Free Shipping

[chantiquesandcollectibles]

The FREE ship is difficult for us to offer to inflate the price of the item to cover the shipping seemed dishonest its not really free.  WE  care about our customer and PAY to have our items wrapped professionally and they charge for the boxes the bubble wrap the peanuts and to wrap. Then there is a cost for the label and insurance and USPS just had a increase. So when the item is calculated it is the total sum of that and honestly the price we pay most times under what we are charged.

We tried FREE shipping on three category's and did what they said RAISE the price of the item. However   found with the BEST offer we couldn't afford to loose on every item we ship with the fees from eBay and pay pal and more.  Also

WHY are we STILL charging  a commission on SHIPPING we don't make anything on it. We were told because sellers would  try to sell the item for a dollar EXAMP:E and then charge  20 for shipping.   Everyone makes  labels on the site or PAY PAL  so they know how much we pay  for shipping and no one can do that.  SO why do they  still charge Sellers  a commission on the shipping is it FAIR?

[jeannicho22]

Define "fair".

eBay tells us they charge a FVF to keep sellers honest.  Many Some sellers were selling items for $.99 with $10.99 shipping or some such nonsense so eBay decided to charge a FVF on every single seller's shipping charge.  The fact is that it was just a money grab, a way to raise the FVF on every single seller because apparently they deem all sellers to be untrustworthy.  Once again, it goes back to building a proper algorithm that could have sorted out these sellers and made them go away.

[18704d]

"The FREE ship is difficult for us to offer to inflate the price of the item to cover the shipping seemed dishonest its not really free."

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Free shipping works best (in my opinion)

for sellers who do Not need to raise the item cost to offset shipping.

(if you have a 12.00 item with item with 5.00 shipping.. (you want to do 17.00 + FS)

..many of us can offer it for 12.00 And Free shipping.

And eBay is charging a fvf on shipping...

to reward sellers, who use free shipping.

Lynn

[extrememobility]

Here`s the thing" Buyers will always choose free shipping before paying additional charge over the price for the same item, so ask yourself if you really want to make the sale or not? if you cannot make a profit by adding it to the cost then sell it on CL or some other place where shipping is not needed.

[coolections]

I'm sorry to say but you paid too much for the item to resell. You are also paying too much to have someone else pack. This is Ebay and buyers are only willing to pay xxx amount. It doesn't matter if you ask $20 and $10 shipping or $30 free shipping. If that cost is too much buyers won't buy. You will either have to get your items at a cheaper rate for resell, or start packing yourself.

[brandoutletuk]

I would personally not go the way to analyse if it is fair or not.

I believe ebay has added the commission as most of the sellers were misusing the shipping charges (few years back we were not charged anything on shipping charges). So ebay made this change. However, we as seller must be careful on covering these costs.

To answer to you regarding increasing sale price to cover shipping, this is the best bet I have implemented so far. 

• sale price $40 + $5 and sale price $45 + free shipping would mean the same thing for a seller (ebay charges same amount on both scenario)
• However, from buyer perspective -
  • if they are smart then they can see both costs them the same so it will make no difference to such buyer.
  • For some buyers they buy only product with free shipping - this is a plus point
  • And ebay puts seller with free shipping on top of the list so this will also be a plus point.

Conclusion, try to ignore the fact of ebay charging on shipping fee and move on by adjusting your pricing and listing accordingly to compete with others selling similar products.

Happy selling 🙂

[mam98031]

One of the first things as sellers we must decide when we start selling here is are we doing this as a hobby or are we here to make money.  Either way is fine, you just need to know so you can move forward accordingly.

If it is a hobby, then breaking even is great.  If you are here to earn money, then you need the proper mindset.  These are BUSINESS transactions, NOT personal transaction.  

Lots of businesses that sell stuff of all kinds offer free shipping across the internet.  It isn't just on this site, it is all over.  There is not a single one of ANY of those businesses that actually gets their carriers to ship their stuff for free.  Each and every site rolls the cost of shipping into the price of the products they sell.  This is a normal thing to do as a business.

Because sellers on Ebay roll the cost of their shipping into their product prices does NOT mean they don't care about their customers.  One has NOTHING to do with the other.  If you are here to earn money, then you need to consider ALL your costs when formulating your pricing.  Without exception.  ALL your costs.  Materials, Ebay fees, PP fees, shipping, packaging materials, etc.  Once you have that number developed, then you add on your profit margin to come up with the price of the item you are selling.

Oh and there is no need to apologize or feel bad about covering your costs and earning some money for your time and efforts selling here.  We have every right to earn a money on this site just as anyone has the right to be paid for the work they do. 

[luckythewinner]

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We tried FREE shipping on three category's and did what they said RAISE the price of the item. However   found with the BEST offer we couldn't afford to loose on every item we ship with the fees from eBay and pay pal and more. 

Option 1: Charge $50 plus $10 shipping - collect $60 and pay the cost of shipping from that $60.  Option 2: Charge $60 plus $0 shipping - collect $60 and pay the cost of shipping from that $60. I fail to see how you would be "losing on every item" with option 2 but not with option 1.

