How to list items for international shipping on eBay

[bassileid5]

Hey Sellers, 

I have been working a lot of you to enable your export business and a common theme I have found is that many do not know how to use our platform to list international shipping to specific countries outside of the usual listing flow for example Poland or Malaysia. Below is a step by step guide on how to list your items using rate tables and shipping policies to countries not outlined in the listing flow: 

Note: You need to list your item before adding international shipping with the steps below

1. Go to Sell.
2. Under settings click Business Policies.
• Note: If you do not have a business account, you will not be able to turn on Business Policies.
• To enable a business account, go to Account Settings at the top left hand side where your user ID is listed. Click on Personal Information. Find Account Type and click Edit. Change the account from Personal to Business.
3. Click Create Policy and select Shipping
4. Name Your Policy and describe it to help differentiate and give it context.
5. In the U.S Shipping Section, insert your domestic shipping details not international
6. Under International Shipping, deselect the box “Send it to the US shipping centre, and rest will be taken care of for you”. This will disable eBay’s Global Shipping Program and allow you to list your items for self-shipping.
• Note: If you do have a shipping solutions to all countries, you can keep this box ticked. This will allow you to ship using GSP to all eligible countries for which you have not enabled self-shipping and excluded from your shipping country list.
• I.e if I have a shipping solution to Denmark, Japan, and Australia but not Italy, Mexico and Russia, by keeping this box ticked, I can ship GSP to Italy, Mexico and Russia and ship my own solution to Denmark, Japan and Australia. You also have to be sure to not exclude Italy, Mexico and Russia from your country exclusion list.
7. Under Alternative International Shipping Options, click the drop down and choose Flat: Same cost to all buyers.
8. Under Ship to, click the drop down and choose Custom Location. This will show you the region and countries to ship to.
9. Select the countries/regions you want to ship to.
10. Under Services, click the drop down and choose your shipping service to the countries or region you have selected prior. i.e USPS Priority International Mail or FedEx International Economy.
    • Note: At the moment, DHL is not listed as option therefore please choose a generic option like Standard International Shipping or Expedited International Shipping if DHL is your carrier.
11. If you have different costs for different countries and region, please select the Offer additional service link underneath the countries listed. You will be able to add in a new shipping location and shipping service to different locations.
12. If you want enable shipping to a set of countries or country that is not listed in the shipping policy workflow, please view our “Apply International Shipping Rate Table” below.
13. If you do not want to specify your costs for a specific country but want to advise buyers that you ship there, you can select these countries under the field Additional ship to locations – buyers contact for costs.
14. In that section, select your countries and region you want to ship to but do not want to list a cost. This will notify buyers that they can reach out to you in order to gather shipping costs detail to the countries you have ticked.
15. Scroll down to the section Exclude shipping locations. Click Edit exclusion list and select the countries you want to exclude from your shipping policy. Click Apply once finished.
    • Note: If you still have the GSP box ticked above, countries excluded in this section will not be eligible for GSP either
16. When you have completed all the details in your shipping policy hit Save.
17. Your new policy will now appear in the Business Policy Page. Go find the policy you just created and tick the box on the left. Click the Reassign listings button at the top
    • Note: You will notice that all your listings are already assigned to one or another policy.
18. A drop down will appear asking you to choose the policy for which you want to transfer listings from and into your newly created policy. Choose the policy that you will transfer the listings from click Change. This will transfer all listings in that policy into your newly created policy.
19. Once finished, be sure to check some of the listings attached to your new policy.  You can do this by click the arrow on the right of your newly created policy. This will show you how many listings are attached to that policy. Click on the number of listings in the drop down arrow.
20. Go the listings and choose the various countries you have enabled shipping to confirm that the rates you have inputted are correct on that listing. If this is correct, all other listings under this policy will also be correct.

