EIS Questions

[lakefor94]

Saw on another thread that @tobaccocardyahoo  said "EIS takes into account shipping history on similar items. It does not seem to care about the absence of weight or dimensions." Tagging a few random folks to this thread. Anyone else, please join in. 

@rfmtm @b86fiero @wastingtime101 @retro_entertainment_collectibles @chapeau-noir @twogreatadventurers 

Here is a rundown of my listings. All of these having a separate shipping business policy. 7 business shipping policies total.

NO dimensions and weights entered.

Free Ground Advantage (432)

Free USPS Priority (429)

Free UPS Ground (250)

Freight (5) (System makes buyer contact me before they can pay)

All have dimensions and weights entered.

Calculated Ground Advantage (5)

Calculated Priority USPS (14)

Calculated UPS Ground (243)

All Returns Accepted, Seller, 30 Days, Money Back

All listings are Buy It Now with Immediate Payment required. Same day or 1-Day handling.

Screenshot below is basically what all my business shipping policies look like aside from the UPS shipments do not include shipments to HI AK and PR.

Wondering what I have to do to the business policies in order to ship with EIS? (EIS is disabled at this time.)

I don’t have dimensions and weights in over 1000 listings, is this a problem?

Are any INAD or INR’s from EIS hitting your “seller metrics”?

[stainlessenginecovers]

EIS MIGHT use 'similar items' but doubtful (I wouldn't rely on that) as they then cannot even begin to 'list' an item with a shipping cost on another site (.ca for Canada; .eu for Europe; .au for Australia etc.) but one way to check is...

go to one of those sites, don't 'sign in' and locate one of the items that you do NOT have size in and see if you can find it listed...try a few items, using various 'keywords' etc. to locate it as a 'browsing person, again NOT signed in'. 

I've done if for my items and I can see when items they even list vs not at all (they pick and choose since they 'pay' for returns out of 'their' pockets)...

but I do have all my items with a correct weight/size. 

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

I recall sometime back I'd a prospect international buyer and we took a listing changing the weight and then see what it'd say on his side of things... I just cant recall to where.  But we found 1-2 lbs was the same, 3-4, 5-6 same and thenat 7 it shot up like a rocketship.  Perhaps eBay is going by the pound versus ounces with eIS shipments?

Sizes of of my offerings are all about the same basically three differing sizes.

But I flat rate shipping at $6.50 Ground Advantage as pretty much everything I have is .6 ounces up to three pounds.

I've not had problems with eIS, its worked rather well.

[wastingtime101]

Hey @lakefor94 .

1. Opt in to eIS.

2. On any biz policy for items that don't exceed eIS weight/dim, turn off all of those exclusions (save for APO/FPO if you won't ship there as that's considered domestic).

3. If you have any policies that apply to a mix of listings that meet eIS wt/dim limits, as well as listings that exceed weight/dim limits I suggest duplicating that policy and labeling one (NO EIS). Leave exclusions on the NO EIS one, apply it to your items that exceed eIS wt/dim. On the one that allows eIS, remove the exclusions and leave it on the listings that don't exceed eIS wt/dim limits.

4. Leave all the exclusions on your freight policy.

For listings without wt/dim eBay uses averages based on item, category, etc. Buyers may end up under or over charged for international shipping because eBay's using estimates, but those buyers will have the option to purchase, which they don't have now.

My suggestion to sellers from the start has been to enter wt/dim on listings go forward and any existing listings either leave as-is, or edit them periodically.

Did I miss any of your questions?

[lakefor94]

I think I have a clear idea of what needs to transpire. Appreciate all the detail @wastingtime101 

Thanks for the added insight @retro_entertainment_collectibles  and @stainlessenginecovers 

All you all rock. Thanks.

Will be checking back on this thread regularly for more information.  Thank you. 

[wastingtime101]

No prob @lakefor94 . Any additional questions let us know or feel free to tag/PM me.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I have gotten my first buyer complaint about the cost of EIS.

The buyer was Canadian.

He was also a seller.

The item was cheap - as low as I go

He would have complained no matter what EIS charged because of my fixed domestic rate to the hub.

I get far fewer complaints then I did with Global, almost all were from Canadians and cheap items.

Perhaps our Canadian friends will find it less onerous when they can find items to combine.

EIS is truly one of the easiest to use features Ebay has added. There is a lot of past experience which makes sellers overthink it.

I say this as a seller who has 90+% of the items I offer chosen because they can fit through the mail slot of the USPS pickup box in my lobby.

