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Free Shipping. . . yeah or nay & why
I know it's been discussed and can be discussed forever, but let's do a current one. Do you think it works to increase sales? Give my your opinions please. TIA.
42 comments
kh-stanley1
·11 months agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year agoNot sure that the same dollar figure would apply here---certainly, a different product mix---but etsy recently changed its search parameters to reward sellers whose flat rate shipping is $6.00 or less (there are numerous exceptions). But according to their data, they see buyer resistance when the shipping cost exceeds $6.00. etsy is actually recommending that, if your shipping costs is actually, say, $9.00, you should add $3 to your item price and drop your stated shipping cost to $6.00.
As I said, there are many exceptions, etsy does realize this isn't practical for everything.
But this probably helps explain why ebay has been pushing sellers to pass the ebay label savings on to buyers....I'm guessing ebay is seeing buyer resistance at certain price points.
baantiques
·1 year agoNo. Not one bit.
The only thing it ever increased for me was the overall percentage of my costs. They say "increase your prices to compensate" but then no one buys because the price is too high.
People only look at the price of the item.
ulfesharpe
·1 year agoIDK if it increases sales or not — I think it's a matter of simplicity. Buyer sees the whole amount right away? That's good. Maybe it pushes sales up a bit.
But that was before Ebay started collecting taxes and extra amounts that the buyer only realises at Checkout — at which point probably many of them give up and do not complete the purchase. (I've done it many times: i put something in the basket with the value I see in my mind, then I'm surprised by final amounts I did not expect and I end up not buying anything here).
I don't think Free Shipping matters any more, since buyers will always be surprised/ambushed/disappointed at checkout.
I use it on my listings for the sake of simplicity
joweym-0
·1 year agoThis account is free shipping, usually under 16 ounces. Second account, items that weigh 16 ounces or more have a shipping charge. We are part time eBayer's.
femmefan1946
·1 year ago@fern*wood
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques
I'm an outlier because when I a looking for something very common, I use Highest Price plus Shipping.
Because that knocks all the imported trash to the bottom of the list, and it takes less time to scroll down to my acceptable price point without all the dropshipped, poorly described listings.
fbusoni
·1 year agoSame!! So glad to know that I am not nuts! 😂
fern*wood
·1 year agoDon't most people search lowest first regardless of whether shipping is charged or included in the price?
bennotbill
·1 year agoThere's the third option. I've seen this several times on the UK ebay and it was talked about on the forum.
Deliberately moving part of the shipping charge to the item so it looks like your shipping charges are a bargain.
There were many pages on the forum where buyers were complaining about shipping/postal charges, so the general thought was that this sort of thing would appeal to the postage moaners.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@bennotbill I've mentioned this tactic a number of times. Studies of "buyer psychology" show there is often resistance when the shipping cost is near or even more than the item price. This is true even when the shipping cost is exact postage. Buyers rarely know much about postage costs, so they are looking at the 2 prices and saying "It's ten dollars! I'm not going to pay $15 shipping for a ten dollar item."
But if the seller changes the item price to $20 with $5 shipping, all is right with the world.
Of course, this might make the item price less competitive, but the same is true of folding the shipping into the item price and calling it free shipping. It's definitely worth testing for anyone so inclined.
@fern*wood I'm going back a few years, but I remember ebay saying that most buyers---an overwhelming majority, I think it was 90+%---use the default Best Match search. Which is consistent with findings from other sites as well. The default option is always the path of least resistance so to speak, and that's the path most people take most of the time. I'm a reseller, which means I'm used to looking for the best price for stuff for resale, and that becomes habit for other things as well. I think it is why many of us resellers here assume most people search low to high, because it is our own default setting LOL But ebay stats say otherwise: most people don't do that. (I suspect if ebay broke it down by category, some categories might reveal somewhat higher levels of comparison shopping, but I think it would not be hugely different.
mam98031
·1 year agoThat is really a good idea if the market for that item will bear the additional price to the item. A very interesting idea to be sure.
chapeau-noir
·11 months ago* Dang it - hit the wrong thread!
dnasilver
·1 year agoYears ago we said "Shipping Included" prior to ecommerce, but for some reason a sales or marketing person came up with "Free Shipping"
There is no such thing as "free" shipping.
mam98031
·1 year agoIt was the Marketing team for Target that came up with the campaign originally I believe and others really liked it and it just took off.
liawri-75
·1 year agoAs a Consumer I'm looking at free shipping first. Then I compare it with those selling the same items with shipping costs. Normally they both equal the same total.
