I am a non US Ebay seller that tries to sell his goods to the vast US market.I have to deal with an overall mistrust and have to continually prove that am trustworthy.....
International sellers have to deal with suspicious US clients,inferior Ebay privileges,second category citizens attitude of the Paypal community,no US Bank will open us an account......hundreds of everyday problems until you manage to "make a name" and be succesful.

Some tell that is worth it ,some that is not....
Come and share your opinions,tips and tricks on how to survive at the harsh enviroment of Ebay and generally Internet sales when you are a "foreign" seller.

How did you survive?
What takes to overcome the unfriendly enviroment and create a stable income by selling on Ebay?
How you deal with suspicious US buyers?
Do Americans love discounts?
Is the word of mouth a stronger advertisement tool than the search engines placement or the Ebay feedback?

What you think that Ebay has to change in order to attract more and help the existant International sellers?

Come on....give us your precious extract of a long time experience.....you are welcome to give us your advice and tips.....and why not?.... place your questions on what would be like a nicer Ebay for non US sellers.

Forgive me for my awnful English! :-)

I've found the best way to deal with any limitation is good ol' honest customer service. Respond to e-mails quickly, thoroughly and in a friendly manner. Happy faces work well. I personally believe positive word of mouth is the most important tool of survival. I think many would agree that Ebay feedback is word of mouth.

The #1 problem I encounter is that the majority of my American customers want things fast, fast, fast - so I'd be hard pressed to believe any business that sells something that isn't instantly accessible could see any mega-success without relocating to the USA, especially since e-commerce seems unstable at the best of times regardless of location. Every day I strain to come up with an idea for creative product/service that would sell but doesn't have to be shipped.

Also, I would only offer discounts to encourage repeat business, never to first time buyers. Everyone likes discounts, but they seem to prefer the quality of service slightly higher pricing will allow. Besides that - it seems to me that most potential clients are actually less likely to trust you when you price products "too low".

Once you make 100+ of positive feedbacks, with minimum negatives, then this will help a lot. To reach that number, I recommend you do the following:

1. Offer free shipping. If your shipments take 2 weeks to arrive, then put clearly that it takes 3 weeks and it is free. Once a customer receive it ahead of time,. He/she will be happy.
3. Offer 100% money back satisfaction guarantee.
2. Put a low reserve.
3. Join any internet dispute resolution service and put their logo in
every one of your auctions.
4. Put your, business phone number, physical address in every page of your auction.

Once you exceed the first 100 positive feedbacks, you will have more flexibility.

Aiesh

Fast shipping when it comes to International is not the easiest thing in the World.....if you want to keep cost low, you 'll have to go with your local Postal Service.Expess service like EMS or some kind of Courier is significantly faster but the cost is unvearable.

I am shipping Registered Air Mail from Europe and it takes from 10-30 days to arrive....how to explain to the unpatient and suspicious US client that there is no real way to track it or make it faster.Americans cannot understand why something from New Zealand arrives in 7 days and something from Central Europe may take up to 4 weeks.....Is free shipping the way to ease their fears?
Why they feel that buying from US is easier to track and less possible to track? If you are a fraud seller ,it is much easier to chane Ebay IDs,credit cards and Paypal accounts if you are in US than any other part of the world.

Do you think that there is a real way to legitimate ourselves and make our clients feel more comfortable?
Is a physical address and a phone number enough?

How about accepting payments?
Give me your thoughts about Paypal and other online services....which is the best for each region?
Do you think that the new European Ebay sites are a good thing?
OR it would be better to have only the US Ebay and have the same rules for ALL of us?

What Ebay should change to make our lives easier?

I am waiting your thoughts and contributions to this thread.International sellers are a big part of Internet sales (Ebay and Non ebay),we have rights and needs.....We can do more to help ourselves.

1. If a shipment takes that long to arrive, then make it free shipping and include the shipping cost in the item price. In the same time, offer an alternative shipping method with a cost for those who are willing to pay to get the shipment fast.

2. Say in your shipping policy that a free Airmail shipment usually takes around 3 weeks but in rare cases it can take up to 4 weeks.

3. Accept all kind of payments if you can. You will sell more if you accept credit cards, personal checks, money orders, bank transfers, e-scrow, paypal, than if you just accept personal checks.

