COMBINED SHIPPING
Summary: gypseyrobert is facing difficulties applying combined shipping for 'buy it now' items on their eBay store. They mention the issue of customers being charged shipping for each item, especially since they sell lightweight stamps, and they have to refund the overcharged shipping manually. Several participants, including pjcdn2005 and msau4301, discuss strategies like setting up shipping rules, flat rate combined shipping, and turning off immediate payment to solve similar issues. intimewithmusic and others further share experiences with eBay's system, suggesting alternatives like using free shipping and creating custom listings. The discussion underscores the complexity of eBay's combined shipping setup and varying experiences among sellers.
Hello. I most recently created an eBay store. I am having great difficulty understanding how to apply combined shipping to 'buy it now' listed items. With auction items the buyer always has the option to request an updated invoice, but this does not appear to be an option for buy it now. I have had a number of customers purchase more than one item and they are charged shipping for each item which is ridiculious. In each instance I have had to issue a refund for the over charged shipping. I sell stamps for collectors, so in most instances even if they purchase 10 items there is no significant increase in shipping costs. I fell that I have missed some critical step. Any advice will be most appreciated. Thank you.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoOr--- and hear me out on this.
Since most of your items are going to go Lettermail and are both lightweight and thin (the 500g/2cm limit)
use Free Shipping.
DON'T PANIC
"Free" shipping just means your cost for shipping is part of the asking price for the item.
Which is cheaper: A $10 item with $3 shipping or a $13 item with "Free Shipping"?
And of course, as a stamp dealer, you have lots of mint postage you paid well under face for, so your costs should be lower than the Canada Post counter rate.
AND
Your customers are complaining because you are charging them $3 or so on each of a dozen items they buy.
As they should.
But if your items are Free Shipping, they don't complain.
Your cost may be $1.50 for the first item and 50c for each further item , but the customer doesn't see that and has no real basis for complaint.
Even if you were using eBay labels, those do not (usually) have the postage rate on them.
So you can fuss and fiddle with setting up rate cards.
Or you can use Free Shipping and get on with selling.
It is still possible if a customer Messages you with a want list, to set up a Private Listing for them and adjust prices and shipping after discussion. I use the customer's eBay name as the Title for such listings making them hard for other browsers to find.
rocketscollectibles
·3 years agoWith auction items the buyer always has the option to request an updated invoice, but this does not appear to be an option for buy it now
This is because you have immediate payment requiered in your settings. Buyers can request invoices if it's turned off. Tho from experience most people don't request invoice and wait, and just pay the overcharge. On the app unless it changed there's not even the option to request an invoice. Also a lot of buyers has no idea about actual shipping costs. I remember when i started selling i had a shipping cost to listings and it was awful. I remember refunding an excess of shipping and receiving a message asking why i 'cancelled the order'. Unless the buyers request it, i would not bother to refund, basically in rules by purchasing they agreed to the shipping cost.
Others probably already said it but you need to create shipping rules for discount. Most common thing is to charge an amount, then an additional amount for each additional items. To cover extra packing, handling, size and weight if it needs to be ship at higher rate too. But if you say your buyers are ready to pay the initial amount on each additional items, i would recommend that you do not offer free shipping on additional ones. You'll just throw profit.
All that being said, having a free shipping model is the way to go in my opinion. Buyers don't see shipping, less bother for them and you. And when you combine shipment you just pocket the extra that was included in pricing.
intimewithmusic
·3 years ago@gypseyrobert
It's not that hard to figure out. It's been woking for me for a decade.
The buyer DOES have an option after adding items to cart & before checkout called "Request Invoice From Seller". (Maybe not on some cell phones apps. It doesn't matter.) They can also send you helpful msgs using the option as this one did.
This is the msg eBay will send you. (See photo). On your invoice you will have the option to discount the buyer for up to/and not exceeding/ the value of the shipping.
I do lots of C Shipments. Recently sold 18 items in one CS sale. No refunding. Works fine. Worth figuring it out. May take a bit of effort to get the back in sync.
msau4301
·3 years agoYes, I have all those steps in place, I did it years ago when the big change came and suddenly everyone was asking me about "don't I combine shipping" when I had done so hundreds of times before.
I don't have immediate payment set, I use calculated shipping and do it all through my business policies as you mention. Way back I spoke to customer service about it (several times, back when they had their 1-800 number that I had taped to my wall) and they confirmed I had everything set up correctly so it "should be working", problem is it worked for maybe 30% of the people, not all. I don't think it ever worked from the app.
