Calculated shipping

Calculated rate shipping (or "calculated shipping") is when a seller offers shipping services and requests that eBay calculate the shipping cost according to such things as the package's dimensions and weight and the buyer's postal code. The seller can also charge the buyer packaging/handling costs in addition to whatever the shipping service would charge.

Set ShippingDetails.ShippingType to Calculated.

Specify the domestic and international shipping services. If any international shipping services are specified, at least one domestic shipping service must be specified. The seller can specify up to four domestic shipping services and up to five international shipping services from which the buyer may choose. Use ShippingServicePriority to note the seller's preference for sequence of display of the corresponding shipping service relative to the other services (1 = first in list).

You should not attempt to set the base shipping cost (e.g., via ShippingServiceCost,) because the base shipping cost is determined by eBay for the shipping service that the buyer selects from among the choices the seller has provided. Refer to Shipping services.)

If the seller wishes to add packaging and handling costs, set CalculatedShippingRate.PackagingHandlingCosts.

Marketplaces which support domestic and international calculated shipping are:

• United States
• Canada
• Canada France
• Australia
• eBay Motors Parts and Accessories

Package dimensions and weight are required for some combinations of package type and shipping service on some marketplaces.

For details about the individual fields, refer to the eBay Trading API reference documentation (e.g., AddItem).

Packaging and handling costs

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

The information here about the domestic packaging and handling cost for calculated shipping from the eBay US marketplace is applicable to the domestic leg of a Global Shipping shipment. Handling cost for the international leg is included in the shipping cost determined by the international shipping provider.

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 an 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.

Revise an item

If a seller originally 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.

Retrieve packaging and handling costs

GetItem: 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 marketplaces, there is no need for order retrieval calls such as GetItemTransactions, GetSellerTransactions, and GetOrderTransactions to return separate tags. Order retrieval 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 adequately reflected in the PackagingHandlingCosts field.

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

Determine costs

The total shipping cost is:

(ShippingServiceCost  * QuantitySold) + PackagingHandlingCosts

ShippingServiceCost is the cost to ship without consideration of any discounts. It is a value calculated for a specific shipping service. ShippingServiceAdditionalCost is always 0.00 for calculated shipping.

For GetItemTransactions, the quantity of items is already factored into the values of ShippingServiceCost. (Effectively, QuantitySold should have a value of 1 in the calculation above.)

GetItemTransactions also returns the following, since item final price and shipping service are known: the ShippingServiceSelected container, ShippingRateErrorMessage, ShippingRateType, and ShippingServiceUsed.

For information about individual fields, refer to the eBay Trading API Reference (e.g., GetItem).