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Selling Items on eBay > Shipping > Miscellaneous Shipping Topics 
 



Miscellaneous Shipping Topics

Shipping Insurance

Handling Time and Estimated Delivery Time

Packaging/Handling Cost

Shipping Surcharge

Shipping Cost Discount Profiles

Taxes

Package Dimensions and Weight

ShipToLocation

US Listings and Package Size Limitations

Search Results and Shipping Costs

UPS Rate Scales

Specifying the Cash on Delivery Option in Shipping Details

Shipping Insurance

Setting Insurance Costs for Flat Rate Shipping

Retrieving Insurance Costs for Flat Rate Shipping

Retrieving Insurance Costs for Calculated Shipping

Automatic Shipping Insurance

Setting Insurance Costs for Flat Rate Shipping

Domestic insurance is represented by this container:

<InsuranceDetails>
  <InsuranceFee>
  <InsuranceOption>
</InsuranceDetails>

International insurance is represented by this container:

<InternationalInsuranceDetails>
  <InsuranceFee>
  <InsuranceOption>
</InternationalInsuranceDetails>

Requirements and restrictions:

See also Shipping Insurance for Combined Payment.

Version 477

Before version 477, domestic and international insurance values were both represented by a single pair of tags within Item:   InsuranceOption and InsuranceFee. There is no connection between the container or non-container versions of insurance tags and any compatability level. You are free to use the new tags with a version lower than 477 and use the old tags with version 477 or later. You should be aware, however, of implications of mixing older and new tags:

Revising an item

If the item already has insurance and no additional insurance details are provided, the existing insurance values are not modified.

If the item already has insurance and additional insurance tags are passed in, only the corresponding values are updated.

If the seller revises the listing to remove domestic or international shipping services, InsuranceOption is set to NotOffered and InsuranceFee is not returned in the Get calls.

Retrieving Insurance Costs for Flat Rate Shipping

If shipping services were offered, GetItem returns the following tags and containers:

InsuranceDetails.InsuranceOption

InsuranceDetails.InsuranceFee

InternationalInsuranceDetails.InsuranceOption

InternationalInsuranceDetails.InsuranceFee

InsuranceDetails and its tags represents insurance for the domestic shipping services. InternationalInsuranceDetails and its tags represents insurance for the international shipping services. The non-container InsuranceOption and InsuranceFee tags are leftovers from before version 477 and will someday be removed.

Before version 477, the values of the non-container InsuranceOption and InsuranceFee tags were applied to both the domestic and international shipping services.

If an item was listed with the pre-477 non-containter tags, GetItem uses the values of those "older" tags to populate both the domestic and international insurance containers.

If domestic insurance was not specified for the item, InsuranceDetails.InsuranceOption is set to NotOffered and InsuranceDetails.InsuranceFee will not be returned. Similar is true for international insurance.

Retrieving Insurance Costs for Calculated Shipping

GetItemTransactions: The insurance cost returned for the shipping service is for a single item. Therefore, if the buyer purchased multiple items, you must multiply ShippingInsuranceCost by the number of items to arrive at the total shipping cost. See Shipping Insurance.

Automatic Shipping Insurance

There is a condition in which a buyer receives shipping insurance for free. If the buyer was anticipating that he could request shipping insurance for the item and then does not find this choice, this may confuse the buyer. This section describes that condition so that you can consider how to make this clear to a buyer when this condition arises.

If the seller selects calculated shipping when listing the item, the cost of shipping insurance is determined as part of the shipping cost calculations that occur when the item has been sold (the point when the final item value and the buyer's zip code are known).

Some shipping carriers (such as USPS and UPS) automatically include free shipping insurance for items with a value below a certain carrier-set amount, regardless of whether the seller specified that insurance is required, optional or not offered. eBay, working with the shipping carrier, automatically detects whether the item price is less than the carrier's threshold value and whether shipping insurance should automatically be made part of the transaction (at no additional charge). Since this might happen when a buyer is anticipating the option to request shipping insurance, this is a point of potential confusion for the buyer. Thus, it is worth your considering how to make this clear to the buyer when the situation arises.

Handling Time and Estimated Delivery Time

The handling time (also known as the dispatch time) refers to the following time period:

For most categories, sellers are required to use DispatchTimeMax (in AddItem) to specify an item's handling time for domestic delivery. See HandlingTimeEnabled in GetCategoryFeatures to determine which categories require this value.

