of months I maintained the listing load, but after seeing the ebay invoices jump to $7-10K per month. I ran the numbers and realized that we were doing a lot of work for nothing. We would be better off selling less, and not paying the crazy fees.

I delisted most of the items. Sales on ebay dropped to current levels. Most, but not all, of the sales were picked up on Amazon and our ecom website. I still run about 20K FP listings per month. ACOS on ebay is now close to 20%--not good. It used to be closer to 12% when there was no worry about insertion fees.

Thanks.

[goodluckselling]

I would probably take the advice of the eBay CS rep.  You can also create multi variation listings for the same items with different sizes.

Also some of your pictures are in violation with the current picture policy.  We have been told these things they overlook in the past are now going to be policed which means some listing might not show up to buyers.  Take out the MADE in the USA graphic as it violates the picture policy in a couple ways.

Another thought is to look at you higher priced bulk lots and make a decision to keep them or not because after looking at your sold listing, although you are selling a bulk lot item once in a while they are not generating a lot of business and they also might be lowering your search placement over all for your main category which is another possible reason your sales are falling?

Also be careful about using the same MPN and UPC number for these bulk lots unless they are exclusively assigned to the bulk lots.  If you sell the same item in smaller quantities and that UPC number is already being used for the smaller quantity that might also be an issue.  The reason why is you are being shown next to other sellers of the smaller quantity and buyers are seeing your bulk item price next to the much lower price of the smaller quantity listing.

A lot of the issues I mentioned will also carry over to external search engines with the same exclusions happening at google, bing, yahoo.  eBay external traffic has increased quite a bit in the last 8 months and now represents over 20% of all eBay traffic coming from external search engines.

As eBay continues down this cataloged shopping experience new feeds are generated all the time to bring in potential buyers and the industry as far as the big two ecommerce sites are much more in line with each other and the external search engines requirements, which explain why the external traffic number has sky rocketed at both of these venues recently.

Good Luck Selling!

[asmc-ind]

Thanks, but I'm not looking for advice on optimizing listings... just the question I actually asked.

[chrysylys]

Fee Avoidance would be the first thing I thought of.  A few might get away with it for a while, but eventually the door will slam shut if too many try it.

[asmc-ind]

Yeah, you might be right... Unfortunately it's just another example of ebay cutting off their nose to spite their face...

From my OP:

The irony of “fee avoidance”: The whole point of this is to drive sales, on which ebay makes money. I don't know about others, but there is no way I'm paying $5K per month in insertion fees... But I will gladly pay that much and more in sales commissions (FVF).

[goodluckselling]

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@asmc-ind wrote:
Thanks, but I'm not looking for advice on optimizing listings... just the question I actually asked.

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And I answered your one and only question in the very first sentence.  The rest of your post is nothing but blabber.

Good Luck Selling!

[asmc-ind]

nah... the real call to action is here. trying to find people with actual experience. but thanks for your condescending reply based on conjecture.

So... In the original thread there was talk of sellers doing this, successfully, not getting suspended. How? Anyone doing this? I'd love to know. Please feel free to message me if you don't feel comfortable responding in a public forum

[goodluckselling]

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@asmc-ind wrote:
nah... the real call to action is here. trying to find people with actual experience. but thanks for your condescending reply based on conjecture.

So... In the original thread there was talk of sellers doing this, successfully, not getting suspended. How? Anyone doing this? I'd love to know. Please feel free to message me if you don't feel comfortable responding in a public forum

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You are welcome to dismiss what I suggested but  everything I told you are actual things that are happening right now.  You can ignor the ideas or take them into consideration.  It does not matter to me and it did not cost you anything for the ideas and advice I offered. 

Lots of sellers and buyers all get away with things for a while,  and the advice was directed at you to not losing your selling priveleges, because of a loophole you are trying to work within.

We get it that you do not want to pay the upfront cost of listing fees and that you are okay with the FVF.  The ideas I suggested might help you bundle like items and show up better in search.  Things are changing very fast and you might be able to use some of these ideas to help you moving forward.

Good Luck Selling!

[sambur-9245]

Well here's something else to consider. If you have only a paper presents in the UK would you still be expected to remit taxes in the UK as well as the US?

[asmc-ind]

I would think not, since we will only ship to the US.

But then again, who knows. That is why I am looking for ebay sellers who have actually gone down this road.

[papermoneyforme]

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@asmc-ind wrote:

I would think not, since we will only ship to the US.

But then again, who knows. That is why I am looking for ebay sellers who have actually gone down this road.

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Can you open a post office box in the UK?

[asmc-ind]

That would be the plan for obtaining a UK address.

[papermoneyforme]

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@asmc-ind wrote:
That would be the plan for obtaining a UK address.

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Yes, but I am not sure if that is possible from the US as you may have to do it in person.

I am in Canada and had to go to the US to open a PO Box there.

[asmc-ind]

there are services that allow you to do it online. PO box, "suite" in a private mailbox store, etc.

[papermoneyforme]

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@asmc-ind wrote:
there are services that allow you to do it online. PO box, "suite" in a private mailbox store, etc.

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If you are talking in the US, I wanted a PO Box close to the border as I have things shipped there and also to use with my bank account , this Ebay account, and my Paypal account.

If you are talking in the UK, I have no idea how they work.