I have been unable to get help through eBay Customer Service. Could someone at eBay help me with this? I've been very detailed in describing the issue, so I hope someone will help.
Short Version: Countries I’ve excluded from direct international shipping are unexpectedly also being excluded from the Global Shipping Program despite setting it up as I think it should be. This means I am unable to make sales to Brazil, Peru, Ukraine, Bolivia, Paraguay, and the Russian Federation
Situation: I would like to increase international sales. Some international buyers are put off by the high shipping costs. For certain items, especially those under 4 pounds, I could lower the buyer’s shipping costs by shipping directly. However, I need to limit my risks so I am using a third party insurance company. My insurance company excludes shipments to certain countries.
Proposed Solution: I will offer direct international shipping to every country not excluded by my insurance company. For the remaining countries, I will offer the Global Shipping Program (if available in their country) to limit my risk.
Steps Taken:
- I went to Account Settings > Site Preferences > Shipping Preferences (Show) > Exclude shipping locations from your listings (Edit)
- I checked the individual countries not covered by my insurance company to exclude (Italy, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Congo, Republic of the, Peru, Ukraine, Sierra Leone, Moldova, Bolivia, Paraguay, Azerbaijan Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Liberia, Angola, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Russian Federation, Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Venezuela, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Georgia)
- I then checked the box that says “Override my shipping exclusions for Global Shipping Program eligible items. For example, if you usually don't ship to Malta but want to ship to Malta via Global Shipping Program, check this box.”
- I created Shipping Business policies so that it will take on those selections by going to Sell > Business Policies > Create Policy. The primary policy is “Free First Class Shipping – Calculated International Shipping”
- On the business policy, I have the box checked that says “Sell globally, ship domestically using the Global Shipping Program. Send it to the US shipping center, and the rest will be taken care of for you”
- Under that it says “Alternative international shipping options. Offer alternative international shipping options in case an item can't be sent using the Global Shipping Program.” I have this selected to Calculated and have included my three direct shipping options of USPS First Class International, USPS Priority International, and USPS Priority Express International.
- Each alternative option is set to “Worldwide.
- The excluded country list is below with the same excluded countries from step 2 listed by default.
Expected Outcomes Vs What Actually Happened:
- I expected that when a buyer from a country I offer direct shipping to, such as Canada, comes to my listing they will see direct shipping costs rather than Global Shipping Program costs. They do (success).
- I expected that when a buyer comes to my listing from a country that I do not offer direct shipping to, and the Global Shipping Program does not service also, they will not see any shipping options. They don’t (success). Countries not serviced by either myself or GSP include: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Congo, Sierra Leone, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Liberia, Angola, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Venezuela, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Georgia
- However, I expected that when a buyer comes to a listing that I don’t offer direct shipping to, but it is serviced by the Global Shipping Program, they will see shipping available through Global Shipping Program. They don’t (failure). An example of this would be for eBay item number 202206857832 for Brazil and Bolivia (see photo), but it happens for each of my listings and each of the following countries. Countries I don’t service, but the Global Shipping Program does include: Brazil, Peru, Ukraine, Bolivia, Paraguay, and the Russian Federation
Help Needed:
What needs to be done so that my buyers in countries that I don’t directly service, but the Global Shipping Program does, can buy my items? Is this a glitch, or a setup error?
@justin_collection wrote:
@Anonymous, if you or someone else would have an idea on this, I'd be much appreciated. This month I'm hitting sales records and I'm excited about the prospect of going global!
Hi @justin_collection, it looks almost everything here was on the right track, but one thing is throwing a wrench in the works. You will need to adjust your shipping options within your shipping policy so that all of the "Ship to" options are "Custom Shipping Location" or "Canada" instead of "Worldwide. When "Worldwide" is listed, this overrides your GSP settings as the options contradict. If you set up specific services to "Custom Shipping Location", you will have direct shipping options to those locations, excluded countries not eligible for GSP won't be able to view/purchase your items and excluded countries that are eligible for GSP would be able to purchase through GSP. I believe this is the goal, but definitely let me know if I missed anything! I've included a screenshot of the ship to field for reference:
@Anonymous, you have the desired goal exactly correct.
Are you saying to get this effect I should:
1) Choose custom locations and check every box, while leaving my exclusions in place to override direct shipping? GSP would recognize I have a custom location checked for Brazil, but it is excluded so GSP will pick up?
2) Or should I choose custom locations, not selecting locations I don't want to cover directly, and GSP will pick up from there?
I tried option 1. I updated my default shipping policy: "Free First Class Shipping - Calculated International". See the below screenshot. But when I went to a listing in that business policy (item number 202221053486 for example), a country like Brazil (that GSP services but I don't directly) still does not appear in the dropdown list.
If you are saying option 2 would get that effect, the problem with that solution is custom locations don't drill down to the specific country for most countries. I could leave the countries of Brazil and the Russian Federation unchecked, but Peru, Ukraine, Bolivia, and Paraguay are only listed by region so to uncheck their region would leave me unable to do direct shipping to any of the other countries in that region.
Regardless, as it stands, if you are saying I need to do option 2 that would at least open up two additional countries if I only uncheck Brazil and the Russian Rederation. So I have also tried this. I currently have option 2 enabled.
However, again, when I go to item 202221053486, these countries do not appear in the dropdown menu. I will leave the settings like this for you to be able to see it live. Please let me know your thoughts on if I still have a setting incorrect or if the website isn't working as intended.
