At eBay, our sellers have acess to a huge buyer base of 203 million registered users spanning across 150 countries. This opens a wonderful opportunity of international selling for our sellers. Many sellers from India have already tapped into this opportunity and started selling globally.
We are sure that you will be keen to know more about this opportunity and have a lot of queries regarding this. To help answer them, we have Amarjit from International Selling Team who will help you by answering your questions on what all to look out for when you want to start you international business.
If you have any questions related to international shipping, check out the Online workshop where DHL answered various questions on International Shipping.
To find answers to your questions, or to just say a hello, drop in this Open House discussion on 6th October, 4 -5 PM
Thank you all for participating in this open house. I have tried to answer the questions to the best of my ability and I would also encourage you to share your learnings with other sellers on the community board.
If there are questions that are specific to certain countries, and you are not able to get the response from us or from your fellow sellers in India, you can also go to the community boards on other International sites and post your queries.
For example, on eBay.com there are the following boards that might interest those of you who are selling internationally
As I had earlier mentioned, International selling is a great opportunity for all India sellers, but it has its own unique challenges. So if you are patient and focused, I am quite sure you can build a very successful International business on eBay.
Re. your query on putting multiple pictures in a listing
There are two ways you can do that:
1) Make a collage of more than 3-4 pictures in one image and then upload multiple images.
2) In the listing description, use HTML coding to include all your images as is done by the example you have mentioned. Following it the code for creating the HTML of your photographs: <img src="image url" border=0>
Basically there is no difference in listing on India site and listing on other eBay sites related to uploading the photographs.
I appreciate your concern, and I do understand the frustration you as a seller will feel with non-paying buyer. I will advise you to file for Unpaid item process to ensure that you receive a final value fee credit. To know more about the process, click here - http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/unpaid-item.html.
If you can not file for FVF credit for any reason, I will suggest you write to UK customer support team and request them to review your case. They should be able to help you out.
Regarding the buyer, I would suggest, all of us happen to meet such kind of people in daily business. It is best to ignore them and move on. However, eBay does take action against buyers who regularly bid and do not pay. If a buyer receives lot of such UPI strikes, he can even get suspended from the site.
I know I was not able to provide the best answer, however, I hope this will help you receive your fee credit.
Unfortunately Roorkee is not among the supported cities. As and when HDFC offers its services in more cities, we would be expanding the list. Till that time, you can explore if it is possible to run your business from a nearby city which is supported by HDFC.
Since your target market is primarily International, you can sell bathroom fittings on ebay.com directly. Please go to ebay.com and post the listings under the category 'Home & Garden'> 'Bath'.
Else, You can do the same on eBay India site under 'Home, Decor & Fusnishings' > Bath, with a Worldwide shipping Option.
A good way to check out the category to list in is to see where other sellers are listing similar items.
Dear Amarjit Ji, This is in reference to Posts from Indconcepts & Sejob123. I have one suggestion and complaint.
This is a major problem, and one solution is that PaisaPay and PayPal must issue FIRC (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate) to those sellers who receive payments from International Buyers. This is the only document that can solve our problems.
I have discussed this issue at eBay seminar in Jaipur, but sorry to say, that your executives failed to answer my questions. Even they are not aware about the RBI Guidelines for Import and Export Trade.
I strongly feel that eBay should take necessary steps urgently.
Regards, Ankur Treasure Hut Http://Stores.Ebay.In/TreasureHut-Net
Hello, Sir I want to open an account in paisapay. But I am not belong to a supported cities which are shows in a paisapay. I am live in ROORKEE (INDIA). Then, what I do for register in paisapay. I want to sell a religious yantra on EBAY.
dear sir, is it possible for paypal to issue cheques in $ or to remit forex to indian sellers bank account directly through swift code? can you cunsult indian authorities about this? how can i offer paypal as a payment option to foreign buyers without breaking any law? please provide a solution. regards.
dear sir, i am eagerly waiting for your definitive reply. i want to sell on ebay but my target customers are foreign buyers. so i want to offer paypal as a payment option. but i dont want to break forex rules. can you take up the matter with paypal. i have written twice to paypal about this issue but havent received any reply. do you think there is some rule under which export proceeds may be received in Rs. regards.
