eBay Sellers Can Now Exclude Buyers in Specific Countries From Bidding on Items
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Many eBay sellers want to ship internationally but do not feel comfortable shipping worldwide to every country. For example, many sellers have asked for the ability to ship to all countries in Europe except Italy. Known for its troubled mail service, Italy is a source of problems for many ecommerce merchants. Until today, however, eBay sellers only had the option of advertising that they will ship to every country in Europe or to no countries in Europe.
But now, eBay has made it possible for sellers to exclude buyers in specific countries from bidding on their items. There is now a section in an eBay members’ MY EBAY section titled Shipping Preferences under the Account Tab and Site Preferences. Just click on the “Show” link on the right side.
Clicking on the “Exclude Shipping Locations” link provides sellers with the ability to choose countries or regions they want to exclude. A seller can click on the box to the left of Europe, for example, if they want to exclude all of Europe. Or, alternatively, if they want to exclude only certain countries in Europe a seller could click on “Show All Countries” link next to Europe.
If a seller clicks on “Show All Countries” then they can choose each and every country they want to exclude. Below I have clicked the box next to Italy.
Note that the shipping exclusions list functions in the same way as the buyer requirements list. Using the above site preferences option to choose countries to exclude will be used for all new listings and can be applied to current listings where there are no bids. It is a seller’s “default standard.”
However, a seller can also specify excluded countries for each individual listing.
In the SYI (Sell Your Item) form, choosing countries to exclude would look something like this:
In the SYI example above, I have chosen to exclude Africa for that one listing.
Not only is the new country exclusion ability useful for sellers who want to ship to most, but not all, countries worldwide because of anticipated postal problems but it is important because sometimes, by law, an item cannot be shipped to a country. This new feature allows sellers to restrict bidders from mistakenly bidding on the item which cannot be shipped to their country.
A little late for eBay to toss this bone to US sellers given the upcoming change in the DSR rules IMHO. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr…
speckles
September 24, 2009
eBay is slow to constructively innovate (implement ideas that real sellers know will help)
And conversely, they’re too quick to destructively innovate
GerberDaisyLady
September 24, 2009