For ex. I buy ink cartridges and do a comparison of both ways looking for the one that totals the less. Many times it makes no difference because the "free shipping" is embedded in the total cost.
rugerskick
·1 year agoNo such thing. Free shipping means shipping is built into the item cost..
sakic92710
·1 year agoShhhhh! Some don't know it's all an illusion. lol
mam98031
·1 year agoThe vast majority of sellers know that as do the buyers.
Ebay didn't name the program. Ebay didn't adopt it until well after other sites were using it like Amazon. Sellers squawked for a very long time that they wanted the ability to do this.
sakic92710
·1 year agoI'm going to work with the circumstances that, if it fits in a bubble mailer, I will apply free shipping. Anything in a box will be + shipping.
yuzuha
·1 year agoNope, I think it does the exact opposite. It makes your listings non-competitive for a huge swath of buyers.
mam98031
·1 year ago@zztop11
This subject simply does NOT have a yes or no answer. Depending on the categories the seller sells in, Free shipping can be a great policy to have, in other categories not so much. You need to know in which [the categories you are selling in] is important to YOU. Only YOU can answer that question, not other sellers.
An important thing to answer is, in the stuff you sell, do you get buyers regularly that purchase multiple items / listings or are most of them one offs.
Buyers that purchase multiple items, like Combined shipping so they can save money. That is usually with sellers that offer stated listings.
Buyers that purchase from GTC listing and only pick an item, often prefer free shipping.
So take a look at what you sell. Which is most important to your buyers?
For myself, I sell with stated shipping on the vast majority of my items. That seems to make my buyers the happiest. I tested this for several months, free and stated shipping, before I settled on stated shipping.
timzbiz
·1 year agoIt does not increase sales.
a_c_green
·1 year agoSure, but I only offer Free Shipping on items that weigh less than a pound. Granted, I am eating the postage on those, but they're priced to accommodate that, and when it comes to small, lightweight items, I think buyers know that someone charging a high-ish Shipping cost (I've seen some in double digits) is looking to boost profits, and doesn't really need that much to stick a label on a padded envelope.
For items over a pound, I do Calculated Shipping, buyer pays. I think buyers are used to seeing a Shipping charge on items of obvious size or weight. I charge the Retail price; the difference between that and the on-line price I pay for the label goes towards the cost of packaging materials.
bashort
·1 year agoCalculated shipping all the way.
Benefits:
1, encourages multiple purchases, many times more than 1 widget will ship for almost the same price s 1
2. Makes you items attractive to buyers in nearby zones.
3. No constant repricing everything every time there is shipping cost increase.
4. as far as combined shipping my standard answer is buy what you want and then I will ship it to you for the actual combined shipping cost and refund any excess. I do not send invoices, give shipping quotes or any of that, if a buyer does not trust me to treat them right on shipping they should buy some where else
jg.mason
·1 year agoThat's the first time I've read that on here, but I haven't been reading the forums that long. That's how I do combined shipping, I was beginning to wonder if anybody else did it that way.
mam98031
·1 year agoI do it all the time. I even explain it in all my listings.
PLEASE READ
COMBINED SHIPPING DISCOUNTS
For those of you interested in multiple listings, I do combine shipping charges.
· PLEASE Check with me or request an invoice BEFORE you pay and I will give you the combined rate / discount on the shipping.
· If you want combined shipping discount you should allow me to invoice you for all your purchases in one invoice.
· Please do not pay each item individually. The fees are just too high. If you pay individually I may not be able to extend you a combine shipping discount.
femmefan1946
·1 year agoShipping from Canada I use Free Shipping to both Canada and the USA, and build the price into the asking price.
International shipping is always charged.
But- if the package will be over 2cm thick and 500 grams, I use Calculated Shipping which means I have to list on dotCA in loonies, which also means a drop in Visibility.
In addition, I use Cookie Jar Insurance, which is a cutesy way of describing putting a small amount (pennies or dimes) from the selling price of every item into a virtual Cookie Jar as a sort of self-insurance premium against problems.
