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Converting usa measurements to international measurements for inventory
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Okay, so this may be a funny question and I feel like I should know, but I do not.

I’ve never added in international measurements before. I’ve always just put in USA measurements. I’m expanding on shipping to international, so it is much needed information.

This would be for all types of listings…jewelry, hosiery, ornaments…everything.

Say I have a necklace that has a length of 17 inches….would I give it an mm measurement or give it a cm measurement and/or does it depend on the country as to which one to use?

And what if I have a necklace that measures 17.5 inches rather than 17 inches… this is where it seems to get tricky.

Thank you,

Sharon

asked almost 8 years ago

EmpressDepot
Reputation: 7339
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4 Answers
Upvote this answer 2 Downvote this answer

1 inch = 2.54 cm or 25.4 mm. Those who live under the Metric System will understand either cm or mm. So, take your inch measurements and multiply by 2.54 to convert to cm or multiply by 25.4 to convert to mm.

Practically speaking, you could also round those conversion multipliers to 2.5 or 25 and the resulting metric number will probably suffice.

17.5 inches would convert to 43.75 (rounded) or 44.45 cm (unrounded). Calling it 44 cm (or 440 mm) would be fine.

Did you catch that the mm result is 10x cm?

answered almost 8 years ago

tomwayne1
Reputation: 8637
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1 Comment

EmpressDepot says: July 18, 2017

No, I did not catch 10x cm until you mentioned it. Thank you very much, Tom :)

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Hello,

I am from Australia – and when I was listing on here – I did both inches and mm/cm for most items – just to cover all bases because of the international customers. We use mm and cm in Australia and the UK – and I found it difficult for the US system – just used a conversion program when I was listing to put in the different measurements.

Jules

answered almost 8 years ago

J7339
Reputation: 106
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1 Comment

EmpressDepot says: July 18, 2017

I never knew that Australia AND the UK use both cm and mm. Knowing this really helps. :)

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This (and many others) conversion of measurement units site is very [URL removed]

[URL removed]

I use cm (as in most European countries painting’s dimensions in mm would look unnatural) and inches (sometimes in both [URL removed] e.g. 3.5 and 3 35/64 inch).

So, for Your necklace, personally, I would write 17.5 inch and ~ 44,5 cm.

Depending on how large the item is, I usually round to integer numbers or to one digit after comma/period, using the general mathematical rule for rounding.

answered almost 8 years ago

ArtistsUnion
Reputation: 3676
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5 Comments

EmpressDepot says: July 18, 2017

Thanks for the link. I have a question. This is the first time that I’ve seen a comma used in a cm measurement. Is it more acceptable to use a comma rather than a period…I would like to use the more common practice if it makes a difference to international shoppers. I will use the link that you…

EmpressDepot says: July 18, 2017

I will use the link that you left.

ArtistsUnion says: July 19, 2017

“Is it more acceptable to use a comma rather than a period…” No, You can choose one of them. In 2003 the General Conference on Weights and Measures declared that “the symbol for the decimal marker shall be either the point on the line or the comma on the line”.

ArtistsUnion says: July 19, 2017

The Conference also further reaffirmed that “numbers may be divided in groups of three in order to facilitate reading; neither dots nor commas are ever inserted in the spaces between groups”.

ArtistsUnion says: July 19, 2017

Here You are! Examples from European [URL removed] polish banks (according to the rule use only the decimal marker) – 1 324,52 PLN; greek banks (adding unnecessary comma between groups) – 1,324.52 EUR. Polish [URL removed] 2,54 cm, 1,6 km kw., 28,34 g, 1,45 kg, 0,9 t, 3,25%.

Upvote this answer 1 Downvote this answer

Thank you. You all have been very helpful with this.

So, I will include both cm and mm then.

I really appreciate the help. This will be a bit more time consuming than just using good old fashioned USA measurements, but I figure if I’m going to be shipping international….I need to go all the way and put my best foot forward!!

Editing to [URL removed]

Here is a listing where I added cm and mm measurements. Does it look okay?
https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Vintage-Hinged-Choker-Metal-Necklace-White-Gold-Tone-Jewelry/[phone number removed]

answered almost 8 years ago

EmpressDepot
Reputation: 7339
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8 Comments

ArtistsUnion says: July 19, 2017

“Does it look okay?” Nice work. Due to language barrier though, based on the long “neck measurements” sentence, I wouldn’t be 100% sure if the choker is exactly 12.5 in or a little bit bigger. As a buyer I would prefer to see clearly and the exact dimensions of the [URL removed] length xx,x and width yy,y.

ArtistsUnion says: July 19, 2017

Adding exact dimensions of an item and not of a neck, will be more efficient (and ‘safer’ for You as a seller), because You can’t be sure, how a customer will measure her neck. For ‘tide’ necklaces it’s quite important and I’ve heard about misunderstanding in some cases.

ArtistsUnion says: July 19, 2017

“will include both cm and mm” I’m very interested in other members opinion about it! I’ve chosen to use only one of them (cm), because cm and mm are from the same metric system and the difference is just to move . or , one position to left or right (1 cm=10 mm). So, adding both seems to be a surplus

tomwayne1 says: July 19, 2017

Though Americans have a hard time with the Metric System, I think the vast majority of people who live in “metric countries” probably can convert U.S. units to metric units.

EmpressDepot says: July 19, 2017

Thanks Tom. I will definitely keep this in mind.

EmpressDepot says: July 19, 2017

Thank you artists. I realize now that I forgot to include the length measurement. This choker is a bit more complicated more than others as it is such a small choker. Some will know what I mean about the bottom neck measurement, some will not. I have to include this info as an example because there

EmpressDepot says: July 19, 2017

…there is not much room for error. Plus if there ever is an issue, I want PayPal to see I did made mention of this. 99 percent of the time, chokers are never this small.

EmpressDepot says: July 22, 2017

I’ve decided to use mm for jewelry, makes more sense to use this one only. More than likely I will use cm for everything else, we’ll see.

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