Selling to Canada – the First Step to International Selling
by Katie Sween
eBay Seller Development Team

Did you know that there are nearly 9 million Canadian buyers visiting eBay.com every month? eBay is the top shopping site in Canada, the site on which Canadian shoppers spend most time online.

Canadians buy more from U.S. sellers than from those in any other country. In fact, recent research proved that Canadians buy from Americans just as enthusiastically as they do from other Canadians. As the Canadian dollar strengthens, millions of Canadians are turning to the U.S. for their shopping needs. There's especially strong Canadian demand for vehicles, consumer electronics, video games, collectible photographs, sporting goods, computers, toys, music, and DVDs & movies.

In this month's article I want to give you information on why you should open up your sales to Canadian buyers and what you need to know to start selling to Canada.

Why you should Sell to Canada
There are two main reasons why I highly recommend selling to our neighbors to the North:

1. Exposure to millions of additional buyers. By choosing to sell to Canada, your listings will appear on both sites (eBay.com and eBay.ca), increasing your exposure to buyers. This increased exposure can potentially increase your conversion rates, sales, and profits.
2. Learning ground for selling internationally. By selling to Canada, you are familiarizing yourself with the process of selling internationally. Cross-border trade makes up an ever-growing portion of total sales on eBay. By selling on Canada, you will become familiar with the listing and shipping practices you'll need to know to take your business to Europe, Asia or other international markets.

Selling to Canadian buyers is easy and very similar to selling to American buyers. Canadians are very comfortable paying in U.S dollars, and PayPal is actually the preferred payment method for most Canadian buyers. The majority of Canadians communicate in English, easing any language barriers.

How to sell to Canada
Expanding your business to the Canadian market is easy. Here's what you need to do:

When listing an item

• Click “Canada” in your “Ship-to-Locations” section of the Sell your Item (SYI) form.
• Include the shipping costs to Canada using either the fixed or calculated shipping tabs in the SYI form. Use the calculated shipping feature in the SYI form to help determine the appropriate shipping cost.
• Accept PayPal payments. You could also accept money orders from Canadian buyers – they are easily purchased in U.S. dollars within Canada.

When shipping your item to Canada

• Include a printed invoice of the item in the package when you ship.
• Fill in a customs form with the closing price of the item (not including shipping and handling).

Familiarize yourself with Canadian Customs

• You can order Customs forms from the USPS online store – they're free. Search this site for “Customs forms” and select form # 2976.
• Review the Customs documentation you need to complete and provide to your carrier when shipping items to Canada.

Additional tips

• Set realistic expectations with your Canadian buyers by stating in your listing descriptions that shipping times may be slightly longer for destinations outside the U.S.
• Canadian buyers are responsible for paying duties, taxes and applicable customs brokerage fees separate from the merchandise cost. Buyers will generally pay these fees upon receipt of your shipment.
• Remind your Canadian buyers they may be charged additional fees by Customs once they receive your package.

Good luck expanding your business North of the Border!