We know very well that ebay has the best experts in every department and can't go wrong as far as laws of the country are concerned.
Your one line reply ....
PaisaPay service is in full compliance with the foreign exchange laws in the country
..... may not be of much help to novice Sellers who are interested in International trade at individual level.
You may have protected yourself from all directions by being just as a service provider but a Seller can land himself in trouble because of incomplete knowledge.
A Seller has to inform RBI in a stipulated time that payments have been received against goods exported.
If the foreign currency is received in advance then also one has to inform RBI that the goods worth of that amount has been exported.
Since PaisaPay payments are received in Rupees (which may be a clubbed payment of domestic and International sale ), what documents do you provide to the Seller which certifies that ebay has received the foriegn currency on Seller's behalf ?
If you don't provide any such document then what's the correct procedure the Seller has to follow to comply with RBI rules ? How do we prove to RBI that foriegn currency has been received ?
Dear Sir, We could not prevent ourselves to point out one specific problem. Do we have any control over the foreign buyers when we put our listings in UK/USA sites? We give you a specific case:- 1. We listed a lot of East India Stamps (item no. 130017852164) in UK site 46 days back for a price of GBP150.00. We had 4/5 watchers of the item. We received an offer of GBP 50.00 for the item and we dicided to sale off the item at that price to some--( ailavia (anosh2001@hotmail.com))and sent the acceptance of his offer within the stipulated time and thus the sale was completed. Subsequent to receipt of our intimation for payment the buyer refused to pay on the plea that he is a student and can not pay. We opened a dispute and persuaded the buyer to pay us as we have sacrificed the other watchers and that final sale was completed and also pointed out the untruth with facts that the same buyer is buying many more items ( some costlier too) from other country sellers continuously. The buyer has last purchased Item number: 290030572256, for US $26.50 (Approximately Rs. 1,203.62)on 22-Sep-2006 05:36:37 IST competeng with 10 other bidders. 2. We request you to please see the dispute, which we have still kept open and allow us the refund of final value fee and take a punitive action agaist the defaulting buyer taking up the case with your UK site so that he can not befool other Indian Sellers. Longing for a reply, Regards, laphilatelia
Dear Amarjit We want to sell all kinds of Taps - Bathroom taps, Kitchen Taps and Accessories. The listing for taps should be seperate and not in other things. India is a large producer and exporter of Bath Fittings and this should be promoted specially these days when there is a housing boom. Best Wishes Chitra
Hello sir, I want to sell a religious item on ebay internationally (except india). Then, INDIAN bank will accept a payment through paypal and paisapay which will send by buyer? what option is best for me paypal / paisapay or both? If I will open an A/C in UTI BANK then , the payment will transfer automatically in my UTI A/C from paisapay/paypal otherwise the payment will transferred in paisapay/paypal A/C. Then, paisapay/ paypal will issue a check book/debit card/online transfer of payment in my local bank A/C. When I complete a listing of my item & sell an item start. Then,you will send a bill first /detect a fees from my A/C. Is paisapay/paypal will transfer payment online easily? Thanks
I hope you found the session useful. If you have any further question, please feel free to post here. We will keep this thread open till Monday, 9th, 5 PM, and Amar will be glad to answer your queries.
dear sir, what is the position of the individual seller. isnt he supposed to receive the payment in forex for export? ebay or paisapay is not the seller. can i tell RBI officials or other govt officials that the forex is received by paiapay on my behalf? does paisapay issue any certificate to the seller while issuing the INR cheque that the forex has been received by it which is legally valid? thanx
Dear Sirs, We have another problem. Very often we like to sell a comlete collection in stamp albums. in USA or UK site they put the the entire pages continuously in a single listing ( We don't know,- how) and thus one single buyer can buy the complete collcn at a time. Here in India we may at the most give 12/20 pages but that makes a chance that no buyer can be guarateed to have the complete collection. you probably know stamp collection - incomplete or broken reduces its price drastically. How we can put all 100/200 pages in one listing -- may pay higher charges for specific purpose or additional tool?