Note: Starting in early 2009, AddItem calls will fail if the required dispatch time is not specified. Please see the eBay Developer Newsletter and the blog for updates on when this policy will go into effect.

Optionally, you can estimate an item's total delivery time and display it in your application. For example, you could display "Estimated delivery: 5 to 7 days" for an item. To do this, you need to know the seller's handling time as well as the estimated shipping (transit) time for the shipping service. GeteBayDetails includes an estimated transit time range for most shipping services, specified by ShippingTimeMin and ShippingTimeMax.

To present a total estimated delivery time to your users, use the following calculations:

Low end of delivery time range = DispatchTimeMax + ShippingTimeMin

High end of delivery time range = DispatchTimeMax + ShippingTimeMax + buffer

The buffer can be set by the seller, or it can be determined by your application. For example, during the holiday season, the shipping carrier may recommend that you add 1 day as a buffer. (eBay does not provide a recommended buffer.)

See also Enabling Get It Fast.

Packaging/Handling Cost

Setting Packaging and Handling Costs for Calculated Shipping

Sellers assign a single packaging/handling costs for use by both domestic and international shipping services via PackagingHandlingCosts.

If domestic and international calculated shipping is offered for an item and if packaging/handling cost is specified only for domestic shipping, that cost will be applied by eBay as the international packaging/handling cost. (To specify a international packaging/handling cost, you must always specify a domestic packaging/handling cost, even if it is 0.)

International packaging/handling cost must be specified if calculated international shipping has been provided along with flat rate domestic shipping.

See also Packaging/Handling Cost for Combined Payment.

Revising an item

If a seller original offered both domestic and international shipping services and assigned unique domestic and international packaging and handling costs, and now the seller revises the listing and omits the two packaging/handling costs, these costs will be zeroed. If the seller revises the listing and omits only the domestic packaging/handling costs, the domestic packaging/handling cost is zeroed. However, if the seller revises the listing and omits only the international packaging/handling costs, the value of the domestic packaging/handling cost is copied as the international packaging/handling cost. (If the seller for some reason wants to charge packaging/handling costs for the domestic shipping services but no packaging/handling costs for international packaging/handling costs, the seller should set the international to 0.0.)

If there are no shipping services, any packaging/handling costs are ignored if submitted.

Version 477

With version 477, the eBay US and Motors Parts and Accessories sites use PackagingHandlingCosts for domestic packaging/handling costs and use InternationalPackagingHandlingCosts for international packaging/handling costs.

There is no connection between the container or non-container versions of insurance tags and any compatability level. You are free to use InternationalPackagingHandlingCosts with a version lower than 477.

Retrieving Packaging and Handling Costs for Calculated Shipping

GetItem: With version 477, on the eBay US and Motors Parts and Accessories sites, a seller can distinguish between domestic and international packaging/handling costs. The equation above, then, would be for a domestic shipping service. The equation for an international shipping service would use InternationalPackagingHandlingCosts instead of PackagingHandlingCosts.

GetItemTransactions: Although GetItem returns both PackagingHandlingCosts and InternationalPackagingHandlingCosts for the eBay US and Motors and Parts and Accessories sites, there is no need for transaction calls such as GetItemTransactions, GetSellerTransactions, and GetOrderTransactions to return separate tags. Transaction-based calls reflect the selection of the buyer, whether the selection was of a domestic shipping service and its costs or an international shipping service and its costs. Packaging/handling costs corresponding to the buyer's selection are adequated reflected in the single tag PackagingHandlingCosts.

GetItemShipping: Any packaging/handling cost specified on input is added to each shipping service on output (whether domestic or international).

Shipping Surcharge

Sellers can specify a surcharge when shipping via UPS to Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico. This is currently only available for flat rate shipping on the eBay US site and Motors Parts and Accessories categories.

Shipping Cost Discount Profiles

In this section:

Introduction

eBay enables a seller to offer various kinds of shipping cost discounts on orders (items purchased separately from the same seller and now combined for payment and shipping).

The kind of discount that an item can receive in that order is determined by what shipping cost discount profile was assigned to the item when it was listed, and, if the seller defined a global promotional discount and it was in effect at the time the transaction was created, the order can also benefit from a promotional discount. The discounts "applied to the item" are only realized when the item is combined in an order—no shipping discount is applied to the item if it the item is purchased and shipped by itself.

