Gouging, Gouging GONE!

[thebarterersdog]

It just amazes me how Canada Post is getting away with what it charges for shipping.  In this day and age, seniors and people who are struggling financially want to find a way to make extra money.  Once upon a time, they had found ways, on eBay.

Now, with the seriously insane costs of shipping, especially within Canada's own borders, how the Hell can anyone survive the rising costs?  It's no longer worth selling small items and with the economy the way it is, good luck with the larger items because there is the cost of shipping to kill the deal. So now we're left to wonder how do we make extra money to help a never-effective increasing pension?  It's impossible.  The Government, when it comes to people making money, feels they have the right to a slice of the pie, regardless of the situation. If you make money, they want some. When they can't get what they feel they're entitled to, they go to great lengths to cabosh the whole deal, making it impossible for anyone to get ahead.

We've dealt with suppression, oppression and control issues with the government since its conception, but this is getting ridiculous. So when companies like eBay respond to the growing dilemma, they become the enemy while scrambling to save their own necks.  With fees for stores, fees for sales, fees for shipping, the cost of shipping, packing, returns, losses, policies... What's the point? We've been clever over the years in how we ship, how we charge, how we present... we've "clevered" ourselves to death taking hits on profits, to accommodate the hope of getting ahead by agreeing to live with less. That in itself is ridiculous, but we persevere relentlessly with hope and determination.  

As more and more interference rears its ugly face, the reality of the situation screams loudly when we finally admit defeat and accept the suppression shoved down our throats, suppression edged sharply of complying or die...

Well, our online business is almost dead.  I absolutely know, that our products would sell, we would make money and feel the crunch of survival less if shipping and fees would also face a reality, they're burying their own success by ignoring or not caring about the failure of others.

Yet they refuse to acknowledge this truth settling with the fantasy of shifting to larger and better-known companies with hopes of enticing bigger profits. I hate to break it to them, but they're living a farce.  Reality will hit many companies large or small this year with the proposed increased fees/shipping costs.  Profit margins will drop and you'll hear them sing the blues like all the rest, only for them, because their voices seem to be louder, or is it more important, they'll get more attention drawn to their issues, with ours long dried up to dust on the ever-increasing shores of control and dictatorship.

[momcqueen]

Well. 

I like buttons and I have bookmarked your lot. 

As a fellow seller and compulsive crafter I have two disparate pieces of advice:

1. Free Shipping. Add cost of postage to your item price. Buyers hate paying for postage and see it as throwaway money whereas if you add it to the cost of your item, it feels like value.

2. Your photos could but don't pop. You're selling an unique and limited commodity. Pretend this is Instagram. Use natural light and a natural, neutral background and if you're selling red buttons then arrange them in a heart-shape or something equally cringeworthy. Shoppers will lick that up like kittens at cream. Blurr the edges of the frame or something. You've got to sell that product. Close-ups and whatever. If were selling these buttons, I'd put my pet rabbit in the middle of the pile or something to make it silly, cute and fun. But you need bright yet indirect natural light to accomplish this. Can you ask anyone in your family or circle fo friends for help with this?

My apologies for being presumptuous but we are a family of marketing types. 

No one wants to see you give up and quit.

Also, postal rates rise for the year tomorrow. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[reallynicestamps]

Could I suggest moving the items which must be shipped by Parcel rates (over 500 gr and 2cm) to dotCA rather than dotCOM?

Your US customers will still see the US dollar price in Search on dotCOM and both currencies on the actual listing.

But you may be losing money, or customers, by using Flat Rate for domestic sales.

Where you can use Flat Rate, it would be a good idea to move to Free Shipping, which as Mo says, just means putting the cost of shipping into the asking price. Many of your listings have few or no comparables , making the apparently higher price more acceptable. (Actually, I did a Search for mother of pearl buttons and your prices are quite low even with shipping.)

You can put Free Shipping in the title too.  And if you have Free Shipping to Canada, you can put $0.00 as the shipping cost to the larger US market.

I'm uncomfortable with this:

Allow us the opportunity to resolve any issues prior to leaving negative feedback.

I don't think it is ever a good idea to mention that there could ever possibly be anything but delight in the purchase. YMMV

[pjcdn2005]

I agree that postage prices are super expensive here and that makes it difficult to sell less expensive items because people often don't want to pay a high price for shipping an inexpensive item.  I'm the same way.

You might be able to get the price for shipping on your buttons lower.  Keep in mind that the cost of expedited parcel can often be based more on the dimensions than on the weight so using a small package may cut down on costs.  For example, your 3.7 lb button listing... I'm just guessing at the size but if you used a 30cm x 30cm x 25cm box and a weight of 2.5 kg, the cost from your city to mine in Alberta would be about $22. The cost to someone in Toronto would be about $15. Your shipping charge is $35 both Toronto or Alberta. If you used calculated shipping when you list on .ca you may get more sales with those lower shipping costs.  Of course they are still expensive but definitely less expensive than what your listing suggests.

Your shipping cost for that listing to anywhere in the US is $40. The small business rate for expedited to California would be $35 and about $30 to New York.  But starting tomorrow you can use tracked packet for up to a 2 kg package to the US so if you keep that in mind when you list so that your packages will be under that amount, shipping cost could be under $24 for tracked packet.