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Thu Mar 24 2016 22:16:36

eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?

By: Ina Steiner

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eBay sellers in Canada will no longer be able to list in US dollars, as we reported this week. Instead, they must list items on eBay.ca in Canadian dollars, or else list their items in US dollars on eBay.com.

eBay Canada's Managing Director Andrea Stairs explained the move in a blog post. "The analysis of Canadian seller data showed that we had outgrown the recommendation to list in USD and, in fact, listing in Canadian dollars (CAD) on eBay.ca was better for our sellers."

In addition, she said, "Canadian ecommerce had grown dramatically, while at the same time, international buyers, particularly Americans, had become much more comfortable transacting beyond their borders and in foreign currencies."

There are a few things that may be in the favor of Canadian sellers listing in Canadian dollars - if US shoppers do their homework. One is that the dollar is stronger, giving US buyers more purchasing power. We recently noted that according to Bloomberg, the Canadian dollar has fallen about 18% against the US dollar over the past two years, and at the same time, "spending by US shoppers using PayPal on Canadian websites jumped 20% in 2015 from the year before."

The second factor: "As of today, the United States has increased their de minimis threshold from US$200 to US$800. In practice, this means that goods shipped by Canadians to US buyers will only be assessed for duties if their value exceeds US$800," eBay Canada announced earlier this month.

The biggest sticking point for sellers is whether their items listed on eBay Canada receive as much exposure as on eBay.com. If no one sees your products, it doesn't matter what currency you accept.

Let us know what you think about the change.



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Perminate Link for eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?   eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?

by: joyful17 This user has validated their user name.

Fri Mar 25 03:10:24 2016

I didn't get (or read) this notice....I have a US account for the last 14 years, with my US residence listed.BUT I also have a Canadian address and often ship from Canada.
Totally confused how this affects me come June.
I am always paid in US dollars...and only sell on eBay.com.....and have intention of changing!

Perminate Link for eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?   eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?

by: joyful17 This user has validated their user name.

Fri Mar 25 03:15:47 2016

I did not preview what I wrote...the last sentence
Should be..." and have NO intention of changing!
JF17

Perminate Link for eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?   eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?

by: sickandtired This user has validated their user name.

Fri Mar 25 10:57:12 2016

I'm a Canadian seller - been registered on .com for 18 years - that was the only choice at the time.
Along came .ca but still continued to list on .com.  I changed over when shipping costs had to be added to listings. There was a usps calculator on the US site, but you had to list on the Canadian site to use the Canada Post shipping calculator. I have been using .ca since then.
There are some Canadian sellers who are able to use flat rate postage  because of the stuff they sell so listing on the US site works for them. Not for a lot of sellers - if you need calculated postage, listing on the US site is not good option.
It will be a totally  impractical solution for Can sellers currently listing on .ca in US dollars to simply move items to the US site.

Perminate Link for eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?   eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?

by: Swell Enterprises This user has validated their user name.

Fri Mar 25 23:11:46 2016

I'm a Canadian eBay seller and have been listing all of my items in Canadian dollars for 5-6 years now, so this change will have no impact to my business whatsoever.  

It seems that many sellers are concerned that listing in Canadian dollars instead of U.S. dollars will result in a decrease in sales.  My personal experience was the exact opposite.  In the first year after making the change, my sales to Canadian customers increased by approximately 15%-20% and sales to both U.S. customers as well as other International customers remained virtually unchanged.  In the years since, I have been happy with my sales, which is why I've continued to list on eBay.ca exclusively in Canadian dollars.    

My main reason for making the change stemmed from the fact that all of my suppliers are located in Canada, I ship from Canada and the eBay/PayPal fees that I incur are in Canadian dollars, so virtually all of the business expenses that I incurred were in Canadian dollars. I was getting tired of the horrible exchange rate offered by PayPal when I withdrew funds U.S. funds to my Canadian bank account.  Not having to convert funds from U.S. to Canadian dollars adds approximately $5K a year to my bottom line.  With online retail margins getting squeezed a little more each and every year, every dollar that I can keep in my pockets helps.

Although the option is there for Canadian sellers to migrate postings from eBay.ca to eBay.com to continue listing in U.S. dollars, unless the majority of your expenses are in U.S. dollars, I would strongly recommend that you experiment with listing some of your items in Canadian dollars before the June 1st deadline to see how it impacts their sales.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results.    

Perminate Link for eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?   eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?

by: Repricero This user has validated their user name.

Sat Apr 2 01:21:19 2016

The same thing happened with amazon listings. Amazon canada does not get nearly the same exposure as it's US counterpart. So this might be enticing to canadian sellers just yet.

Perminate Link for eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?   eBay's Currency Move in Canada - A Silver Lining?

by: mcposty This user has validated their user name.

Sun Apr 3 16:57:56 2016

Yet chinese gets to do as they please.

If you support hypocritical ebay, I.hope you go down with them



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