Buy 3 Get 1 Free Promotions - How does it work? Lowball shipping estimates?

[alexrector]

Hi eBay Sellers,

I am working on adding good promotions for my products by category and have seen other sellers using this  buy 3 get 1 free promotion. I was able to set up the same thing but stalking other sellers stores has raised some questions for me.

I thought this is great for my similarly priced items so I set it up with multiple promotions for items at different ranges. Where I am confused is that I see other sellers doing it in their stores with hundreds/thousands of items included on the promotion but with widely variable pricing....

How can they offer buy 3 get one free where there are $5-$10 priced items mixed in with $90-$100+ dollar items? Can't the buyers just take advantage of you and select 3 low cost items and then bucket the item that's 10x more expensive for free? I didn't see any settings to put controls on that kind of behavior.

What am I missing here guys?  How is this working for others? 

Another question I have is on shipping. I am getting beat on shipping estimates by like1 dollar and I don't realistically think the items can be shipped for that little money...I'm wondering if other sellers are putting weight estimates crazy low then just eating the cost when they pay shipping at fulfillment (because they know the difference will be $1 or so). Thoughts?

[gamersbaystore]

To answer your questions, the free item is the item that's the least expensive. I have ran many promotions like this, usually buy 2 get 1 free for games and movies. 

As for shipping estimates, its likely your competitors are offering shipping discounts, which you can do as well. Look at your shipping policies, notice there's a line that says each additional, you can add your shipping discount there (as long as they use add to cart it will apply).

Its also cheaper to ship more, so it would make sense to provide a discount when the buyer is purchasing multiple items, you are saving on those costs.

[postcardcountry]

I asked the same question when I considered doing a buy 2 get one free deal.

eBay uses the lowest priced item as the free item - that's why buyers have to put all three items in their cart.

I have two deals going because I have 2 major groups of items.  I wish more buyers would take advantage of it.  My goal is to move inventory.  By the way, when I add new items, they are automatically included the deals (which are based on my store categories).

Yes, your competitors may be adding some of the freight directly into the price of the item so their shipping appears lower than others.  What you need to look at is price+shipping.   When doing a search, you can do best match (default) or change it to price+shipping.   That sort of equalizes  sellers.  I ship to three other countries and my listings will show them how much shipping will be.  Since some freight is already included in the price, I do discount the foreign shipping fee by charging less.

I get people all the time suggesting I can ship my items cheaper, that my prices are too high.  Sometimes I ignore, other times, I refer them to my feedback and the multiple comments about my great packaging.    Some buyers don't care, others do.

[sellwithtrust]

may i know how to set it up? is the function under the promotion in seller hub?

[downunder-61]

January thread - above poster has posted new Q

[richard1rst]

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@alexrector wrote:

Hi eBay Sellers,

How can they offer buy 3 get one free where there are $5-$10 priced items mixed in with $90-$100+ dollar items?

 So how do you prevent a buyer from buying three $100 items and getting one of the $100 items for free? How do you force them to buy two $100 items and one $5 item?

[richard1rst]

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@alexrector wrote:

Hi eBay Sellers,

How can they offer buy 3 get one free where there are $5-$10 priced items mixed in with $90-$100+ dollar items?

 So how do you prevent a buyer from buying three $100 items and getting one of the $100 items for free? How do you force them to buy two $100 items and one $5 item?

[kh-stanley1]

Hi 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.