How to sell two items from separate listings to one buyer with discount and combined shipping

[hiv801]

I am very confused on how to sell 2 different items to one buyer. A buyer contacted me and asked for a discount if he bought 2 different items. He also asked for combined shipping. I agreed and told him what the discount would be. He put the items in his cart and then contacted me. I don't know how to get to his cart or how to do the discount and combined shipping. Under "shipping preferences" in my account, I have selected allow combined shipping. I don't know what to put for the other rules. Really need to know how to do this. I lost the sale because of it.

[richard1rst]

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@hiv801 wrote:

I am very confused on how to sell 2 different items to one buyer. A buyer contacted me and asked for a discount if he bought 2 different items. He also asked for combined shipping. I agreed and told him what the discount would be. He put the items in his cart and then contacted me. I don't know how to get to his cart or how to do the discount and combined shipping. Under "shipping preferences" in my account, I have selected allow combined shipping. I don't know what to put for the other rules. Really need to know how to do this. I lost the sale because of it.

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Is he a U S buyer or international?

If he is a U S buyer the answer is easy. After he had put the items in his cart there is a link near the top right that say "request total from seller". AS LONG AS he is NOT using a portable device (i.e. smartphone). Really needs to be on a PC.

If he is an international buyer and you are using EIS you are out of luck. Can not be done easily. If you are using USPS then repeat the above step.

[12345jamesstamps]

Are you using your computer or a cellphone? Computer will work.

USA buyer from a USA seller with combined shipping where items are placed in a "cart".

Usually you have an email in eBay on your computer where buyer is asking for combined shipping or in eBay itself.

I see you have some different shipping options as well. That's doesn't work well. 

Shipping has to be the same for both items to be combined...I saw priority and ground and such...looked at a few. I would make sure all the shipping is the same. 

[mam98031 · Accepted solution]

As a seller, you will never be able to access any buyer's shopping cart.  When things are in the Cart they aren't purchased yet.  Just like if you were shopping at the grocery store.  You put things in your cart that you want to buy.

Let your buyer know there is an place on the upper right side that says something like Request a total or something like that.  Have them click on that and follow the instructions.  You will then get an email from Ebay that tells you the buyer has requested a total.  You can then invoice them and give them any discount you agreed to.

With that said, the Shopping Cart tends to have some issues from time to time, especially on the Mobile App and this function doesn't work.  But have them give it a try as it is the easiest way to accomplish what the two of you are trying to do.  If it doesn't work, come on back and we can guide you on a different process.

If all else fails, you can always ask your buyer to just go ahead and purchase both items on ONE payment transaction, paying the full amount and then you will issue them a refund for the agreed upon discounts.

[hiv801]

Thanks for the reply. The two items were 2 shirts, both with "buyer pays Ground Advantage". He contacted me after my post here and ultimately purchased both. Since I do have "combined shipping" and "combined weights" in shipping preferences, Ebay DID combine into one package and double the weight (both shirts the same) BUT they added the two shipping prices together. I had packaged both shirts, weighed, and checked the shipping calculator for correct price. I ended up refunding him the difference in shipping cost. I am aware of the "Request total or invoice" button? but he mentioned to me that there was nothing to do other than "contact seller". So now the question is What else should I have set in shipping preferences besides "combine weight". I have "calculated shipping" also selected. Not sure what to do with "add this or subtract that" from shipping cost because each order might be different. Any suggestions or Ebay will just keep adding all of the shipping costs together. I will tell the buyer to look for "Request total".

[mam98031]

I just refund the buyer like you did.  However don't over refund the buyer, remember you have fees on shipping too.

[hiv801]

Do you know if I changed my listings to "Do Not require immediate payment" under Ebay managed payments- would the "Request Total" button then show to the buyer? Maybe with requiring immediate payment, the buyer can't request a total.

[hiv801]

Also, should the buyer hit "Buy Now" or "Place in Cart". Does that make a difference, too?

[brightlightbookseller]

If they're on a mobile device, the "Request total" option may not appear, so keep that in mind.

[isaiah53-57]

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@hiv801 wrote:

I am very confused on how to sell 2 different items to one buyer. A buyer contacted me and asked for a discount if he bought 2 different items. He also asked for combined shipping. I agreed and told him what the discount would be. He put the items in his cart and then contacted me. I don't know how to get to his cart or how to do the discount and combined shipping. Under "shipping preferences" in my account, I have selected allow combined shipping. I don't know what to put for the other rules. Really need to know how to do this. I lost the sale because of it.

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@hiv801

You would think that sometime in the last 12 +- years that the site would have come up with a seamless, streamlined checkout - They had it in place previous to that(kind of) - I think they were more interested in the chump change they were getting in making it difficult to combine items and therefore artificially drive the cost of combined sales up for both the buyer and the seller by forcing the seller to have to refund the buyer for excess shipping costs after the fact, while they still got their fees on the entire dollar amount - All the while not even thinking about how many people it was negatively impacting. Another example of undeserved and unwarranted short term gain at the expense of long term viability - Seems its the ebay way...

[mam98031]

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@hiv801 wrote:

Also, should the buyer hit "Buy Now" or "Place in Cart". Does that make a difference, too?

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Clicking on Buy it Now commits them to the purchase.

Putting an item in their Shopping cart does not.

[mam98031]

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@hiv801 wrote:

Do you know if I changed my listings to "Do Not require immediate payment" under Ebay managed payments- would the "Request Total" button then show to the buyer? Maybe with requiring immediate payment, the buyer can't request a total.

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For a seller to consider doing this, I would think that would mean that you get far more multiple purchases than you do single purchases.  Otherwise why would you want to risk getting paid on the other sales that are single purchases.

So how often are you getting multiple purchases?

[slippinjimmy]

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@brightlightbookseller wrote:

If they're on a mobile device, the "Request total" option may not appear, so keep that in mind.

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On mobile the request total button is NOT available AT ALL.

On a desktop it is often available but NOT always (for reasons eBay will not explain).

I do lots of combined shipments, very few can use the Request Total function, I simply refund the agreed upon discount. This is an efficient way especially since Spring of 2022 when eBay started to refund fees on partial refunds.

[slippinjimmy]

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@hiv801 wrote:

Also, should the buyer hit "Buy Now" or "Place in Cart". Does that make a difference, too?

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It does make a difference, if they Buy Now on multiple items and make separate payments for each then you pay a 30 cent transaction fee on each sale. If they add to cart and make a single payment there is only one 30 cent transaction fee.

[pjcdn2005]

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@hiv801 wrote:

Do you know if I changed my listings to "Do Not require immediate payment" under Ebay managed payments- would the "Request Total" button then show to the buyer? Maybe with requiring immediate payment, the buyer can't request a total.

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@hiv801 

If you have immediate payment required, the request total button will not work.

It sounds like you have already changed your preferences to combine shipping and payment. You said that you also had set up a combined shipping rule to combine the weights, correct?  You may have missed the last step.  The combined shipping rule will only work on listings that you associate with that rule.  On the listing page under the domestic shipping section, there is a check box for 'calculated shipping rule' next to it.  If you want that listing to use your calculated shipping rule then check it off. 

If there is more than one rule you will be able to specify it on that listing. Or you may want to have some listing with no rules, it is up to you.  Keep in mind the calculator combines weights only.  It will assume that you will be using the same size of package so if those situation, you may have to do things differently.  That's when the add/subtract weight might come into play.  But I would just start by making rules for items that can be put into packages that aren't going to bring dimensional weight into play.