Free or calculated shipping

[bosdeals]

I wanna know your thoughts about free vs. calculated shipping? Which categories do you use for each? What profit margins do you get? really just looking to start a conversation... I do both, but I am still trying to figure it out and try new things! 

[drdealsaz]

I have noticed that buyers will pay more for something if the item is "free shipping". 

My options are list  "A" for $10 + $5 shipping OR list  "A" for $15.99 w/ free shipping..... free shipping always = more sales

I also have noticed that many buyers want to pinch every single penny; if I have an item listed for $5 shipping; I will get an email saying, " It should only cost $3.90, can you refund/discount the difference" 

The headache of dealing with multiple emails in regards to shipping costs is NOT worth it to me. 

Our business does "free shipping" on most {Buy it now} listings. 

I charge a "fixed" shipping rate on all auctions  (less emails about the shipping fees)

I charge $5.95 shipping on most clothes (Having a small shipping fee & NO free returns: helps reduce returns for "changed mind, doesn't fit, etc.)

This is what works for me ... happy selling

[drdealsaz]

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[mam98031]

I wanna know your thoughts about free vs. calculated shipping?

Depends on what you are selling and is a personal choice for the seller to make.  No right or wrong answer, just whatever works best for them.  And there are 3 options.  Free Shipping, Calculated Shipping or Stated shipping.

Which categories do you use for each?

I encourage you to do your own testing but for me in Craft books I do stated shipping, in most of by craft supplies and beads I do free shipping and all my fragrances are always free shipping with IPR.

What profit margins do you get?

Hot issue there.  IMHO that should be ZERO.  You should not be making a profit off shipping.  Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe in reasonable handling fees, which is what the "h" in S&H stands for.  But the key is reasonable.  You can cover your fees, shipping supplies, labels etc by adding a reasonable handling fee to your actual carrier cost.  Or you can roll those costs into the price of your product.  Either way is fine, but the costs do need to be paid somewhere in the product or the shipping charges.  Again, NO profit on shipping.

[lja440]

After years of having people try to dictate how I ship items I did two things.

#1 I created other ID's for different types of items. Media, clothing, household, glass and china, horse tack and farm type vintage items primarily. 

#2 With the exception of media I went to free shipping.

Media has a basic per item fee with a multi item discount on like items.

The rest I would have before people buy a piece of art glass or clothing lot then snatch up a cheep book and DEMAND  I ship Media Mail.  I had a lady buy a bone china cup and saucer and a 10# old barn pully and want them combined in shipping. Whether it was illegal or just stupid I got real tired of dealing with these types. 

Profit wasn't my first motive in going to Free Shipping it was stress relief, but in some cases it does create a profit.

[orangehound]

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@bosdeals wrote:

I wanna know your thoughts about free vs. calculated shipping?

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Here is my general approach:

• For light weight, low-cost items, I almost always do free shipping ... I think customers hate clicking on a cheap item only to see that the price is inflated by shipping.
• For heavy items, I charge actual shipping.  More typically, I use a shipping table that rounds the price to numbers like 7.95 or 9.95.
• For high return items that usually involve sizing issues, I put in a fixed shipping charge such as $4.95 (or graduated according to zones, such as 4.95/6.95/9.95).
• There are some items that may be high return, but also high shipping cost ... I don't want to eat the shipping costs for a false SNAD.  For those, I'll use a shipping table that charges free or actual shipping to zones 1-4, but charges something outrageous like $100 to zones 5-9.

[emerald_door]

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@orangehound wrote:

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• There are some items that may be high return, but also high shipping cost ... I don't want to eat the shipping costs for a false SNAD.  For those, I'll use a shipping table that charges free or actual shipping to zones 1-4, but charges something outrageous like $100 to zones 5-9.

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How do you do that?  

[mudshark61369]

@bosdeals,

I only use calculated shipping for my items. 99% of which are vintage collectibles. Under my descriptions I give the package size and weight, and have never been questioned about my shipping costs.  Doing that allows me to offer usually 2 shipping methods, and because I print labels through eBay there is an online postage discount which for the most part mitigates eBay & Paypal fees on shipping.  Doing that also makes it quite easy to combine shipping and send invoices. 

As for profit margins:

   Much of that depends on what you sell, and the format you list with.  Some of your items should be pulled since there is no profit in them.  There is a correlation between very low prices and picky buyers.     Other items you have listed might do better sold as lots, or by auctioning them. If you are unsure what format to use, do Advanced searches of completed listings, to see if auctioning an item(s) gets better prices than Buy It Now listings, and check the starting bid prices of the auctions. 

  I would also suggest that you start using the Business/Advanced listing tool, and ignore ebay's blurb about it being for high volume or business sellers.  Then you can decide whether or not to have Best Offer on your listings. If you want to add best offer do so, but use the automatic Accept/Decline feature so you don't have to waste time with lowballers.  For used items give more than one sentence descriptions, those are a magnet for disputes.

Your responses to non-positive feedback will hurt you if people look at your profile.  Never call buyers names or say they lied, even if they did.  That reflects poorly on you.  It is better to suck it up, apologize and mention refunding quickly that says you give good customer service.

 Ex: Sorry you were not pleased, Return label sent,  refund issued day of delivery. 

[yahoo57]

For small / light items in a buy it now listing with more than one item available, "free" shipping is irritating to me because there is no combined shipping if you buy more than one. The "free" shipping is included in the item price, so if I buy four, I will pay for shipping four times, though it would likely cost the same to mail four as it would for one. 

[lja440]

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@yahoo57 wrote:

For small / light items in a buy it now listing with more than one item available, "free" shipping is irritating to me because there is no combined shipping if you buy more than one. The "free" shipping is included in the item price, so if I buy four, I will pay for shipping four times, though it would likely cost the same to mail four as it would for one. 

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That is when you submit an offer.  

I do so all the time and I message how I came about my offer price.  If it is something listed with a PFRE or shipping in a FCP and the item is small or easily squished (T-shirts and the like) I will state something like. I am interested in your T-shirts and they are listed with shipping included. I think all 5 that I am considering buying would fit in a Priority Flat Rate Envelope. Taking into consideration the postage for a PFRE, would you consider a item price of $_.__ each for these if I purchase 5?