No longer offering free shipping.

[riccozic]

Just wanted to share my experience with a shipping change I recently made. I have been selling on Ebay full time for several years. I offered free shipping for the longest time, but was losing money on returns for buyers who return an item because they either didn't like it or changed their mind. When they would return it I would issue the refund and lost my original shipping fees which are between $20.00 to $40.00 depending on location.

Now granted returns are a part of doing business, but I didn't like losing money on returns that were no fault of my own.

So three months ago I started adding shipping to my items but I didn't change the original selling price to see if it would affect my sales. To my surprise, my sales have stayed constant and have not decreased at all. So not only I am not losing my shipping on returns, my original shipping is now being paid by the buyer for every item.

Not saying this will work for you, but if you have been offering free shipping you may want to try charging shipping to see if you get the same results. In my case it has gained me alot of extra money each month. 

[icollectucollect]

Never bought in to the free shipping hype. 

[kaykeecorp]

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@icollectucollect wrote:

Never bought in to the free shipping hype. 

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Oh I did- and made a lot of sales. But then when you switch things up, like the OP, you see you can still make great sales without it.

the pendulum will swing back at a certain point I'm sure...

[liw48]

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@icollectucollect wrote:

Never bought in to the free shipping hype. 

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If a person wants the product, they will pay for the product + shipping.  Consumers know that it costs money to ship.

[emerald40]

I agree.  If you charge a reasonable price for shipping I do not mind paying it at all.

It is when sellers try to gouge by adding cost of box and tell me that tape is not free and gas money that I hit the back button.

[reallynicestamps]

So not only I am not losing my shipping on returns, my original shipping is now being paid by the buyer for every item.

Glad it works for you but---

you weren't using Free Shipping correctly.

The idea is that Free Shipping just means the cost of shipping is included in the price of the product.

Which is cheaper:

A $50 item with $20 shipping?

or a $70 item with Free Shipping?

Actually, if you were getting a lot of returns, and a lot would be more than 1-2% of sales, you should also be adding Cookie Jar Insurance.

Adding a tiny premium to every asking price to cover the cost of occasional bad transactions.

So your asking price would be $50 asking+$20 shipping+$0.20 (1%of 100x$20) or $70.20 with Free Shipping.

Massage that number as you will.

Still, you are doing well with Calculated Shipping, so that's excellent.

[postingid7659]

I'm just shocked someone is actually able to make some sales at all.

[pinkrose442savings2018]

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@riccozic wrote:

Just wanted to share my experience with a shipping change I recently made. I have been selling on Ebay full time for several years. I offered free shipping for the longest time, but was losing money on returns for buyers who return an item because they either didn't like it or changed their mind. When they would return it I would issue the refund and lost my original shipping fees which are between $20.00 to $40.00 depending on location.

Now granted returns are a part of doing business, but I didn't like losing money on returns that were no fault of my own.

So three months ago I started adding shipping to my items but I didn't change the original selling price to see if it would affect my sales. To my surprise, my sales have stayed constant and have not decreased at all. So not only I am not losing my shipping on returns, my original shipping is now being paid by the buyer for every item.

Not saying this will work for you, but if you have been offering free shipping you may want to try charging shipping to see if you get the same results. In my case it has gained me alot of extra money each month. 

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Found out the hard way also had free shipping and lost with returns...now I have some of each to off set the returns.

[thatisrathernice]

Well said. Free shipping isn't really free. I personally don't offer it as with todays economy and class of human life I would be broke. Real buyers will pay for shipping because they know how life works and they really truly want the product. Free shipping is for suckers. <-- That is not to start a fight, I am merely stating my own opinion. Everyone has their own metrics.

Thanks for sharing and ::High Five:: 🙂

[kaykeecorp]

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@thatisrathernice wrote:

Well said. Free shipping isn't really free. I personally don't offer it as with todays economy and class of human life I would be broke. Real buyers will pay for shipping because they know how life works and they really truly want the product. Free shipping is for suckers. <-- That is not to start a fight, I am merely stating my own opinion. Everyone has their own metrics.

Thanks for sharing and ::High Five:: 🙂

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So all the buyers I had when I offered free shipping weren't real buyers?

huh

never knew

but their $ was real tho...just saying