free shipping and combining orders
I've never done much with free shipping but am thinking of trying it with some auctions. I often hear from buyers wanting to buy multiple items and get combined shipping. How does this work for you? Do people just order multiples with no expectation of a discount or do you issue any sort of partial refund? If so, do you advertise that in your listings?
29 comments
go-bad-chicken
·2 years ago@keziak
This is how I view it. Your mileage may vary.
Free shipping is bad for both you and your prospective buyers and its not because it's free.
The reason that offering free shipping is bad is because, 46% of the U.S. population live in states were shipping is not taxed.
I see a lot of sellers who like to proclaim that there is no difference between
Item A: $20 + $10 shipping
and
Item B: $30 with free shipping
A buyer in say California IS GOING TO PAY $0.90 MORE for the "Free Shipping" listing due to the fact that the whole price is now taxed.
Here is a list of states that DO NOT charge sales tax on shipping.
<span;>• Alabama
<span;>• Arizona
<span;>• California
<span;>• Colorado
<span;>• Florida
<span;>• Idaho
<span;>• Illinois
<span;>• Iowa
<span;>• Kansas
<span;>• Louisiana
<span;>• Maine
<span;>• Maryland
<span;>• Massachusetts
<span;>• Michigan
<span;>• Missouri
<span;>• Nevada
<span;>• Oklahoma
<span;>• Utah
<span;>• Virginia
<span;>• Wyoming
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoVery simple:
If I go to staples and buy a printer its the same price as shown online.
If I buy the same printer online, same price yet ships free. Does staples eat that cost? No. It's promotional and written off as such.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoYou can easily setup shipping discounts, at least for BIN items anyway. Just use the promotional or flat shipping rule within the shipping preferences page. I have multiple flat shipping rules for different types of products.
For instance, I have a flat shipping rule of $1 for each additional DVD, CD, Book, etc. You just click on create profile, give it a name, input the amount you want to charge.
Then you reference that rule in your shipping policies where it states "Apply my flat shipping rule with profile name." There will be a check box, just click it and you can select the rule you want to apply.
Or you can use the promotional rule. Here you can set a minimum dollar amount to trigger free shipping, or by minimum number of items purchased.
You can also add a note in your listings citing the multi-quantity discounts. Here's one I often use for DVDs: "Shipping for each additional media mail eligible item is $1, please use add to cart so that shipping discounts will be properly applied."
keziak
OP2 years agoI haven't tried any of that so it's interesting. But you are talking about ways to charge shipping, right? Not free shipping?
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoYou can setup both shipping discounts and or free shipping with the methods I mentioned. Have a look at those menus on the shipping preferences page, they can really help with what you're trying to do.
Just click summary, account, and scroll down to where it says shipping preferences.
Just make sure that if you're setting up flat shipping rules that you are referencing them within your shipping policies, otherwise they wont work. Again, you'll assign a name (ID) to each rule to reference it.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoAutopay has its fault.
Refund shipping combined discount...that refund comes out of "available funds' of previous buyers and not the current buyers.
Easy to get into the negative of "available funds".
ebeths_eclectic_collectibles
·2 years agoSometimes it can be a good idea to offer a volume discount with free shipping instead of combined shipping. If you are selling small light weight items like cds or fashion jewelry buyers may be discouraged by your prices that include shipping
an-57470
·2 years agoIf you set your auctions to require autopay, you'll need to process a partial refund.
If you allow them to pay later, you can invoice them.
The easisest answer is what everyone above has advised. Free Shipping eliminates most issues that come up and you're going to spend a lot less time messaging back and forth with your buyer. I factor shipping into my listing prices or reserve prices.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoIf it's free shipping, it wouldn't matter if it was auto paid or they paid later.
Why would you give a partial refund?
an-57470
·2 years agoRead his question again. I'm not sure you understood.
I addressed his question with possible options and how it would depend on the situation. He asked about combined shipping and partial refunds. This would imply he charges for shipping, or plans to, so it would actually depend what he choses.
I then explained the easiest option would be to switch to free shipping.
Hope that made it simplier to comprehend.
keziak
OP2 years agoThis is what I mean: let's say I list 2 books. For each book I want $10 and I charge $4 for shipping. Someone buys both and pays $20, I weigh the package and give them a combined invoice with $6 shipping not $8 = $26.