We were told because sellers would  try to sell the item for a dollar . So why do they  still charge Sellers  a commission on the shipping is it FAIR?

A big reason for the FVF on shipping is to level the playing field so that sellers who use free shipping are not paying higher fees. If you remember eBay telling you that fee avoidance was the only reason for the FVF on shipping, you are not remembering correctly. 

[impalajohnny]

It's IMPOSSIBLE to make money on ebay if you pay someone else to pack and ship unless you have huge margins and a wholesale deal with a packer. It's also very hard to buy boxes and packing material and make money, many sellers scrounge and hoard shipping supplies.

If you get it down to just the cost the post office charges you are often still too high. Buyers are used to shipping that is free or feels cheap. You get it feeling cheap by shifting a little into your item price. Or you roll it all in.

Charging fees on shipping is like the income tax, accept it and get over it. You could fight against unfairness but that's not part of any profitable business model. No one has ever made money trying to stamp out injustice. Unless they take over and start doling it out.

[dqdnvwe0]

The true point of Free Shipping is more about offering the item for ONE PRICE so the consumer doesn't have to click on the item just to find out how much it's going to cost, and I do agree that it seems dishonest but so does the "practice" of having an item appear for $7 and clicking the link just to find out that didn't include the $5 for shipping... The real problem being there is no standard when it comes to these shipping costs, that same $7 item will ship for $5 with one seller and $20 the next...

You might be surprised to find out, as a buyer I will NOT purchase from a seller who "hides" their shipping cost behind an additional mouse click simply because it feels like clickbait (and yes ebay has made great strides in this regard but... Google has not!), FREE Shipping (while not really free) at least is upfront in terms of how much I am going to pay to have this item at my door in some kind of order.

[femmefan1946]

You do not have a personal relationship with your customers, you have a business relationship.

That relationship can be polite and respectful, but it is a relationship between consenting adults, negotiating what one will pay and the other will accept for something that one has and the other wants.

The 'have' could be a buggy whip and the 'want' money.

Or the 'have' may be money and the 'want' a buggy whip.

This doesn't mean you are cheating. It doesn't mean there is no respect.

But the customer is not a toddler and you are not the customer's favourite uncle.

Use "Free" shipping where you can. Parcel rates vary with distance so this may not be possible.

The new zoned shipping may be helpful here, allowing you to put part of the cost of shipping into the asking price and allowing the remainder to vary with distance.

The most important thing is that the domestic shipping charge should never exceed the selling price.

This is just a head game (like calling Shipping Included  Free Shipping).

But the customer's emotional reaction to a shipping price higher than the selling price is that it is a ripoff.

But lose the "professional packer" and look for a less expensive source for your packing materials. 

By now you know what level of packing is needed. If you still want the packer, ask yourself if she guarantees safe arrival of the packed purchase in the packing fails. Because the postal system and couriers are both very good at getting your shipment there and using tracking protects you against an Item Not Received dispute, but it takes a lot of effort to win a damaged in transit, arrived broken dispute.

If your packer is not willing to guarantee that, she's not as professional as she thinks.  She should have business insurance for that eventuality.

You have choices with Best Offer:

• Accept
• Refuse
• Counter Offer
• Ignore.

The last one is not a great idea, but allow the Offer to simmer for a few hours, it's not unusual for the customer to decide he'll buy at full price when he thinks some more.

If you are going to lose money on the Offer, you have every right to refuse it politely.  And you don't need to explain yourself.

BTW- in some categories the FVF is lower than the 10% fee on shipping. This is another reason to consider Free Shipping.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@dqdnvwe0 wrote:

The true point of Free Shipping is more about offering the item for ONE PRICE so the consumer doesn't have to click on the item just to find out how much it's going to cost ...  as a buyer I will NOT purchase from a seller who "hides" their shipping cost behind an additional mouse click ....

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Sellers aren't hiding their shipping cost.  You can set up the search results display to show the shipping cost for each listing.

[sapphireseal]

Yeah, I would definitely start wrapping / packing your items yourself.  Why add on an extra business expense?

If you're using "free" shipping, then raise your prices to cover the shipping.  It's not dishonest.

[fern*wood]

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@chantiquesandcollectibles wrote:

...  WE  care about our customer and PAY to have our items wrapped professionally and they charge for the boxes the bubble wrap the peanuts and to wrap. 

Be honest...you just don't want that shipping supply room from h*ll that the rest of us have.   I'd love to have someone else pack up my items and keep the boxes in every shape & size, peanuts, bubblewrap, styrofoam pieces, wrapping paper, tissue, tape at their location instead of my house, but my items won't support that cost.   I have to do it myself.

[mor_625]

WE care about our customer and PAY to have our items wrapped professionally
_

I hope you're not trying to emply that those who wrap and pack their own items dont care about their customers.
It seems to me the sellers who take the time to carefully wrap and pack their own items could be considered to be far more caring about their buyers.