Did you know that you can not ship Christmas Ornaments to Japan?

When you are selling Internationally there are many issues you have to deal with.  One that goes overlooked at times by some sellers is "Is the item I selling allowed in other countries"

With al the other things one must do to create a listing I can see how this step is overlooked, however it is an important step and well worth your time.

By overlooking this option you are risking a lot. 

First, you are risking your item not getting to the buyer.  This of course can hurt your buyers buying experience which in turn can hurt your feedback and DSRs

If the item does not get to the buyer and the country it was stopped in is slow at returning if - if it gets back to you ever - you risk loosing the money from the sale and the postage you paid.

There is an easy way to check to see if your item is allowed in the country you want to sell the item to.

All it takes is a trip to the UPS web site.

Point your browser to the UPS web site and then after choosing the United states - English site hover over the support link at the top of the site and when the menu drops down click on global advisor.

From the global advisor page choose country regulation under Review Country Regulations.

The next page will come up and choose the destination country you plan to sell your item to.

I leave the shipping regulations drop down set at the default of all categories.

then click on the "Show Regulations"

Pow!  You now see what is not allowed in the country that you are selling to and you can find out if your item is permitted in that country.

This could be a bit time consuming but if you for example choose to sell your item to "Asia" on the SYI form, you need to check out all the countries that are part of Asia to ensure your item can be shipped to that countries that might by the item.

Sure, it does seem like it can take a bit of time, but it can be well worth it before you have a headache from a sale that went bad.