@rosscd57 wrote:
Are there any drawbacks or problems selling on .com from Canada?
One that comes to mind is how do you deal with a return when you cannot send a return postage.
I've been listing mostly on .com for over a year now (I moved due to the .com "cart disconnect", which has apparently now been completely fixed, but sadly not much use for Canadian sellers like me who would love to move back to .ca but can no longer list in $USD). I'll try to list what I can think of as the major pros and cons, off the top of my head.
The returns process is certainly one very important consideration, especially if you're selling items of any value that are both costly to ship and vulnerable to damage (which, if I recall correctly, you do). Basically a Canadian seller is left having to choose between sending the money to the buyer in the hope the buyer will actually use it for shipping (and will pack the item appropriately), or asking the buyer to cover the shipping cost and trust the seller to reimburse.
It would be a whole lot easier if there were some means of non-U.S. sellers buying USPS shipping labels, but that isn't likely to happen anytime soon. In your case, you might even find that FedEx would work for return shipping. It used to be possible for a Canadian to pay in advance (via credit card, etc.) to have a FedEx shipment picked up from anywhere, but that was years ago when I was dealing mostly in documents, so I don't know whether that's still true. You might want to check into that with FedEx. If so, it could solve this problem for you. I think there will be a lot of threads on Seller Central dealing with returns from the U.S. that shed light on what the usual issues are.
Another issue that is being discussed today are the effects on Canadian sellers who list on .com of the lack of ETAs on certain listings. See this thread: http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/INR/m-p/361290#M7363. This is a real concern.
One other problem that has surfaced recently are the eBay delivery time frames for certain international destinations when listing on .com, specifically when using "economy" services (which should all have a very generous time frame for delivery -- they don't). One ETA problem was recently remedied thanks to the intervention of Raphael (eBay rep at the Board Hour), but he's now gone, so we may be waiting weeks or months to get the others looked into from a purely Canadian standpoint. This, if you're shipping without tracking, is a minefield.
See this thread discussing the problem, and in particular my post #25 and the other charts showing eBay's ETAs for certain overseas destinations. Australia of course is the big concern in that discussion:
http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Economy-International-Shipping-8-16-days-again/td-p/35909...
Again, on the subject of shipping, be aware you won't have calculated shipping available to you on .com, and you won't have Canada Post shipping options to display. You'll have to choose from generic shipping options with (as noted) some pretty poor or non-existent ETAs by eBay. This is, for me, one of the biggest drawbacks, and one of the reasons I have been considering moving back to eBay.ca.
I've also noticed I've been getting virtually no free listing promos since eBay.ca switched to $CDN listings only. Whether this is merely coincidence, or eBay knows I defected to .com, I don't know. But if you don't have a store and like to rely on promos, this could be a problem. There seem to have been many more on .ca in the past few months.
Last but probably least, you won't be able to use .cafr for the (up until now) free subtitles, if that matters to you (I was, and it did, but not enough to not move most of my listings to .com).
On the upside:
Newer or more extensive features are available on .com that aren't on .ca yet, for example:
- New Seller Hub (if you like it, which is debatable, I don't);
- Promotional/marketing features not yet available on .ca
The most attractive positive for me in listing on .com is being able to keep my prices shown as I set them in relation to my U.S. competitors, for the benefit of my U.S. buyers. Most of the positive benefit for me in listing in $USD is really an avoidance of the negatives attached to listing in $CDN and having those prices converted, for example:
On .ca, my prices (as shown to U.S. buyers in $USD) will fluctuate depending on the relative value of the $CDN. This is fine if the $CDN drops, but not so good if it rises against the $USD -- it could appear to be a price hike to a potential buyer who may have been watching the item over several days or weeks.
Also, if you list on .ca those converted listing prices will be odd or unusual numbers -- you will have no control over how your listing price appears to a U.S. buyer. This could throw off interested buyers, particularly if most of your customers are going to be American, and/or they may be looking at your U.S. competitors' prices in comparison. There is a good reason major retailers use attractive price points. Who wants to see $37.86 when you really want to display $36.99?
Now, this probably doesn't matter much if you aren't pricing closely in relation to U.S. competitors, but it is the biggest reason I'm still staying on .com, despite the issues and pitfalls.
I know there is the argument that Canadian prices will look great to U.S. buyers (due to the ca. 25% currency difference), but remember that when a U.S. buyer clicks on a listing, they'll see the $CDN and the $USD prices, the $CDN being more prominent. And that $CDN price will be a bigger number of course. Some sellers claim this will put off a U.S. buyer, some feel it doesn't matter. I think it does. And I think American buyers like to see prices that look familiar to them as consumers, in $USD.
So in the end, it's a matter of balancing what is most important for your particular situation and products. For me, it still makes sense to stay mostly on .com. However, to be fair, eBay has improved some of the display interface and connectivity between eBay.com and eBay.ca, so I'd say there are fewer drawbacks to listing on .ca now than there might have been 2 years ago. With the big exception of the inability to list in $USD on .ca. If eBay brought that back (I know, pipe dream), I'd come back in a flash.
The other thing you can consider is listing partly on .ca, partly on .com, particularly if you have some items that would appeal primarily to U.S. or Canadian customers. This is what I did -- about 80% of my items are on .com, the rest on .ca. It can complicate checkout (a little, not too much) for U.S. buyers who choose .com plus .ca items in one order, and can wreak havoc if you like automated shipping rules/discounts or combined shipping, but it will give you access to double your allotment of listings, especially advantageous if you have a store.
Sorry about the long post -- stream of consciousness really.
By the way, good to hear you've recovered well from the knee surgery. I think a lot of us are heading that way with our worn-out joints, so it's great to hear about positive outcomes. And welcome back!
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