Shipping functionality is achieved through the use of various containers, fields, types, and values.

At listing time, the seller selects between using flat-rate shipping or calculated shipping. For flat-rate shipping, the seller specifies all shipping costs upfront based on the buyer's location and the shipping service selected by the buyer. For calculated shipping, eBay calculates shipping based on the following information:

  • The specific shipping service option selected by buyer (e.g., USPS Priority,)
  • The buyer’s location,
  • The package weight and dimensions.

Refer to Shipping for complete information about shipping options and services.

Set shipping details

When adding or revising a listing via the Add Item family of calls, the Item.ShippingDetails container is used to specify shipping information.

For domestic or international shipments, available service options and the associated cost when using flat-rate shipping are specified using:

Ship-to locations

Sellers can indicate where, by geographical region, the item may be shipped.

A separate Item.ShipToLocations argument must be included for each location where an item may be shipped. A ship-to location can be a geographical region (e.g., North America, Europe,) or a country (e.g., the US, Canada). A seller can also use Worldwide as a ship-to location, but then use one or more Item.ShippingDetails.ExcludeShipToLocation arguments to exclude some geographical regions and/or countries.

Important! Any shipping exclusions specified through this field can be overridden by the eBay International Shipping exclusions toggle located under Shipping Preferences in My eBay. For more information on eBay International Shipping, see eBay International Shipping program.

To determine which shipping locations are valid for a marketplace, call GeteBayDetails and set the value of DetailName to ShippingLocationDetails.

Argument: Item.ShipToLocations