But if the $4 is part of the price and it's free shipping they pay $28. So that is a worse deal for them than the first way and is the sale less competitive with other sellers? Does the lure of combined shipping provide a competitive edge? Based on the messages I get I think maybe. Or is free shipping a greater lure overall?
Maybe I'm overthinking it.
richard1rst
·2 years agoUnderstand that your (potential) buyers are not a homogenized group. Some buyers love free shipping and will specify that in their searches. Some buyers are leery of it because they understand that on multiple orders they may pay a bit more.
No matter which one you pick you will lose some of your audience. Take the even, take the odd.
I used to do calculated shipping. Now everything I offer (even the large heavy stuff) goes out as free shipping. PRESTO I was no longer inundated with irrelevant messages:
Why do "you" charge more for shipping than the cost of the item. (Except of course it is the post office charging that)
"Your" shipping prices are outrageous. (See previous note)
If I buy multiple items do I get a discount (Except since I use cubic shipping sometimes it actually costs MORE to ship 2 items together than to ship them individually - good luck explaining that one)
and oh so many more.
Maybe I lose some sales, there is no way to know for sure. BUT fortunately my sales are healthy enough that the "cost" of those lost sales is more than offset by the time not wasted repeatedly answering the above and more.
Others will point out that with free shipping you do not get to deduct the cost of shipping from a remorse return. In my case that is irrelevant. My return rate is consistently well under 1% so for me at least that is not an issue.
Whether you pick free shipping or not you are going to lose one of the groups.
Bet red, bet black.
keziak
OP2 years agoThank you for that clarifying explanation.
I don't think I'll switch to free shipping for everything but I got in a zillion patterns and am thinking of trying free shipping with those. Just trying to figure out if free shipping would kill combined orders.
richard1rst
·2 years agoActually yours is a slightly different problem than BIN sellers. If someone wins an auction and then asks you to hold the shipment a few days until another auction ends (hoping of course they win that one too) then shipping on your first sale is delayed to the point you get a late shipment ding. I say that because I have seen posts on these boards with exactly that scenario.
If all your auctions are free shipping then you tell the buyer that shipping is free so there is nothing to be saved by delaying the first shipment on the HOPE that they win the second.
I believe it will make your life Oh So Much simpler.
In the mean time the other posters have answered your other questions and I agree with them Everything I sell is free shipping.
iwillbuyllc
·2 years agoEbay free shipping policy is said it cover up to $20, but if they buyer didn't received the item you ended paying to the buyer, eBay will not cover as it said. so is better to included shipping in your price if you put free shipping and use a tracking system that works. and you can coverage your items in case it get lost.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoI do free shipping with domestic buyers. I charge International buyers.
Most of my buyers are domestic.
And I cut International Shipping by other sellers doing $1.30 instead of $1.50.
I have a lot of International Shipping combined refunds.
It saves me time not to do combined shipping on USA orders.
golfingaddict
·2 years agoOne of the reasons that I went to free shipping was to eliminate the questions/requests/problems with combined shipping.
They buy, they pay, I ship.
The total shipping they pay is zero. There is no refund, no discussions, no combined shipping issues.
What is amazing to me is the amount of sellers that are all about being a business and professional and then do all sorts of crazy gyrations when it comes to shipping, partial refunds and overpayments etc.
On what other ecommerce site would you email the site to tell them you bought more than one item and want a discount on the free shipping? Or you want a $1.33 refund because the shipping was less than the seller paid.
Free shipping, no muss, no fuss, no refunds.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoThat's great if you can afford to eat the shipping costs, because the reality is there's no such thing as free shipping. Somebody has to pay for it.
richard1rst
·2 years agoFrankly, based on how long you have been here I am surprised at your answer. Sellers NEVER eat the shipping costs, even on free shipping. The "somebody" who has to pay for it is ALWAYS the buyer.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoI'll agree to disagree. If I sell you something with free shipping, then you are not paying for the shipping, as the shipping costs are coming out of my pocket, not yours. When you pay for a product or service, that money is no longer yours, its someone elses.
If that shipping cost is coming out of the sale price, then the seller is eating the cost of that shipping.
