Should I offer free shipping or have price + shipping?

[nma3304-efe8hd7]

I sell clothing and I know its a very saturated niche. Do you think offering free shipping or having the price and shipping cost would be better in terms of sales? I live in the Midwest so my shipping cost is about the same.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

BTW, I really like Calculated Shipping b/c no need to do anything to your listings the twice a year that rates increase.  Also, I looked at OP's offerings & I don't think you can support including shipping in your prices.  JMO, but you are selling lesser priced/fast fashion Jrs brands as it is that are ubiquitous on Ebay & in thrift stores.  People expect to get them cheap.  The good news is that they tend to be very lightweight so you can probably get away with a flat rate, esp since you're in the middle of the country.   I'm not clear on what the other person doesn't like about flat rate, I know a lot of sellers do it & from a buying standpoint, I actually like it.   

[reallynicestamps]

@natoman777 

people try to get me to go way too low because they don't understand that "free shipping" still needs to be paid

FWIW - No offer ever includes shipping costs. When I use Calculated Shipping, I respond to offers by repeating that the shipping is not included.

"I accept your Offer of  $25 plus $5.44 shipping.  Invoice follows. Thank you. " 

Of course, since I set parameters for accepting and refusing Offers, the question rarely comes up.

Being able to set the lowest acceptable price with Best Offer and automatically but politely  decline lowball offers is a great help for my mental health.

[dbfolks166mt]

Zoombie thread. OP is almost a year old. 

[laststopgeneralstore]

I sell in the clothing sector as well & I charge shipping on everything. Main reason being is that 90% of my returns are "doesn't fit" & I am able to keep the original shipping cost. When you have free shipping you can't do that so that's why the main reason I choose to charge for shipping. Another reason is that I believe customers like to see the actual price of the item aside from the shipping itself. That's my 2 cents on the subject but with that being said I am going to mess around with free shipping this summer & see how it goes but I won't be able to take offers as much that's for sure as it will eat into your profits extremely quickly.

[natoman777]

I see what you are saying, but when you have your listing set for "free shipping" you get some who will message you for low offers.  If you set the auto-decline that helps, but I still have received messages asking to sell for low price.  That is why I personally prefer to NOT offer free shipping

[inhawaii]

I charge shipping separately.

I think customers can figure out that...

$20 + $5 shipping

is the same as 

$25 with free shipping

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.