eBay sent an email on Tuesday advising recipients they would be automatically enrolled into eBay’s new international shipping program “over the next few weeks.” It linked to a page on the eBay website that stated automatic enrollment was ongoing and that all eligible sellers would be enrolled by Summer 2023.
Last week, an eBay executive also revealed additional information about the program that sellers new to the program may not realize.
In an interview with eBay for Business podcast, eBay Director of Exports Chad Stewart said the program’s no-returns feature was popular with sellers who felt it was a “little bit too good to be true,” but confirmed that once an item arrives at eBay’s International Shipping hub in the US, from that moment on, the sale is complete – “You as a seller no longer have to worry about an international return from your buyer.”
When a buyer opens up a return request for an item sent via the eBay International Shipping program, he explained, eBay accepts it if it’s within the 30-day global return window. “Those items come back to our hub in Chicago, at which point we are then preparing those items to be sold again on the site. So those items will not be destroyed unless, obviously, they somehow come back to us destroyed. But the vast majority of these items end up just finding another home with a buyer within the United States as we try to list those items on the site as well.”
Stewart also revealed that eBay was looking at an option where it would allow sellers to specify that in the case of returns, they could opt to handle it themselves, “at which point we would send the item back to the seller rather than essentially liquidating the item on their behalf.”
eBay is looking at what that would entail and how to change the fee structure to account for the additional costs involved. Stewart doesn’t anticipate rolling out such a feature quickly, but said, “watch for future updates.”
An eBay seller forwarded the email he received yesterday to EcommerceBytes that displayed the subject line, “You will be automatically enrolled in eBay International Shipping soon”:
Dear (redacted),
Over the next few weeks you will be automatically enrolled into eBay International Shipping, a new program designed to make the process of international selling and shipping more convenient and cost-effective.
eBay International Shipping retains all the elements of the eBay Global Shipping Program and eBay international standard delivery, and provides these additional features:
- eBay handles returns. If a buyer wishes to return an item, eBay will provide them with a return label and issue a refund, at no cost to you. The seller keeps the sale.
- No international selling fees. There are no international selling fees on items sent through the eBay international Shipping program.
Once enrolled, your new listings will automatically default to eBay International Shipping and any existing Global Shipping Program listings will be automatically updated.
If you have existing listings with eBay international standard delivery or USPS international as shipping options, you will need to manually update those to receive the benefits offered through the new eBay International Shipping program. We have developed step-by-step guides for this manual update process for single, bulk, and My eBay listings. Watch a video or download a How-to guide.
Learn more about eBay International Shipping.
Thank you for selling on eBay,
Your Selling Team
I’m sorry but this just sounds to good to be true, what if a international buyer does a CC charge back, is that covered?
Oh they’ll just tie that into some payment hold that you’ll never know what triggered it. Free is not part of their business model. Check back in 8 months.
Is Managed Payments charging a higher rate to seller to convert international funds to dollars?
Don’t kid yourself, this supposed “New Service” will bite Sellers in the you-know-what. Ebay does nothing that does not put money in their pocket by putting their hands in the Sellers pockets.
Ebay automatically enrolled me a few months back in this “New Service” and I found out that Ebay determines the amount the Seller will charge their Buyer for shipping. When Ebay sends the invoice to the Buyer, you as a Seller can no longer adjust the shipping fee on the invoice – it’s what Ebay wants to charge. So, you as a Seller lose more control of how you sell and Ebay takes more (interference) control.
“eBay is looking at what that would entail and how to change the fee structure to account for the additional costs involved. Stewart doesn’t anticipate rolling out such a feature quickly, but said, “watch for future updates.”
Right there Ebay will load up the “New Service” to cost the Seller more down the road and then the Seller has no say so in the matter. Why can’t Ebay put something into effect properly from the get-go instead of tweaking and screwing it up down-the-road?
I opted out of the “New Service” after the first dealings. I want to control the sale to my Buyers without interference from Ebay. It’s not clear to me in this announcement that you can you still opt out? Ebay’s statement doesn’t make that clear. Again, more Ebay shenanigans.
