Combined Shipping Question

[nanniestreasurechest]

Even though I've been a long time buyer on Ebay, I'm new to selling.  When I set up my listings, I had not offered combined shipping.  I had a potential customer to contact me and ask if I would do combined shipping on 3 items.  I set it up that I would combine shipping and did it with the flat rate method.  Will this apply to all my listings automatically or do I need to do something with each listing? 

[rfmtm]

You have to apply the rule to the appropriate listings.  Note that you can have more than one rule and apply each to different listings.

You can select the rule to use under shipping in each individual listing, or you can use the bulk editor, if you have lots of listings to change.

[nanniestreasurechest]

Thank you!  I ended up just adjusting what I have listed to free shipping until I'm more familiar with how this all works.  I'll check out what you are telling me and see if I understand it.   I really appreciate your help!

[sassykzt · Accepted solution]

Whenever you create a listing, you need to choose a set of business policies.   These policies are important because they let buyers know how they can pay you, how long it will take you to ship an item, the delivery services you offer (including shipping and packaging costs), and whether you accept returns.

Rather than setting your preferences in these areas on a listing-by-listing basis, you can streamline the process by creating templates. These templates can then be applied when creating new listings or even used to update multiple existing listings.

If your business policy preferences vary depending on what you're selling, you can create a range of different templates with a different title. This gives you the flexibility to apply different payment, postage, or return details depending on what you're listing. To start using business policies, you  might need to op in.

You can create and manage policies from the business policies tab in the Account section of My eBay.
To create different policy templates by following these steps:

• From the Create policy dropdown menu , select a policy type.
  Give the policy a descriptive name / title.
  Add your policy details and select "save".   

In each policy you will have the option to also select  various shipping discounts ( such as base price for first item and then a price for each additional item).  If you use shipping discounts it helpful to remind buyers who are purchasing multiple items  to add all items to the cart before payment ( do not use but it now).  The total for shipping is calculated based on your choices. 

It is also helpful to use shipping rate tables since domestic shipping is divided into zones ( distance from you to your buyer).

[nanniestreasurechest]

Thank you!  That's a lot of helpful information!  I seem to have all of that set up except for the shipping discount policies.  I appreciate your help!