Invite only fee free international selling promo

eBay are running a trial promotion to selected eBay users in the UK and Germany to encourage active cross border trading.

The promotion includes free insertion fees and free final value fees for listings on the Spanish, Italian and French eBay sites. The promotion runs from Monday 2 September right through to the 1st of January 2014.

If you’ve already got a featured eBay Shop you’ll be able to list for free in Spain, Italy and France anyway. However the free final value fees is a really attractive deal and means invited participants can sell for free in three countries for the next four months.

If you’re included in the promotion you should have received advance notification. From what we understand eBay are inviting a cross section of sellers to participate so congratulations if you got an invite.

Why list on multiple eBay sites?

There are two types of cross border selling on eBay – Active and Passive.

Passive cross border selling is where you list on eBay UK and add shipping to overseas destinations. You will get sales but only from buyers who browse the UK site or specifically search for worldwide listings (or when eBay give international visibility).

Active cross border selling is when you list directly onto an overseas eBay site. The big advantage of this is much higher exposure to buyers in that country. If you list on eBay France then French buyers will see your listing with the same prominence of any other French listings. Naturally that should result in significantly more sales.

eBay’s recent sales analysis from July 2013 shows that sellers who list directly on other eBay sites generate up to 8 times more revenue per listing compared with simply offering to post abroad from within their domestic listing. If you’ve never listed directly on overseas eBay sites before so if you’ve been selected we’d recommend you take up the opportunity to do some testing and find out for yourself how much more you sell.

Preparation

There are a ton of things you’ll want to do to be ready to list on the 2nd of September, which is why eBay have given advance notice to sellers invited to take part.

Here’s some of the things you should be thinking about – it’s not a bad checklist for anyone considering starting to sell overseas, but if you’re on the promotion you’ll want to run though it in a hurry.

Check out the fees

Yes, we know if you’re on this promotion listing fees are free and so are final value fees. However you should check exactly which listing formats and durations are included. You should also ensure you’re familiar with listing enhancement fees – don’t assume they’re exactly the same as in the UK, check to make sure you don’t get any unpleasant invoice surprises.

Couriers

There’s no point selling overseas if you’re not set up ready to ship to the countries you’re targeting. It sounds obvious but make sure you know what the courier or postal costs will be.

Language

Ideally you will translate your entire listing into French, Spanish and Italian. At the very least you’ll need to translate titles and Item Specifics. You’ll also be listing on a site where everything is in a foreign language, although by using Google Chrome browser much of the sites can be displayed in English.

Consider using professional services from InterCultural Elements or WebInterpret to get your listings translated and localised for the territories you wish to target.

Software

Whether you use Turbolister or third party channel management software make sure it’s upgraded or the options enabled to list on the overseas sites you wish to target. Get your listings ready to fire up on the 2nd of September to get maximum value from the promotion.

If you don’t currently use management software figure out how you’re going to manage your inventory and how to split it between multiple eBay sites.

Select your listings

Whilst there’s no reason you shouldn’t list your entire inventory on overseas eBay sites, it’s understandably daunting to have to get the whole lot translated immediately. We’d recommend that you select your top selling products, or those products buyers from overseas have already purchased in the past and start by listing those on foreign eBay sites. You can increase your cross border listings over the weeks and months, but it makes sense to start with your most popular products.