eBay is expanding its Global Shipping Program yet again, this time to nine additional countries including some located in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. eBay is pushing sellers to use the Global Shipping Program (GSP) to make their items available to buyers 44 countries – soon to be 53, but without having to ship internationally.
eBay will add the following nine countries to the GSP program beginning April 8, 2014: Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia and Turkey.
Sellers who receive orders through the GSP program mail their packages to a shipping center in Kentucky and are only responsible for the domestic leg of shipping. eBay’s partner Pitney Bowes then forwards the package on to the international buyer.
eBay says the program is appealing to buyers because they see the total price of the listing upfront during checkout, including taxes and duties, so they aren’t surprised by extra charges when their orders arrive – though some sellers say that’s a disadvantage because it makes their items much more costly than items in the buyers’ own country.
The GSP is supposed to be opt-in, but eBay places sellers into the Global Shipping Program when they accept its User Agreement without making it obvious to sellers their listings will become GSP eligible upon accepting the agreement. On Friday, eBay sent letters to sellers in the program informing them it would override their country exclusion lists – a concern to sellers who list items that are not allowed to be exported to certain countries even though the GSP program is supposed to catch such listings.
More information is available on the eBay announcement board.
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