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How do I exempt certain states from free shipping?
I have an ebay store and many of my items sell for only $10-12. My normal shipping cost, to me, as a seller is $5 (Roughly) for those items.
So after fees I'll still make $2-4 per item. However I've ran into issues with certain states, mainly California, where I'd rather not allow free shipping. Most items to CA tend to be 2-3 more for shipping.
I want to be able to still offer free shipping for all my items, but to exempt CA, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Those have been the problem ones. I can't figure out how to exempt just certain states. I've tried googling it but it doesn't appear to work easily.
Any help would be appreciated.
6 comments
mr_lincoln
Mentor9 months agoHi @area13films
You can Exclude Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico for locations you do not wan to ship to on this page but not any other US States. eBay has no setting to block states other than the two mentioned above: Shipping Preferences
Scroll down to the Exclude shipping locations section on that page and click the Edit link over on the right. On the next page you make your choices.
You can also use Calculated shipping which means all Buyers will see how much they owe you to ship to them.
area13films
OP9 months agoYeah those don't help. I'm specifically interested in CA. I'll reach out to ebay and see if they have any tips. Otherwise I'm going to have to take away free shipping on some of my stuff.
mr_lincoln
Mentor9 months ago@area13films Don't waste your time trying to talk to eBay, they do NOT have a system in place to block any US States other than Alaska and Hawaii. Use Calculated shipping, accurate weights and dimensions and then you get to print your discounted labels through eBay on all services except USPS Media Mail.
I am on the East coast and yes, I see a big jump with USPS when going from 1 lbs to 2 lbs for my Zone 8 (est coast) customers. That's just how shipping works.
area13films
OP9 months agoSo you're saying to get rid of free shipping altogether and just do shipping based on location at time of purchase?
Do you have to put the weight and all into the listing at the time of listing? Or only when they make the purchase? I typically don't weigh my stuff until it sells, Then (Since I have free shipping) I'll weigh and measure it as I ship.
Would that mean I'd need each item measured in a box and weighed before listing it?
mr_lincoln
Mentor9 months ago@area13films
-Yes, do away with Free Shipping and let customers see how much they need to pay you to print their shipping labels. We've been doing that for just over 10 years and in excess of 13,000 packages ...
-You can put an empty box on a scale and then the item and then round up to the next nearest pound to hedge your bets.
-I make custom size boxes so my rule of thumb is 2" all around the item for box dimensions. With your current method you risk a large bulky but light weight item going into a larger box that exceeds a carrier's "Volume weight" (used to be called Dimensional weight). That is any box with a total cubic volume OVER 1728 cubic inches, you can get cubic inches by multiplying L x W x H. Rates jump up fast with Volume weight.
gosimus
Mentor9 months ago@area13films
The post office itself discloses "Parcels that exceed one cubic foot (1,728 cubic inches) are charged based on the actual weight or the dimensional weight, whichever is greater . . ." [my added emphasis] at https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/notice123.htm and other notices.