Saturday, August 18, 2012

1/3 If By Sea

Just curious..... For those of you who do not ship internationally why not?

I would say 1/3 of my business is international on EBay. They rarely ask for a lower price on Best Offer and typically love BIN. When I list I always keep international buyers in mind and price high and add Best Offer. I find it interesting how many sellers are excluding the rest of the world.

I print my labels from EBay just like domestic and my carrier still picks them up. I do have a handful of countries I don't ship to ( Italy, Brazil and a few others) but all in all I'm happy to have international sales.

For those of you who don't ship international aside from telling my why I'm giving you a homework assignment. Here it is: In the pile you have to list I want you to pull out the item you think will sell for the most. Now look up the completed sales from high to low price. I would be surprised if the one that sold for the highest was not a BIN that ships world wide. I would also guess in most cases the lowest selling one was an auction that just ships to the US. Well....was I right??

Let me know how the homework goes. Oh and I'm going to try to get a yard sale finds post up in a day or two.

7 comments:

  1. First off, I just have to say that every time I click on your blog and see those 3 piggies, I smile. :)
    As for int'l shipping. I once sent an item to the UK. It arrived broken. Customer was REALLY mad. I paid for return shipping and refunded the entire purchase. The whole thing set me back $60. I never again shipped outside of US. I know I can get more $, but I just don't have the stomach for that kind of experience again. :(
    Lorraine

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  2. Sorry about the $60 but glad you know your limits.

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  3. I don't ship overseas either. I mostly sell sets of children's books so I use media mail. The thing is, I have sold internationally in the past but several times the sale didn't go through when the buyer realize how much a 10 pound box of books would cost them. I had a Canadian buyer back out because she only wanted to pay $5 for a 25-pound box of Nora Roberts novels! It would have cost $90!
    For toys, it makes sense to include overseas buyers since they are generally lighter in weight but I'm never quite sure how to print an international label through Ebay. I should just try it with Christmas coming up!

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    1. It is the same as printing domestic. It will bring up all the prompts you need. Media mail is much cheaper for books I agree.

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  4. I agree that selling international is the way to go. It's so easy. And I always add insurance to my international sales. I've only had a couple issues but nothing major.

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  5. I think that any seller that wants to improve their online sales needs to ship internationally. It's super easy. And if you sell things with Free domestic shipping (after you add it into the cost of your item ;), you make even more since all international sales pay for shipping.

    I've also found that most of my international buyers buy with BIN and don't even attend an offer (I sell with a Best Offer option).

    Margaret @ Live Like No One Else

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