This sounds like how marketplaces ‘SHOULD work’ , maybe even better,
so,
all those ‘we’re still thinking of this’ , hasnt been decided yet, means they will look at it, and see its too good a deal for sellers….THUS, the final product will look nothing like what ive just read!
(good to see 4 of 4 comments ahead of me, pretty much agree with that)
Some observations about this. Many years ago, I was viewing a picture postcard from a UK seller as a potential purchase. She was enrolled in Global shipping program. The shipping cost for that single card, from the UK to the USA was….$18.00! The seller was aghast.stunned when I told her.
Up until recently, I did not realize I was enrolled in this new program. The first inkling came when I got a few international bids. (When I drafted my listings, on these two bulk lots, I left the International section blank). @airbrake raises serious questions/observations about this news. As for me, I still don’t quite understand this process in detail. If I don’t understand it, imagine my customers being in the fog. In theory it might open new markets with heavier items, but I surely don’t want my buyer to pay more than $1.45 for a First Class International stamp for a single item.
Well, it actually works pretty well for our accounts as far as the process goes, but we sell largely small and light items over our 5 accounts. Who knows what eBay will do to mangle the future. Lets hope you have your item/parcel sizes correct and the weights correct in your listing.
does the new process work with combine shipping orders, the last one did not. I sell fishing lures and my customers love to combine shipping
Already had an INR and eBay paid it, item went back to their warehouse. Fine by me.
“ Already had an INR and eBay paid it, item went back to their warehouse. Fine by me.”
Ebay puts this item for sale and shadow ban other sellers so they can sell first?
Got an e-mail today that it will be done by July 1. I actually already used it for a package to Australia. It was very easy to use and to track. I don’t sell Internationally, but this was a special request, so if it works as advertised might start using it again. (Not that anything Ebay does ever works correctly, but fingers crossed).
I received an Email from Ebay about 10 minutes ago explaining that every Ebay Seller would be “Migrated” (i.e. “Forced”) into “eBay international standard delivery” by July 1, 2023. Sellers can opt out, apparently for now, by clicking on a link and filling out a form online by May 10th. The form is just a phishing exercise by Ebay because it asks for your full name, Ebay Seller user name and your Email address. The link is in the Email that they send to the Seller explaining there new “graft” feature. So, why does Ebay need you to send all this data to them? They sent the Email to me at my Email I use for Ebay and they identify me by name in the Email as well as my Seller ID. I believe the real reason is this is really a way to survey to see how many people don’t want to change. If Ebay does not get a number of opt outs, it’ll be “Katie, bar the door” on the “Migrations”.
As far as the comments that the “New Feature” is a less expensive and easier way to ship Internationally, just remember the promises Ebay gave us for their Payment System – all never becoming true, costing more and slower than Pay-Pal as well as being poorly implemented. Ebay has lied to Sellers in the past and probably will continue to do so, why would they change? Once your in the new system, there’s no way to get out and Ebay can change the rules & fees on a whim, rather you like it or not.
I don’t want Ebay interfering with my sales, I want to acquire a Seller – Buyer relationship without Ebay’s interference. Remember, Ebay does nothing unless it lines their pocket with more money, which is usually from the Sellers pockets.
It sounds like Ebay is preparing for recession by hinting that US people will have no money to spend by Summer so they will look for money abroad.
1.Ebay policy states that used auto parts are not qualifying for international shipping – is that still valid?
2. Items returned to US Ebay- is Ebay going to compete with sellers to resell those items thus putting them out of business and or lowering pricing?
I have no idea why anyone would complain about this. You ship the item to Ebay in the USA and then you no longer have any ties to the sale as you will never see the product again. It has worked great so far and hope it continues to do so without any changes.
The biggest flaw with this program is the buyer cannot combine multiple purchases into the same order. Each item is charged separate shipping. This will not work for my business model as buyers from overseas try to bundle as much as possible to save on shipping costs. If eBay could fix this one issue I would be all in.