EIS auto-combined shippping, pretty neat (I think?)

[gurlcat]

Funny coincidence, only a couple days ago I learned from a recent thread that eBay had started allowing combined packages for eBay International Shipping, not just allowing it but pre-combining it with AI or something (apparently there are exceptions to items it will combine).  I didn't pay close attention to the info because I don't get a lot of multi-item orders, never mind EIS ones.  And then bam, just now I got a triple order to Australia, WOO WOO!!  

And it did auto-combine, but here's the part I didn't expect: it even gave the buyer a combined shipping discount.  Without combining, the shipping total would have been about $15, and yes of course I would have refunded the overage, but with this feature I don't even have to do that.  Cool, but here's what I'm a little concerned about -in this particular case they charged my buyer slightly more than enough for the actual label I'll need, but I'm not sure that would always be the case.  It looks like the software combined the weight of the 3 jewelry pieces, but it didn't increase the package dimensions at all; that's the dimensions I use for most jewelry listings (singularly).  It'll be fine, but how could it know that?  

 So just thinking about other sellers' category spectrums, like if these weren't just 3 little pieces of jewelry but more mixed item types/sizes/fragility, etc. like even if the items could still be safely packed together (maybe involving boxes-inside-boxes or whatever) but it ended up being a bigger and heavier package than the AI calculated and charged the buyer for ..... well that would suck.  

[kickin.assets]

@gurlcat 

It’s great to hear about the auto combined, but like you, I’m concerned over dimensions and maybe weight changes due to packaging. Selling jeans, there is no way I could send, let’s say 3 pairs, within the dimensions I have listed for one pair! Yikes! Lol

[gurlcat]

Oof, you're giving me flashbacks to the 'jeans' conundrum, from back in my clothing category days.  It was before Ground Advantage, and it drove me nuts how almost every pair of jeans was JUST OVER the one-pound limit for a nice cheap First Class label.  DOH!!!  

[lakefor94]

@gurlcat  what you describe is the same I see for calculated shipping on my multi-quantity orders of the same product. (Non EIS) The system adds up the weight effectively but does not increase dimensions. 

[jonathanbrightlight]

In the settings for Combined Shipping, you have options regarding how it adds up the weight for Calculated Shipping.  We have it subtract a pound from the total weight, since we of course account for the box and packaging materials originally, and that seems to work out pretty well.  You can have it just add the weights, or of course not offer a discount, and the settings are also different for Flat Rate or "Promotional Shipping" which honestly I've never learned what that means.

It does not specify there, but as @lakefor94 commented, it always just uses the entered box size for one of the items, I presume the largest item, though I'm not 100% confident on that.  We mostly use Media Mail, so it hasn't presented a problem because there are no surcharges there for larger box sizes, but of course that could be a big problem for other services.  I don't think there's any real workaround for that.

[mamacassidy]

Yes, I had this happen recently. The order was for 12 items, clothing and hats, and it had to be shipped in either one large size box or 2 regular boxes. 

I got lucky, because I'm on the east coast, so shipping to the Glendale Heights hub is in my same shipping zone, and I was able to do it without any additional cost.

If I had been on the west coast, this would have been a considerable loss in shipping charges to me.

I mentioned this on one of these boards, and someone said that I must have had "combined shipping" set up on those listings, but I went back and checked my settings, and I didn't have any set up for combined shipping.

[gurlcat]

Thank you so much, I'll take a look at that.  But like you said it doesn't sound like it would address this 'dimensions' problem (maybe at best use the largest-package item, but that wouldn't do any good if the 'smaller' items weren't MUCH smaller, like say a motorcycle helmet, a vollyball and a softball). 

And Flat Rate -oof, I didn't even think about that til you mentioned it.  Fairly often I create mixed jewelry lots of  4-5 pounds that I ship in a low-profile box that slips perfectly into the Padded Flat Rate envelope, and I tend to list at least a few of those at a time (which sell fast because I price them to; it's a great utility shutoff prevention go-to 😁).   Fairly often it's foreign buyers who purchase those, but only via freight forwarding, not EIS.  -Since USPS flat rates don't apply to service outside the U.S., I wonder what shipping price EIS buyers see (even for single packages, never mind multi-) .  