A user can also offer a packaging/handling cost discount and can specify shipping insurance costs for combined payment.

Discount Rules and Discount Profiles

In the API, discount rules are the kinds of discounts that are made available to sellers. The following are loose descriptions of the discount rules that are available for flat rate shipping.

These descriptions reflect amounts and percentages. If a user wishes to signify that an item qualifies for a shipping discount, the user must first create a shipping discount profile. That profile will be based on one of the shipping discount rules made available by eBay. Rules are provided by eBay; profiles are created by users and are based on such rules.

The profile definition would need to include any amount or percentage that corresponds to the rule. For example, the API rule corresponding to the first description above is named EachAdditionalAmount. A user can create a flat rate shipping discount profile (and make up a name for the profile, such as "flat ship 2") whose DiscountName is EachAdditionalAmount, and the user specifies the fee in DiscountProfile.EachAdditionalAmount. A user can create additional profiles for this same rule, each with a unique fee.

Profile Areas

These are the major areas for which profiles can be created: calculated shipping discounts, flat rate shipping discounts, packaging/handling cost discounts, and promotional discount.

A user can define, at most, one promotional shipping cost discount.

A user can define, at most, one packaging/handling cost discount.

A user can have zero or more profiles for each of the other profile areas (if the profile is based on a variable rule, as discussed in Variable Rules and Fixed Rules).

In the profile areas for which a user can have multiple discount profiles, all profiles must be based on the same underlying rule. For example, FlatShippingDiscount has several rules, one of which is EachAdditionalAmountOff. The user can have multiple profiles based on that rule. If the user wishes to create flat rate shipping discount profiles based on the EachAdditionalPercentOff discount rule, the user would first need to delete the other profiles for flat rate shipping discounts.

Variable Rules and Fixed Rules

A variable rule is a rule which can be used in a discount profile only if accompanied by a value for amount or percentage. For example, for a user to create a calculated shipping discount profile based on the WeightOff rule, a variable rule, the user must specify the amount of weight in the WeightOff field.

In contrast, no additional value is needed when the profile is based on a fixed rule. For example, if the user creates a profile based on the fixed rule named CombinedItemWeight and then assigns that profile to several listings, the user is designating that the calculated shipping cost for combined payment would be based on the combined weights of all items.

This distinction is important because a user can have one or more profiles based on the same variable rule, or the user can have one profile based on a fixed rule, but the user cannot have both. If the user has several profiles based on a variable rule and now the user wishes to switch to a fixed rule for subsequent item listings, the user must first delete all profiles based on the variable rule before the user can create the profile based on the fixed rule.

Creating Shipping Discount Profiles

A user can define shipping discount profiles via the eBay Web site (My eBay, Combined Payment) and via SetShippingDiscountProfiles. (Once a user has defined profiles, the user can assign one or more to listings. See Assigning Shipping Discount Profiles.)

When creating profiles via SetShippingDiscountProfiles, the user always identifies the underlying discount rule by name. If it is a variable rule, the user can create as many profiles at the same time via SetShippingDiscountProfiles as he wishes, provided they are all based on the same rule. The user must set the value of whatever field corresponds to the choice of variable rule. For example, if the user selected WeightOff as the rule for a new calculated shipping cost discount profile, the user would also need to set the number of ounces in DiscountProfile.WeightOff.

The SetShippingDiscountProfiles has a DiscountProfile.DiscountProfileID field. This field is not used when a user creates a profile but only when modifying or deleting a profile. eBay assigns a unique ID to every new profile. You can get the IDs for a user's profiles by calling GetShippingDiscountProfiles.

The user can create, at most, one profile based on a fixed rule (provided the user has first deleted all profiles for that profile area that are based on a variable rule).

If this is the first and only profile the user is creating for a particular profile area in the call to SetShippingDiscountProfiles, the user cannot assign a name to the profile.

At least one profile must exist for that profile area for the user to be able to assign unique names to subsequent profiles in that profile area. The name that the user assigns to a profile is completely up to the user.

To "rename" the first "nameless" profile after additional profiles have been created, the user must create a new profile whose characteristics match those of the first profile plus include a name, and then the user must delete the original profile.

