Shipping internationally

From shipping tips to creating a flexible return policy, eBay will help you become a shipping pro and an expert seller.

International shipping

Important for your business

Offering shipping to international buyers is one of the best ways to quickly expand your business. There are dozens of eBay sites across the globe, and millions of potential buyers waiting for your item—it’s up to you to decide how to get it to them.

To increase your chance of selling, we recommend offering shipping to the United States.

For International shipping, you will need to have an understanding of some complexities such as duties and taxes. Refer to the tips below on how to navigate international shipping.

There are two ways to make your items available to international buyers depending on how aggressively you would want to target them. An easy first step would be, for your listings on eBay.ca, to add an international shipping service to the United States and another shipping service to buyers worldwide. This way, your listings will be available to Canadian, US, and worldwide buyers.

You can target international buyers more directly by listing on other eBay properties, such as eBay.com. By doing so, you’d be managing your listings and orders separately on these sites. In either case, make sure to use a tracked service so your buyers can keep track of their shipments.

Duties, taxes, and fees

Shipping internationally can mean that your item is subject to duties or other fees as it enters your buyer’s home country. Make it clear in your item description that overseas buyers are responsible for any duties, taxes, or import fees levied by their customs service. It is important to note that the de minimis threshold for items going from Canada to the US is US$800. In other words, a US buyer will not have to pay duties on most items less than US$800. 

Be honest about the contents of your package when filling out customs forms—it’s a crime to misrepresent the contents to attempt to avoid customs fees, such as writing “Gift” when it was a purchase.

If you would prefer to ship to some countries, but not others, you can go into your preferences and exclude certain regions or countries from the places you’re willing to ship to. 

Feedback