I eat a 50 cent loss on shipping on the sale of every DVD.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoAlthough you have some good ideas....remember you only sell in the USA or Canada. This seller sells to a lot of countries as well. I kinda think one limits themselves not selling to other countries.
And auctions and buy it now are quite different.
The "free shipping" in especially the title of the item will get a lot of lookers...and maybe more buyers.
Because of what you sell "DVD's"...I hope your goal is "repeat buyers" and not "nickel and dime" every buyer.
Just my own opinion.
I used to do auctions but it's a lot of work shipping items every day. I keep telling myself I will do auctions again someday.
keziak
OP2 years agoIt actually the opposite here. If and when I get FP sales that can be any day of the week and need to be shipped. I end auctions on Thursday and Sunday so they generate mail on only 2 days.
For me, it has to be auctions for bulky stuff and lots. I have no place in the house to store tons of bulky FP stuff and I"m not ready to use the storage unit for this purpose and have to drive there more often if anything sells (I wish).
richard1rst
·2 years agoIf you sell something for $10.00 plus $5.00 shipping it is easy to see that the buyer paid for the shipping. If you sell that same item for $15.00 with free shipping it may not be as easy to see but the buyer again paid for the shipping as part of the sales price. The shipping itself costs you nothing. It is not just as lineal.
Let’s play a little mind game.
You are on your way to the post office. Your neighbor flags you down and says, as long as you are going to the post office would you mind saving me a trip and bring this with you? He is a friend and neighbor so of course you say yes. He says, I already know it is going to cost $10.00 to mail it, so he hands you a $10.00 bill.
You get to the post office and, indeed, the cost is $10.00 So you hand the clerk $10.00.
QUESTION - who actually paid for that shipping? You or your neighbor? Now, understand I am not asking who actually gave the money to the clerk - I am asking who bore the COST of mailing the package.
Hint Hint - even though you handed the money to the post office it cost YOU nothing to mail that package because you used your neighbor’s money.
It is the same principle as the shipping cost on eBay. Whether you bill it separately or include it in the sales price your BUYER pays you in advance for those costs and you simply forward the BUYER’s money to the USPS. It costs you nothing.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoYeah right, go sell a DVD for $5 with free shipping, let me know how that works out for you. It costs $4 to ship it, not including any fees. Where's the money you claimed the buyer paid in advance for shipping now? They didnt, and you lost money as a result.
I cannot sell a $5 DVD for $10 with supposed "Free Shipping", they will not pay it.
There is no such thing as free shipping, it does NOT exist.
You cannot factor the cost of shipping into your price either without over inflating your prices and potentially angering buyers.
richard1rst
·2 years agoAnd yet you have 14 DVDs you are offering with free shipping. The cheapest is $12.95. You were saying?
And you have a ton of others at around 6.95 to 9.95 PLUS 3.50 shipping (to my ZIP at least). How is that any different from $10.00 to $14.00 with free shipping?
In any event we're done. It is clear that your mind is made up despite the contradictions in your own listings.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoNo you cannot reasonably offer free shipping and make anything as a result.
I on the other hand could offer free shipping on most items and still do just fine but I've not the volume to make worth doing and all that aside most buyers I have haggle over price which is fine. I flat rate at $6.50 as most everything is between 5 ounces to 2 Lbs packed. Many have actual shipping at $4.50 thereabouts and some go up near $10 mark but it averages out. If I put actual free shipping not perceived shipping on items make no difference, they are still gonna want to haggle.
Problem with most DVD's is the same as PC Games were. Basically same thing my friend. When home computers were the in thing we get delisted titles for dirt, like $1.00-$4.50 a unit. Depending where might able mix titles or distributor/publisher direct have to purchase by the mastercase sometimes w/ minimums spent aka $1500 or $5000 lets say.
Now we peddle that stuff back in the day for $9-$20 a pop. Average was about $12 as I recall. We worked with Onsale, iDeal's Networks, uBid on and on... So if one thinks margins, well, that looks nice, $3 title sell at $12, 300% gross profit but its still just $9 gross. But you can't think Margins in open marketplaces like eBay or Amazon or Etsy or Mercari and margins are not good statistical measure for old, delisted whatall product. They are good measure with current product when say buying the latest greatest PS/5 games from a distributor. Take Gamestop, they make beans off new releases, margins bad, but on the flip side of pre-own margins are good but more so than that, cash is good. You get $12 on a trade in and they've got it back on the shelve for $42, $30.
