Comments about the Global Shipping Program

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Feel free to share your thoughts about the Global Shipping Program here. 

A few questions to get the ball rolling:

• What has worked well for you with the Global Shipping Program?
• Any ideas to help improve the experience for Canadian buyers?
• What has deterred you from buying items offered using the Global Shipping Program?
• How have you managed to search for items outside the program?

Please try & keep the comments constructive 🙂

If you have any questions about the program, please post them here.

[canajungirl]

I've heard from a vendor that eBay takes 20% of the shipping fee.

[pierrelebel]

"I've heard from a vendor that eBay takes 20% of the shipping fee."

That seller was pulling your leg.

The fee schedule gives you exactly what eBay charges sellers.  Please take a look.

[canajungirl]

I have not had problems with breakage. I am just incensed that a $5.00 item has over $30.00 in shipping fees. What a joke. I won't buy any more and live too far from a border to set up an American PO Box for shipping.

[canajungirl]

Unfortunately eBay sellers who lose their Canadian customers won't be losing much. We are a headache for most of them to ship internationally and, let's face it, there is a MUCH large pool of US customers. I don't think they'll be hurt much. If a lot of CDN customers stop buying it will probably hurt eBay's revenue projections from their Global Shipping Programme but they'll find a way to adjust for that.

[canajungirl]

I have yet to find a U.S. seller not in the programme. I even had one tell me that the USPS doesn't do parcels any more!!! **bleep**

[pierrelebel]

"I have yet to find a U.S. seller not in the programme."

???

I took a look at your recent purchases.  I noticed a purchase of scarf.  Checking the list of scarves available on eBay, I found over 313,000 listings and the vast majority of American sellers DO NOT offer Global Shipping Service.

Please do not take my word for it.  Check it out yourself:

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/Scarves-Wraps-/45238/i.html

When checking other categories, the percentage of market penetration for GSP by American sellers varies a lot but, let me state most categorically, that in most instances a large percentage of listings from American sellers DO NOT require GSP.

[rick31797]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

"I have yet to find a U.S. seller not in the programme."

???

I took a look at your recent purchases.  I noticed a purchase of scarf.  Checking the list of scarves available on eBay, I found over 313,000 listings and the vast majority of American sellers DO NOT offer Global Shipping Service.

Please do not take my word for it.  Check it out yourself:

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/Scarves-Wraps-/45238/i.html

When checking other categories, the percentage of market penetration for GSP by American sellers varies a lot but, let me state most categorically, that in most instances a large percentage of listings from American sellers DO NOT require GSP.

---

there is actually 23,187 , not 313,000, and its highly unlikely you went through all 313,000 listing to determine the majority of sellers DO NOT use the GSP, that is not a true statement at all.

[pierrelebel]

When I click on the link, I get: 313,764 results in Scarves & Wraps

I do not know why you only see 23,187

[rick31797]

You are searching world wide, she is looking for a US seller , and there is 23,187 in North America, with appox 50 percent using GSP

[afantiques]

11000 plus scarves would  wrap the statue of Liberty, let alone one normal  sized Canadian, so plenty of choice remains.

[rick31797]

Most people look for the best possible price, by the time you filter out the high priced items, the people that inflate the shipping cost, the people that have a terrible profile , the choices get limited.

[bb_cool_stuff]

and aprox 50% that aren't.

Not sure what the point is.

[pocomocomputing]

Same search, filtered with North America, using Best Match, I get 130,418 results. On page 1 with 200 results showing, I get 86 of 200 (190 from USA, 10 from Canada) or 43% with GSP. Page 2 gets 56 of 200 (4 from Canada) for 28%, page 3 gets 62 of 200 (1 from Canada) for 31%.

[hawbbs416]

International shipping and import fees an unnecessary bill of goods sold to nervous sellers........These companies are scamming sellers into using their service to ship internationally and forcing buyers to pay exorbitant fees after purchase. Unfortunately I no longer buy from sellers who use this service. I highly recommend that other international buyers boycott these listings as well.