1)No, you cannot offer paisapay as a payment option on ebay.com 2)There is no fixed limit for which the users need to fax documents to PaisaPay. It depends on the buyer profile and in cases where it is required, communication is sent to the buyer. If the buyer does not need to send the documents, then the payment is immediately reflected in your PaisaPay account
dear sir, as per RBI rules(i have consulted RBI officials) if a product is exported, the price should be received by the seller in foreign exchange from the country of destination. it cannot be received in indian rupees.(there may be some basic exemption limt about which i am not sure) paisapay issues cheques to sellers in Rs. for payments received from foreign buyers for products exported. is that legal? the same problem seems to be there with paypal. kindly clarify. regards
Also at the time of listing in the sell form, you can enter the name of the product in the search and the system will suggest you the possible categories that it can be listed in.
If you want to list in an exact category or sell to a specific country, it will always be better if you list on that eBay country site, say ebay.co.uk or ebay.com.au.
Listing in eBay India site with a world wide shipping option helps you target both domestic and International market with the same listing. The category structure is designed specifically for the domestic market but to ensure that your items appears in that category on the International site, we do the category mapping with International sites as well. But it is difficult to exactly match each category as the category structure and the numbers of subcategories are different on India site and other eBay sites. The good news here is that International buyers normally use search rather than browse on the eBay international sites.
I would disagree with you that the WWS option is waste, as a number of sellers are successfully using this option to sell to International buyers. Moreover if you compare the cost of listing on India site WWS option with the cost of listing on International site, the price advantage makes up for the slightly sub optimal search.
To add here, we are continuously looking to map the India categories with the appropriate category on other eBay sites, so if there are any suggestions, please write to us on the boards and we will try to incorporate it if possible.
Thanks for the suggestion. We have already created an Export Resource Centre http://pages.ebay.in/globaltrade/ that contains information for new sellers. However it might not contain all the information that you have mentioned, and it would be the best to talk to courier companies who can advise you the procedure for shipping and the documentation required.
The Export Bazaar already includes items listed on India with WWS option. So if you are listing on the eBay India site and check the WWS option, your item will appear on the Export Bazaar.
On your question of getting buyers from Africa, Middle East, most of these buyers go to the eBay.com to shop for products. We are currently exploring options on how we can get more International buyers to directly come and buy on India site.
We regularly track our business based on where the buyers are coming from. Over the last few months, we have found no notable drop in business coming out of the countries mentioned except for Singapore and Spain. Singapore is directly linked to the launch of the new eBay Singapore site. However the quantum of business for Indian sellers from Singapore buyers was anyway quite small.
For Spain, we are investigating the reasons for the drop. Thanks for bringing this to our notice.
It is heartening to know that you find it easy to sell internationally.
We have been talking to courier companies to help work out attractive rates for our sellers. The challenge we face is not on the price but the mechanism under which this will be rolled out. For example, we had done a pilot with a reputed courier company almost a year back, but we found it a challenge to operationalise the process to include all sellers. However, we are open to look at it again, if it can benefit our sellers and will initiate talks again with some courier companies.
Please refer to our Export Resource Center and you will find all the details on how to sell internationally. The link to this page is http://pages.ebay.in/globaltrade/
You may also want to visit the ‘Buy’ and ‘Sell’ section on the eBay India homepage for more details on buying and selling
You have seconded laphilatelia’s suggestion that Coins & Stamps should be separated
For now, given the current market situation in India, it would be difficult to justify splitting the current Coins & Stamps category into 2 separate main categories. However, we will again review this in 2007. For the time being, we will look at improving the category mapping for the categories that you have mentioned. Also another option for you is that you can list on US or UK site if you are targeting International buyers.
