low shipping dsr

[qqdamnit]

I know this is probably wishful thinking..  But really, haven't you come across an item that you've purchased that doesn't allow you to leave rating for communication saying there was none?  The  same should be for the shipping calculator!  I use it, NO HANDLING FEE whatsoever, I suck up the cost of the packing materials, my time, AND the ebay percentage and yet buyers are perfectly capable of leaving less than 5 stars for shipping costs.  HOW IS THAT FAIR?  Canada Post is not cheap, we as sellers know this, but it appears no one but sellers know this.  It's a kick in the pants to those of us sellers who try really hard to please our buyers!  If I went free shipping and included in cost of my items, I would never sell anything as they would be really overpriced at first glance to a buyer.

Anyone else have this problem?

[pierrelebel]

"HOW IS THAT FAIR?"

It has nothing to do with you not making any money on the shipping charge.  It has to do with what buyers have to  pay for shipping.

Take a look at your competitors on eBay.  Many other Canadian sellers manage to ship the same Nintendo 64 games for much less - most likely using Canada Post first class mail (lettermail). In fact, your shipping charge (Cdn$ 13.36) appears to be the highest for these items by Canadian sellers.

It is your choice to use a more expensive Canada Post service offering you protection (there is no seller protection using lettermail).  As such, yes it is "fair" for buyers to express how they feel with them having to pay more for your protection.

[pierrelebel]

Your listings state:

"CANADA POST HAS CHANGED THEIR SIZING YET AGAIN"

That is incorrect.  The 20mm thickness limitation for lettermail has been around for many many years

[qqdamnit]

Bad timing on my part that my normal items are not listed at this moment.  It has nothing to do with Nintendo games.  The low dsr's came from Skylanders which I ship in boxes.  They are too big to ship lettermail, even without their package.  As for sellers shipping games for less, they do not even use bubble envelope which is what causes it to be too think for lettermail.

[tobyshitzu]

The choice is send as a parcel, or self stamp to cheat the slot.  Cheating will usually works.  Op just using. Calculated from NS.  The low price ones just aren't worth mailing.  Op nowhere near the highest among Canadian sellers

[pierrelebel]

"Op nowhere near the highest among Canadian sellers"

When I search Nintendo 64 games with Canada location I get

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=nintendo+64+games&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15

Hundreds and hundreds of listings by other Canadian sellers offering either free shipping (for items selling under $10) or low shipping $$3 to $6).

[qqdamnit]

So I should ship with no wrapping at all for the games just because others do? And again it has nothing to do with the games.

[rose-dee]

The only automatic 5-star DSR rating you'll get (as you already know) is for free shipping, but I do sympathize.

Ever since the DSR system was introduced, I've provided subsidized shipping to all my buyers (by "subsidized" I mean that they always pay less, sometimes significantly less, than the actual shipping that I pay).  I also provide big shipping discounts on combined orders.  I never, ever, charge handling fees, nor do I bump up the cost of shipping to cover packing materials, some of which can cost $5.00 to $7.00 on a larger order. 

Nonetheless, it boggles my mind that I have never been able to maintain a 5-star rating under the "Shipping Cost" DSR.  I've even had the occasional "3" rating -- I know this because every once in a while my fairly steady 4.8 or 4.9 rating suddenly drops.  Not that this rating is at all bad, relatively speaking.  But buyers do see these DSR ratings, and I expect they make judgments based on them -- such as, why is this seller able to get 5 stars for all the other DSRs but not this one?  

The trouble is that eBay has pushed and promoted free shipping in order to compete with other online marketplaces, so that now, really, for a buyer, anything less than free is not worth being "very satisfied".  

The only good thing is that the "shipping cost" DSR at least isn't factored into seller evaluation (for defect purposes), so you can charge whatever you want as long as you can stomach the low DSRs.  