Apply International Shipping Rate Table

1. In the Shipping Policy flow, scroll down to Shipping rate tables where you will see an option to Apply international shipping rate table.
2.  In order to use this, you will need to create an international shipping rate table. You can do this by clicking the Create rate tables underneath the Apply international shipping rate table
3.  A new window will open, select the + icon on the shipping service you are offering. You can choose between Expedited, Standard or Economy.
4.  Select the Region your shipping service will deliver to. It will drop down and allow you to select the Countries.
5.  It will display the region/countries you have chosen. In the same box under cost, please add the per item cost to ship to the countries/region you have chosen.
   • Note: if you want to list a per pound rate, go back to the top and next to Set shipping rates by select the drop down and choose
   • Go back down and repeat steps 3 & 4 above. When reaching step 5, insert your per pound rate. In the cost box, you also have the option to insert a starting shipping costs for which will be added on top of the per pound rate. i.e. if your per pound rate is 5 USD on a 5 pound shipment and you have inserted a cost of 20 USD in the cost box, your total costs will be 45 USD for that item.
   • If you do not wish to add a starting shipping costs, you can simply input a zero in the cost box. i.e. for the example above your shipping costs would be 25 USD.
6. Once all rates for all countries/regions have been listed, name your table in the field Table Name above and click
7. Back in your shipping policy, under Shipping rate tables, tick the box Apply international rate table. If you only have one international rate table created, it will automatically choose this table. You can view the rate table clicking
   • Note: If you have more than one rate table, when clicking the box for Apply international rate table it will prompt a drop down for which you can select the international rate table of your choice.
8. Once rate table is added, continue the process in step 13 above in “How to list items for international shipping on eBay”

[itsjustasprain]

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@bassileid5 wrote:
It is unfortunate we do not have these settings on our platform but I think these would be great topics for additional posts in the community. Perhaps a post about choosing the right tracking services according to country or one about where customs can be an issue and which port of entries to avoid delays.

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@bassileid5 - How can an Ebay seller actually choose a port of entry?

Have you done much selling internationally yourself? Please tell us about your selling experience.

[gramophone-georg]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

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@bassileid5 wrote:
Hi Newview,

Many thanks for your feedback.

It is unfortunate we do not have these settings on our platform but I think these would be great topics for additional posts in the community. Perhaps a post about choosing the right tracking services according to country or one about where customs can be an issue and which port of entries to avoid delays.

Will look to put something together for you guys. Many thanks again for this.
Bassil

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Hmmmm, one might think, since it is required - by the platform - for seller protection, the platform would program the information into the settings.  That would be a great 'objective' of a new 'team'.

What good is talking about it in the forums supposed to do for getting a workable option in listings?  Doesn't ebay have anyone that can think these things out?  Do sellers have to do EVERYTHING?

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 Yes, including absorbing the fallout and costs when these eBay genius ideas cause problems. Just more arrogant incompetence from eBay. Should we be surprised?

[chrysylys]

Hasn't it been said that Staff are somewhat experienced in selling here ...  that many have their own selling accounts?  If so, why do so many of these threads seem to show just the opposite of that?

[mg152]

I can’t even figure out business policies. I see these newbies talking about it & I get embarrassed. 18 1/2 years later, it shouldn’t be that hard.

[lookng2015]

I tried them when they first introduced them and like any other eBay "innovations" I can get away with not using, have avoided them like the plague ever since.

I don't trust eBay to handle ANY "automated" process they come up with. NOTHING here is "set it and forget it" as they're constantly changing our settings to THEIR 'defaults' (usually to the detriment of the seller).

[varebelrose]

After getting burnt this week by an international sale that the buyer claimed INR, thanks but no thanks. All of our items will be domestic shipping only from now on.

YMMV.

[d-k_treasures]

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@grapplingmonkey wrote:

It is a tough cookie to crack , If you ship internationaly and have to eat 1 out of 4 returns and return shipping you could easliy wipe out profit on other 3 sales. because of shipping. In ideal world this wouldnt be a problem if all transaction were fair, but its too easy to say seller didnt describe ect. I understand why ebay is set up this way and love selling here, but its too much risk to sell internationally.   Right now the chinesse market is huge for there antiques and I sell alot but i have to use diffrent method where there is no risk of return ect. 

