Advice from canadian sellers about free shipping

[kittenvintage]

Hi, I was wondering how can i offer free shipping if i also offer worldwide shipping? 
For some items i can just add it on to the price. For items that are more expensive i'd like for the packages to be tracked and the prices for a tracked package to the US is much cheaper than the same package to Australia. 

What do most canadian sellers do here? Also because Canadian shipping is quite expensive.
Is better to offer free shipping on items i am only shipping to canada and the US?

Also i was wondering if offering free shipping possibly gets your listings more seen really?

Thanks for any info! 

[ricarmic]

I've been "free shipping" since it was originally available.

I am very firm in my belief that it increases visibility.

Note that I sell on .COM, I target US buyers and I use flat rate shipping for everything, right up to the size of Bankers boxes.

Because I'm selling on .COM, and I'm offering free shipping to the USA, it also means it is no problem to offer free shipping to Canada. I charge extra for everywhere else, the "international" amount covers the extra postage and allotments for the "cookie jar insurance" etc.

(Just to be clear you can separate your shipping categories 3 ways or more if you like: to "domestic" whether that be Canada or USA, then separate out Canada or USA and you can separate other countries or leave the rest as worldwide*)

*In my world:

Domestic = USA

Canada is separated out

China and Brazil are separated out (tracked shipping is forced on them)

"Worldwide" covers the rest   (you put the specialized ones before the worldwide)

[recped]

I've been "free shipping" since it was originally available.

You are selling stamps which can be sent in a standard envelope (lettermail), unless the OP is selling similar items what you are doing is not only irrelevant it's also misleading for the OP.

[kittenvintage]

Oh i see. I'm selling mostly vintage clothing. Sorry i should have specified what type or size of items.

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

Now you do understand that Free Shipping is not free, rigt?

It just means that you are including your shipping costs in the asking price for the product and not making them a separate line item on the customer's bill.

We're good with that?

Let's say you are listing here on dotCA.

You have a product that weighs 25 grams , you want to get $5 for it, and you are shipping from Canada.

If your products can ship Flat Rate, "free" shipping is pretty easy.

For your domestic customers you include the cost of domestic shipping (let's call it 85 cents - a single envelope up to 30 grams in weight) in the asking price.

To get the $5 you want, you advertise it for $5,85 with Free Shipping to Canada.

Ah but, most of your customers will be in the USA.

And shipping to the States would be $1.20.

You now have two choices.

You can put the US shipping price at $0.00 and eat the 35 cents difference, making it up on having more sales to a market 10x times that of Canada.

Or you could make the US shipping price $0.35. (Which covers your added cost, but looks mingy).

Or you could massage the cost of postage to the USA and Canada. Perhaps you get 100 US sales a month. Postage will be $120.

And you get 10 Canadian sales a month. Postage will be $8.50.

So divide 128.50 by 110 and make the price of your product $6.16CDN. With Free Shipping.

For the record, your US customers will see that in Search as ~$4.68 with Free Shipping.

Your Canadian customers (all 10 of them) will be slightly overpaying. Life is not fair.

For overseas customers, don't even try to use Free Shipping. It is much too expensive and complex.

If you are still using Flat Rate, your 25 gram product ships for $2.95.

Again you can reduce that by the included Canadian shipping cost and make your International price $$7.10 CDN.

And if someone complains, Block him. It won't get better.

If your products are over 500 grams or over 2cm thick, you are into Parcel Rates.

Don't even try to use Free Shipping with parcel rates.

US sellers can do it because USPS has free boxes that ship anywhere in the US for a Flat Rate.

Canada Post does not.

If you are able to ship Flat Rate from Canada, you can also ship Flat Rate from the USA.

With that US customers are domestic and Canadian customers are International.

But you can still do the same thing with US shipping showing as Free and Canadian shipping showing as $0.00.

After that, it gets complicated.

[femmefan1946]

OMG!

Don't ship internationally yet!

At the moment you show willing to ship for free to Brunei! By SURFACE!

It's not a good idea to ship overseas until you have at least 10 DSRs and know what DSRs are. (Just a rule of thumb, but...)

And it is NEVER NEVER NEVER a good idea to ship overseas by Surface which can take two or three months to arrive.

Take your time, grasshopper.

Best wishes. I also sent a message about sizing,btw.

[ricarmic]

Hi recp, you are correct that I sell stamps, however as I mentioned here ("right up to the size of Bankers boxes") and I've mentioned a few times before I ship lots of stuff in boxes right up to bankers (moving size) boxes.

The misconception that stamp sellers only need #8 envelopes is incorrect, at least for bulk sellers like myself.

As I said, everything including the stuff in bankers boxes is shipped flat rate.

So no, I do not think I was misleading the buyer.

(I had checked what they were selling)

[ricarmic]

Since "free shipping" is really "shipping included", one has to decide which items make sense to have free shipping. (as an example the $149 item you sold makes sense, the $30 item you sold probably doesn't)

As a working example for the $149 item you sold with $17 shipping to Canada*, I believe it would sell quicker on average with the inflated shipping included price, even if it was priced higher than the average competitive item. The $30 item inflated to $40 with free shipping probably wouldn’t?

