The Biggest Thing Since Amazon to Happen To .com

[Vigilante]

I predict that the eBay Global Sales platform will be the biggest thing to happen to online retail since Amazon.com.

What is it? It's a new feature eBay soft opened last month, and it is available for all U.S. sellers.

1. You enable it on eBay with a few clicks
2. eBay then propagates your listings over their network in 27 countries
3. When you get an international order, you ship it to eBay in Kentucky
4. You pay the same fees as you would for any other domestic shipment
5. eBay then ships it overseas, handling customs, export, and shipment
6. Did I mention your fees don't change? eBay charges the customer for the international shipment.
7. eBay removes any negative feedback as to the process from Kentucky forward, were you to receive any

In the click of a mouse, you can now take your business from domestic to worldwide, as simple as shipping your packages to Kentucky.

This is a game changer. For anyone that sells on Amazon, you now know why you have received 5 emails in the last 2 weeks from Amazon talking about you expanding with Amazon to other countries, but Amazon thus far makes it difficult to do so.

I predict that the eBay Global Sales platform will be the biggest thing to happen to online retail since Amazon.com, and create a domino effect that will become the new global standard for international eCommerce.

Read more here:

Using the Global Shipping Program

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Definite game changer! Shipping books overseas is a RPITA and I'm sure general merchandise isn't any different. I never thought of using Ebay as a channel for books but I wonder if this can change things for publishers.

 

[nitrousflame]

To sell internationally, you need to:

• 
  Have an eBay account in good standing.

• 
  Have a PayPal account and be PayPal Verified.

• 
  Earn at least 10 Feedback points from selling.

• 
  Have had your first successful sale more than 90 days ago.

• 
  Meet the selling requirements of the sites where you want your listings to appear.

Waiting for the 90-day eBay hazing period is like watching paint dry! I will certainly flip the switch though as soon as I can. Great post!

 

[mayana]

I signed up as soon as I read your post

Thanks for letting us know about this... I've kind of had my Ebay store on autopilot, and I hadn't even heard of this before.

 

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[Eskil]

Dang... this calls for some more Speed+ Vigilante. My mouth is watering from the possibilities...

 

[theag]

Thanks for the headsup. Not useful yet for those of us outside the US but certainly very good to know. Definitely has the potential to be a game changer. I'm sometimes really pissed when I want to order sth from a company based in US (e.g. something I see on shark tank and really like), and then inquire about international shipping and they tell me they dont offer it.. So this can be solution for those kinds of problems.

 

[Eskil]

@theag; YES... this frustrated me and my wife to no end when we lived in Norway. I don't know how many times there were things we wanted on eBay, but had to search high and low for a seller that was willing to ship it to us. I know many people there and other countries that will appreciate being able to buy more stuff from eBay when they go global.

 

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[-L-]

I was getting excited until I read it would be only available in the US. Thanks for the info anyway! An interesting competitor to Amazon.

Hopefully they will implement this in Europe soon.

 

[stranger]

it sounds good, but it'll take a longer time for international buyers to get items. Also, if you are a buyer, feedback won't work for you any more. All ebay sellers from the USA are good guys now. hmm.

 

[Ãœbertreffen]

I do agree this will help level the playing field and make it more of a standard for the world of today.

There are limitations, however. Both size and weight limits. This is to be expected though as most carriers have a weight limit before you must go freight. Then when you go freight we ship our product through a freight company as the top common name carriers are often outrageous. Typically you don't have the option to help the customer out by shipping to the nearest port for pick-up either which cuts costs in half basically.

In other words, don't expect to ship your boat anchors just yet and expect eBay to take care of it all for you.

The part of it being longer to ship is true, but really not by much. I've shipped to most countries and got their packages to them within 2-3 business days if they really needed it. This can vary though as customs can withhold product and since this is eBay we're talking about, customers enjoy finding anything possible to complain about longer deliveries even if it's not under your control. So, alleviating that BS onto eBay can make it easier and more pleasing to the seller.

eBay is in for a treat. Packages can get lost if you don't take appropriate measures. I've even seen some services that claim 7-10 business days take 30, 60 or even 90 days and they will eventually out of thin air show up (or not at all in some cases). Mostly due to their horrible tracking service. You have to go through the loops only after X amount of time has passed by. These customers will also open PayPal disputes for their safety (understandable) and on a large scale, let me tell you, this is a treat. :smilielol:

On the other hand, most customers wouldn't notice the 2-3 day difference. Any longer and they may. Even if shipped the same day of purchase, tracking can often be delayed or they hold onto product (especially if you purchased a slower service and it arrives faster than it should). This also depends on how fast after eBay receives the product will they push it out their doors. It may or may not be a turn off for sellers and buyers alike.

More people think customs is harder than it is. When I first started, I never said, "oh no, I'm not going to sell internationally." Get your customers and ship to them. That is what is surprising to me why many only ship domestically. Sure, there are risks. Some countries more than others due to corrupt customs but that hasn't stopped getting in the way of shipping to such places.



