ebay's Shipping tips to drive more sales

[steve_stuff]

Got this message on one of our accounts. 

Dear (id)

Welcome to your second email [never got a first] of our Seller Support series! We're talking shipping best practices. Our most successful sellers employ attractive shipping incentives to attract more buyers. For example, simply adding free shipping to your listings can increase conversions by 11%*!
Is your shipping strategy set up for success? Here are 5 ways to apply a straightforward, competitive shipping approach and drive more sales.

Their 'tips'

"Free shipping is a most"  Now we all know that the only 'real' free shipping involves finding some stamps or having a third party, like ebay or the tooth fairy pay.

"Don't get toggled out"  Talking about the Guaranteed Delivery 'switch' that no one I know knows about. Or cares. We're selling old records on this ID and the people who buy them have been looking for years for said record and just want it - they can wait another week for it to arrive.

"Shop globally, and find more buyers"  We ship world wide. We just don't use your buyer pays more service.

"Be professional"   Which means buy their boxes and advertise their brand. And help 'porch picker' pick. We've been cutting off the part that says 'ebay' from our shipping label since day one.

"Save time"  Use ebay labels (we do)

So we do (or will never do) all their tips already.

Note from the ebay statement

"attractive shipping" - we do draw on the boxes sometime.

and

"For example, simply adding free shipping to your listings can increase conversions by 11%*!" - The * note states increase only if you don't 'increase price' - so basically if you eat the cost of shipping it might sell.

Now that's an incentive if I ever heard one.

[luckythewinner]

ebay's Shipping tips to drive more sales

When I see this phrase, my response is shorter than yours: "ignore"

[dhbookds]

I'm sorry..........but I have this mental image of a porch pirate seeing the box, but telling himself, NOT going to take that one, I don't who it's from.........lol

[readabouthorses]

I wonder how many boxes porch pirates get that has something totally unusable to them?

My daughter was complaining because she couldn't get a 40 pound box of cat litter out of the rocking chair the mail person has place it on. I wonder what a porch pirate would think they were getting in that big box only to discover cat litter. LOL

[gopetersen]

Welcome to your second email [never got a first] of our Seller Support series! We're talking shipping best practices. Our most successful sellers employ attractive shipping incentives to attract more buyers. For example, simply adding free shipping to your listings can increase conversions by 11%*!

This is nonsense.

I've experimented for years with "free" shipping versus shipping costs and for items that buyers purchase in multiples, many of them prefer combined shipping and it really doesn't make much difference to my other products either.

You will pick up a few more eyeballs if you offer Free Shipping because some buyers will check the "Free Shipping"" search filter on the left side, but if your listing is buried at position 2,052, this doesn't make much difference either.

[gopetersen]

By the way, I don't mean that adding "Free Shipping" is nonsense in terms of increasing sales (or whatever they mean by "conversions"). For some items it probably does, it has a psychological advantage BUT for eBay to claim it increases sales by 11% is just a fabricated number.

They cannot know how much it does or doesn't increase sales because every item is different, every category is different, and they are a software company, not a retailer, so they cannot empirically control the terms on eBay items to get a real number.

And, as I mentioned, if your items are buried on the fifth page of the searched items, it doesn't matter what your terms are. No visibility = no sales.

[div_style]

I count on multiple purchases of low cost items (w/combined shipping discount) and free shipping would absolutely kill sales of those items.

Now why would anyone imagine that a box with eBay tape would be any more or less valuable than any other?  As an eBay seller I want everyone in the world to think about eBay when they want to buy something so I plaster all my packages with eBay tape and labels, and you should too ("you" in the universal sense).

[ted_200]

---

@steve_stuff wrote:

Got this message on one of our accounts. 

Dear (id)

Welcome to your second email [never got a first] of our Seller Support series! We're talking shipping best practices. Our most successful sellers employ attractive shipping incentives to attract more buyers. For example, simply adding free shipping to your listings can increase conversions by 11%*!
Is your shipping strategy set up for success? Here are 5 ways to apply a straightforward, competitive shipping approach and drive more sales.

Their 'tips'

"Free shipping is a most"  Now we all know that the only 'real' free shipping involves finding some stamps or having a third party, like ebay or the tooth fairy pay.

"Don't get toggled out"  Talking about the Guaranteed Delivery 'switch' that no one I know knows about. Or cares. We're selling old records on this ID and the people who buy them have been looking for years for said record and just want it - they can wait another week for it to arrive.

"Shop globally, and find more buyers"  We ship world wide. We just don't use your buyer pays more service.

"Be professional"   Which means buy their boxes and advertise their brand. And help 'porch picker' pick. We've been cutting off the part that says 'ebay' from our shipping label since day one.

"Save time"  Use ebay labels (we do)

So we do (or will never do) all their tips already.

Note from the ebay statement

"attractive shipping" - we do draw on the boxes sometime.

and

"For example, simply adding free shipping to your listings can increase conversions by 11%*!" - The * note states increase only if you don't 'increase price' - so basically if you eat the cost of shipping it might sell.

Now that's an incentive if I ever heard one.

---

I generally find doing the opposite of what they say will actually be beneficial.

"Free Shipping" is a unicorn.  LOL "If you don't increase price".  Well, DUH!  That's a price reduction, and cutting prices does indeed sometimes increase sales. 