4. I think US customers are no different than any other customers. Imagine yourself sending your money to some one in Taiwan for example. We all feel comfortable buying from US than buying from any other country, although we live outside the USA, and I think because there is more protection when you get into problems with a US company than any other company outside your country. An example is that you can go and file a complaint with many US web sites who are specialized in customer protection. You do not have this any where else in the world.

5. "What Ebay should change to make our lives easier?"
That is a big question, and my answer will be A BIG DREAM. If Ebay can be a channel for shipments and payments, then their business will really boom up. I mean once an auction is closed, then the customer pays to Ebay, and the sellers is given instructions by Ebay, with Airway bill number where the seller ships via an Ebay affiliated shipping company, This way, you eliminate the Fear between both sides. Once the seller hands the shipment over to the Shipping company front desk, the payment is released to the sellers.

aiesh....Thank you for the contribution.

"What Ebay should change to make our lives easier?"
If Ebay could combine all these actions,wouldnt become more giantic and bearaucratic than already is??
I mean customer service is already legendary slow,would they invest more money to cover the extra activities???
Its maybe better to have a different service that is specialized at a certain area......

<<An example is that you can go and file a complaint with many US web sites who are specialized in customer protection>>
What are these sites and where can be found?

How you can prove ,as an International buyer , that you paid for something and didnt get the goods.
And from the other side what i can do when a buyer promices to send payment but never does? In some cases in order to save shipping time i maybe have already shipped the products.

Originally posted by greekguy
What are these sites and where can be found?

https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
http://www.cftc.gov/cftc/cftchome.htm
http://www.ct.gov/dcp/cwp/view.asp?a=1629&q=274414&dcpNav=|

Greekguy
can you pm me or email me.
I want to ask you something.
Thanks

You dont have enough posts to in order to accept PMs.You also at your initial options chose not to accept emails from others....

email me at: mountainathos$vip.gr

We have dealt with USA customers for 5 years online selling from our own British webshop and not Ebay, we have never sold anything on Ebay.We have been through, in those years several major crisis with the USA customers.Here are some of the things that happened along the way>
When the New York Catastrophe happened,we were inundated with mails from the USA asking to buy British Royal Memorabilia, and they all wanted as much support as we could possibly give,in other words far more than just selling a Coronation mug.I asked several customers after the event why this was,why all the GB Royalty items.Every reply was the same, the USA were turning back to British Royalty for stability and endurance.The word Stability came through time and time again, as they viewed our Royals as everlasting so to speak,coming through all the trials and tribulations of the centuries,but remaining still in power.

This in itself came over to us that although in normal life the USA people seem very confident and sure of themselves,in fact they are actually very vulnerable and unsure,especially so of the outside World to theirs. They withdraw back into themselves in crisis and seemingly want to make themselves insular.They tend to trust Britain far more than other countries,probably because of their heritage.But they still do not understand our currency,which brings me on to the next issue.

As for monetary issues,I have mentioned this previously on this forum.Most USA people have no idea about World Currency and Commerce.Everything to them revolves around the USA dollar, ( you may be surprised to hear that a good half have never heard of the GB British pound)
This then is the breeding ground for lack of trust of foreign currencies,they cannot understand anything only USA dollars.
They only hear English spoken throughout their lives and there is no real need for them to learn any other language.

Most of the early Internet users were in the USA, and PayPal being a USA company has passed their test for trustworthiness .Give them another Processor from another country and the brakes are applied. If we mention during an impending sale about wiring money in to our bank acount,I can guarantee that most USA sales would falter just on that single point.However,Israeli,Brazilian or European (Continental Europe not GB)people have no qualms about wiring money through from their banks to ours.It comes as easy to them as slicing through cheese.They trust us implicitly.Even though we now are processing through Barclays Bank,surely one of the most famous banks in the World,the USA customers are still wary as the money is processed in GB pounds Sterling.

Please do not take this as any criticism of any USA person, as it is not.I am just showing "Foreigners" what 5 years online have taught us about Americans.They like to buy our produce but they do not want to trade unless it is on their terms.

Amos462001,

I have a feeling that most US customers have never even *heard* of wiring money to a bank account as a possible form of payment. We never had even heard a mention of such a thing being used for consumer purchases until non-US customers suggested it to us. If you're going to introduce a brand new idea to someone, especially involving a monetary transaction, you'll probably have to do some educating on what it is and what the process involves. Otherwise, they probably won't even consider it as a possible option.