Shipping Insurance Requirement for Combined Payment

Shipping insurance cost must be specified for combined payment if the user wishes to define either flat rate shipping cost discount profiles or a promotional shipping discount profiles. Either the user must define both domestic and international shipping insurance costs before creating any of those profiles, or the user must define those insurance costs in the same call of SetShippingDiscountProfiles that creates the new profiles. (This requirement does not apply for eBay sites for which shipping insurance does not apply.)

Packaging/Handling Discount Profile Requirement for Calculated Shipping

A packaging/handling profile must be created if a calculated shipping cost discount profile is to be created. Either the user must define it before creating any calculated shipping cost discount profile, or the user must define it at the same time the first calculated shipping cost discount profile is created.

Assigning Shipping Discount Profiles

Once shipping cost discount profiles have been defined, a seller can assign them to listings, relistings and revised listings. If a listing offers flat rate shipping services, the seller can assign, at most, one flat rate shipping cost discount profile. Similarly, a seller can assign one calculated shipping cost discount profile to a listing that offers calculate shipping. Regardless of whether any flat rate or calculated shipping cost discount profile has been assigned to the listing, the seller can apply the promotional shipping cost discount, if such has been defined. The seller can also assign a packaging/handling cost discount profile.

In order to assign a shipping cost discount profile, the seller must have the ID of the profile. You can get the names and IDs of available shipping cost discount profiles with GetShippingDiscountProfiles, a call that returns details about the shipping cost discount profiles defined by the user.

When listing or relisting or revising a listing, set the appropriate ShippingDetails members:

If the seller sets ShippingDiscountProfileID to a calculated shipping cost discount profile, the current profile for packaging/handling cost discount is applied. (There is therefore no field in AddItem for identifying the packaging/handling cost discount profile.)

Miscellaneous Related Topics

Shipping discount profiles can be assigned to multi-quantity listings. The buyer receives whatever works out to be the best combination of values. For example, if the non-discounted packaging/handling fee for individual items would be $5 for the first item and $4 for each additional item, and if a packaging/handling cost discount applies, one for which the cost is $3 for each additional item, the better of these, $3, is the fee for additional items, in the context of combined payment.

GetItem returns shipping cost discount details for those items and orders for which shipping cost discounts were applied.

The amount saved in an order for which shipping cost discounts apply is returned in the AmountSaved field of GetOrders and GetOrderTransactions.

If an order qualifies for shipping discounts and was created via the eBay web site, one more shipping service is presented to the buyer (in addition to whatever shipping services the seller is offering to the buyer for the order). This additional shipping service is named Promotional Shipping Service. This service is added by eBay when order details are retrieved for the buyer (it is not, for example, something that the seller can select somewhere). A buyer can select one or none of the services being offered. Thus, if the buyer selects selects Promotional Shipping Service, the buyer is selecting the discounted shipping cost and the choice of shipping carrier is up to the seller. Conversely, if the buyer selects one of the other shipping services, the buyer does not get the shipping discount.

Modifying Shipping Discount Profiles

To modify a shipping discount profile, call SetShippingDiscountProfiles with ModifyActionCode set to Update and provide all details for the updated profile. If part of the modification is to change from a variable rule to a fixed rule, you must first delete all profiles based on the variable rule. See Variable Rules and Fixed Rules.

Deleting Shipping Discount Profiles

To delete a flat rate or calculated shipping discount profile, first call GetShippingDiscountProfiles to obtain valid DiscountProfileIDs, and then call SetShippingDiscountProfiles with ModifyActionCode set to Delete and set DiscountProfileID to the DiscountProfileID of the profile to be deleted. When you delete a profile, the only listings that are affected are active listings for which no bids have been made and which were associated with the discount profile that is being deleted. Listings for which at least one bid has been made remain unaffected: they continue with the discount that was originally assigned to the listing. For those active listings for which no bids have been made, you can set MappedDiscountProfileID to the ID of the profile that is to be used in place of the profile being deleted.

Once a user has defined a packaging/handling profile, the user cannot delete it. However, the user can change the underlying rule in CalculatedHandlingDiscount.DiscountName to CombinedHandlingFee or IndividualHandlingFee. Call SetShippingDiscountProfiles with ModifyActionCode set to Update.

To "delete" the shipping insurance for combined payment, set InsuranceOption to NotOffered. It is not necessary to redefine the range/cost pairs.

