eBay Global Shipping Programme: eBay Sellers' Guide

If you’re thinking of selling on eBay and you want to reach an international audience, you’ll need to know about the eBay Global Shipping Programme. If you’ve checked out our article on how to sell internationally on eBay, this is the ideal guide to read next.

Here, we’ll explain how the Global Shipping Programme works, including countries it ships to and how much it costs. This should help you work out if it’s the right option for you. So, let’s get started.

What is the eBay Global Shipping Programme?

eBay is a worldwide marketplace, and many sellers trade internationally using the platform. To make shipping to international customers easier, eBay developed its Global Shipping Programme.

It makes your items available to over 60 million buyers worldwide¹, with international shipping and customs processes taken care of. All you need to do is drop your items off at a UK shipping centre, then everything from customs clearance, duties and tax calculations will be handled on your behalf.

There’s also enhanced seller protection¹ when you use the eBay Global Shipping Programme. You won’t be held responsible for loss or damage after you’ve dropped your items off at the UK shipping centre, and you’ll be protected from negative and neutral feedback along with eBay Money Back Guarantee claims.

How does it work?

To properly understand how the eBay Global Shipping Programme works from the perspective of the seller, let’s take a closer look. First of all, to access the programme you must be a UK seller with items listed on eBay.co.uk.

Now, here’s a quick step-by-step guide to what happens next²:

1. List your items for sale and make sure you select ‘Sell internationally with the Global Shipping Programme’ in the International Postage section. Alternatively, you can opt in automatically for all eligible listings by setting your Global Shipping Programme preferences³.

2. Your item has sold! If the buyer is in another country, eBay will provide a delivery label to print, and the address of a UK shipping centre to send the item to. You’ll also be given a unique reference code, which must be included on the label (if you’re not using the provided label)

3. Drop off or post your packaged and labelled item at the designated UK shipping centre.

4. The shipping centre will make sure the item is delivered to your customer, taking care of everything from customs clearance and duty payments to international tracking.

5. Items will arrive at EU destinations within around 3-5 days, and around 7-10 days if the delivery address is outside of the EU².

Countries the Global Shipping Programme ships to

The eBay Global Shipping Programme doesn’t cover every single country on the planet, but the list is still quite long. You can find a full list of included countries on the eBay Seller Centre page, but here are some of the highlights²:

EU countries

• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Spain
• Ireland
• Poland
• Sweden
• Netherlands
• Greece
• Czech Republic
• Cyprus
• Croatia
• Denmark.

Rest of the world

• USA
• Australia
• Canada
• China
• Japan
• Russia
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• Iceland
• Malaysia
• Norway
• Singapore.

How much does it cost?

It’s free to join the eBay Global Shipping Programme as a seller¹.

When you list items, eBay will calculate the right postage cost for international delivery, including all customs, duty and tax². This is paid by the buyer, and each buyer will see a personalised postage price when they view your listing, depending on the country they live in.

This means as the seller, all you have to pay is the cost of posting the item to the UK shipping centre.

However, eBay does charge extra seller fees for selling items to buyers outside of the UK. This varies depending on where you’re sending to, and is calculated based on the total sale amount.

If you're selling on eBay and want to work out your profits, use our handy eBay fee calculator

Is the Global Shipping Programme secure?

One of the most appealing aspects of the Global Shipping Programme (along with eliminating the headache of customs processes) is the protection it offers to sellers.

As soon as your item arrives at the UK shipping centre, you’re not liable for loss or damage. Your seller performance ratings are also protected, and you won’t have to refund buyers for eBay Money Back Guarantee or PayPal Buyer Protection claims if an item is damaged or lost in transit¹.

What to keep in mind

Before using the eBay Global Shipping Programme for international deliveries, there are a few restrictions you need to know about.

Firstly, you can’t use the GSP to ship prohibited or restricted items. These include²:

• Vehicles
• Currency
• Event tickets
• Fragrances
• Property
• Gaming and time cards for video games and consoles
• Weapons
• Tobacco
• Alcohol
• Medical materials and biological specimens
• Perishable items
• Liquids and powders
• Animals and plants
• Batteries (excluding AA batteries etc).

You’ll also need to make sure your package meets the size and weight requirements. It must be no heavier than 30kg, and no larger than 125,000cm³ - and no longer than 120cm on the longest side. Lastly, your item can’t be worth more than £2,000.

Protect your profit when you sell internationally with Wise

The eBay Global Shipping Programme can make international trading easier, by taking care of delivery and customs processes for sellers. But what about handling payments from buyers in other countries?

Open a Wise multi-currency account and you can receive payments from buyers, merchant accounts and trading platforms in over 50 currencies. From the one secure borderless account, you can then pay suppliers, convert currency and even spend using your Wise debit card - all for low fees and at the mid-market exchange rate.

Not only can this help to streamline global financial management and cash flow by having all your overseas transactions in one account, but it can also save you money.

Unlike banks, it’s free to receive payments through a Wise multi-currency account. This could make it a whole lot cheaper to start selling overseas.

Start saving today with Wise

Summary

And that’s the eBay Global Shipping Programme in a nutshell. We’ve covered how it works, how much it costs and everything else you need to know to get started. You should be all set to expand your business into international markets - good luck!

Sources used for this article:

Sources checked on 18-Aug-2021.