Anyway like I said I don't get a lot of  >1 item purchases anyway, but I'll be keeping an eye out here for other people's posts about it, now that I know it's a thing.   

[12345jamesstamps]

A return as only one item not as described 'in the bunch by the buyer'...I bet there might still be hiccups in that.

Personally, I would ship each item separately and take a hit on the shipping charges.

I think you had a post about that 'alarm clock...pendant' a while back...glad it got sold so quickly.

[gurlcat]

Thank you for sharing this!  But wow, with it being TWELVE items, how did it not under-charge the buyer, regardless of the shipping zone factor?  Like even if this was just a domestic buyer in the next town from you, if it based the label price on the dimensions of only one item, how did 12 of them not require a larger volume container?  -I get that clothing is conveniently 'mushable' but with a whole dozen garments I'm picturing you having to use one of those Space Bags and vacuuming out the air or something.  😆

[gurlcat]

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@lakefor94 wrote:

@gurlcat  what you describe is the same I see for calculated shipping on my multi-quantity orders of the same product. (Non EIS) The system adds up the weight effectively but does not increase dimensions. 

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So even when a domestic buyer makes a multi-item purchase (let's say just as list-price purchases with IPR, not offer/auction ones), are you saying it works like I described, where it shows the buyer their total in the shopping cart and they can just pay it, without any 'middle' step where you can assess/adjust the shipping charge? 

I hope my question is clear -I'm not even sure if there's a seller preference setting to allow that for domestic buyers, but if so, I can't imagine why a seller would want to enable it.  Even with my narrow category range, I'd rather have that particular executive authority than trust it to a bot, ha.  I use the bulk edit page for purchasing labels, and whenever I do have domestic buyers purchase 2 or more items, they've paid full-price shipping for all of them, but there is a box at the top of the page I can check-mark to combine same-buyer purchases, then even after I check it I can evaluate and adjust the weight/dimension numbers if needed, and pay for that calculation.  Then immediately refund the overage to the buyer, whether they previously asked about it or not.   

As a side note, I'm kind of surprised how often those buyers don't ask ahead.  My item descriptions do all state that I'll combine shipping but I don't go into detail about 'how', just encourage them to write me if they have any questions.  And I've also had a fair number of the non-askers write a thank you for the refund, even sounding surprised in some cases.  Just makes me wonder how many buyers have no conception of combined shipping, or maybe they're used to sellers with grossly inflate shipping costs, so they just have an unfortunate misconception about how expensive shipping "is", overall.  

[lakefor94]

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@gurlcat wrote:

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@lakefor94 wrote:

@gurlcat  what you describe is the same I see for calculated shipping on my multi-quantity orders of the same product. (Non EIS) The system adds up the weight effectively but does not increase dimensions. 

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So even when a domestic buyer makes a multi-item purchase (let's say just as list-price purchases with IPR, not offer/auction ones), are you saying it works like I described, where it shows the buyer their total in the shopping cart and they can just pay it, without any 'middle' step where you can assess/adjust the shipping charge? 

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@gurlcat 

I was talking about multi-quantity purchase off the same listing. If they buy, say, 2 or 3, it doubles or triples the weight but the dimensions stay the same.

They buy it now, I never have to adjust anything or even have that opportunity. 

[mamacassidy]

@gurlcat 

Yes, flattening the clothing into plastic bags is exactly what I did! Then I stacked the hats sideways on top of those. And I guess because the hats were originally listed as 12x12x12 dimension boxes, that's the size they charged the buyer for. (I said in my earlier post no box size was taken into consideration, but someone above pointed out that they take the largest listed package size when combining shipping)

But it did require an oversized box.

And even though the box was oversized, the 14lbs weight with the ebay discount made it come out close to what she was charged for shipping without the ebay discount.

ie: 14lb oversize box (16x14x14) from my zip code to Glendale Heights cost me $16.91   

      with discount 

     14lb regular box (12x12x12) from my zip code Glendale Heights cost the buyer $19.75  

     without discount