Regards,
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@lostfairysales wrote:Wow some great things coming from Ebay. My biggest concern though is shipping costs. Being on the east coast (Pa) when I shop to the west coast it is insane! I mean some items 50-70 dollars and they are not huge items. Just pictures or figurines that are bigger. Yet I get things from China for a few dollars! I don't get it. I lose so many sales due to high shipping costs. I offer fair prices on items usually 40 dollars or less and can't give free shipping next day because it costs me more then the item and bumping up the cost of the item well hardly seem most customers don't see through that when searching prices. Maybe Ebay should by a shipping company or set up state offices and do it themselves for less and most everyone would sign on to that or lobby the USPS for a deal like they gave China!
Very good point on high shipping costs levied against US Sellers. I too am east coast and the cost to ship things to the west coast is horrendous. Recently, a Buyer purchased a light but bulky item for less than 20 bucks ... they paid for USPS at OVER $ 39.00! I also offer FedEx Ground and apparently the Buyer missed that Additional Service offered, so when the order came in and I saw the shipping I switched to FedEx Ground, advised the customer and Refunded over $ 15.00!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I REFUNDED over 15 bucks because of the difference between USPS & FedEx Ground. Buyer really appreciated that when they got the message AND the Refund.
It would ne nice to see eBay make a concerted effort to negotiate with ALL carriers for lower and preferred shipping rates for Sellers on eBay.
Unless you are using some of the other benefits of Amazon prime on a regular basis, the shipping benefit isn't something that is going to save you money on the most part. If you look a littler closer at many of the items that qualify for the Free Shipping portion of Amazon Prime members, the items price is higher than the other items charging separate shipping. Therefore they are just rolling the price of shipping into the product price.
Ebay can't compete with this program on Amazon. Ebay doesn't have product they sell themselves. There is no way for Ebay to do this unless you are suggesting they should start competing with their sellers and start selling products as well so they can offer a similar shipping program which in reality doesn't save your much if anything. So that may be why Ebay doesn't adopt a similar program!?!?
The second was from a top eBay marketing executive after I compalined that absorbing free shipping was a business killer for many of us. She flipped it off by saying: "Oh, just raise your prices to cover the cost."
She is right. Offering Free Shipping is simply rolling your costs into the price of the product. That is exactly how you are suppose to do it. That is why so many have argued over the years it should be called Shipping Included. Free Shipping should not be killing any business unless the seller misunderstands what Free Shipping is or don't now apply it correctly. Not everything should have free shipping. There are things that do well with it and some that don't. You need to know your marketplace for the items you sell to determine this.
There's still a 14% incentive (rather than 20%) because if you fall below standard you incur a 4% penalty as well as losing the 10% bonus.
Boy you'd have to be having a really bad month to drop from TRS to Below Standard. If this were to happen, you'd really want to take a close look at what caused the sudden fall and get it fixed before the grace period was over.
Believe me, I'm not happy about it either. But it is still worth it to try and remain TRS.
You can remain TRS without having your listings qualify for TRS+. I agree with you that it is very important to remain TRS for the benefits, especially the shipping discounts. But I'm not at all worried about remaining TRS+. It is a lot of work and maybe not so worth it anymore. The smaller the seller the easier it is to give up.
What bothers me more is that maintaining that standard loses me business by forcing shipping practices on me AND the customer. I sell a lot of postcards which I could ship 1st class for about 70 cents total. Shipping with tracking requires package rate so it is $3.04 total cost. I get people complaining all the time (or begging for $1 shipping) but I can't give THEM what they WANT because eBay's policies force me to ship things package rate with tracking EVEN IF THE CUSTOMER DOESN'T WANT IT.
I understand that sellers of really lightweight items that would normally just ship FC, this has been a real delema. But Ebay is NOT forcing you to do anything. IF you want certain benefits, then you need to ship with tracking. You have made a choice to comply others made the opposite decision. I understand why you want to adhere, but that doen't mean anyone "forced" you.
Interestingly, that also risks my ratings when customers complain about MY excessive shipping costs when it is really eBay that is doing it.
The cost is only "excessive" if you are pricing it that way. It is either a proper price for FCP or it isn't. You are the only one that can make it "excessive". Just because shipping costs more than the price of the product does not make it excessive. Shipping costs have NEVER been driven by the price of the product for any carrier, it has always been by weight.
@plastic-princess wrote:What ARE the minimum requirements needed to avoid the additional 4%?
You could just look that up in the help section on Ebay, but for your ease:
