As you may or may not know, we started selling items, on eBay, during the last of this past December. Our Sales picked up nicely and we were offered the opportunity to open our sales internationally. I thought I had read the documentation and understood it. That is until today.
Today, we had our first international sale! For that, we are grateful! Congratulations to our International Customer, who lives in Brazil!
With that being said, I have learned that there is a downside to selling internationally. Let me give you a little bit of background information, before I share the downside with you. When ever we price an item, we set the price to be the amount we need to get for the item. We then set the shipping cost. eBay prefers that you ship for free, but, as we all know nothing is for free! The people, who ship for free , have added the shipping cost into their prices! We prefer to list the two cost separately. That way you know what you are paying for!
With International sales, on eBay, you ship the item to eBay, and then they ship it to the customer. That would be fine, seeing that our shipping charges cover shipping within the United States. The downside, for eBay international sales, is that they eliminate the shipping charge for the seller. The seller is charged for the shipping. When you are trying to give the best prices possible, the profit margin can be fairly small. After eBay takes their selling fee, the profit margin is even smaller. When we loose the shipping cost, and are forced to pay for the shipping, it is very easy to sell for no profit and maybe even below cost! I don't know if this is a mistake, on eBay's part, but I will call them tomorrow and discuss this situation. If it is always true of International sales, then I will be forced either to include shipping cost in my item price, or, I will be forced to discontinue International sales.
If anyone is selling, on eBay, I hope this gives you a little insight before you consider International Sales.
Thank You for Your Time, Attention, and Interest!
Anthony
Thank you for this information. This is a lesson everyone should learn especially when you are in international business. Know the terms well.