Actually, for niche sellers of collectibles, offering "Free" shipping for ADDITIONAL items will do a whole lot more to increase sales.   Free Shipping across the board discourages multiple item purchases. 

Could not agree more on the eBay "branding" and the "porch pirate" problem too.  I Sharpie out the eBay logo on any shipping labels, and my Sharpie expense has gone up ever since I got those "Free" eBay branded jiffy bags. 

I also ship globally (at least quite a bit of the globe), but eBay only wants to promote GSP listings.  I'm never going to sell any $10 items with $25 shipping charges, maybe they could promote my listings with a $2.39 shipping charge?  Nah...

[ted_200]

For some items it probably does, it has a psychological advantage BUT for eBay to claim it increases sales by 11% is just a fabricated number.

It's a mathematical impossibility.  They keep telling me this, but my STR is over 99% already, and I don't think I'll have a 111% STR if I do Free Shipping, do you? 

[coolections]

---

@steve_stuff wrote:

"Be professional"   Which means buy their boxes and advertise their brand. And help 'porch picker' pick.

The * note states increase only if you don't 'increase price' - so basically if you eat the cost of shipping it might sell.

So we do (or will never do) all their tips already.

---

It does not necessarily mean you have to use Ebay boxes. Professionals do not use pizza boxes to ship records, so Ebay must tell those that do to stay professional.

Does it actually say to offer free shipping but it is warning you to NOT raise the price or is that something you made up ?

Since you DO already follow the tips you think are important then just ignore the ones you think are not important. Many sellers do not have a clue on what to do so "some" need guidance. Remember ANYONE can sell on Ebay even with an I.Q. of 20.

[kcdcpa]

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@steve_stuff wrote:

Got this message on one of our accounts. 

Dear (id)

Welcome to your second email [never got a first] of our Seller Support series! We're talking shipping best practices. Our most successful sellers employ attractive shipping incentives to attract more buyers. For example, simply adding free shipping to your listings can increase conversions by 11%*!
Is your shipping strategy set up for success? Here are 5 ways to apply a straightforward, competitive shipping approach and drive more sales.

Their 'tips'

"Free shipping is a most"  Now we all know that the only 'real' free shipping involves finding some stamps or having a third party, like ebay or the tooth fairy pay.

"Don't get toggled out"  Talking about the Guaranteed Delivery 'switch' that no one I know knows about. Or cares. We're selling old records on this ID and the people who buy them have been looking for years for said record and just want it - they can wait another week for it to arrive.

"Shop globally, and find more buyers"  We ship world wide. We just don't use your buyer pays more service.

"Be professional"   Which means buy their boxes and advertise their brand. And help 'porch picker' pick. We've been cutting off the part that says 'ebay' from our shipping label since day one.

"Save time"  Use ebay labels (we do)

So we do (or will never do) all their tips already.

Note from the ebay statement

"attractive shipping" - we do draw on the boxes sometime.

and

"For example, simply adding free shipping to your listings can increase conversions by 11%*!" - The * note states increase only if you don't 'increase price' - so basically if you eat the cost of shipping it might sell.

Now that's an incentive if I ever heard one.

---

That was funny !

Thanks for the laugh !

[reallynicestamps]

@div_style

Now why would anyone imagine that a box with eBay tape would be any more or less valuable than any other? 

While I admit I cover most of the  eBay advertising with stamps, I agree that there would be no reason for a thief to particularly focus on that over a neat parcel from Auntie Maud in plain brown paper.

Also-- I can write NO SAFE DROP on larger parcels and the porch thief problem disappears.

The carrier will leave a note instead and the shipment can be picked up by the customer at the post office.

@coolections

Since you DO already follow the tips you think are important then just ignore the ones you think are not important.

So basically what @steve_stuff was saying was that he already used some of the tips, and I would guess agreed they were useful, and that the others didn't apply to his business plan.

Which is reasonable and nothing to pitch a fit over. I use Free Shipping for most of my listings over four IDs, and only  put Calculated Shipping listings  on eBayCanada when I have a bulky item that requires parcel rates.

[newview]

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@ted_200 wrote:

I generally find doing the opposite of what they say will actually be beneficial.

---

Yep ... that’s a tip that actually works. 

[unique-finds-for-everyone]

Or yes..., especially eBay Global shipping,  which completely drives away all international buyers...It is the bid scam of eBay and Truly Robbery for international buyers... 

[karthok.of.daolodus]

eBay ONLY recognises new with tag, NIB commodity products - like Amazon Lite. Those long-tail sellers like myself (I have two stores selling mostly used items of various kinds, clothing but also other stuff, not a few of which you can only get on eBay) are pretty much a forgotten minority. If those who sell the type of stuff I do (and we still have a little toehold at the site - what, about 18%?) need to remember that we don't really exist insofar as their plans go - they aren't tailored for us and they generally aren't appropriate, or may be applicable only in certain situations. We need to cherry pick this stuff.  The store I'm posting under is my clearance store (I haven't stocked it yet for next season so it's a bit sleepy) but I do have a much larger one, as well, and I've sold here since about 2000 so have seen these changes. 

Also, I don't envision eBay boxes being filched as fast as Amazon or priority boxes.  Porch pirates will take anything, anyway.  One thieved a friend's big box of cat kibble.