We’re getting ready to roll out combined shipping on orders sold through eBay International Shipping, and we’re giving you early access to this feature. By offering this option on your listings, buyer shipping costs will be determined by the weight and size of your buyer’s entire order, rather than by each individual item. That way, it’ll be cheaper for your customers to purchase multiple items from you. It’ll also be more cost effective and easier for you to send your items to the domestic eBay international shipping hub. |
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoI also received the notification about being placed in the early rollout which is good news. From my perspective there is little for me to change since I have the dim's and weights accurately entered on all my items even those where I have flat rate or free shipping.
I was a bit curious about the "We’ll continue to expand combined shipping to more categories...." part of the message and was wondering if there are limited categories, other than those that are no eligible for EIS, for the combined shipping capability.
With the combined shipping I am also wondering how that applies to the current value limit and if the combined shipping is still by item price or is cumulative? I.E. are the individual items limited to $2.5K or is the entire combined shipment limited to $2.5K. At some point I am also hoping EIS looks at the current size and weight limits which are currently below current domestic carriers size and weight limits for domestic shipments as well as international but at least the program is making moves in the right direction.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoOpted me in too, see what happens.
pjcdn2005
·2 years ago@tobaccocardyahoo
I hope that you don't mind me trying this out of your listing.
I'm in Canada and put 3 of your items in my cart. The total for all 3 before combined shipping would have been $36.31. The original shipping cost to Canada from top to bottom was $12.57, $12.17 + $11.57.
The EIS adds the domestic shipping cost to their international shipping cost. The domestic shipping cost from top to bottom is $2, $1.60 and $1 which accounts why the original international cost and the combined shipping cost is not consistent for each item.
The total for shipping 3 postcards to Canada still seems very high consider that the 2nd and 3rd postcard will only add a few ounces to the package.
Since you are using ebay standard envelope, do you actually have a package weight on each listing? If you don't, I'm curious if that would make a difference.
I did add items from other categories to the cart and they also had discounted shipping. You don't appear to have combined shipping rules set up for domestic shipping. I am curious to see if that will change the amounts that ebay will charge. For example, if your shipping charge was $2 to the US for the first one and $1 for each one after that, it would be interesting to see if ebay will use the shipping rule for the domestic portion.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoIt's possible that domestic ESE shipping throws a whole nother monkey wrench into the mix for eIS
tobaccocardyahoo
OP2 years agoMany of my listings do not have a package weight because all are fixed shipping in the US. There are no combined shipping rules for my US shipments because I do manual combination and invoicing when there are on different listings. Multiple copies from the same listing ship for the price of 1 domestically.
I just modified a group of listings which I tend to have European buyers for to include a package weight so I will see if it makes a difference.
I expect there will be hiccups. And that I need to modify listings to make it work. For the group I am currently working on, I am adding the weight to about 250 listings.
My ESE orders are the remains of an experiment. I will not be making further use of ESE unless it improves dramatically.
tsme35
·2 years agoGot my email today too, woo hoo I thought, then I had to research and finally call ebay. If you have domestic combine shipping rule set up, it should still be in effect to ebay's international hub. As far as international combine shipping, ebay goes by what weight and size you have listed and automatically combines shipping for the buyer when they put the items in their cart. Supposedly sellers won't get a combine shipping request from international buyers(according to ebay rep).
Now my work begins, I have flat rate shipping too for 1200+ listings, I have most just set for 4 oz but weigh less then 2, most I can get 4 items in a package for less then 4 oz's. So a international buyer would get charge for 40 oz if they bought 10 items.
I'll be changing most over to 2 oz to keep the international rate cheaper and see how it works. I've been out of the international business(except forwarders) for 6 years when rates just got too expensive. On a good note, weight can be change in the seller hub so won't have to do it one at a time.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoSeems that perhaps in the example given ( 4 shipping at 4 oz.) instead of changing the weight to 2 oz it would work out the same for YOU to change to 1 oz while at the same time making the BUYER cost for shipping to the eIS more attractive for a larger purchase.
Not sure just how much that would save a buyer, but you could probably punch some locations in to see what sort of difference it would to possibly increase the eIS sales where eBay takes all the heat.
tsme35
·2 years agoI thought about that but need to be close to the weight, little over won't make to big of difference but if they bought a couple bigger items that are over just over 2 oz and shipping shows 8 oz and its 12 oz, ebay might say something about the weight being under.