I also feel like alot of international buyers use reshipping services in US to get items which is better for me and lowers my risk as a seller

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Wonder if they are running out of things to counterfeit?

[siayan]

I have been studying if I can write programming for a 3 axis CNC router. This may be good practice. 

[bassileid5]

Hi Slippinjimmy,

Thanks for clarifying. You are 100% correct, this is every possible permutation. As you also correctly stated, worldwide and ship amount would be most ideal and easiest.

Thanks again for your feedback,
Bassil

[bassileid5]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@bassileid5 wrote:
It is unfortunate we do not have these settings on our platform but I think these would be great topics for additional posts in the community. Perhaps a post about choosing the right tracking services according to country or one about where customs can be an issue and which port of entries to avoid delays.

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Well, First Class Package International will only give you a Delivered status to certain countries (those listed on the USPS website here). Of those, some are more reliable than others at actually holding up their end of the deal, and if they don't, you're out of luck if the buyer chooses to file an INR. You cannot really choose the right "tracking service" for a given country; the best you can do is to select a Shipping method that will give you the tracking protection you need for that shipment.

As for selecting a port of entry, I have no idea how you would do that. Routing the package is not something we can control. We can only select a carrier and a shipping method, and hope for the best.

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HI a_c_green, 

Many thanks for your feedback. You are correct in your analysis. 

In order to avoid INR cases, we always advise going with USPS Priority International as this will give you door to door tracking. We also highly advising going a commercial route (DHL or FedEx) into the more riskier countries like Mexico or Russia where the postal networks are not as reliable. 

Regarding port of entry, you could always ask your carrier which port they will use and see which options they have for alternate ports. For example, into Russia, we find that shipments landing in St-Petersburg face minimal issues meanwhile anything going through Moscow encounters significant issues. 

Great feedback and many thanks for your input, 

Bassil

[bassileid5]

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@tealt wrote:

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

The 39 steps include every possible permutation....

For me it's just 2 steps, select Worldwide, enter shipping amount.

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Me too.

Being very low volume and selling antique/vintage OOAK, those 39 steps in the OP are beyond intimidating.  [Wasn't there a Hitchcock movie...].

I'm also finding that more and more of my international buyers are using USA forwarding services.  Today I was very surprised to see a nice feedback for an antique cup and saucer from the buyer in Turkey.  I've never shipping anything to Turkey.

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Hi tealt, 

Apologies for coming off strong in the guide. 

Certainly if you can list worldwide and your shipping amount this would be best. We just wanted to provide guidance into every possible solution for our sellers who want to get creative when listing their items internationally. 

On your point regarding freight forwarding, we are seeing many buyers utilizing freight forwarding. This is a great indicator of demand for your product internationally. If you can identify those tradelanes which are freight forwarding your products and then enable a self shipping solutions to them, you would very likely increase your international sales. Even greater if you can connect with the US freight forwarding service to take advantage of his competitive rates. 

Thanks again for your feedback. 

Bassil

[bassileid5]

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@tellmemama wrote:

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@bassileid5  Thanks for that but a few items that would be helpful are:

1. What products are you refering to for that international shipping post?

2. Are you basically suggesting to ship to every country in the world?

3. I think what would be a good service to New Sellers is to have the Excluded areas you ship to in Site Preferences - Shipping Preferences set to NO INTERNATIONAL shipping until they gain some experience.

The whole process to turn countries on and off with the combination of Site Preferences and the Listing Tool International shipping settings is poor and not explained anywhere convenient.  I got caught as a new Seller with two international sales even though I had No International shipping set on the Listing Tool when the items were created ... for whatever reason the Site Preferences were set to ship to the world.  I lost money on both sales and in addition to that I got a brow beating from a Buyer in the Philipines who I recognized knew a whole lot more about how eBay worked than I did.

