How to Customize Global Shipping Program

Did you know you can customize your Global Shipping Program and to some extent choose the countries where you want to use it and those you don't? When the Global Shipping Program first came out I didn't opt in because I wasn't sure I'd like it and really didn't want to use it on every country. I thought it might turn buyers off because of the higher upfront costs associated with buying an item and I didn't like that you could not offer First Class International. The reason I DID want to use it was because there were certain countries that I was not shipping to which with the GSP I could ship to without fear. Namely Russia and Mexico. These were two countries I didn't previously ship to because of things I'd read. Very long times to arrive..stolen packages. There are a number of other countries I exclude from my shop because they are not covered by insurance. But eventually the GSP changed. It now allows you to customize it and use it for some countries and not others. This was exactly what I wanted to do. It took me a while to figure out how to do so. 

Below I've created a little tutorial to show how. You can't actually choose by country in most cases..Mostly it goes by continent or region. You'll see what I mean below. 

It was a lot of work to set up initially because I wanted all of my current listings to reflect the change. I had to go in and individually revise each listing. Going forward from there it knows what I want and new listings reflect my settings.  The reason I like this is because the countries which I opt out of GSP can still choose First Class International Shipping if they want. This is a lower cost option and I hope it leads to more sales. I've used it for a long time and never had a problem with FCI. I insure it through Shipsaver. But now I also sell to Mexico and Russia and have no worries.

Step 1: Go into your account settings and click on Site Preferences. You will see the screen below. Click on Show by Shipping Preferences.

Step 2: On the Shipping Preferences Screen click on Offer the Global Shipping Program. 

Step 3: You must have checked the first two checkboxes: 'Use The Global Shipping Program' and 'Allow Me To Customize International Shipping By Country'. Click Submit. That's the first part.

Step 4: At this point you've chosen Global Shipping Program and it will be applied to all of your listings. What you need to do is modify your listings if you want GSP applied only to certain countries. Each listing is set up separately. Go to one of your listings or start a new listing and go down to the shipping section. Below I show what the International Shipping looks like before you modify it and how it looks after. You can see in the 2nd screen that I have check-marked certain countries. This means I've opted out of Global Shipping for those checked. Global shipping will only apply for Mexico, Europe and Asia. Like I said before it took me a while to get all of the listing I had current at the time set up but now when I start a new listing it by default uses my preferences as seen below. Hope this was helpful!