Ebay Pricing Include Shipping Or Not?

[teabird2055]

Hi everyone 🙂 I am a fairly new seller and when I first started, I just built the shipping rates into the price for my listings and offered free shipping. However, i ran a test to see if buyers would be more open to discounted pricing with shipping charges added…And wow! i’ve sold more items with charging a shipping fee and less for the items! It’s really crazy to me, but I guess because a lot of buyers are not aware of what shipping fees actually cost us as sellers (even with Ebay’s Discounted Rates) they seem to be ok with a shipping fee? This is just my experience, but I’d love to hear some other sellers’ thoughts and experiences with this. Or is it just me? Thanks!

[movieman630]

Why doesn't it work for you?  It's 10.99 either way?  You think your customers can't add?

[luckythewinner]

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@teabird2055 wrote:

This is just my experience, but I’d love to hear some other sellers’ thoughts and experiences with this. Or is it just me?

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My thoughts are that what other sellers have experienced with other items is far less relevant than your first-hand experience with your items. 

[geowlo-0]

Hi , I am a new seller and I would like to know if you can answer a question for me. My item is listed  for      $1000 +            The seller or buyer pay for shipping?

[turtles-trading-post]

Your $1500 item shows $108.83 shipping charge to the buyer. A good exercise for you would be to box it up, and check the varying costs for shipping via different methods. Also look at other listings like yours and see what other sellers are charging for shipping. Your charge may have been arbitrarily assigned by eBay if you don’t remember doing it. It appears excessive and may be keeping you from selling. 

And to answer the original question.. I charge for shipping. A low cost and encourage buying multiple items by only charging shipping once domestically. It works well.

[susanb1872]

This reply is for @geowlo-0 : Some friendly advice-as a new seller I would not recommend jumping in with an expensive (and heavy) item. You should "practice" your selling technique with small, less expensive items. Many things can go wrong with an expensive item. And if it sells, you will probably not receive your money for at least 30 days.

[dbfolks166mt]

Hi , I am a new seller and I would like to know if you can answer a question for me. My item is listed  for      $1000 +            The seller or buyer pay for shipping?

     If you are asking should you offer free shipping or use calculated shipping it would be helpful if you could provide the dimensions and weight of the Amplifier once packaged. You are shipping from the east coast so it would make a difference in your asking price if you are going to offer free shipping and bake the shipping cost into the price. 

[mam98031]

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@teabird2055 wrote:

Hi everyone 🙂 I am a fairly new seller and when I first started, I just built the shipping rates into the price for my listings and offered free shipping. However, i ran a test to see if buyers would be more open to discounted pricing with shipping charges added…And wow! i’ve sold more items with charging a shipping fee and less for the items! It’s really crazy to me, but I guess because a lot of buyers are not aware of what shipping fees actually cost us as sellers (even with Ebay’s Discounted Rates) they seem to be ok with a shipping fee? This is just my experience, but I’d love to hear some other sellers’ thoughts and experiences with this. Or is it just me? Thanks!

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Actually for some things separate shipping is much better than offering Free Shipping.  I sell craft books and supplies and separate shipping does much better for me.  I too tested free shipping and it was a disaster for me.

My take away from my testing is that buyers that buy multiple items are typically smart enough to realize when it is free shipping, they aren't going to get a shipping discount.  So they are going to be paying full shipping for all, lets say, 5 items.  

But if the seller has stated shipping, the seller also likely offers combined shipping savings.

So these buyers know that Free shipping costs them more money.

[tamralynn]

I charge calculated shipping.  I have two stores and both do calculated.  During Q4 of last year I did an experiement in my other store and bulk edited my listings and upped the price by the average shipping cost and marked the items as free shipping.  My sales actually went down.  In my market category, most sellers charge shipping so after a few weeks I changed it back to calculated shipping.

You may need to try things out and see what works best for you.  If you have a high return rate (like in clothing), then you might want to charge shipping so you can retain that expense when you send a refund.  If you offer free shipping you need to return that shipping back to the buyer.  I'd rather break even on a return than lose money (minus the cost of shipping supplies).

Also just remember if you offer free shipping and accept an offer, send offers, or run a sale, it's also discounting your shipping.

An example, You list an item for $25 free shipping and you run a 15% off sale.  The buyer will pay you $21.25.

If you sold an item for $18 with $7 in shipping, and you ran a 15% off sale, the buyer would pay you $22.30

[kh-laura]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.