Now DVD's just like PC Games were cash flow deal, to make anything at it have to move volume. As consoles took the lead less and less buying PC Games just like as streaming is now putting the hurt on DVD's. There was a time of transition in PC/Console games too where the stuff still sell but it slowed and slowed then slowed some more.
Now many moons later some of the PC Stuff collectible... Go figure. Might come the day when DVD stuff become collectible as it has happened in some VHS tapes and even some Laser Disc's I guess.
Back in the day selling these PC titles $9-$20 free shipping TRULY free shipping just not an option and back then Priority Mail was $3.95. We'd offer 1-4 titles for $3.95, 5-8 for $4.95 etc and sometimes we loose little in shipping. But we'd had people buy 3, 4, 7 titles at a time... So four titles x $10, $40 + $4 Shipping. Say acquisition was $3 a unit, $28 Gross profit but had to have the volume.
With this stuff like your DVD's ya' just can't think margin, it appears nice but its a blinder, really is. a $1 acquisition selling at say $7 + Shipping is a 600% margin gross but its still only $6 and that's fine if you're moving Five of these a day, 8 of those a day, 12 of these a day, 20 of these every two days etc. Buy the time you partition the dough for more acquisition and what you are living on, well, things can be a struggle especially in the "Waning" period, like whats happening with streaming or what happened to PC Games vs console HARD Goods.
STEAM and console download we need consider separate, they were once anomalies not real mainstream but now are. Sure, PC Gaming market still exists, the sale of the "Rigs" is driven by gaming and CAD these days and STEAM does very well but the actual market of PC Games has shrunk bigtime in the face of consoles. If consoles didn't exist it'd be grandiose time for PC gaming.
Eventually consoles will fade too in the face of streamed but clearly that's a ways off but it is coming.
So you have to ask yourself my friend what I can do to increase intake (sales) of what you have or can get in DVD's and make enough to live and transition into something with better per sale profit. DVD's obviously extremely saturated zone but perhaps bundle-up's, whereby buyers can select or fixed bundles... I don't know, you do, I don't do DVD's, I dont see you're metrics etc. But you also to ask, "What can I do to transition and to what?"
You'll see HORDES of vendors on here with a total mish mosh of stuff, pickers per se and as you can see, many are having a struggle, likely heaps of just dead inventory. I said in some other threads they dont think right.
They look at their eBay total and say, "Gee... I'm worth $80,000 in inventory and I've $8,000 in the bank. Doin' good!" The "Good" is in the eye of the beholder as any biz bank say, "No, you're failing. No bank even consider giving you an SBA loan." They dont get that the inventory is worth $0 until sold, in fact, its less than $0, its liability as say $20,000 has been wrapped up in that inventory, so the real look is, $8000+, $20,000-, its $12,000 in the red. THATS REALITY. The $80,000 is a mirage... Literally a mirage as its zero based until conversion is done to asset, sold, money in the pocket.
So for you... YOU my friend you want consider FIRST CASE of what can you do towards things that may sell, have little forward investment and preferably as little cost as possible towards a price x volume that works FOR YOU. I dont suspect you're all too interested in what the SBA might say, you want to live. I've some ideas towards that end if you care private message.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoIncorrect. Again, Macy's, or Staples or Walmart free shipping IS free shipping. They do not add to cost of items nor do the distributors or manufacturers allow for that variance. They set costing of merchandise usually under NET Terms, manufacturer sets MSRP and the margin between is what is worked with often distributor laying down actual price to a point of sale. They cannot add shipping to that price. Free means free... The fact some sellers roll it into cost here doesn't mean "Free." As you pointed out, its not free and this really saying it is free is duping the consumer as its not free. Yet when Macy's says free it is free and if it were not they'd have State Attorney Generals crawling over them like ants.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoNo there is free shipping just probably not all too much of it here where folks add it into price. Macy's or Walmart or Staples free shipping IS free shipping.
hartungcards
·2 years agoIf someone buys multiple items with free shipping, the total combined shipping amount should come to $0.00.