A Tip of the Hat
Summary: aspme shares their realization that using calculated shipping is a better approach than offering free shipping due to the complexities and fluctuations in shipping costs. They note that calculating shipping into prices was reducing their profits on small items and have decided to switch to calculated shipping for their listings. kibble-net supports this decision, sharing their own positive experience with calculated shipping and applauding the proactive change.
To those of you who have been Advocating for using "Calculated Shipping" over offering "Free Shipping" ! You were Right!
I've been doing this for a long time, and calculating free shipping into my prices. And I thought I had it pretty well figured out, knowing that i would see a smaller profit if someone in a higher Zone purchased an item etc. BUT Man, it's a crazy shipping world out there right now, Too many moving parts! I have a lot of items under $19 that ship at 4,8,12 oz. the few bucks profit I was making on small items has pretty much vaporized ! now I have to make some decisions on my 750 +/- listings. and going forward, it looks like Calculated shipping is the only way to go! Old Dog, Learning new tricks!
tsme35
·3 weeks agoI'm trying to figure that out, but seems like it shows USPS non ounce for retail shipping rate. I charge $6.50 flat rate for items under 4oz, retail shows it would cost my buyer $8-$8.60 if I use calculated shipping. I'm going to look into my business policies and see if I can do a shipping discount of $2 and would put my shipping back to about $6.50(give or take) then it would cover rural Zips and I can include HI and AK.
kibble-net
·3 weeks agoI've been selling on here since 1999, but only started using calculated shipping 2 years ago. It's been one of the best choices I've made on this platform.
Good on you for making your business more profitable with this simple change, rather than doing what most people do - changing nothing, and complaining about ebay & USPS till the cows come home.