EIS program?
Summary: The discussion revolves around the challenges and potential improvements of the eBay EIS (eBay International Shipping) program, particularly for Canadian sellers. lotzofuniquegoodies highlights that shipping to the USA using EIS is generally acceptable, but there are complications with the setup for international shipping from Canada, where flat rate shipping cannot be paired with calculated shipping for overseas shipments. They stress the importance of having flexible shipping options to make international sales more viable. This conversation also touches on the need for flat rate shipping options for US-bound packages that include tariffs, which is not currently possible on eBay.ca.
EIS program? For me, EIS gives it a 3 out of 10. I sell antiques and vintage items, and at least 50% of my items can't be shipped to the USA. When items can be shipped, it's often at exorbitant prices. It's impossible to sell a lighter or a 100-year-old dish. To sell a pair of snowshoes for $59 costs almost $150. For international sales outside the USA, the prices with EIS are exorbitant, so I make no sales.
chicweb
·7 months agoI would like to rate it too.. But it seems eBay doesn't want us to ship through that program... Still waiting over here.
Oh well, for what I've found, the shipping is always too expensive anyway with the program. I'll keep working with my current Canada Post + Zonos setup, I guess. 😉
lotzofuniquegoodies
·7 months ago@chicweb
Seems just for a certain few of us choosing to make us wait!! Guess an opt in opt out option was not part of the programming for those that do/did/want to qualify. Then, sorry but you lose. You do not qualify....<Insert reason here> message.
https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Community-eBay-Site-Issues/For-anyone-waiting-to-be-opted-back-in-to-eIS-program-or-for/m-p/533783#M8073
brocante6
OP8 months agoMy journey with EIS and eBay is starting to get interesting.
I listed 3 items this morning, all in the same category. Only 1 out of 3 shows shipping to the USA (number 3), the other 2 don't... completely ridiculous. They're loom parts.
flipistics
·8 months agoAll three appear to show shipping to the USA when I look at them. Do you still see only one of them as having it?
videotimeplus
·8 months agoWe just got enrolled into it yesterday and made our first sale with it. it was to Great Britain and it was just like shipping to someone in Canada it was incredibly easy. Now we will see how it goes once it reaches the hub.
marnotom!
·8 months agoXpresspost-International is also a pricey way to ship stuff, but it has the perk of being a reasonably quick way of getting items from Canada to an international destination. The perk for eIS is that eIS will handle any returns (which you really seem not to want) that may come your way, not to mention take responsibility for the shipment in general once it passes the acceptance stage at the hub.
Also consider that a good chunk of the eIS shipping charge that you're seeing on the listing page is actually your domestic charge for shipping the item to the hub. Over a third of the shipping charge for the snowshoes is collected by you, not eIS.
I'm actually pretty surprised that eIS seems to allow items that may have been in contact with fossil fuels to be shipped, period. They'd probably dead-end at the hub.
grann-4629
·8 months agoI haven't made many buys from the USA for the same reason. Right now I am looking at an item listing for just over $200 Canadian, but with the seller using the US version of eIS the shipping cost is over $175 Canadian.
Reedickulous!
Based on what I read on these forums, it seems American sellers generally don't care about Canadian business, and because their responsibility ends when the item gets to the hub, they don't care about the people that do buy from them either. If the item doesn't get from the hub to the buyer, oh well ....
john_koenig99
·8 months agoI think it's just a matter of covenience for the seller. eIS was never about buyer experience.
But, as it has already been pointed out, one can never anticipate what a buyer would consider "too much to pay" for shipping, if they really want an item.
reallynicestamps
·8 months agoNever assume your customer can't pay the price they are being charged.
They are shopping in Canada because they can't find it locally.
EIS is charging the importer/buyer not only shipping, but also the sales taxes, duties, and tariffs that their country has put on their purchase/import.
If they didn't do this the customer would be paying the same import fees at the PO counter or on their doorstep.
The one question -- and it's probably proprietary information-- is what eIS is charging as a customs brokerage fee.
Canada Post charges $9.95 on imports.
UPS and other couriers charge $25 or more, which is attested to by an archived thread some 5000 posts long.
The GSP did not reveal their charge, but the general opinion was that it was about $5 a package.
But most of the upcharge over postage will be sales taxes. Followed by applicable duties and tariffs.
The Trump Tariff is the biggest problem here since no one knows how much it will be tomorrow nor on what products.
But again.
