***Workshop on Borderfree Buyer Tools, Thursday, October 7, 2004 4-5 PM ET

[carly@ebay.com]

Topic: eBay Workshop: "Borderfree Buyer tool workshop"

Host: eBay Staff with Craig from Borderfree
Date: Thursday, October 7, 2004
Time: 16:00 - 17:00 EDT
Location: Canada Town Square

Description: Borderfree is a company that helps make the border issues disappear for US sellers and makes the mystery of extra charges disappear for Canadian buyers. We’ve partnered with them because the service is fast and easy for our sellers – they simply tell Borderfree what the item is and where it was made and then ship it to a US processing centre. As Canadian buyers, you will know and pre-pay all taxes, duties and shipping fees on your item. Canadian buyers can also take advantage of Borderfree’s new Buyer Tool which allows you to get access to US auctions, even if the Seller is not registered with Borderfree and indicates that they only ship in the US. We will also be happy to respond to any questions or concerns Canadian buyers may have with dealing with US Sellers.

Hope to see you there!

Regards,
eBay

[coven1]

D'oh! Was nice having the top of the board free for awhile 🙂

[romancranch]

Does borderfree charge the buyer for their service? Cause I can't picture them doing all that transaction work for free?

[laplaya29]

I ship to the USA every day, will this seminar be of any use to me, or is this for buyers who buy from the USA.

[encore1st]

Is Borderfree able to combine shipments?

[author1059]

"We will also be happy to respond to any questions or concerns Canadian buyers may have with dealing with US Sellers."

Can you teach them to please mark Customs forms with what we pay for items and not what they believe is the item's value?

[encore1st]

Who is Borderfree representing the buyer or the seller or both? Are both buyer and seller required to use Borderfree in a transaction?

[encore1st]

Yes I found the site, still wanted questions answered here, thanks.

[carly@ebay.com]

Hi everyone,

Thank-you for posting your questions in advance of the workshop, we will be sure and answer all of these on Thursday from 4-5 PM.

Regards,
Carly

[bowclue]

Does this eliminate the custom brokers? When will we be able to see the cost of this service, I hope before a person signs up.

[borderfree_service]

I wanted to address some of the questions posted prior to the Workshop starting:

romancranch said: "Does borderfree charge the buyer for their service? Cause I can't picture them doing all that transaction work for free?"
Answer: the fee for the service is built into the shipping and handling costs.

laplaya29 said: "I ship to the USA every day, will this seminar be of any use to me, or is this for buyers who buy from the USA."
Answer: We are focusing more on the Canadian Buyer trying to get goods from US sellers today, but we are planning on adding a Canadian Seller capability early next year.

encore1st said: "Is Borderfree able to combine shipments?"
Answer: Yes. The seller can group purchased items from the same Buyer.

encore1st said: "Who is Borderfree representing the buyer or the seller or both? Are both buyer and seller required to use Borderfree in a transaction?"
Answer: Borderfree can work for both parties. US Sellers can register for the service and "enable" their listings with Borderfree. This will allow the Buyer to know all duties, taxes and shipping charges prior to bidding. However, if the Seller is not registered / does not ship to Canada, Canadian Buyers can also use our Buyer Tool (part of the eBay Buyer Tools Pilot Program). The Buyer Tool allows you to send a request to the US Seller asking if they will use the Borderfree Service if you win the item. If they agree, you will be able to get a cost quote on the item prior to bidding and will be able to pay all of your fees in advance - no C.O.D. fees at the door.

bowclue said: "Does this eliminate the custom brokers? When will we be able to see the cost of this service, I hope before a person signs up."
Answer: Borderfree manages all of the Customs clearance process. You (as a Buyer) will understand all of the costs BEFORE you bid on the item.

[borderfree_service]

Before the Workshop begins I would like to introduce the Borderfree Buyer Tool and explain how it works.

there are 4 steps to the process:

Step 1: CDN Buyer sends a request to a US seller through a Borderfree web request form - required information includes User ID, email address, and Auction ID

Step 2: If the Seller agrees to use Borderfree, you will receive an email that will give you a link to a cost calculator where you can calculate your total costs prior to placing a bid

Step 3: If you win the Item, you will pay Borderfree (currently VISA only) and Borderfree will pay your Seller via PayPal.

Step 4: The Seller will ship to a Borderfree US distribution center (in Michigan). Borderfree will receive the item, clear customs on your behalf (including payment of duty and taxes) and send the parcel to you via Canada Post. You will also receive a Track-and-trace email that will allow you to track your shipment.

[carly@ebay.com]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for joining us for the Borderfree Buyer Tools workshop. I would like to introduce Craig from Borderfree who will be here for the next hour to answer your questions and provide information on how you can use their services to make buying cross border easier.

Lets get started!

Regards,
Carly

[borderfree_service]

Thank you Carly.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Craig.

[borderfree_service]

In order to enhance your understanding of how Canadian Buyers can use Borderfree, it can work in one of the following 2 ways:

1. Sellers already enabled with Borderfree: Many Sellers have already enabled items with Borderfree. You can find them from our website, or you can do an advanced search on eBay for "Borderfree" - but make sure you highlight "search title AND description". That will return a list of enabled items. On those listings you will find a Borderfree Cost Calculator that you can use to calculate your total costs - duty, tax and shipping before you bid on your items.

2. You can also use the Borderfree Buyer Tool as described in my post above.

[borderfree_service]

A lot of people ask us if they are going to end up paying more through Borderfree - in the majority of cases the answer is no. And often we can save you a significant amount of money even though there are 2 shipping legs (US seller to Borderfree in Michigan, BOrderfree to you in Canada)

There are a couple of reasons why we can enhance the economics:

1. Many Sellers provide an economical shipping price in the US and raise it significantly for Canadian and internaitonal orders (if they ship internationally). Borderfree can make sure that you get access to the US rate for that leg of the shipment and can offer a good rate for Canadian shipping as we are partly owned by Canada Post.

2. We currently do business with the likes of: Williams-Sonoma, Brookstone, NHL, Sephora and many many more US mechants. The economies of scale we have built for dealing with cross-border transactions (customs processing) we have passed on to the eBay community through this service.

[borderfree_service]

We also get a lot of questions about hidden charges. To make sure everyone is clear - if you use Borderfree (or the Seller is registered with our service), you WILL NOT be charged fees when the item is delivered. All of your duties, taxes and shipping costs will be quoted prior to completing the transaction.

The reason that many people get COD fees now is that the work (and therefore costs) involved in crossing the border must be passed on by the carrier. What many people don't realize is that when any item crosses the border, Customs MUST get the category (HS Code) of the item and the country in which it was made so they can apply a duty rate. If that information is not provided in advance, then the carrier (USPS, UPS, FEDEX, etc...) must do that work manually. They pass on that cost in the form of a brokerage fee. Because we manage the collection of the customs data upfront, we can significantly reduce the costs involved.

[borderfree_service]

Track-and-trace is another issue that comes up.

Canadian buyers will receive track-and-trace information for their packages from Borderfree when it has been received in our US facility, and after it clears customs and is sent to Canada Post for delivery.

[borderfree_service]

Buyers have asked us if they can combine shipments from one US seller.

This is possible, but the Seller must first register for our Seller service and use our web application to tell us that they will be combining the items into one shipment.

We have found that this is very effective in lowering shipping and handling costs for both the Buyer and Seller.

[borderfree_service]

The following URL may be helpful in understanding how our Buyer services work.

http://borderfree.com/ebay/buyers/index.jsp