(Femme pointed out already that you’re charging the same shipping everywhere which probably does not make sense, you should have at least 2 or 3 or more “levels” of shipping…)

So alternatively for the $149 item you sold:

If Canada is your target market, having it listed on .CA and having it priced at:

$165.99 in Canada with free shipping

$165.99 in USA with $5 shipping (meaning Americans are paying $22 shipping)

$165.99 in "Worldwide" with $53 shipping (meaning everyone other than Canada and USA is paying $70 shipping)

If USA is your target market, having it listed on .COM and having it priced at:

$170.99 in USA with free shipping

$170.99 in Canada with free shipping (it means you're getting an extra $5 off the Canadians)

$170.99 in "Worldwide" with $48 shipping (meaning everyone other than USA and Canada is paying $70 shipping)

Would probably mean that it would sell faster on average because of the higher visibility free shipping brings with it.

I agree with Femme that you need to understand the international market, I suspect you will want to better separate the worldwide (ie Asia, Latin America, etc will present much higher risks) and of course never ship surface anywhere. 

For me personally, I have 4 standard sized boxes from pizza style boxes up to bankers boxes. 95% of my boxable stuff fits in one of those standard sized boxes.

[ricarmic]

On another front, I (as a stamp guy) don't know much about your marketplace, but you will also need to know what countries you cannot ship to.

Here is a link to the special requirements by country:

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/wtz/business/displaySpecialRequirements?execution=e1s1 

Here is a link to the customs regulations by country (including prohibited items):

https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGintdest-e.asp

[maggiebvintage2010]

femmefan has given you valuable advice about starting out.  Unless you are an experienced mail order seller coming to eBay from another venue, you are seriously overstepping your bounds of a safe starting point by offering worldwide shipping. Poor countries are not likely to be a good market for nice vintage clothing sold online.  And rich people who live in not-so-rich countries tend to prefer brand new clothing.  Most of your sales will be to the USA.

There are countries that do not allow the importation (business or private) of used clothing.  ricarmic has given you 2 valuable links - use them to set up exclusions for when you have gained enough experience to consider shipping outside Canada/USA.

Learning about shipping is the most complicated aspect of selling on eBay.  Keep reading these boards and get to know the Canada Post website.

[kittenvintage]

Thank you everyone for your advice, i really appreciate your help.

[pocomocomputing]

---

@ricarmic wrote:

Hi recp, you are correct that I sell stamps, however as I mentioned here ("right up to the size of Bankers boxes") and I've mentioned a few times before I ship lots of stuff in boxes right up to bankers (moving size) boxes.

The misconception that stamp sellers only need #8 envelopes is incorrect, at least for bulk sellers like myself.

As I said, everything including the stuff in bankers boxes is shipped flat rate.

So no, I do not think I was misleading the buyer.

(I had checked what they were selling)

---

I always thought the stamp business was interesting because the product itself (well the mint stamps) could be used for shipping costs. I use "discount postage" and typically get my mint stamps at 50% to 70% off face value with no sales tax (most likely sales tax included so no extra charge). Now if I can buy at 50% to 70% of face, I have to assume that a stamp guy like yourself gets some of the mint stamps no one wants at an even lower cost.

When looking for discount postage on eBay, I was always a bit surprised at some Canadian stamp sellers charging full shipping cost on small lots of discount postage when they can ship for almost nothing. Like charging $1.80 full cost for 100 grams envelope within Canada as if that is what they are paying for the envelope. When I receive the package, it has old mint stamps on it for postage. LOL, charge me only the discount postage value of the rate or offer free shipping since your cost is probably 25% for the $1.80 postage rate.

I know that there are other shipping costs like envelopes and glassines (? I think that is what they are called) but standard envelopes are very cheap (less than 5 cents) and the glassines are free as a by product of the business from the marked up ones I get the stamps in.

Now I shop total price and decide if it is a good deal or not. But my search habits are to look at free shipping first and sales tax included (not extra) and pricing in CDN dollars. So I would think that a stamp seller would get more buyers for discount postage if these were built into the item price for discount postage lots and priced in CDN dollars. For non discount postage lots, I do not care how shipping costs and taxes are because that is not what I am looking for.

[ricarmic]

Hi Poco!

This is distracting the thread a lot but, as is always the case things are more complicated than they seem.

Generally I don't use "old" stamps on my packages because the most desirable stamps are current ones both because they are current and because it is much harder to acquire used stamps anymore. (I am sure some of my regular customers are so because they want the stamps on the packages!)

Traditionalist collectors don't like a 1972 stamp that was used and cancelled yesterday because it is used "out of period". As well it is easy to find used 1972 stamps used in or out of period, but very very hard to find 2017 stamps used. (The protection of private information has seriously reduced the supply of used stamps because companies that do get mail do not let the envelopes/stamps out the door like they did in the past).

So for the "old" stamps (with full gum, reusing stamps is illegal) that I do use, normally anymore I'm paying 40% of face, but generally I turn everyone away who approaches me because I get enough as collateral from my normal acquisitions. (At the larger auctions stuff is going in the 40-50% of face plus buyers fee).

Generally I don't sell postage because for my cost model the margins are far far too low. Any that I do sell is collateral from purchases that is a pain to use, ie a lot of 8c and 5c stamps for example. That is also likely why you see old stamps on the packages, because there is not a lot of profit room when one considers the "20% cost" of selling the item here (ebay fees, paypal fees etc) and especially the "taxes in" if it is a Canada/Canada purchase.