@miscoutreasures wrote:
Thank you for your reply. Makes sense. So which of those three scenarios works out to be the best way to go I wonder? I guess I have to refresh my knowledge on all the various fees to figure that out, but do you know the answer to that?
It isn't an easy answer as it depends on the nature of what you sell, how similar sellers in your niche handle shipping, and how competitive your niche is. Here are some things to consider.
Free shipping
- Pro - If you rarely sell multiple, different items to a customer this is the easiest way for a customer to gauge prices/checkout. Eliminates some of the add to cart headaches as a portion of buyers won't mind checking out individually for each item if they think they aren't paying for shipping each time (in fact they are). Free gets you extra visibility in some searches.
- Con - If a customer buys multiple items they are essentially paying for shipping multiple times. Savvy buyers know this and may consider the seller to be ripping them off if a discount isn't offered. Easiest way to make yourself uncompetitive in categories where customers are likely to buy multiple items in a single purchase from a seller.
- Con - Canadian regional shipping costs can't be accurately reflected unless you are using lettermail with small items. You'll charge not enough for distant customers, and charge too much for closer/major metro customers possibly making you uncompetitive.
Building a portion of the shipping cost into item prices:
- Pro - may make your shipping prices seem more reasonable. Somewhat easier to setup shipping rules for each additional item
- Con - raising your base item cost makes you look uncompetitive to buyers not well versed in shipping costs. Higher base costs means buying multiple items looks more expensive to buyers not well versed in shipping costs.
Calculated shipping:
- Pro - accurately reflects shipping costs so you cover costs for expensive areas to deliver to while showing the lowest cost for nearby/metro areas. Safest way to avoid losing money on shipping.
- Con - eBay's shopping carts are not compatible between .com and .ca making the add to cart process a farce for US buyers, requiring work arounds many will not have the patience for. Especially problematic for mobile buyers.
- Con - overly simplistic calculated shipping implementation for multi-item rate calculation means you'll often overcharge for shipping due to how cubing is handled. Setting up promotional rules to cap costs can help if you typically sell in a given weight range.
I stick with calculated shipping for Canada, and go with a mix of calculated or flat rate for international with rules per additional item as everything I sell goes parcel post. Doing so allows me to be competitive with, and undercut in many cases, Chinese sellers who load shipping costs into every item. They may be slightly cheaper on a single item, but with each additional item I continue to undercut them, while not sacrificing any margin. It does however mean I have to work with some buyers on the add to cart issue so there are tradeoffs as the extra time coaching a customer can lead to lost sales/cart abandonment.
Mostly I wish they would fix the kindergarden level shipping implementation. More experienced sellers need a more sophisticated shipping setup in line with what most open source ecommerce platforms offer these days. There needs to be more flexibility, ie: use a set box dimension and only add additional weight for each item, use a 3d packing algorithm that automatically determines the correct box size to use for cubing (rather than simply adding all dimensions), separate shipping rules for groups of, or individual, countries to reflect the varying international shipping costs, etc.
These sort of limitations are why many sellers go the route of offering free shipping, which raises its own issues in terms of how competitive you are. If you sell one off items where buyers rarely buy anything else you offer then free shipping can simplify things. The most sophisticated buyers will consider the total cost of the transaction, but many buyers aren't that sophisticated.
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