I looked at the shipping rates, Australia is $15 and Japan is $25 for the same 8 oz, their my biggest fishing lure buyers. Just wild but explains why my Japan customers use freight forwarders.
tsme35
·2 years agoThe other question I have, is it safe to add international verbiage to my listings or should I wait. I heard it fail at 1st attempt, I don't want to change 1400 listing, to have to redo them later. I like to add to my listings some where on the line as " I now offer international combine shipping though EIS, put all items cart before making payment". Probably not exactly how I'll put it in, working on it now.
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoYour EIS istings aren’t showing combined shipping right now. I put 3 items in my cart and there was no shipping discount at all.
tsme35
·2 years agough thanks for the heads up, I only have combined shipping on fishing lures, not rods or reels if that makes a difference.
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoFrom an international buyers point of view, I suspect EIS will be more tempting once the combined shipping is used for all EIS sellers IF the seller has domestic combined shipping rules setup. I checked another sellers EIS shipping costs and because shipping rules were set up for domestic buyers, EIS was really reasonable. More about that in my next post.
It might be to your benefit to set up a flat rate shipping rule for like items such as 1 rule for postcards, another rule for music sheets etc. Of course I realize that might not work well for your domestic sales.
tobaccocardyahoo
OP2 years ago@pjcdn2005
I have been thinking about this.
If nothing has changed since the time when I had a reason to do a partial refund on an EIS order, I could probably use a refund to adjust the domestic shipping portion.
A little sloppy but many buyers would cooperate if they saved a little more
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoDon't light the cigars, or cut that cake just yet.
Seems it was earlier this month, or late last month another thread was started about the said "eIS combined" shipping invite/early access, but that it was a bit "flawed" as it actually did not work. Apparently, there were still "combining" complications.
Not sure where that ended up.
I received that message as well.
pjcdn2005
·2 years ago@ebooksdiva Since you received the same message as @tobaccocardyahoo and because you have combined shipping rules set up I was really curious how much this would benefit international buyers. It looks like your domestic buyers pay shipping just for the first audiobook and that seemed to have carried through for EIS to Canada.
Before EIS combined shipping the 4 audiobooks would have cost $64 to Canada. Tonight the total shipping cost was just over $20. 3 of the items showed a shipping cost under $4 each and the fourth was around $9. I’m sure that international buyers woukd be happy with that.
Another bonus…your buy 4 and pay for just 3 also worked for me. I could be wrong but I thought that in the past, discounts like that were only available to buyers in the US.
Thank you for looking into that.
Good to know combined shipping and my sale promotion will work for EIS.
As for the B3G1F, I’m not sure if it was restricted to only US buyers, because I didn’t ship internationally before eIS.
I currently have repeat buyers in Canada and Japan, I’m sure they will be pleased.
carlmarxx
·2 years agoI never used the GSP ebay ran first ,and I would never use the EIS .If was still selling the only International shipping would be Canada and I would use FedEx or UPS ground . The EIS goes through the Chicago IL. USPS domestic & IOC sorting hub which has and does have a lot of on going issues causing INR's .
mam98031
·2 years agoYou can designate your own shipping to Canada on your listings if you want and still use EIS for other countries.
heckofagame
·2 years agoI'm waiting until it's an additional shipping option, not the only option. Should be along shortly.
mam98031
·2 years agoThis isn't currently available for everyone. As it gets used more and more, it is highly likely more improvements will be in our future.
What additional shipping options do you want? Do we have control over how it ships out of the Ebay processing center? I don't think we do.
tobaccocardyahoo
OP2 years agoThis may complete my list of wants for EIS if it works.
I have some items which I am certain my international buyers would buy more of with this function.
I do not care when it ships out of the Ebay processing center. Delivery times got longer when they switched from GIS, prices dropped and I stopped getting complaints from buyers about the cost, and have not had a delivery time complaint yet.
This service exists to save money for buyers, and as a by-product I get more international sales every month.
If I have a further request it will be my buyers who will tell me what it is.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoI'll be very interested to see what happens when this announcement from the seller update goes live - whether buyers in the countries where I ship direct will choose direct shipping or eIS.
mam98031
·2 years agoYes, this is fantastic news for many. It will take them a while to get this rolled out to everyone, but it is great news that it is on the horizon for us.
Thank you for sharing!!!