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”

[nawlinsron2]

OH...and you get a $10-ish discount if you use USPS, which you're free to keep or rebate in whole or partial.
I USED to give rebates, but I no longer do because the bots might ding me.
ebay's bots are as dumb as dirt, which I suppose reflects on the IT dept.

[mr_lincoln]

@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.

[chrysylys]

Any ideas on how to prevent international fraud?  Like the bit about leaving an item at Customs until after an INR is claim is refunded, then going to pick up the item?

Or maybe how to block people in countries you don't ship to from seeing your listings?

[chrysylys]

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@bassileid5 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. Where the US once held ecommerce supremacy, by 2020 its stake is expected to be 16.9% (down from 22.2% in 2015). As a result, the lion’s share of global ecommerce sales in particular (84%) now resides outside of Western continents like North America.

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People don't care about that.  They care about the dramatically increased risks of fraud and the high complications involved in resolutions.  If you stay domestic only, you have a much better chance of getting a resolution through police or the courts if necessary.  That becomes nearly impossible once the package leaves the country, even if only to Canada.

[tellmemama]

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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.

[enzo7117]

"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?

[chrysylys]

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@enzo7117 wrote:
Is this why I should list internationally?

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This is why they should DE-focus on international and essentially create two independent marketplaces.  One for North America and one for 'other'.  Let sellers choose their market and get better exposure to their chosen audience.

[dbmm-media]

way to much blah blah blah to read the whle post...

 so, my question...   does it say how much paypig is going to charge a seller for all the add on fees they charge for international sales?  

[mr_lincoln]

@tellmemamawrote:

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.

_________________________________________________

LOL!  The two international sales I received since opening up to the UK were to France and Italy!!!  Was completely miffed as to why it took WEEKS after landing on the European continent to be delivered ... followed tracking, messaged Buyers & thanked them for their patience, etc.  Italy was the worse ... Buyer laughed and said its normal and they should see the package in a few weeks (WEEKS! they said!) ... un --- beeee --- leave ---- a ---- ble.

[ted_200]

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@chrysylys wrote:

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@enzo7117 wrote:
Is this why I should list internationally?

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This is why they should DE-focus on international and essentially create two independent marketplaces.  One for North America and one for 'other'.  Let sellers choose their market and get better exposure to their chosen audience.

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Well, I'll offer some general observations, while still saying the OP is useful since figuring out how to hybrid GSP with direct international shipping and still block certain countries is not easy to figure out.

As to whether shipping international is "worth it".  It depends on what demand for your item is overseas.  It also depends on whether you want it to sell faster (Fixed Price) or you want it to sell for a higher price (Auction). 

I see lots of complaining about the risk.  I don't see any difference.  If your buyer is intent on getting your item for free, they're going to succeed whether they're in Timbuktu or Detroit.  Some postal systems are really risky (India, Mexico), but plenty of overseas are as reliable or more reliable than USPS.  For example, I won't ship to Russia, but there are a few items that will do really well there, I'd make more money if I used GSP and shipped there, but the GSP is less than ideal and I don't want the headaches or neg.s from them repackaging stuff or fighting about whether they broke it or it was broke when I sent it. 

And I don't see tracking as having a lot of protection, tracked packages just require a different tactic to get "IT" for free. 

The biggest problem with selling international is shipping costs are just ridiculous from the U.S., and GSP isn't really much help on that count.  For a $20 ASP item, shipping cost pretty much rules out any international interest, and I pretty much avoid selling $200 ASP items here since the risk is just too high no matter where it goes.  I might consider it if any non-eBay alternative will only get me $50 for that item, but if I can get $175 some other way, I'm selling it some other way, irrespective of international shipping considerations.

[d-k_treasures]

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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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I think for me it's 2 also - Select USA only, block all countries exept USA(since USA only isn't).

Maybe if ebay actually protected a seller from customs hangers and provides a way for a return shipping label(sending money via PP does not cut it), I might consider it for a few seconds, but I'd prefer not to have the GSP ruin an antique toy, or sending it somewhere that it will be used as a pattern to create a counterfeit.

[bash_stash]

Soooo, last week when I changed all my listings to allow international shipping in addition to GSP, removed free shipping, and repriced each item without shipping...I really didn't do anything?  And the only way to offer international shipping is to have a business account even though I'm just a small seller with no need for a business account?  My head hurts.

[grapplingmonkey]

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

[mr_lincoln]

@d-k_treasures

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@d-k_treasures 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.

---

I think for me it's 2 also - Select USA only, block all countries exept USA(since USA only isn't).

Maybe if ebay actually protected a seller from customs hangers and provides a way for a return shipping label(sending money via PP does not cut it), I might consider it for a few seconds, but I'd prefer not to have the GSP ruin an antique toy, or sending it somewhere that it will be used as a pattern to create a counterfeit.

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Late last year or early this year I ventured to the UK Community ... one thing I learned is GSP is more expensive compared to a Seller shipping the package themselves.  The list of counties I ship to is short and the items I offer for those countries is short too.  I don't offer everything I sell for international shipping.  Just too risky and as previously mentioned, the 2 orders I have gotten thus far were with the two slowest mail service countries over there (as folks have pointed out).  So I might have to shorten the list of coutnries further.  My concern is not so much getting scammed out of the items but rather falling prey to a poor INR process that does not protect the Seller from their other transaction partners ... the carriers, who they have ... absolutely ... no ... control ... over.

[gracieallen01]

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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?