w~~_7.JPG "pjcdn2005"){kind=avatar}
Selecting where you ship is only part of it.
You MUST select a shipping method and have a shipping cost shown in the listing.
Until you have more eBay experience, why don't you select to ship to Canada and USA only. That is the bulk of the market for Canadian sellers. It is relatively easy to get the shipping information to Canada and the USA using the Canada Post website.
I'm learning too so I understand...
What you have to do is relist the item and change the currency to US dollars - then you will have the other shipping options available. It took me a while to figure it out.
What I also did was go to my account and set-up some business policies for shipping. I set one for heavy items and one for lighter items. And within each of those I set a shipping cost for US and one for Canada.
I based the shipping cost on the furthest distance from where it's been shipped from. I guess I'll have a better understanding of the shipping cost if someone far purchases an item 🙂
I find figuring out shipping to be the hardest part. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck 🙂
@greenmangoes wrote:
What you have to do is relist the item and change the currency to US dollars - then you will have the other shipping options available. It took me a while to figure it out.
Although it's usually a good idea for Canadian sellers to list in $US, the currency of the listing doesn't determine the shipping options, nor is it a requirement for showing US shipping options. I sold for quite a while in $Cdn and have always shipped to the US.
Although I don't use "Business Policies" because I use a 3rd party auction management site, I doubt that "Business Policies" will have any effect on setting actual shipping costs -- it is informational, and good for helping buyers to understand your shipping terms, but you need to set up your shipping options specifically within your listings.
You can change your shipping options by simply using the "Revise your item" feature (see the link at top left of any of your listings, or go to your "Selling" page and use the drop-down list to the right of the item. You may also be able to use bulk editor to change shipping options, but I'm not certain of that.
If you stipulate the countries and/or regions you will ship to, and show a shipping amount for those countries/regions, then this will be displayed in your listing.
For what it's worth, my advice to someone just starting to sell on eBay would be to stick with shipping to Canada and the U.S., as this is where most of your sales will be. On your listing page, under the shipping options, choose "Domestic" for Canada, and then "International" shipping and click on "United States" for the US. My suggestion would be to start out with flat rate shipping, using just one rate and service type for Canada and one for the U.S. per listing.
For the U.S., check Canada Post's rates for a location that is midway between your location and the farthest point you can ship to in the continental U.S. This way, you'll pay extra on some, and collect a bit more on other shipments, but in the end it will mostly come out even. Or you can do as you've indicated, and choose the farthest distance and have all buyers pay the same amount, thus never losing any money on shipping. However, your buyers will decide whether those rates are fair by either purchasing or not purchasing from you.
Personally, I choose the nearest rate on higher-priced items, and a midway rate for lower-priced items, and selectively upgrade for my buyers on occasion. Yes, I lose some money on shipping, but I make it up in more sales. It's been pointed out on these boards that low (or preferably free) shipping has been shown in marketing studies to boost sales. Look at it this way: if one or two additional sales per month will make up for the shipping discounts you provide, then you've lost nothing.
Also remember that you will be paying FVFs on your shipping costs, based on the first domestic shipping cost. So if you sell primarily to the U.S., you can significantly lower your eBay fees on shipping by offering very low (or preferably free) shipping within Canada. You can do this across the board on your items or selectively. In addition, if you make a Canadian sale, you'll get an automatic 5-star DSR rating for shipping.
If your items can be shipped by Light Packet or Small Packet, you have an easy task, as the rate is the same regardless of location in the U.S. Incidentally, as a beginner, avoid using surface shipping of any kind, for various reasons.
You will need to tailor the shipping cost and service to the item weight and size of course, but you may also wish to tailor the cost and service to the value of the item. For example, an item that is heavier than 500gm (and/or thicker than 2cm) can't go by Light Packet U.S., and an item heavier than 1kg and certain dimensions can't even go by Small Packet. Now you have to look at the pricier shipping options - Expedited, Tracked Packet, etc.
If the item's value doesn't justify such expensive shipping, you may have great difficulty selling it -- or end up with poor DSRs -- unless you reduce the shipping cost for your buyers when inputting the flat rate (i.e. show an artificially lower rate and absorb the cost yourself). Too many of these, and your profits will evaporate. This is personally why I've always preferred flat rate shipping - because I can directly control what the shipping costs will be -- but I know that calculated shipping has its proponents. I just think calculated shipping is better suited for more experienced sellers with a high volume who are selling items of fairly consistent size and weight.
Sorry for the long treatise, but I hope some of this information helps you. The whole subject of shipping on eBay is a complex subject, but it is manageable. It is also much more critical than many beginners may realize until they get their first negative feedback and low DSRs for having over-charged or under-serviced on shipping.
Shipping insurance is a whole other subject that I won't get into here...
