eBay indicates that free shipping leads to more conversions, and I will certainly look at the numbers on my account to reflect this, but it doesn't seem like that's true at all. It seems like it's eating into my profits.
ebay indicates a lot of things. Some might work for you and some might be a disaster. You said yourself that it seems like it's eating into your profits, so I think you answered your question for yourself.
I also offered Fast 'N Free but of course that became impossible to ship within the required time frame, as it's only me here and I don't have a car. So I stopped that because I was causing too many defects with late shipment.
Well, even though Fast n Free might work for you sometime in the future, it's obvious that it doesn't work for you under the present circumstances.
What has been your experience?
Free shipping is alright for me but only in certain circumstances. If I'm selling something that can ship first class like a piece of jewelry, I might consider it if it's an item with a low return probability and with the notion that the buyer will pay more for it due to the fact that they don't have to pay for shipping. For any package that has to go priority I would only do free shipping if I was doing a fixed price listing where I could build my shipping cost into the total cost of the item. However, I mostly do auctions, and many of my items are heavier, so for those I definitely do not do free shipping, and it has had no negative effect on the outcome of the price.
Bottom line, it all depends on various factors that aren't the same for everyone such as what type of item you sell, if it's a high risk item for returns or not, how much it weighs, etc etc. Best of luck to you in the future in finding your niche!