Don't assume your customer can't afford it.
busybeas_books
·7 months agoI had my third eis sale last week. Clicking on the buyers name on sold-items list gives the price that he paid (or the total for multiple purchases if applicable). In this case it was just for the 1 item. He paid $54.48 total for a $24.00 item, so $30.48 would be for shipping, tariffs, taxes, duty, whatever. My fee billings only based on the $24 plus domestic shipping, $9.33 in this case.
reallynicestamps
·7 months agoMy fee billings only based on the $24 plus domestic shipping, $9.33 in this case.
Not on the customer's sales tax?
So our fees might actually be a little lower with eIS whatever the buyer is paying.
When we could ship directly to the USA our fees were on the customer's total payment, which included their sales taxes.
Of course, the cost of shipping to Mississauga might be higher than the direct shipment to the USA. YMMV.
mandicrafts
·8 months agoI am at a loss on how some items show EIS US and other items do not. Especially the SAME item only in a slightly larger format.
Ex: Vtg Steiff Dachshund in 7 inch shows EIS US but the same model Vtg Steiff Dachshund in 9 inch does NOT show EIS US. The only difference I could find was the 9 inch has a squeaker. However, other Steiff items with a squeaker are showing EIS US. I manually checked 155 of my Steiff listings and 35 did NOT show EIS US. Why?
I moved 900 items over from .com to .ca over the past couple of months. I now have 1100 on .ca. I still have 2200 left on .com and I am leaving them there. I have included tariffs in my US flat rate shipping on .com, and to the OP's point, it is much cheaper that way for the buyer, than the EIS US rates to the USA. I am also going to move many of those listings BACK to .com. If there is no EIS US showing, then most of my market is blocked for these items.
mandicrafts
·8 months agoJust to add to my post about EIS US not showing, if eBay could allow flat rate shipping to be entered for the USA on .ca, and yet keep calculated shipping for Overseas, then I'd leave my items on .ca and just add tariffs into my US flat rate shipping much like I do on .com
That way a buyer can choose between EIS US (if it shows) or my rate to the USA with tariffs included.
You cannot have flat rate to the US and calculated to overseas on a listing on .ca and rate tables cannot be manipulated to do so (as Devon said in the EIS question thread). Rate tables do not work that way.
rdemaree
·8 months agoI wish ebay would allow calculated rates for Canada and International and allow us to do flat rate for USA only because before the orange circus clown became president again I had calculated rates WORLDWIDE and I still would if I was able to but at the moment you cant effectively ship to the USA with calculated rates, its not cost efficient for small shipments even if you CUSMA approve all your items with UPS and use them because the cost to ship with UPS is already higher and then you have to figure in brokerage costs and by that point you would almost be better off having trumps crackpot tariffs on your listings if we are talking about raw numbers.
The best thing for ebay Canada to do would be to separate shipping into 3 groups- Canada, International, and USA because the USA really is its own thing at this point.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·8 months ago@mandicrafts
@devon@ebay
Total agreement. Mostly perfectly fine shipping to the USA using eIS. Sending internationally makes no sense for me being located in W. Canada. More expensive and extends delivery time substantially. Some of us NEED to have calculated shipping for sending Internationally. Makes most economical/rational sense.
marnotom!
·8 months agoRemember that not only do we have the minefield of tariffs to work around when selling to the US, but there's also the minefield of duties now, too, seeing as there's no longer an official de minimis (duty-free threshold) in place. Given that your items contain all sorts of different furs and fabrics with unknown points of origin, something in the listing for the larger dachshund may have triggered an eIS block for US sales, perhaps the selling price.
sparx_63
·8 months agoHello
Could it be that the item doen not have country of origin in the listing? If there is no country of origin, the item will not be seen in the US
brocante6
OP8 months agoNo, sorry, the countries of origin are clearly specified; I think the problem is much broader than that.
marnotom!
·8 months agoThe "problem" is orange, 190 cm tall, and weighs 107 kg.
easoss
·8 months agoThe way I view EIS is like buying milk. You can get a better price if you plan a trip to the grocery store, take the time out of your day and buy multiple items. But if you want, you can go quickly to a convenience store and pay a much higher price. EIS is the equivalent of a convenience store for shipping. The only difference is the customer pays the much higher price.
byto253
·8 months agoReading how broad the exclusions are has been the real surprise for me. The higher shipping costs were expected. At least for the US Canada Post/Zonos is a good option.