will merchandise sell if i choose to sell only in Canada. want to avoid other fees for customer

[popularshopping]

Hello senior eBay sellers, mentors, I am looking forward to selling merchandise only within Canada. I am trying to do so because I want to make sure the item reaches the customer faster if withing the country, and, the shipping charges are cheaper and also to avoid export / import fees. 

I am wondering if people had good success if / when they chose to sell only withing Canada.

Thanks in advance for your time and the knowledge share

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

Just selling to Canada limits your sales. Most of my buyers are from the US. Start with those 2 countries first & then you can add some more when you have been selling for awhile. I have had no problems selling to the United Kingdom also.

[thestuffofchris]

I just wanted to add that shipping is not necessarily cheaper within Canada, depending on what you are selling and what shipping service you are using. Sending something the size of a DVD will generally cost me $2.95 within Canada (Oversized Lettermail) and $5.70 to the US (Light Packet), but it can be much cheaper to send a parcel to someone in California than it is to send the same parcel to someone in Ontario, particularly if they are in a more remote town and not a major hub like Toronto.

I echo the advice to offer shipping for both Canada and the US. When I first used eBay to sell many years ago, I did ship only within Canada with little success. When I returned to selling more regularly on eBay last year, I chose to ship both within Canada and to the US, and while my buyers have been pretty evenly split between the two, the nod does go to the US in terms of where more of my items have sold.

[femmefan1946]

Well you have some fallacies in your assumptions.

I want to make sure the item reaches the customer faster if withing the country,

This depends more on the service you choose and the destination.

Parcel post is faster than Tracked Packet for example, but you are exchanging speed for tracking. Expresspost is faster than either but also more expensive.

the shipping charges are cheaper

Not always. I can ship a paperback to the USA cheaper than I can to Ontario from here in BC.

to avoid export / import fees. 

There are no export fees.

The buyer pays the import fees, if any.

good success if / when they chose to sell only withing Canada.

Not really.

It can still be less expensive to buy from the USA, even with import fees, than domestically.

In part because those import fees have been included in the cost of the import* and in part because of high domestic shipping costs.

The Canadian population is about 10% of the USA, and Canadians have historically been less willing to buy by mail order.

Canadian sellers do not at the moment pay any premium to accept international payments through Paypal, beyond the normal fees.

And speaking of fees.

Do you know that you will pay a little under 20% of your payment in fees to eBay and Paypal?

Do you know that PP will Hold your customers' cleared payments for 21 days as a Buyer Protection against your good customer service?

Do you know that you must ship within 7 days of cleared payment to keep your Buyer Protection?

Do you know how to confirm you actually have been paid?

And on a more pleasant note: do you know you can get discounts of 5% to 17% off Canada Post counter prices by buying shipping labels through PP?

I would strongly advise you to do some buying on eBay before attempting to shop here. Not only does higher FB help customers trust you more and keeps scammers away, but you get an important overview of the customer experience.

And pay attention to shipping. One of your eBay purchases should be a digital metric scale for weighing packages.

*Before the GST the import tax was 11% on most goods. That is still there just buried (and lower).

[aubreyclay56]

75 per cent of my sales are to the US,and items going to the us ship just as fast as to the other end of canada,being that they go by air mail,and depending on weight its only a few dollars more to ship to the us,which shouldnt concern you being that the customer is paying for the shipping.Myself i would have very few sales if i only sold to canada,i have shipped to other countries by request of the buyer but i dont generaly sell to other countries because it is very expensive with tracking although i have taken chances.Hope that helps somewhat,im sure others will respond to you here and try to help you out,welcome aboard and best of luck to you

[pierrelebel]

"will merchandise sell if i choose to sell only in Canada."

Yes if the type of merchandise is of special interest to Canadian consumers.