Selling a $5 Neck Tie with Free Shipping Profitable?
I see sellers selling neck ties for $5 or less and offering free shipping. How can the seller be making a profit with shipping alone being $4+?
12 comments
I see sellers selling neck ties for $5 or less and offering free shipping. How can the seller be making a profit with shipping alone being $4+?
christworks
·1 year agoThere are many ways to make a profit by selling items next to nothing. A lot of things are possible when you operate by volume.
tools*
·1 year agoThe phrase "We lose money on every sale, but we make it up in volume" originated as a sardonic business joke to mock absurd or fundamentally flawed business models.
soh.maryl
·1 year agoHave no idea, unless it's a new seller trying to build up his FB and is willing to lose money to do it.
I try not to be concerned about the pricing structures of other sellers. Of course, I no longer sell on eBay either.
fm2000
·1 year agoIf they are making money, they would have to be shipping them in a large envelope/flat. This can work for some small, flat lightweight clothing items like silk scarves, neckties might work but might be a but too lumpy in an envelope if it shifts around as it moves through the system.
Some "charities" are paid by the government to employ people in the guise of "job training", so they can lose money on every sale and still make money. Many charity media sellers have this model, possible some have this model for clothing.
And some people list things on eBay with free shipping, forget about it, and then the item sells years later, which completely ignores all of the inflation and skyrocketing cost of shipping since it was listed, and it goes out at a significant loss. (One of the liabilities with involved with "free shipping".)
onefootflipper
·1 year agoThere are millions of listings on ebay at any given time where the seller will end up at a dead loss.
Most of the ties sold at a dead loss are the result of "accidental free shipping". I clicked throught to a bunch of the normal American sellers with ties for under $5 shipped and every single one of them seemed to be an accident because they all had more ties that they did charge shipping on.
Accidental free shipping is one of the many reasons why I stress that you should never, ever use free shipping as an everything seller. If you don't have a free shipping policy then you can't accidentally attach it to something.
The few that were not accidental free shipping were a different free shipping blunder, which was "sale too big" which causes the sale to bring in less than the shipping prrice of the item. Not being able to safely run sales is another reason to not use free shipping.
There were a few charging like $3 shipping, however they belonged to a seller who also sold 99 cent free ship trading cards at a 30 cent loss per order, so you can't expect anything out of people like that.
tools*
·1 year agoAssuming you acquired the tie for free and use untracked shipping, you might be able to make a dollar or two from the transaction.
bdmh-enterprises
·1 year agoSmall clothing items, if properly packaged, can be sent as a 1st Class Flat for $1-2.
meme6253
·1 year agoIf there is any profit, It would be next to nothing, It is most likely to draw you into looking at more of their merchandise.
eburtonlab
·1 year agoHow can the seller be making a profit with shipping alone being $4+?
Not all sellers make a profit on each sale.
Not all sellers pay retail shipping prices.
Some sellers may get high-volume shipping discounts by presorting.
Some sellers may be violating policy by using retail drop-shipping and using a personal Prime account for commercial purposes.
Some may actually be triangulation scammers paying for actual items to be drop-shipped using stolen credit cards.
Some may just be scammers delivering nothing but false tracking numbers.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoThe concept of a loss leader surfaces again.
It might just be like spotting a unicorn.
Often what appears to be a loss leader is a profitable sale for the retailer.
When I ran my computer company, we gave away some products with the sale of some featured products.
The manufacturer of the featured product has provided us with "market development funds" aka "soft money" which was deducted from our invoices. We chose to apply the MDF to the inclusion of dead products to our promotion. We gave away unsaleable product to collect their cost from another of our suppliers.
Most of the specials in today's supermarket flyers are manufacturer paid price reductions. The supermarket may have chosen the same items as their competition or may have chosen other items in the manufacturer's product line to apply an incentive from the manufacturer to.
I haven't spotted an actual loss leader in decades.
monroe67
·1 year ago"I see sellers selling neck ties for $5 or less and offering free shipping. How can the seller be making a profit with shipping alone being $4+?"
Those sellers are not making much of a profit IF all they are selling are neckties for $5.00 with shipping of $4.00.
Listing plural neckties for $5.00 could be a loss leader for some sellers. A seller might lure customers/buyers into his/her store, an eBay virtual store or a brick-and-mortar physical store, to purchase a tie for $5.00.
While the customer/buyer is in the store, he/she may also jump at the chance to buy a shirt or sweater or shoes at a normal retail price. "After all", the buyer thinks, "I saved a lot of money on this tie!"
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoMany businesses have to pay to dispose of their trash, have excess labor available collecting a paycheck, and the devil makes work for idle hands. That figures into the decision to offer the item. Many have income in need of a tax loss, as well.
Many Ebay sellers are arithmetically challenged, as well.
Some of those sellers might be very bright, others extremely stupid.