eBay

rdemaree · ‎03-04-2025

So due to the American instability and issues with tariffs etc. I really want to get as close to Canadian and International buyers as I possibly can and one of these measures would be to list on .ca in CAD.

I have noticed that volume discounts isnt available on .ca which isnt the end of the world, I can get around this by offering variations of listings containing a higher quantity.

I am curious how shipping would be calculated if a buyer purchases say 4 pieces of the same item. how will shipping be calculated? Will ebay count the weight of the item X4? will it charge them shipping 4 times? how does this work?

If this is the case that it would charge them 4 times I would think about maybe discounting the variation of 4 pieces to account for 4 shipping fees.

Is there any way around this?

and is there any other glaring issues I should be aware about if I actually make the leap from .com to .ca?

I have been meaning to dig into some accounting stuff at some point and might as well do it now. I figure if I also stop free shipping and go calculated (like I am planning on doing either way whether im on .com or .ca) that I wont have to calculate shipping rate increases every year.

I have always used free shipping, is calculated shipping harder to sell stuff or is that just a myth? I sell handmade artist oil paint and vintage art supplies. Everything I sell is small and ranges in price of usually 19- 400 USD with around 50-150 being average customer purchase.

If I charge shipping separately and reduce my prices how will this effect what ebay charges me?

Another reason im wanting to abandon free shipping is that just makes my item appear higher in value for when tariffs will be calculated.

All tips and help greatly appreciated!

Thanks

-Ryan

mandicrafts · ‎03-04-2025

If you are already selling and shipping on .com, then you know the costs involved and you can either use calculated (and pick several options - UPS is available on .ca as well as Canada Post) and in your acct settings you can offer the eBay discounted shipping to show on your listings. Or you can set up flat rates based on your experience. You can set up combined shipping rules for either calculated or flat rate in your acct settings but the buyer has to use the Shopping Cart for these to kick in. And the box size won't change for any calculations.
Multi-qty listings, you can set up what a 2nd or 3rd item will cost for shipping right inside the listing as an add-on if you use flat rate shipping but not if you use calculated shipping. Your combined shipping rules would kick in for that. I don't know about variation listings.
There are several features NOT available on .ca that you may be used to on .com. Besides volume discounts, there are no order discounts and .ca is only just now starting to talk about making Coupons for buyers. But they are only talking about it so far. Coupons on .com can only be used by buyers who sign into .com (at the moment). If you are already set up to receive USD$ in your payout, what you list on .ca will be converted to USD$ (and they'll take their 3% for doing so), to pay you out. You can never change your currency for payouts.
Int'l buyers are more used to signing into .com than into .ca to view listings.
I choose to sell mostly on .com and just use .ca for calculated shipping on heavier items, and to list Canadiana.

flipistics · ‎03-04-2025

@rdemaree wrote:
I am curious how shipping would be calculated if a buyer purchases say 4 pieces of the same item. how will shipping be calculated? Will ebay count the weight of the item X4? will it charge them shipping 4 times? how does this work?

This depends on how you have things set up, but generally it would charge the buyer 4x and it would be up to you to refund the difference. However, you can set up combined shipping rules that can handle it in various ways. It can calculate the combined shipping based on weight, or it can add a fixed amount to the shipping cost for every additional item. This isn't perfect (sometimes it'll bite you, especially for lighter items that are bulky), but if you're selling items of a similar size or weight I think it generally makes sense. Books would be a great example.

@rdemaree wrote:

I have always used free shipping, is calculated shipping harder to sell stuff or is that just a myth? I sell handmade artist oil paint and vintage art supplies. Everything I sell is small and ranges in price of usually 19- 400 USD with around 50-150 being average customer purchase.

Free shipping items may get a slight bump in the search rankings (plus, people like the idea of getting something for "free", even if they're really not). Given the wide range of shipping costs here in Canada, I really don't think it's a great idea unless you know you have relatively fixed shipping costs yourself. Any rate increase also means you have to go through and potentially change the price on all your listings, which is very annoying. I'm of the opinion that most sales are likely to come from higher population areas, which tend to be cheaper to ship to. By not offering free shipping (where you have to bake in the average shipping cost into the item price), you can offer the lowest shipping price possible to the areas where you're most likely to make the sales. This should, theoretically, increase the likelihood of people buying your items.

@rdemaree wrote:
If I charge shipping separately and reduce my prices how will this effect what ebay charges me?

eBay charges fees on the full transaction amount, including shipping and taxes. There's no fee difference between baking the shipping cost in and having it calculated. The only possible exception is that eBay will charge fees on the LESSER of the selected shipping option and the cheapest available domestic shipping option (excluding local pickup).

rdemaree · ‎03-04-2025

So if I list stuff on .ca in CAD it will still pay me in USD and then convert it back to CAD effectively converting the money multiple times?

my payout is CAD going to Canadian bank account but currently I sell in USD. I understand that currently I am being charged the 3% conversion fee but in the future if I were to sell in CAD and be paid out in CAD would there be any extra fees involved?

That doesn’t seem to make any sense