Promotional discounts may not be deleted through the API. To delect a promotional discount, remove it through the eBay web interface at Home > My eBay > My Account > Preferences > Combined Payments and Shipping Discounts.

Key API Mechanisms

GetShippingDiscountProfiles

SetShippingDiscountProfiles

GetShippingDiscountProfiles.FlatShippingDiscount.DiscountProfile

GetShippingDiscountProfiles.CalculatedShippingDiscount.DiscountProfile

GetShippingDiscountProfiles.PromotionalShippingDiscount

GetShippingDiscountProfiles.PromotionalShippingDiscountDetails

SetShippingDiscountProfiles.PromotionalShippingDiscountDetails

Shipping Insurance for Combined Payment

The ShippingInsurance and InternationalShippingInsurance in SetShippingDiscountProfiles (for domestic and international orders, respectively) enable the user to pair ranges of item price with shipping insurance fee. See:

SetShippingDiscountProfiles.ShippingInsurance

SetShippingDiscountProfiles.InternationalShippingInsurance

Packaging/Handling Cost for Combined Payment

The user can specify how packaging/handling cost is to be detemined globally for orders via the CalculatedHandlingDiscount field of SetShippingDiscountProfiles. See:

SetShippingDiscountProfiles.CalculatedHandlingDiscount.DiscountName

Taxes

Total item cost to the buyer includes such things as item cost, shipping cost, taxes, and discounts. The application developer must determine if taxes apply and whether they are based on the item cost without shipping costs, on the item cost with shipping costs, etc. See Enabling Multi-jurisdiction Sales Tax.

Package Dimensions and Weight

For calculated shipping only.

Topics:

Measurement Units

Dimensions

Weights

When Package Dimensions and Weight are Required

Measurement Units

The sites which support domestic and international calculated shipping are United States, Canada, Canada France, and Australia.

To specify the unit type of the weight and dimensions of a package, include Item.ShippingDetails.CalculatedShippingRate.MeasurementUnit in the call input. For best practice, use MeasurementUnit. Specifying MeasurementUnit and measurementSystem will cause the measurementSystem attribute to be ignored. The available options per site are:

If no MeasurementUnit is specified, the default will be used.

Dimensions

The dimensions of a package are expressed with the following fields:

CalculatedShippingRate.PackageDepth

CalculatedShippingRate.PackageLength

CalculatedShippingRate.PackageWidth

These support the unit and measurementSystem attributes. The unit attribute is optional and is understood to be in (whole inches). The measurementSystem attribute is optional and is understood to be English. At this time, the only supported unit is whole inches.

The following would represent a package that is 3" x 8" x 8".

<PackageDepth>3</PackageDepth>

<PackageLength>8</PackageLength>

<PackageWidth>8</PackageWidth>

or, more formally:

<PackageDepth unit="in">3</PackageDepth>

<PackageLength unit="in">8</PackageLength>

<PackageWidth unit="in">8</PackageWidth>

or even:

<PackageDepth unit="in" measurementSystem="English">3</PackageDepth>

<PackageLength unit="in" measurementSystem="English">8</PackageLength>

<PackageWidth unit="in" measurementSystem="English">8</PackageWidth>

Developer impact: UPS requires dimensions on all UPS Air packages or Ground packages that are 3 cubic feet or larger, if they are to provide correct shipping cost. If package dimensions are not included for an item listed with calculated shipping, the shipping cost returned will be an estimate based on standard dimensions for the defined package type.
eBay enforces a dimensions requirement on listings so that buyers receive accurate calculated shipping costs.

Weights

The shipping weight of an item (or set of items shipped together) is expressed with CalculatedShippingRate.WeightMajor and CalculatedShippingRate.WeightMinor. These support the unit and measurementSystem attributes. The unit attribute is optional and is understood to be the lbs (pounds) for WeightMajor and oz (ounces) for WeightMinor. The measurementSystem attribute is optional and is understood to be English.

The following would represent a package weight of 5 lbs 2 oz:

<WeightMajor>5</WeightMajor>

<WeightMinor>2</WeightMinor>

or, more formally:

<WeightMajor unit="lbs">5</WeightMajor>

<WeightMinor unit="oz">2</WeightMinor>

or even:

<WeightMajor unit="lbs" measurementSystem="English">5</WeightMajor>

<WeightMinor unit="oz" measurementSystem="English">2</WeightMinor>

When Package Dimensions and Weight are Required

For calculated shipping, package dimensions are required for irregular large packages or for packages of type LargePackage or if the shipping service is a UPS air service.

