eBay UK added eleven countries to its Global Shipping Program. In an announcement on Thursday, eBay said it was adding China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey.
“From today, buyers in 11 more countries will be able to shop with confidence from UK sellers using the Global Shipping Programme,” it wrote.
Sellers who don’t want to sell to any or all of those countries (or who can’t because of export restrictions on the items they sell) can choose not to – but they must opt out – which they can do at the listing, country or account level.
eBay has been pushing sellers into the program in the US and UK in order to boost cross-border trade. eBay UK explains on its site that it automatically shows international postage costs on eligible listings to prospective buyers in other countries – “You simply send your sold items to a UK address – the international postage and customs paperwork (where applicable) is all handled for you.”
Sellers pay for postage costs to the GSP UK shipping center; once the item arrives, eBay sends the item to the buyer using a trackable international postage service – and eBay offers certain protections to the seller.
eBay sellers who don’t want to participate must actually opt out of the program, rather than it being an opt-in program.
In the US, eBay recently revealed that retail chainstore Target is using the GSP program to reach international shoppers.
A full list of countries in the eBay UK Global Shipping Program is available in Thursday’s announcement on the eBay UK announcement board.
