eBay turning off listings for eIS without telling sellers
Summary: newlook87 conducted an audit of their listings and discovered issues with eBay's international shipping program (eIS), where some items were not shipping internationally despite being compliant. Their interaction with eBay tech support revealed inconsistencies and a lack of clear communication regarding eIS eligibility and international shipping configuration. marnotom! suggested the use of AI to determine listing suitability could be causing these issues, while newlook87 argued for better communication and transparency from eBay. john_koenig99 noted that eIS is relatively new and still adapting to a volatile trading environment. The discussion also touched on the challenges of finding reliable Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) services and sorting HS codes for shipping, with participants considering options like Stallion, Chit Chats, and Shipsavvy.
I recently did an audit of my listings and determined that approximately 30% of my listings have no international shipping, despite being configured to ship to US/EU/AUS and being enrolled in eIS. This led me down a 3+ week rabbit hole with eBay tech support, where the feedback was:
-You must be selling items not approved. Read the instructions
-Are you sure you are enrolled in eIS?
-I see that you are enrolled in eIS. Strange, let's look into this
-So, I joined eBay developer network, did API call, all listings EIS:YES, so all good there. Unfortunately, that just means they are enrolled in the program, not that theya re actually configured for intl shipping
-We can't tell you why some of your listings we won't ship internationally, despite you being enrolled in eIS, nor will we give you notifications if we decide to remove the international shipping of said items
-Email - Thank you for your interest in eBay eIS. Unfortunately, the program is now full and we are not taking new applications. Try again later
-CSR - My system shows you are not registered for eIS
-Yes, some of your listings are enrolled in eIS, but that doesn't mean they are eligible for international shipping, despite not being oversized, are approved items, etc. Finally, some truth. Make sure all your listings have all fields filled out to improve your chances that the item will be elgible for intl shipping. No further communication on this matter. Thank you
-So basically, eBay confirmed that enrolling in eIS, doesn't actually mean that your items will be configured for international shipping. That is at their sole discretion, is subject to change, without notification. There is also no simple way to audit your listings for intl shipping, which is an issue for large catalogs
-Sell similar has an even worse impact, in that an eIS eligible item is often ineligible for intl shipping minutes later after sell similar.
I understand that some of this is the tariff fallout, but this is an incredibly poor business practice and a very questionable approach to take. I didn't see this issue being discussed here, so i apologize if this is old news.
So, what are the best DDP options? Am considering Stallion, Chit Chats and Shipsavvy. A quick search turns up brutal DDP pricing on some items, such as car parts, which for some reason use Dutch Post to ship parcels from Canada to US.
Thoughts?
marnotom!
·6 days agoIf eIS is not being applied on your listings to any of the countries to which it ships, then it's likely that the AI inspecting the listing has decided that, based on the item's category and possibly some keywords, the item is not a good fit for the program.
If eIS is not being applied on your listings for only the United States, then it's likely that the AI inspecting the listing has decided that the item would be too problematic to prepare for US Customs and is not a good fit for the program.
As you're probably aware, eIS has an extensive listing of prohibited and restricted items. Since sellers can't remove eIS from these listings themselves, they have to rely on eBay to do that.
Up until recently, the US version of eIS didn't screen items with AI the way it seems to be doing now and restricted items that got shipped to the hub ended up being impounded, with the buyer being refunded by eIS, the seller keeping the proceeds of the sale, and the item being either liquidated or destroyed. This made for unhappy buyers (and sometimes sellers) and probably didn't do much good for eIS's bottom line.
The best DDP option will depend on what you're selling. If you're selling a wide range of items, you may need to experiment a bit to see what works best for a specific type of item. When it comes to auto parts, I'm not surprised that DDP pricing is what it is. The European automotive industry is struggling right now and I suspect that duties for items originating from outside the EU are pretty stiff as a protection measure. The reason why Post NL is being used is because of new restrictions from the White Horse forbidding Canadian shipments to Europe (or other international destinations) to pass through the United States en route to the destination country.
newlook87
OP5 days agoI think eBay has a responsibility to notify sellers that the following x number of listings are not currently/no longer being offered intl shipping through eIS. A sellers expectation once they enroll in the program is that their listings ARE being offered intl shipping, so long as compliant and not on the exclusions list. That would seem the minimum duty of care
The AI point is interesting, but does not recluse a company from its obligations. If indeed there's some sort of AI screen that filters out listings that are not as you put it "a good fit for eIS" then that needs to be communicated. When technology is implemented without responsibility it leads to liability. A bare minimum would be to communicate WHY listings have been removed from eIS.
As far anyone that has actually used AI ( I do, extensively) a mission critical business process that affects many thousands of sellers needs to be supervised and managed. A business of any size can't just "outsource to AI" and think all will be fine. That's 2023 naivete.
Lastly, Chit Chats recent disclosure on the impact of the most recent round of tariffs offers a partial explanation on how some sku's are now handled. They've actually published a list of HS codes that are no longer eligible for shipping to the US. Stallion handles this differently and DDP on more contentious tariff-affected SKUs are routed through Dutch Post to the US (!). Very slow and expensive, likely to account for the occasional parcel refusals. Why can't eBay communicate such a policy, instead of hiding behind the veil of AI, or vague inferences that not all eIS eligible SKUs will actually be eligible for international shipping? I find the practice problematic - and deceptive.
Now, does anyone have experience actually getting bulk HS codes generated? What's best, non-enterprise solution? Which shippers have best "plug and play" DDP quote generators for eBay stores? Is there a material difference between Stallion, Chit Chats, ShipSavvy or others?
Thanks in advance!
john_koenig99
·5 days agoPlaying a bit a devil's advocate here (and this is only my perspective)...While it's true that eBay Canada needs to put more effort into making their eIS progtam more efficient, it is important to consider that eIS Canada has been operating for only 1 year (this October), and that it was launched mainly as a response to the Orange Clown mandate to eliminate the de minimis allowance of US imports, plus all the array of selected tariffs that have been imposed since. TBH, I think it's also a trial and error experiment, given than tariffs change almost in a weekly basis, in some cases.
So...it is a changing landscape, and I think that we (as sellers) also have the responsibility to stay current and adapt to a continuously changing landscape of international e-commerce. Again, this is not to give a free pas to eBay, but I think that they have done something that, as it was something that, only a bit more than a year ago, looked like it would've been impossible to continue selling almost ANYTHING outside of Canada, through this platform.
marnotom!
·5 days agoJust a short addition to @john_koenig99 's post: eIS wasn't really designed for the hostile international trading environment in which we find ourselves now. It was originally designed for US sellers who found shipping outside of their country to be too difficult or risky. I don't think most US eBay sellers would know what an HS code is and its importance.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·5 days ago@john_koenig99 Would that include the VERY short list of countries Canadian sellers have access to (according to the help page)? It's possible the list has been amended. Just never anything official. It's 10 to 15 countries compared to the 200 + US sellers have access to. Some kind of an error message should be built in to advise if an item is or isn't compatible with eIS with the option for seller to easily access outside means of Intl (USA OR INTL) for shipping.