Dimensions or weight (or both) are required for certain combinations of package type and shipping service. You will need to evaluate certain data from GeteBayDetails to determine whether dimensions are required for a listing. On the web sites of those eBay sites that support calculated shipping (US, CA, AU, eBay Motors Parts and Accessories), this applies only to domestic shipping. For the API, this applies to domestic and international shipping for the US, CA and AU sites and eBay Motors Parts and Accessories.

Note: Dimension and weight requirements are not yet in effect. See Release Notes for Version 587 or later for rollout schedule.

About the Elements for Dimensions and Weight Requirement

GeteBayDetails response
  ShippingServiceDetails
    ShippingServicePackageDetails ( ShippingServicePackageDetailsType )
      Name ( ShippingPackageCodeType )
      DimensionsRequired ( boolean; false if not returned)
    WeightRequired ( boolean; false if not returned)
  ShippingPackageDetails
    DimensionsSupported (boolean; false if not returned)

Note the difference in the two "package" container names: ShippingServicePackageDetails has "Service" in its name while ShippingPackageDetails does not. ShippingServicePackageDetails is about packages in the context of a particular service. ShippingPackageDetails is about packages in general.

ShippingServicePackageDetails.DimensionsRequired is a characteristic of a package type in the context of a particular shipping service.

DimensionsSupported is a characteristic of a type of package. There is no connection between it and individual shipping services.

(Trivia: DimensionsSupported will be true for a package type on a particular site if dimensions are required for that package type for any service on that eBay site. Also, if DimensionsSupported is false for a particular package type on that eBay site, ShippingServicePackageDetails.DimensionsRequired will be false for that package type for all services that support that package on that eBay site.)

Using the Elements for Dimensions and Weight Requirement

If the eBay site supports calculated shipping, use GeteBayDetails to determine whether package dimensions or weight are required for shipping services associated with that site. Call GeteBayDetails with one DetailName set to ShippingPackageDetails and with another DetailName set to ShippingServiceDetails.

If ShippingServicePackageDetails.DimensionsRequired is true, a seller who selects that package and service combination for a listing must submit PackageWidth, PackageLength and PackageDepth in the item definition for the listing.

If DimensionsSupported is true, a seller is allowed to provide package dimensions and eBay will store the seller-supplied dimensions, even if dimensions are not required by whatever service is ultimately selected by the buyer.

It is a best practice to always provide dimensions for a package, even if a particular combination of package type and selected shipping service does not require dimensions. This enables eBay and its shipping affiliates to be most accurate in its shipping cost calculations.

If ShippingServicePackageDetails.WeightRequired is true, a seller who selects that package and service combination for a listing must specify WeightMajor and WeightMinor in the item definition for the listing.

Examples

Scenario 1: Let's say that DimensionsSupported is true for the LargePackage package type for a particular site. And let's say that, for shipping services named S1 and S2, ShippingServicePackageDetails.DimensionsRequired is true for LargePackage. In this situation, the seller must provide dimensions.

Scenario 2: Let's say that DimensionsSupported is true for the Package package type for a particular site. And let's say that, for the shipping service named S1, ShippingServicePackageDetails.DimensionsRequired is false for Package. Further, for the shipping service named S2, ShippingServicePackageDetails.DimensionsRequired is true for Package.

In this case, if the seller only offers service S1, the seller can offer the Package option for service S1 and is not required to provide dimensions. (If the seller chooses to provide dimensions, eBay stores those dimensions and uses them for shipping cost calculations if the buyer selects service S1.)

In order for the seller to offer shipping service S2 for the Package package type, the seller must provide package dimensions.

Therefore, if the seller offers both services S1 and S2 and selects the Package option, the seller must provide package dimensions (to satisfy service S2's requirement).

Scenario 3: Let's say that DimensionsSupported is false for the package type Letter. And let's say that ShippingServicePackageDetails.DimensionsRequired is false for the Letter package type for all shipping services that the seller offers. In this case, dimensions are not needed at all; it would be best for the seller to not provide dimensions.