Anyway, I do very little international shipping and right now AND only on certain items under 4 lbs so I can use USPS First Class International Package and the Delcon electronic delivery confirmation AND only to certain countries  ... if I can't track it I don't ship it and that is the advice eBay should be giving to ... every .... single .... Seller.

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Agreed.  And I'd even go as far as saying it's probably a good idea to block France and Italy even though they are on the E-Delcon list.  Both are notorious for delays and "loss" once packages get to customs.

I'm not one to invite problems to an already crowded party.

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Hi Joe, 

Hi tellmemama, 

Thanks for your feedback. Just want to address some of your points below. 

1. We have seen sellers list an array of different products for international shipping. There is no limitation. We would however suggest using different services depending on what you are shipping and to which country. 

2. Shipping to every country in the world could certainly have an impact to your overall sales. It does however have to be done carefully to find the shipping services that best suits your tradelane and product. 

3. There is an option to exclude shipping location under site preferences. You simply have to go in and select all countries. This will notify buyers that you are not shipping internationally for the items you post. 

Apologies for the experience you had shipping internationally. Your feedback however is great and we can consolidate it and review how we can improve. 

Many thanks tellmemama, 

Bassil

[bassileid5]

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@enzo7117 wrote:

"Two-thirds of the world’s purchasing power is outside the United States. That’s 790 million international customers who are potential new customers for US retailers."

168 million active users and I can't even get one or two sales a day here on Ebay.  Is this why I should list internationally?

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Hi Enzo, 

Thanks for your feedback. 

Yes this is a global statistics. In order to have access to the 168 million buyers, you would need to be opened up for international shipping globally. 

Thanks again, 

Bassil

[d-k_treasures]

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@bassileid5 wrote:

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@bassileid5 wrote:
It is unfortunate we do not have these settings on our platform but I think these would be great topics for additional posts in the community. Perhaps a post about choosing the right tracking services according to country or one about where customs can be an issue and which port of entries to avoid delays.

---

Well, First Class Package International will only give you a Delivered status to certain countries (those listed on the USPS website here). Of those, some are more reliable than others at actually holding up their end of the deal, and if they don't, you're out of luck if the buyer chooses to file an INR. You cannot really choose the right "tracking service" for a given country; the best you can do is to select a Shipping method that will give you the tracking protection you need for that shipment.

As for selecting a port of entry, I have no idea how you would do that. Routing the package is not something we can control. We can only select a carrier and a shipping method, and hope for the best.

---

HI a_c_green, 

Many thanks for your feedback. You are correct in your analysis. 

In order to avoid INR cases, we always advise going with USPS Priority International as this will give you door to door tracking. We also highly advising going a commercial route (DHL or FedEx) into the more riskier countries like Mexico or Russia where the postal networks are not as reliable. 

Regarding port of entry, you could always ask your carrier which port they will use and see which options they have for alternate ports. For example, into Russia, we find that shipments landing in St-Petersburg face minimal issues meanwhile anything going through Moscow encounters significant issues. 

Great feedback and many thanks for your input, 

Bassil

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Not  to all countries it won't. You even implied as much in the sentence after the one I bolded.

And you can't select a port of entry on any package shipments - it's going to go through the port where it ends up at.

[a_c_green]

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bassileid5 wrote: 

Regarding port of entry, you could always ask your carrier which port they will use and see which options they have for alternate ports. For example, into Russia, we find that shipments landing in St-Petersburg face minimal issues meanwhile anything going through Moscow encounters significant issues. 

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Bassil, we do not get to quiz USPS (or, as far as I know, UPS or FedEx) on their choice of ports of entry. All we can do is fill out the paperwork, ship the item and hope for the best. 

I'm sensing that you are here on assignment, rather than to distribute knowledge gained from experience. Let me suggest that it would be more helpful if you could compile a list of sellers' most urgent problems with eBay shipping, and see if you can get things changed or improved on our behalf. To be honest, I don't think you'll be able to achieve a whole lot, but it never hurts to try, and we are genuinely grateful to hear from anyone on your side of the wall. Good luck.