Forget about whether it's fair or not -- in practical terms, you have to weigh the value of that DSR in terms of its potential effect on buyers against the likelihood you'd attract more buyers (and get 5-star DSRs) by offering free shipping -- and "free" shipping doesn't have to mean rolling the entire shipping cost into the item price, but can mean partial subsidizing.  How many extra sales in a month would cover those "subsidies"?  One, two, several?  If your items are of higher value, it might only take one or two extra sales.  You could try experimenting for a month to see if free shipping, of whatever type, boosts sales enough to balance your extra costs. 

I think any seller nowadays who still charges for shipping and manage to maintain a "4" or better DSR rating for shipping costs is doing well.  I've personally decided I can live without the 5 stars, because I can't quite justify providing free shipping on every one of my items.   

[qqdamnit]

Thanks for the ideas and sharing how you ship!!   I am still a very new seller, I don't make much off of what I sell and I fully clean and test every game which is time consuming and a lot of work, only to end up making nothing and sometimes paying a couple bucks of their shipping!  I think I might just try the free shipping idea you have just to see if my items will still attract interest.

I probably will decide to stomach the dsr's as it is not worth it for me to have to chip in on  their shipping costs.

[rose-dee]

Another thing you can try, depending on what your U.S./Canadian buyer split is, would be to run a free shipping experiment on just one group or the other at a time.  

For example, if 60% of your buyers are usually Canadian, try offering free shipping for a month domestically.  This may not only attract more buyers (there's no guarantee of course), but it will save you FVFs on every U.S. and international order you sell during that period (on which you can charge the usual full shipping).  These strategies in themselves may help to offset some of the cost of the experiment. 

By the way, I see you have a store.  You can run "free shipping" markdowns fairly easily, without having to revise each and every item.  Go to "Seller, Manage Store" and look for "Markdown Manager".  Once you are in the markdown screen, there is an option near the bottom for "free shipping".  You don't need to combine it with a price discount if you don't want to.  And you can specify that it run for a month, a week, or any length of time up to the allowable maximum (which if I recall correctly is around 45 days). 

Shipping is the biggest challenge on eBay, in my opinion, and it really does require some testing and experimenting with options to get the best possible mix for your type of items and your market. 

Best of luck! 

[tobyshitzu]

what the ones with low priced ones & lettermail shipping are doing is putting stamps on them and dropping them in a mail box knowing 99.99% of the time items that are too thick for lettermail get delivered fine anway.

[tobyshitzu]

op would be killed doing that with his high shipping cost to item price ratio.

[rose-dee]

---

@toby**bleep**zu wrote:
op would be killed doing that with his high shipping cost to item price ratio.

---

Then do the free shipping experiment only on those items that don't have that high ratio.  I see many of the OP's items that could be suitable.  An extra 2 or 3 sales of those could pay for the whole experiment.  

BTW, I'm not suggesting the OP make a permanent change, but run a time-limited test and evaluate the results.

To the OP:  There is a recognized problem point in shipping certain items.  If you are selling relatively low-priced items to Canada that are somewhat thicker than 2.0cm (or could be easily damaged if sent letter mail), you'll have trouble making a profit because of Canada Post parcel rates.  However, those items can often be sold to the U.S. profitably, using Light or Small Packet USA, which are still well-priced, relatively speaking.  That is, as long as the items you're shipping aren't too heavy. 

So there is also the option of targeting your market to suit your margins, i.e. sell the items 'toby' is referring to only to the United States, and others (on which you have a better margin) to Canada and the U.S./international. 

Others may disagree, but personally I would not risk sending by letter mail anything that won't easily go through the 2.0cm slot -- that is, without pushing and shoving it through.  Sure, it may get delivered, but in what condition?  If it's not something soft and pliable (such as sewing patterns), it could well get cracked or damaged by processing machinery or handling en route.  As a new seller, I wouldn't take that chance, at least not yet.  The defect system isn't very forgiving if your transaction volume is fairly low.