Free shipping

[watertowngeneralstore]

Good morning everyone,
I have seen several items whose price was from 1$ through 3$ and they offer free shipping.
How can you afford free shipping when the cheapest USPS shipping label is 3$?
Are there other cheaper options for shipping?
Because if the item price is 2$ and shipping 3$ there is no profit,if you offer free shipping...

I appreciate in advance,

[fern*wood]

Some people live in China, some use postage stamps, some hope their items will go higher (if auctions), some lose money.

[watertowngeneralstore]

Postage stamps for items such as gel and cheap sticks is mail fraud.

Or not?

[orangehound]

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@watertowngeneralstore wrote:

Good morning everyone,
I have seen several items whose price was from 1$ through 3$ and they offer free shipping.
How can you afford free shipping when the cheapest USPS shipping label is 3$?
Are there other cheaper options for shipping?
Because if the item price is 2$ and shipping 3$ there is no profit,if you offer free shipping...

I appreciate in advance,

---

Four reasons:

1. They ship from China, and enjoy heavily subsidized shipping prices through the United States ... a tracked package ships well below what a US-based seller pays.
2. They are loss-leaders, designed to build up an account's reputation.
3. They are loss-leaders, designed to harvest customer information such as address and email information for direct marketing ... well worth the dollar they are losing.
4. It is a seller that is not using tracked shipping for items that can ship in a First Class flat or envelope.

[diya_jay]

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@orangehound wrote:

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@watertowngeneralstore wrote:

Good morning everyone,
I have seen several items whose price was from 1$ through 3$ and they offer free shipping.
How can you afford free shipping when the cheapest USPS shipping label is 3$?
Are there other cheaper options for shipping?
Because if the item price is 2$ and shipping 3$ there is no profit,if you offer free shipping...

I appreciate in advance,

---

Four reasons:

1. They ship from China, and enjoy heavily subsidized shipping prices through the United States ... a tracked package ships well below what a US-based seller pays.
2. They are loss-leaders, designed to build up an account's reputation.
3. They are loss-leaders, designed to harvest customer information such as address and email information for direct marketing ... well worth the dollar they are losing.
4. It is a seller that is not using tracked shipping for items that can ship in a First Class flat or envelope.

---

Actually they may not be losing anything, given that Chinese currency - the Yuan - is far cheaper than US dollars. So when they make items on wholesale - which is their common strategy - even a single dollar actually brings them PROFIT.  Not to mention that their cost of living is far lesser than in the US, therefore the same dollar stretches so much farther there than here.  For instance, where I come from (India), we can buy at least two very good quality big scissors for less than a dollar - something which will not be cheaper than 20-25 dollars here. I still have one that I had bought 15 years ago from there and had brought here, works perfectly fine despite all the abuse I have subjected it to over the years 

So when we compare the prices and cost, it is important to keep the currency and cost of living in the respective countries into consideration, just my 2 cents.

[dtexley3 · Accepted solution]

Asian sellers get subsidised shipping in the US because of the UPU.  The last published rate that I saw was $0.87 per lb.  So a chinese seller with a 4 oz item can ship 4 of them for $0.87 total.  I would pay a minimum of $11.08 for the same 4 items shipping individually.

President Trump has ordered the US out of the UPU unless the rates are made more equitable, but under the agreement it takes a year to withdraw and the process started in Nov. 2019 so we have months to go to see if it gets renegotiated (most likely) or the US withdraws completely.

[dunamis9]

When a seller agrees to shipping for "free" the bottom line here is that that seller is in agreement with lowering his or her ability to survive on this site.  Everybody says just raise your starting price and build shipping into the price the buyer pays.  Now that is a great idea if you are selling something at the high line department store of years ago but Ebay is a bottom feeder search by lowest price venue. Shoppers here are looking to find a twenty dollar item for five dollars or less. Ebay forcing free shipping on sellers by manipulating the visibility of an item via best match search  is one of the reasons we find no bids on most items up for sale here.  You cannot start it at 99 cents because if there is not enough interest on it you may give it away for 99 cents. You cannot put it up for a high price because the bottom feeder does not want the item unless it is a steal.  Ebay search also lowers your item if there are no bids and remember the placement in search is the difference between having something go up the price ladder or remain on page 175 until just a few minutes before the ending soonest buyer places the 99 cent bid and gets the item with free shipping.  Back in the earlier days this was not so and the seller could make better money because buyers were not favored over sellers as they are today. There was no pressure to offer free shipping and or free returns plus the darling of money makers guaranteed delivery.  I used to offer one same day shipping but when that came on one of my listings I changed my handling to 4 days.  How can any seller want the extra pressure of refunding the shipping to a buyer if the item is late on arrival. Might be better to just give the item to the buyer for free.  New profit making scheme here on ebay now that is a better Ebay idea.