[rick31797]

---

@pocomocomputing wrote:
Same search, filtered with North America, using Best Match, I get 130,418 results. On page 1 with 200 results showing, I get 86 of 200 (190 from USA, 10 from Canada) or 43% with GSP. Page 2 gets 56 of 200 (4 from Canada) for 28%, page 3 gets 62 of 200 (1 from Canada) for 31%.

---

This is not very accurate, just typing in a search item and coming up with 130,000 items..

Most people including probably you search for specific items..And a women looking for a scarf or a purse, will be looking for a certain color , style and brand name, and possibly used vs brand new..This alone will narrow down the possibilities.The you can add, inflated shipping , bad sellers profile , and GSP.

I have an item in mind i want to buy, i just did i search. there are 8 available to Canada,7  buy it now , and 1 auction and used. this is the one i would want to buy as bidding i may get it cheaper...but the seller uses GSP. All the other auctions are buy it now with a price to high when you add there inflated shipping..

[marnotom!]

---

@rick31797 wrote:

I have an item in mind i want to buy, i just did i search. there are 8 available to Canada,7  buy it now , and 1 auction and used. this is the one i would want to buy as bidding i may get it cheaper...but the seller uses GSP. All the other auctions are buy it now with a price to high when you add there inflated shipping..

---

So if I'm reading this correctly, those sellers charging "inflated shipping" aren't using the GSP?  What shipping method are they generally using?

[pocomocomputing]

---

@rick31797 wrote:

---

@pocomocomputing wrote:
Same search, filtered with North America, using Best Match, I get 130,418 results. On page 1 with 200 results showing, I get 86 of 200 (190 from USA, 10 from Canada) or 43% with GSP. Page 2 gets 56 of 200 (4 from Canada) for 28%, page 3 gets 62 of 200 (1 from Canada) for 31%.

---

This is not very accurate, just typing in a search item and coming up with 130,000 items..

Most people including probably you search for specific items..And a women looking for a scarf or a purse, will be looking for a certain color , style and brand name, and possibly used vs brand new..This alone will narrow down the possibilities.The you can add, inflated shipping , bad sellers profile , and GSP.

I have an item in mind i want to buy, i just did i search. there are 8 available to Canada,7  buy it now , and 1 auction and used. this is the one i would want to buy as bidding i may get it cheaper...but the seller uses GSP. All the other auctions are buy it now with a price to high when you add there inflated shipping..

---

I did not type in a search. I used the same link that Pierre gave and got the same 310,000 results he did, then I applied the North America filter to get 130,000. You said you got 23,000 for North America.

My point was that in the search from North America, a significant number of listings (43%) on the main Best Match page 1 search for that eBay category Scarves and Wraps search were using GSP. This seems to agree with your earlier post that approximately 50% are GSP. Going to page 2 and 3 (200 per page) still show a significant number of listings having GSP.

Why I get 130,000 and you 23,000, I do not know. Interesting difference. I will have to look into this. That was one of the reasons why I posted what I saw for results.

Not to argue constantly like so many posters in this topic, just to post my results.

[groupbreakhits]

Slow action on this eBay. To be honest, this is obviously a horrible program that needs to be discontinued immediately for Canadian buyers.

I refuse to pay unnecessary shipping fees to Canada - fees for which I've never paid in the past. $15 shipping duty and brokerage fees for a $5 baseball card? Are you kidding me? Rip-off - I avoid this program at all cost and slag the program to any seller that offers it via direct contact.

Cancel it now, have the courage before it hurts your bottom line!!!

[bennett4612]

Hi timlin2carter.

Just a quick two cents. 

In general the GSP is typically not a good fit for items priced under $50. This info can be found on the FAQ page, along with other helpful information: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/shipping/globalshippingprogram/update_faqs.html

It is not a "one size fits all" program and works well in many cases and not so well in others. 

Hope that helps. 

---Ben

[pierrelebel]

"$15 shipping duty and brokerage fees for a $5 baseball card? Are you kidding me?"

American sellers are told by eBay NOT to use the program for items averaging less than $50.

No seller in his right mind should use the program for a $5 card.