Calculated Shipping and Lowest Cost - First Rankings

[nanbosnan]

After looking unscientifically at a few of my listings, it seems as though ebay ranks an item with calculated shipping according to its most expensive shipping option.  Is this an accurate assessment?  And if so, is there a way to be ranked according to the lowest cost shipping option?  

[loveyourimagination49]

I just looked at your index card boxes and it’s showing me the lowest shipping price.
Do you have a specific item to look at?

[dhbookds]

Ebay uses the lst shipping option in your in your listing for what's shown in the searches.  So, if the first is priority......that one will be shown.........

[loveyourimagination49]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Showing-Buyers-the-Best-Shipping-Options/ba-p/29886668

[nanbosnan]

This is the item where it caught my attention.  163762150437  I used a California zip code (since I'm in Florida) 90001.  It ranks with the $18.08 shipping cost for FedEx Ground but if you know to look it also shows $14.36 for FedEx SmartPost and $10.56 for USPS Parcel Post.  The ranking would be much more favorable with a $10.56 shipping cost.  I do realize these numbers are variable due to locations.  

[nanbosnan]

Here's another: 163760725103.  It ranks with $19.84 shipping for FedEx Ground instead of $10.56 for Parcel Post or $10.86 for USPS Priority (from 33760 to 90001.)    Many other listings do rank with the least expensive-- and I'm greatly relieved by that.  I'm going to check with the first option listed theory.  That gives me some control but the least expensive option changes from location to location so that only let's me make my best guess-- but it's better than no control over this.  It would be nice if it were simply the least expensive option.  The article from ebay is food for thought and it seems to say they use the least expensive method in your dominant type of shipping-- but that doesn't seem to hold true for my little, unscientific sampling here.  

[loveyourimagination49]

I’m only seeing 2 options $15.93 FedexGround and $8.35 Usps Parcel select ground. The highest price shows on that one.

[nanbosnan]

The article says that it will sometimes not even show some of the options.  The article says it will always show the first option and the best option but may hide the others.  That makes this difficult since those numbers change by location.  Thank you for your help with this.  It may not make a difference on some items but the one that caught my eye it made a very big difference in the ranking for lowest cost.  

[loveyourimagination49]

$15.26 FedexGround
8.35 Parcel select
8.50 Priority
Highest shows

[nanbosnan]

Thank you for the additional data points.  I'm going to do some experimenting with what I list first and if that doesn't do it I'll delete all priority options too.  It's still a guessing game but I hope I can improve my rankings at least in some cases.  

[dhbookds]

just revise the listing to show the cheapest first...........

[loveyourimagination49]

I’m using Ohio prices. I would skip over the $15 ones if I didn’t know to check.

[nanbosnan]

I will revise the items listing my best guess at the least expensive option first.  The trouble with that is that least expensive is different for different ship-to addresses.  But in my revisions so far, yes, it is the first shipping option that is used to rank the listing and that is shown to the buyers.  I had been assuming the computer just automatically used the least expensive option.  So now, at least, I know that this is a factor, how it works and have a way to make my best guesses at improving my rankings.  Thank you, everyone!