Scenario 4: Let's say that ShippingServicePackageDetails.WeightRequired is true for one of the shipping services offered by the seller and false for the rest. In this case, the seller must provide weight details for the item to satisfy that one service's requirement for weight details.

ShipToLocation

There is a ShipToLocations at the Item level of the AddItem family of calls and a ShipToLocation inside InternationalShippingServiceOptions. The purpose of this section is to illustrate the difference between the two.

Item-level ShipToLocations

As input, the Item-level ShipToLocations enables a seller to identify one or more locations to which he is willing to ship the item in addition to the country of his own site. There is no connection to whether the seller is offering any international shipping services.

As output, the Item-level ShipToLocations reflects the consolidated list of both Item-level ShipToLocations and service-level ShipToLocation values.

For example, if a seller specifies several Item-level ShipToLocations and one of those is Worldwide, GetItem returns Worldwide as the only Item-level ShipToLocation. If the combination of all Item-level ShipToLocations and service-level ShipToLocation values amounts to worldwide, GetItem returns Worldwide as the only Item-level ShipToLocation.

InternationalShippingService-level ShipToLocation

As input, the InternationalShippingService-level ShipToLocation represents the locations to which the seller is willing to ship the item with that particular international shipping service. For each international shipping service the seller offers, the seller must provide at least one ShipToLocation. There is no connection to whether ShipToLocations has been specified at the Item level.

A seller wishes to offer a couple of international shipping services as options to the buyer. At the same time, the seller does not want to specify where in the world he is willing to ship. Let's say he determines that shipping service XYZ only ships to Canada and Europe and that shipping service ABC offers shipping to Canada at a lower cost than shipping service XYZ.

US Listings and Package Size Limitations

Not all combinations of shipping method and package size are allowed by all domestic and international shipping services for US listings. For details on Package Sizes, see the following eBay Web site page:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/ship-calc-package.html

Search Results and Shipping Costs

The pages that eBay displays upon search can include details about shipping cost.

The shipping cost text displayed as a result of search will be "Not specified" if all of the following are true:

If an item's shipping costs are specified in the item description, you should set ShippingTermsInDescription to true when creating or revising a listing so that users of search on the eBay Web site will see something to the effect of "shipping terms in description" in the section about shipping costs.

For eBay Motors vehicles (but not for Parts and Accessories), passing ShippingTermsInDescription with a value of true has the same effect as setting BuyerResponsibleForShipping to false: the Search results page displays the shipping cost as "See description."

UPS Rate Scales

Two rate scales are available for shipping when shipping is done via UPS:

Sellers identify which type of UPS rates they use by setting a preference on the Payment and Shipping Preferences web page. The selected rate type is indicated on the eBay web site in the Shipping Calculator. It is seen in the API in ShippingRateType.

ShippingRateType is only returned if the value in ShippingServiceOptions.ShippingService is a UPS shipping service. If ShippingRateType has a value of DailyPickup on input and no UPS shipping service is used, there is no shipping costs reduction.

Specifying the Cash on Delivery Option in Shipping Details

On the Italy site (site ID 101), a seller can provide an improved Cash on Delivery (COD) option. Using AddItem, a seller can enable a buyer to choose COD as the shipping method.

To list with COD for shipping requires the following:

A seller who is using AddItem to enable the COD shipping option would include the following in the AddItem request:

Example 10-1 Including Cash on Delivery as a Shipping Option 
... 
<Item> 
  ... 
  <Country>IT</Country> 
  <PaymentMethods>COD</PaymentMethods> 
  <ShippingDetails> 
    ... 
    <ShippingServiceOptions> 
      <ShippingServicePriority>1</ShippingServicePriority> 
      <ShippingService>IT_ExpressPackageMaxi</ShippingService> 
      <ShippingServiceCost>5</ShippingServiceCost> 
      <ShippingServiceAdditionalCost>1</ShippingServiceAdditionalCost> 
    </ShippingServiceOptions> 
    <CODCost currencyID="EUR">2.0</CODCost> 
  </ShippingDetails> 
  ... 
</Item> 
...

A seller can specify COD as a shipping option in the following calls:

The following calls can include COD as the shipping method for a listing:




User-Contributed Notes

   
 
 
 



 
Selling Items on eBay > Shipping > Miscellaneous Shipping Topics 
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