shipping

[shirleyannmc]

i ship from S.C. ---which is better for me, free shipping or calculated shipping ????

[candd205]

If you offer free shipping, you pay for it yourself.

If you offer calculated shipping, your buyer pays for it.

You can decide which is better for you.

[rosszonebricks]

As a seller based in North Carolina, I use calculated shipping. 

1) If I sell to a buyer in California, for example, it's $1-1.50 minimum more for the label on the same item purchased by someone on the East Coast.

2) If you sell items that a buyer might regularly buy multiples from you, 'free shipping' ends up massively overcharging them for shipping, since you have to bake in the shipping cost to each item separately.  For example, $5 1 oz item with $5 shipping.   "Free shipping" I would charge $10.   Calculated shipping, and they only buy 1 item, it would be $10.  However, they buy 4 various 5$ 1 oz items of mine:  "Free shipping" it would be $50.   Calculated, auto-combining shipping, would cost the buyer $25.

However, it's worth noting that I sell small-dollar-value items, so it would be harder for me to bake 'free shipping' into the price without overcharging some buyers and undercharging others.  So if you sell higher value items, or higher weight items, you may be able to post a set price and you just make slightly less profit if selling to a buyer on the West Coast.

No one perfect answer for every seller.

[richard1rst · Accepted solution]

Yes.

The tee shirts especially would benefit from free shipping. Other heavier items MIGHT be better as calculated shipping.

And despite the previous answer your BUYER always pays for the shipping - never you.

[rosszonebricks]

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@richard1rst wrote:

And despite the previous answer your BUYER always pays for the shipping - never you.

---

I get what you are trying to say, but phrasing it this way is why we get posts "I choose FREE SHIPPING.  Why am I having to pay for the label!?" from sellers.

Perhaps better? "The seller *always* has to pay for the shipping label, no matter if your buyer paid for it via calculated shipping or the buyer paid for it from you adding the cost into the item for 'free shipping'."

[shirleyannmc]

ok---THANKS -------i will switch to free shipping------is it worth it to promote items ????

[shirleyannmc]

ok----THANKS 4 your input----it was helpful

[worldcoinauctions]

I use flat rate shipping, I calculate the shipping cost to the furthest point from me in the US to get the rate. I only use 3 sizes of shipping package so it's pretty easy. If you have a lot of variation it may be better to use calculated. Sometimes I offer free shipping but you know that just means I raise the price of the item by the shipping cost!