mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@robbie31415 wrote:I want to note that offering free shipping can be part of the problem for you.
Because with free shipping it changes nothing for the buyer if they buy 1 at a time or multiple in a single order.
You could run quantity based shipping promotion to try and encourage multiple items per transaction.
But outside of that, simply because the buyers aren't purchasing how you want doesn't mean they are purchasing incorrectly.
Free Shipping shouldn't be a problem for any seller getting multiple orders. Think about that one a bit.
Very Very few buyers expect a combined shipping discount on listings that have Free Shipping. IDK why, but very few do.
The seller on the other hand has [or should] the amount of shipping rolled into the price of the item. So if a seller has to pay a 30 cent transaction fee for each additional purchase, why would that be an issue. The seller is being paid for FULL shipping on each purchase. They then ship them all together and make a nice little profit from what they collected for shipping vs what they paid.
@turtles-trading-post wrote:I understand Eric's issue. I too sell low priced postal history and first day covers. I count on buyers purchasing multiple items at the same time. Yes, I get orders for one, two, ten and the maximum of 30 something in one transaction.
The answer is very simple.. when the buyer hits the "Buy It Now" and the item should be in their cart, the eBay message is "Pay Now". There doesn't appear to be any other option so they pay. eBay used to have / should have / could have a button marked "Return to Shopping" which would send them back to the list they bought the item from! One fricken line of code!
That isn't quite accurate. When a buyer puts something in their shopping cart they are not forced to pay. I often have several things in my shopping cart from various sellers or the same seller. Then I pay for everything all at once or one by one, whichever I choose. I do use a Desktop or a Laptop.
It isn't "One fricken line of code! ".
@isaiah53-57 wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:They don't "fix" it because it is not a problem the site is responsible for. Anymore than when we were in PayPal, the same thing would happen. It just isn't the site's issue. Sellers can educate their buyers. It should be part of your customer service. Ebay isn't responsible for doing everything for you.
How utterly ridiculous... is anyone else seeing this post??
Everyone on the thread sees the post. I didn't send it to you in a private message.
You love to get rude on the threads for some reason @isaiah53-57 . I don't know if it makes you feel better or just the way you respond to other humans in general.
Ebay has useable ways for multiple checkout, but most times it is the issue of the Buyer either not using it or using it incorrectly. That Ebay can not write a program to fix.
But Sellers on the other hand can help those buyers that don't know or misunderstand the process. It is call good old customer service. And you can call me anything you want to, I have helped many sellers over the years on how to easily do this. Some use it some don't, but all were grateful for the information. And most became my repeat customer. Some for years.
Now you may not choose to try and help your customers as they run into this issue, that is your choice to make. That doesn't make other sellers that choose to help their customers wrong nor does it mean Ebay needs to step in, it mostly means sellers need to step up.
If you are a seller that buyer buy multiple items frequently and they use IPR, then they should consider turning that feature off. If you are a seller that uses Free Shipping, then as described in my previous post, there should be no problem at all as the seller till makes extra money.
@robbie31415 wrote:I'm saying it as a problem because the seller doesn't like singular purchases.
For eBay all costs should be rolled into each item to be sold individually, which I mentioned earlier.
All I'm saying if this is a problem he could add a 50 cent shipping cost, and then run a shipping promotion such as add 3 items to your cart for free shipping.
This isn't to fix an actual problem, but trying to create encouragement for buyers.
If you offer free shipping on all items then a buyer wouldn't most likely even consider adding more than 1 to the cart each time.
Interesting take. Not one I agree with but I suppose some sellers don't want single purchases. I do and the more the merrier. But for some sellers that sell $1 listings or something like that, selling multiples would be important.
"For eBay all costs should be rolled into each item to be sold individually." That's on the seller NOT Ebay. It is the method used when sellers offer Free Shipping and not stated shipping.
IDK, I suppose your solution is one way. I prefer communicating with my buyer as I have repeatedly gone over on this thread. It has served me well for over two decades and NOT ONE single complaint from my buyers. So my vote is for Customer Service by the Seller. I can tell from this thread that isn't a popular way to handle this, most want to make it an Ebay issue. For me, I work with my buyer and all is well.
Your take on Free Shipping and multiple purchases isn't really accurate. Buyers do it all the time.
@somanypostcards wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
PayPal had the same 30 cent fee when they were our money processor. I'm not sure why they didn't get as many complaints here about their 30 cent fee as Ebay does now that they are our processor and charges us the exact same fee. Just speaking for myself, it is difficult for me to understand why it was OK for PP and not for Ebay.
PayPal also had the option for sellers to elect a micropayment fee if average sales were $10 or less. This was a $.05 transaction fee and slightly higher final value fee. Many sellers did NOT pay a 30 cent fee per transaction; they paid a 5 cent fee per transaction. This lower fee was available when eBay used PayPal for payments before Managed Payments. It was requested multiple times that eBay offer a micropayment fee option with Managed Payments, but this request was NOT honored.
That is very true and it is an option that Manage Payments does not and has not offered. MP was upfront about this. The fees are clearly stated before and after you entered MP. So if you weren't aware of them you weren't watching the information in the policies or emails sent.
I completely understand why it is upsetting to sellers that sell like you do. It was a hot topic on the threads as we were all switching over to MP. The most popular suggestion was for sellers to make sure an increase the price of their items by about 35 cents to cover fees they weren't use to having to pay. Or you could do a little less, I think, Micro payments was 5 cents per transaction, I could be wrong on that as it has been a long time. So if you sell something for $1, you should raise it to $1.35. You of course are free to do as you see fit.
Now just to be honest with you. I don't know why any seller would start an auction off for a price that doesn't even cover your selling fees. That doesn't seem like a recipe for a strong and viable business. But that is just my opinion and nothing I would ever do. Breaking even with pricing, yes I've done that. But I'm not going to pay my buyers to buy my items. IMHO not a good financial move.
@buyselljack2016 wrote:Seems the process is in place, but buyer's are not using it.
eBay apparently should have a giant buyer warning.
YOU HAVE ALREADY MADE A PURCHASE FROM THIS SELLEL
DO NOT MAKE ANOTHER SEPARATE PURCHASE
COMBINE PURCHASES WHEN BUYING FROM THE SAME SELLER
..... wow... just... wow
That would be so SCARY for both the buyer and the seller !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
