discount on multiple items with combined shipping

[byut7391]

I have a potential buyer who is interested in purchasing 5 different items with combined international shipping.  We have come to an agreement via messages but the buyer has now requested I send a "best offer"  on the item connected to the messages for him to select "purchase".    How do I do this?  None of the items have been placed in his cart for purchase.  I am unsure how to combine the 5 items into one invoice without them first being in the cart.  

Any suggestions or instructions on how to accomplish this would be welcome.  

Thanks 

[lamber9347]

@byut7391 There are different ways to do this. You can ask buyer to place them all in their cart, then you can send an invoice. 

What I usually do is end my listings and create one new listing for all of the items together. This way I can manipulate the pricing the way I prefer. Then add the make an offer button. Buyer then submits the agreed upon price, you accept and voila you have your sale all together for shipping. No need to combine or send invoices. Seems to work best for my buyers and is less confusing to them. Best of luck to you....

[slippinjimmy]

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@byut7391 wrote:

I have a potential buyer who is interested in purchasing 5 different items with combined international shipping.  We have come to an agreement via messages but the buyer has now requested I send a "best offer"  on the item connected to the messages for him to select "purchase".    How do I do this?  None of the items have been placed in his cart for purchase.  I am unsure how to combine the 5 items into one invoice without them first being in the cart.  

Any suggestions or instructions on how to accomplish this would be welcome.  

Thanks 

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IF (a biggie these days) the buyer is using the desktop version of eBay (not available in the App) they can add the items to the cart and look for the "request total" button.

You can then send a revised invoice. Note that the maximum discount you can apply in that situation is the total amount of shipping which works fiune if you just want to offer a combined shipping rate (or even free).

If all the listings involved offer free shipping already then you can't discount it any further using that method.

The other alternative is to create a custom listing that includes all the items the buyer wants at the agreed upon price.

Post it a "custom order xxxx" (I use the date), send the buyer a link and let them purchase. You could even make it Immediate Payment required if you think the buyer might not follow through with payment.

Some sellers have worried that other buyers might see it and purchase but that must be incredibly rare given it takes time to even be searchable and the other buyer would have to have an interest in exactly the same combination of items.

[popblox]

Hi, unfortunately, there isn't really an easy way to do this for international orders. Once you and the buyer have agreed on the pricing and when they intend to purchase, you can:  

1. Change the prices manually on the listing(s), then tell the buyer to add the items to their cart and click 'Request Total'. This will allow you send them an invoice, with necessary adjustments to the shipping costs. Note that immediate payment isn't required, and there are some known technical issues with this process and sometimes it just doesn't work. 

2. Add best offer to all the items and set them up with auto accept/decline based on the prices you agreed to. After all the offers are made, you can send them an invoice, with necessary adjustments to the shipping costs. Note that immediate payment isn't required.

3. Personally, I've found many buyers tend to get distracted and/or overwhelmed when I try to explain the previous 2 options. I also don't like wondering if they're ever going to actually pay, so I always just make a new listing for all the items with combined shipping (and immediate payment required).

[ogaugeminiaturefigures]

I do what Lambe9347 does.

[mod-designs4u]

I went through a similar situation with an international buyer about 6 months ago. He wanted to purchase multiple art prints and receive a volume discount and a combined shipping discount. AFTER we negotiated a lesser price for each print (the buyer only had to pay shipping for one print since paper is light weight) via email I edited each eBay listing to accept a Best Offer "without" a dollar amount (none of these listings were set up to accept an offer). I emailed the customer and told him I edited each listing to allow a Best Offer and to enter the negotiated price for each print and I would accept each offer.

The reason why I didn't include an automatic Best Offer accepted price in each listing was to insure the buyer would pay the negotiated price for each print. If an eBay seller negotiates a discounted price for a buyer on multiple items and includes the discounted price as being "automatically accepted" there's a risk that the buyer won't purchase everything that was negotiated. If the seller has to "accept" each individual offer he has more control over the entire deal; you simply wait to receive all the email offers and accept each one based on the volume sales discount.

A Caveat: the eBay listing the buyer emailed you on may not accept a Best Offer edit. If this happens just simply cancel, relist the item and notify your buyer that you had to cancel and relist this one item with the Best Offer option (I had notified the eBay programming department of this glitch and perhaps it has been fixed). After all the eBay items have been sold (negotiated prices for all items have been accepted by the buyer and seller) you can send the buyer an invoice including a shipping discount. Hope my comments help and good luck with your deal!