I use USPS pickup for a limited number of items which do not fit through the slot, but do not think that I have shipped anything over 5 lbs since I returned to Ebay = domestic or international.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

---

@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

I have gotten my first buyer complaint about the cost of EIS.

The buyer was Canadian.

He was also a seller.

The item was cheap - as low as I go

He would have complained no matter what EIS charged because of my fixed domestic rate to the hub.

I get far fewer complaints then I did with Global, almost all were from Canadians and cheap items.

Perhaps our Canadian friends will find it less onerous when they can find items to combine.

EIS is truly one of the easiest to use features Ebay has added. There is a lot of past experience which makes sellers overthink it.

I say this as a seller who has 90+% of the items I offer chosen because they can fit through the mail slot of the USPS pickup box in my lobby.

I use USPS pickup for a limited number of items which do not fit through the slot, but do not think that I have shipped anything over 5 lbs since I returned to Ebay = domestic or international.

---

Thats the #1 thing I've heard but only a few buyers.  But when I check actual USPS rates they have not been like crazy expensive more via eIS.  

[lakefor94]

"My suggestion to sellers from the start has been to enter wt/dim on listings go forward and any existing listings either leave as-is, or edit them periodically."

The above instruction by @wastingtime101 was a good one from last year. I wish I had heeded the tip. Would have saved me some significant time.

I grinded thru about 100 Ground Advantage listings this evening entering the correct dims and weight. 

Thought is was important to be accurate because my GA shipments with Free Shipping contain a lot of multi-quantity listings. 

Expecting to launch EIS by next week. Going to do it in phases with close to accurate and accurate dims/weights. 

The items shipping GA are easy for me because most are lightweights. Going to get a little more complicated as I phase in the Free Shipping USPS Priority and UPS Ground items that don't have accurate dims/weights.

I created the extra business shipping policies to parse them into EIS and Non-EIS listings. 

When creating the duplicate policies, it won't allow them to be exactly the same so I had to have a Calulated with Free Shipping version and a Flat Rate with Free Shipping version, if that makes sense....

Onward.

[chapeau-noir]

I was tagged but sorry I'm of no help - I don't have business policies and most of what I have just ships ground advantage and I use capped flat rate. @wastingtime101  thanks for all the information, it might assist me going forward as I may change my line-up.

[lakefor94]

@wastingtime101 @retro_entertainment_collectibles @stainlessenginecovers  & anyone else please...

This is where I ended up.

Turned on EIS.

Removed all exclusions from this one business shipping policy. 

Left "No International Shipping" toggled since I don't want to ship international myself. 

I have 400+ listings in this one business shipping policy with correct weights and dims to get things kicked off.  Mostly all lightweight, under a pound. 

Am I on the right track or will I start getting international orders coming in that I have to ship myself? 

Anything else I am missing? 

This 1st screenshot is what one of my listings look like. 

[pjcdn2005]

The screenshot of that listing looks like it is using EIS.  You can check yourself by changing the location in the shipping tabs.   Keep in mind that EIS does have a lot of restrictions so if international buyer asks what they be will be charged for shipping you can check that country on that listing.  If the country isn’t listed which is probably the case,  the EIS doesn’t ship there.  You could also view your listings item + shipping lowest and pick a country to test.  The listings that do t ship there will be at the end of the list and will show in the search view as shipping not specified. 

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

---

@lakefor94 wrote:

@wastingtime101 @retro_entertainment_collectibles @stainlessenginecovers  & anyone else please...

This is where I ended up.

Turned on EIS.

Removed all exclusions from this one business shipping policy. 

Left "No International Shipping" toggled since I don't want to ship international myself. 

I have 400+ listings in this one business shipping policy with correct weights and dims to get things kicked off.  Mostly all lightweight, under a pound. 

Am I on the right track or will I start getting international orders coming in that I have to ship myself? 

Anything else I am missing? 

This 1st screenshot is what one of my listings look like. 

---

Looks right to me,  I'm not sure the exclusion list is even applicable to eIS, I never tried modify it.  Since I didn't ship international before eBay placed me in eIS can't testify to way things were prior.  I'd say give it 24 hours and then pop over to eBay.eu, eBay.ca, ebay.au see if you're listing are popping up.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

Of additional note I never set up ship policy for eIS, not sure about that either.  eBay auto enrolled me and lopped everything to eIS automagically and I've never touched a thing since.  

[pjcdn2005]

The exclusion list is from eBay and is applicable to all sellers afaik.