Price of item plus shipping

[alacar-8]

In my niche I see a lot of strange shipping costs.  If I have an item that I want $20 for, I list it for that price and add an actual price, say $5 for shipping coming to a total of $25.  My competition will sell a similar item for a crazy $1.99 but charge $32 for shipping for a total of $34.  Which way do you guys think works the best?  Are buyers fooled by the cheap price?

[toyshnip]

Option 3 - $20 for the item and separate $5 for shipping.
Charging $20 does seem less then $25. People often look at the cost and not the final price.

$32 for shipping, when it really cost $5, will annoy buyers as they know the seller is making a lot of profit on shipping. Free shipping may be an issue for people who don't know the real cost of shipping and think that the product is too expensive even with "free" shipping.

[shipscript]

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@goodluckselling wrote:

...For heavier items I sell with the shipping cost a bit higher I split the shipping cost and item price.  I use a lower shipping cost paid by the buyer than the actual cost and add extra into the item price.

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I'll do this as well. For low value items where shipping can often be more than the item, I'll display a lower shipping cost and move some of that cost into the item price.

[namele365]

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@goodluckselling wrote:

Generally when you have a big difference in item price and shipping cost, that will make the buyer think twice which is never good practice.  The idea is to continue to build interest and desire in a potential buyers decision making.  Road blocks like this stop that process.

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hmmm buyer thinking? twice?... That's bad?

The "idea" (Kool-aid) is to build "interest and desire" in a potential buyers(sic) "decision making..." "process".

George Orwell anyone???

[namele365]

(sic) = [sic]
all apologies.