This means I don't have to worry about refunding or return shipping, because there is money in the Cookie Jar.
fbusoni
·1 year agoA simple, common-sense, yet highly effective approach to mitigating the impact of potential losses -- and one that allows the seller great flexibility to offer excellent customer service and in turn reap enhanced visibility for their listings at no charge -- yet which for all the world seems to be either anathema to, or outside the imagination of, many sellers who post here.
atlasesattic
·1 year agoI have tried both and have noticed my free shipping items sell a lot more then my items I don't have free shipping on, I sell items that are pretty much all under 8 oz...and knowing that buyers can filter only free shipping when they do searches, is another reason why I do free shipping, anything I do charge for shipping is because I have a really low price on it and just wanting to get rid of it.
onlinecentral
·1 year agoSince converting to Free Shipping, it is nice not to have to deal with:
a) Messages to Seller asking if I combine shipping.
b) Sending invoices to reflect combined shipping.
c) Filing and closing Non Paying Bidder cases.
I have the Instant Payment Required setting enabled.
Follow the advice in message 4 about what your competition is doing.
chevymontecarlo88
·1 year agoThose are great reasons to offer it. Great points.
fbusoni
·1 year agoTerrific advice and something I'd love to offer.
May I please ask how you factor in widely disparate zip codes into your calculations?
Or do you figure that everything will average out in the end? thanks and regards
fbusoni
·1 year agoFree shipping works to entice buyers for some items, some of the time.
I sell a lot of media. Free shipping is a draw for books and CDs, but less so for LPs. Not sure why, but the difference in shipping cost for widely disparate zip codes is usually only a dollar or two.
For larger items that are shipped in large cardboard boxes, the difference in shipping cost for widely disparate zip codes is significantly greater. And that causes me to have to undertake all sorts of mental gymnastics, to find the "right price" for the item in question, that I personally find taxing.
Perhaps there is a formula of some sort that I am unaware of.
dolcetreasures
·1 year agoIt’s a very slippery slope, there isn’t a single definitive answer. I think it’s something that can remain in flux.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoIn reality there is no such thing as "free shipping" in most cases it is simply built into the price of the item. It does seem to carry some appeal to buyers thinking it's free. I seldom use it for a couple of reason's. First about 1/2 of the states do no apply sales tax to shipping costs if they can be separately identified, which with free shipping they cannot. So the buyer may be paying sales tax on the shipping costs when it is built into the price of the item.
Second eBay charges FVF's on the entire purchase including the sales tax so if your buyer is overpaying for the sales tax because it is built into the free shipping you as the seller are overpaying for FVF's on that additional sales tax.
While the amounts are rater small for lighter weight items it can quickly add up for heavier items with significant shipping costs.
susanb1872
·1 year agoI agree with @stainlessenginecovers about looking at your competitor's listings but I think it is a little more complicated than that. If you live on the east coast or west coast, it is more costly to ship across the country so I use calculated most of the time (I live on the east coast). If I sell media materials, I might use free shipping since Media Mail is the same price for any location. If you sell heavy items, calculated might work better in case the buyer has to return it.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoThere is ONE THING and ONE THING only to decide if you should offer Free Shipping.
1.) What does your competition, that sells the same thing as you- do?
At a quick glance, the 'dishes' looks like the 4 competitors charge shipping- so should you.
4 Competitors shown on one of your 'used piece of clothing'- all 4 have FREE shipping.
There's your answer.
chevymontecarlo88
·1 year agoThat works great if the products are widgets, but there are many other reasons one may not want to price there items to compete (be the lowest price) with other current listings.
It does not have to a race to the bottom (price) and can be used (Free Shipping) psychologically to make the buyer feel like they are getting something even if they are not.
The only time i do use it (Free Shipping) is for the reason of being the lowest price searchable (as you suggested) and if i just want to move the item. (small accessories or items that condition/size does not matter)
kickin.assets
·1 year agoNay on free shipping unless it’s a very low weight, multi item product.
Yes, you may have a sale or two more with free shipping, but what has been your return rate on those items? I’ve personally found free shipping brings out some of the worst buyers with the highest expectations.
If your bottom line works with free shipping, then by all means, do what’s working for you, but don’t do it out of desperation for sales!
Happy Selling!
Kiks
chevymontecarlo88
·1 year agoYes to this. â˜ï¸
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoI've done free shipping for years and my returns were 1 or 2 a year, if that.
I have found good descriptions cut down on returns.
chevymontecarlo88
·1 year agoYou offer Free Shipping on some of your items and charge shipping for others. Based on your previous sales, it does show that most if not all have sold with Free Shipping.
What are your thoughts on Free Shipping since you have used that?
Have you noticed that your margins have suffered with items you sold by offering FREE SHIPPING?