Bottom line, it's great to know more are pushing for international sales. I've always offered and welcomed international customers and it's about time others join the pack. Even with limitations, this will open a larger market with products that meet standards and help sellers push out their product further than they originally thought wasn't a possibility for them.

 

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[Vigilante]

it sounds good, but it'll take a longer time for international buyers to get items. Also, if you are a buyer, feedback won't work for you any more. All ebay sellers from the USA are good guys now. hmm.

As it is on eBay, right now sellers can ONLY leave positive feedback or no feedback for a buyer. So... in a small way this will level the playing field on international transactions... but the feedback eBay will remove is ONLY with regard to the shipping process and timing. If you are in Africa and you order an item from the United States...you know it is going to take a longer lead time to arrive.

 

[smartman]

Ebay will be shipping so much volume that packages won't be lost an iota of a fraction as they do in the smaller market. I would assume that they will be overseeing their own shipping of international packages from KY. Probably a few jets going to each continent daily, owned by ebay, run by ebay's employees. I'm wondering if they will raise the FVF's of items sold on ebayglobal, after they get us all hooked.

 

[Ãœbertreffen]

Shipping more volume just leaves even more room for error, especially when you're new to the game. As I said, if you don't know what you're doing, you're setting yourself up for errors. 'Losing' packages was just used loosely there are other things that can occur. Rejected packages can also occur in which case they either return or discard the items. I personally have never had an issue with it but I know others who have skin in the game who have.

eBay is using Pitney Bowes as their provider. They will also be managing the shipping centers.

I also never make assumptions. Even if eBay took care of anything, that doesn't mean packages cannot be lost, or that they are above law. That's like saying FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc have never lost a package. It's not just getting to the country but often packages will go through customs and then after that no one can seem to figure out what happened. As I mentioned earlier, there are some countries that are well known for being corrupt.

In addition, it sounds like eBay will deal with shipping the item to your customer but will NOT deal with returns. For those not used to eBay, eBay claims you don't have to accept returns but just like free shipping, they push it onto you and prefer that you offer it. However, that's really not that big of a deal if you specify that the buyer pays return shipping. Pretty simple really. However, most of this is, everyone just makes a big deal about it.

 

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[stranger]

Coins and shell specimens are restricted. It's what i sell on ebay.

 

[Vigilante]

Word to anyone activating this... after you turn it on, you have to go into each of your listings and check to see that the feature is enabled on a listing by listing basis. eBay told me they would make the change universally within my account... but it didn't happen. We had to make the change at the account level, and on many of the items again at the listing level.

 

[OzGrinder]

Brilliant. I think you're spot on that this is going to be big. As an Australian consumer who regularly orders items from ebay US sellers due to the fact that I can pick up items for 1/2 the price than I can locally (even when you factor in shipping), this is going to be great for me! So many sellers won't ship internationally due to the hassles, now they have no reason not to.

The flip side is that international/domestic sellers outside of the US now have alot more competition...

 

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[HsrJames]

EBay opted me into the program when it was in beta, but I opted out. The reason being: I can ship my items internationally myself cheaper than what the Global Shipping Program can, you can't combine multiple items into one shipment with the program, and I sell antiques so some items were eligible for the program and some were not (it became a huge headache with multiple item orders). Anyway it's a good idea but it has some issues for certain sellers.

My new #1 complaint with Ebay is that they charge a 10% premium on shipping to the sellers. On international shipments that can be $3-$5 extra I have to charge to my buyers for shipping.

 

[Vigilante]

We got some immediate results on the weekend through this eBay program.

 

[CommonCents]

Ebay needs to add product specific reviews/feedback from customers. Adding this social proof is critical to their future success to give buyers more confidence in a particular product. General seller feedback is not enough.

 

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[cdrag]

Let me begin by telling you how much I HATE THIS and I have had many people complain about how high the shipping costs are and they simply end up cancelling their auctions with me.

I decided to give this a shot and added it to all of my listings. I make a decent profit flipping modern age comics - I had on international buyer purchase about 10 comics - A few minutes later he came back to me saying the shipping was over $80 - about $60 for the product and $20 in import fees. He started blaming me for gouging the shipping cost. I told him I had no control of ebay and their new shipping policy. He understood and I cancelled all his auctions. I typically ship 1st class international for about $15

Then I sell something else - since this is more expensive I charge $40 for priority international - I did the ebay global shipping and again the person comes back and tells me it is $70 ship - Another auction I had to cancel...

I honestly see no good in this - I have heard stories of peoples items also being damaged since ebay sends the item to a facility in the US and then they re-package the item and ship it overseas.

Does anyone here have any good stories that they personally encountered?

 

[Vigilante]

The shipping costs are all disclosed as part of the listing… I can't imagine why you would have one if not multiple customers coming back to complaining about this. It's all disclosed up front before they bid. In the short few days since I turned it on we've had several orders already.