eBay is launching a brand new international shipping program. eBay CEO Jamie Iannone broke the news during a keynote address at day-one of the eBay Open seller conference on Wednesday.
“Efficiency is a key concern,” Iannone said. “We value streamlining and simplifying processes, and we know you do too. This is especially important as we help you sell globally.”
But oddly, the CEO provided few details about the program, and eBay has yet to officially announce it. However, we found the landing page describing the new program.
It appears it replaces the current Global Shipping Program. It states on the landing page: “At launch, all new, eligible listings will automatically default to eBay International Shipping.”
And in the FAQs, it states:
“If you’re currently using the Global Shipping Program, you will be automatically enrolled and your listings will default to eBay International Shipping. If you ship with another international shipping service such as eBay International Standard Delivery, you will need to update your current listings to take advantage of eBay International Shipping benefits.”
However, there will be a 12-month transition period: “Sellers will be enrolled in phases over the next 12 months. You’ll be notified via email and Seller Hub when you’re eligible.”
It goes on to describe the steps:
1) Once you get an email inviting you to the program, you’ll be able to select eBay International Shipping on all listings that are eligible for export.
2) When your item sells to an international buyer, you’ll only be responsible for getting it to our domestic hub. We’ll handle customs and international shipping for you.
3) Sell with more confidence and enjoy the profits. Save on the selling fees for international transactions, and say goodbye to international return hassles.
The FAQs also state the buyers “will have the choice to pay import charges, including duties and taxes, at checkout or at delivery.”
Here’s what eBay CEO Jamie Iannone told attendees at Wednesday’s eBay Open keynote address about the new program:
“You’ve told us you want it to be as easy to ship internationally as it would be to ship domestically, and that you want cross-border trade to be a simple and seamless experience. And we listened to you.
“In response, we’ve created our new shipping program. Now every element of shipping, including returns, will go through our platform. We’ll take care of all the international shipping details, like currency conversion, customs, and delivery dates – making the entire process incredibly easy to use. And as a result, your inventory will be seen by millions more buyers around the world.”
eBay uses a third-party company (Pitney-Bowes) to power the current Global Shipping program. We have yet to determine if eBay is switching vendors or will stick with Pitney-Bowes.
The new program is called eBay International Shipping, or EIS.
“We may open and inspect your item to ensure compliance with US export regulations and the import regulations of the destination country.
If we open your package for inspection, we take care to ensure your item is not damaged in the process. Once we’ve verified your package is able to ship, we will repack your item and send it to your buyer the same way it was originally packed.”
Right, I’m gonna trust eBay to properly open, handle, and re-package an art print. I sure hope this program is optional.
I don’t see how they can force the seller to use this program other than with some kind of defects for late or no shipment or, in the end closing an account for repeating offenses. Even as dumb as they are, I don’t think they would do that.
Yes, we want an international shipping process that is simple and quick, but also reasonably priced. I can’t tell you how many sales I lost when the buyer found out the cost of the international shipping and customs work that Pitney-Bowes charged. In many instances the cost of the item doubled when those charges were added. Let’s hope the new process is better priced.
one thing I’d say for the GSP, which I’ve used for many years (shipping expensive and fragile items) , it protected sellers against scammers by taking full responsibility for your item once you delivered it to their global distribution hub in UK. my fear is that, this benefit may’ve been costing them when they honoured seller protection, so they are trying to wriggle out of it by launching a replacement programme, which oddly enough is performed by the same eBay affiliated carrier, and (on the outside) offers the same nuts and bolts of how the current GSP works, so the question we should be asking eBay is to define the extent of seller protection in the new programme! if this feature is compromised, it would be the end of global shipping for me!
PLEASE READ: I mailed an $800 clock to Vietnam last October using eBay International Standard. I did everything right and got the clock to eBay hub but eBay never added the tracking. The clock went missing probably due to Covid quarantine and I had to give a full refund due to eBay’s error. The clock eventually was delivered but it was after 90 days and the buyer was extremely honest and asked what to do. I called eBay and told them the buyer now wants to pay as he likes the clock and eBay said for me to bill him thru Paypal on my own but since it was after 90 days eBay blocked the messages and offered NO HELP. I now never list foreign shipping, I am done. Another thing to note is eBay International shipping options offer no insurance, only the $100 maximum hey give you anyways, no options for higher value
@Joe D- ive been import/exporting for 3 decades, shipping and fees (custom duty etc) can easily double the cost of an item. Its NOT KNOWING AHEAD OF TIME, that is the killer.
I can see (and have 100x) a buyer so shocked they refuse it, and a seller so pissed they either get their package returned or trashed
@Manny (and general) of course ‘newfangled’ means they take out the good parts of the old and charge more for the junk that’s left
VERY interesting from the FAQ on the landing page regarding returns:
“When a return is opened, we’ll provide the buyer with a return label to ship it back to a consolidation center. Upon receipt of the return, we’ll refund your buyer and you get to keep the sale.”
Am I interpreting this correctly? Seems like they are accepting returns at a “consolidation center” and automatically refunding, WITHOUT pulling the funds from the seller?
That would be a huge protection — basically any international sale is permanent and can under no circumstances be refunded by the seller? I am skeptical. . . .
Sounds like the item never gets returned to the seller? If true, is eBay then going to become our competition as they resell those items or pass them on to large third parties who will?
If you get the item back, you’d have to give up the $$ from the sale. I don’t think eBay would let you have both. So yes, it’s likely that they would resell the item or (more likely) bundle returns together on pallets and wholesale them to someone (or a company) who would then sell them.
I heard so many horror stories about the earlier GSP, I would imagine its replacement will be similar. What I CANNOT believe is that Stamps.com and ShipStation.com enacted a similar program – mail your package to a ‘clearinghouse” where the “real” label would be applied…. I discovered it when I went to ship to Canada, using Stamps.com . I raised an absolute ruckus. I can make enough mistakes on my own, thank you very much, I do not need to involve an entirely separate service to make them. I do not want to send my package to some city, and risk someone there making a mistake with labeling it. I do not want to make my customers angry because of the additional time the package will have to spend being shipped to first to an intermediary before it gets headed correctly to its final destination.
Unlike eBay Stamps.com switched my account back to regular service. FRANKLY? I was infuriated that I was not given a CHOICE. I simply went to my postage account and THERE IT WAS. (I took the package to the post office and mailed it myself) They DID promise to change my account back, but it took about 2 weeks for them to do it. In the meantime I switched to ShipStation (that I found out was Stamps.com sister company) and darn they did the same thing!!! whereupon I went up one side of them and down the other and they changed my account back to the regular shipping and no “GSP.” But I can’t imagine getting eBay to listen.
@NYSteve – Your comment dredges up ugly memories. I shipped a Coke cooler to Canada ,using UPS – and was never told, when I spoke with UPS, that there would be a “service charge,” which amounted basically to a fee for someone carrying it across the border. This was in addition to everything else. I had phoned specifically and asked the UPS rep about charges … was never told about that fee. I only use USPS now, there is no such fee with the mail. I do not know about other couriers, I used UPS, and never again.
My understanding is that any carrier shipping from the U.S. to Canada … other than USPS … will charge a “brokerage fee” for (you guessed it) getting the package across the border & thru Customs.
Does anyone know if the new service will allow for Combined Shipping? Currently the Global Shipping program does not, but the International Standard Deliver does. Since this new service will be the only one offered through ebay, it would be good to know.