We agree that Coins & Stamps is a growing category (internationally as well as in India)
However, given the current market situation in India, it would be difficult to justify splitting the current Coins & Stamps category into 2 separate main categories.
Current Indian Stamps are mapped to the Asia (#47174) category. Your suggestion of remapping it to Br. Comm. Other (#263) category is interesting. We shall look into the merits of remapping it & should have an answer for you soon.
The best people to advise you on documentation required for export via courier would be your courier company. Else you can also post your question on the workshop thread http://forums.ebay.in/thread.jspa?threadID=600001084 That DHL had conducted, and they would try and respond back to you as soon as possible
If the product that you have mentioned is permitted to be sold in the US, UK and other countries, then you can list directly on the ebay.com site or ebay.co.uk site. But before that you should check on these sites if this particular product is allowed to be listed on the site.
As you may by aware, the sale of food is regulated by the federal government and most state governments. Sellers who list food and food-related products should familiarize themselves with these laws before listing such items on eBay. Prior to listing any food on eBay, sellers should read the ‘Additional Information’ section to learn more about what food items are not permitted
Re. your question on the payment. You cannot use PaisaPay when you are listing on eBay sites other than India. For the payment options available on eBay.com, please go through this Accepted payments policy http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html to find answers to your query
It is always good to have systems in place if you are serious about running a business. I am quite sure no one starts a business to sell 1 or 2 items. Getting an IEC number has become very easy as DGFT has simplified the process, so recommend you to get the same.
Re. your questions on documentation required for shipping, suggest you either talk to your courier company who can advise you better or post your question to the workshop thread http://forums.ebay.in/thread.jspa?threadID=600001084 that DHL had conducted on our boards as they would be in a better position to answer that
Always insure international shipments if courier does not provide automatic coverage. Some couriers automatically protect package from loss or damage up to a certain amount of the item's value. If your item is worth more than that amount, then additional insurance is recommended.
eBay seeks to minimize trading risk and create a safe trading environment regardless of geographic distance and differences. To manage risk: -Review buyer's feedback. -Always require payment receipt prior to shipping the item.
Dispute resolution services: If a transaction is not completed according to the agreement in the View Item page, it is critical that you email the buyer to understand the basis of disagreement - the problem may be a simple oversight or misunderstanding. You and the buyer should attempt to resolve the issue and complete the transaction.
All shipments being exported or imported must clear customs to enter the destination country. Specific documentation is required in order to clear customs. Customs is the government agency of a country responsible for regulating shipments entering that country. All shipments being sent to and from a country must clear their customs first.
As an eBay seller, you'll need to provide the correct documentation so that your item won't be held indefinitely by customs. Your carrier can easily arrange for customs clearance before you ship.
Your Courier/ Shipping Company can provide you the documentation required to clear through customs. Accurate documentation such as an invoice is often required for shipping anything other than letters and documents.
International shipping requires just a little more effort than sending a package domestically. Here are some of the points to consider when shipping internationally:
Shipping Costs Shipping costs are typically higher for international destinations and can vary greatly based on a number of factors. International buyers tend to understand this point but you should always specify the higher rate for international clearly in your item description. If your item is small or lightweight, consider stating a set international shipping cost. Some International Courier companies have built Shipping calculators on their website which can be referred to.
International shipping costs are based on a combination of the following:
-Weight and dimensions of package -Method of shipment such as post, express courier, normal courier -The location you're shipping from (city, state, country) -The location you're shipping to (also called the destination country)
Therefore, costs may vary greatly depending on what, where and how you are shipping. Costs can be considerably higher for international destinations.
Generally, buyers pay additional costs that may apply such as duties, taxes and customs clearance fees. For example, international rates may or may not include pickup and door-to-door delivery with customs clearance. Your package will arrive at your buyer's door, but he/she might need to pay extra international fees
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