The fact that some people could request total and others couldn't told me I had to have it set up correctly or no one would be able to do it. It always worked for my international sales (outside of Canada and US) but again sometimes there seemed to be no consistancy so I decided to to mostly auctions (which still work well for me) and sometimes getting creative with BIN's when need be.
intimewithmusic
·3 years agoHi. We are on the same page except for one important part. CS will not work effectively unless you...
Step 1. TURN OFF IMMEDIATE PAYMENT.
I sell a large variety of shapes & sizes. Shipping can get pricey. My buyers need time to shop. Sometimes they need days. "Immediate Payment" is contradictory to the entire concept of "Shopping". How would you feel if you went into Best Buy, picked up a phone charger and the cashier said "You need to pay immediatley (even before you got past the first display)? What if you went in to buy a cell phone? Are you going to stick around after paying for the charger?
Combined shipping will never work well if you engage "Immediate Payment". On the other hand....
If you sell exclusively stamps, "reallynicestamps" knows she's not going to rack up a big shipping bill & Free Shipping works for her. Or, if you sell items readily available from many many sellers and you don't combine shipping often Immediate Payment might close faster, stop them from migrating and reduce their Unpaid Item count. So it depends.
If you sell items that draw specific types of buyers into your store you want & need to hold them as long as you can. Let them look around. Browse... The best part... after the 1st item goes in their cart, eBay tells you they are in your store! eBay literally phones you via a notification that you have a buying customer still inside of your store. You can engage with them. You may have a bunch of things they might like yet unlisted. You can list them before they walk out your "door". Hey you, How about this? or that? It's a whole lot easier to ship a bunch of things to the same address in the same box.
The biggest problem with Immediate Payment is more an more buyers don't know about it. They are forgetting some of us offer the option of shopping for awhile. That's why I have a msg in my listing.
One of my favorite movies is "Roxanne" featuring Steve Martin whose character is the Nelson fire chief. At one point in the movie, when a barrel inside sthe fire hall catchs fire he says to his crew, "Clean this up! The last thing I want the people of Nelson to say when they have a fire is "Whatever you do don't call the fire department!
So in my listings I say "Whatever you do while shopping "Don't Pay!". (until I send your invoice.)
To each his/her own!
IT
msau4301
·3 years agomsau4301
·3 years agoJust to add, I noticed intime you mention you get a notification from eBay that someone is "in your store". I don't have a store, not sure if that would make any difference.
intimewithmusic
·3 years agoDuring the last few years eBay features have been made available to sellers without stores. Terapeak and business policies are examples. The notification I'm talking about is also available to those without stores. Most don't interpret it as a "doorbell" unless you once owned a brick & mortar store.
Sellers who have Immediate Payment turned off (like yourself) get a nice loud "KaChing" if a buyer puts an item into their cart BEFORE paying. That is the doorbell ringing. It let's you know someone is currently "in there". Most ignore it and just wait for the 2nd KaChing saying they paid.
The first KaChing notifies you have a fish on. Suppose they bought a Major Matt Mason. Now you know what the fish likes to eat. Suppose you have a NIB Rockem Sockem Robots unlisted on your death pile. If you act quick they are still in your store or no store & you can shoot them a brief msg before they pay. Something like "Thank you for purchasing the MMM. Just to let you know I'm about to list a 1964 NIB RS Robots. Would you be interested in a combined shipment on both items?" (The 1st KaChing was the eBay notific ation and also the opportunity for you to upsell..
Your message opens up the door to bond with your customer even if they aren't interested in the RSR. Sometimes it can backfire and cost you wasted time. I don't recommend over communicating or sending a photo. If they come back with "Yes I'm interested", list it right away. Send them the eBay link. That's it.
By the way, how is it you have thousands of feedbacks and sales and only 6 items currently listed? What am I missing?
Thanks
IT
msau4301
·3 years agoLol, depends on the time of year you look! I don't have a store anymore (but used to) and usually only run about 30 - 35 items at a time (mainly as auction), but every so often I let them all end and take a bit of time off, when my kids are around I take more time off. With my youngest now a teen I cherish time more, they may not always want to hang out with mom like they do now! I'm semi-retired so do this part time for fun (and to help clear out my own obsessive collecting). I've been here since 2011 so we're talking about years of both buying and selling.
I do know and love that ka-ching sound! Before it would only go off when something sold, now it goes off when something is sold AND when something is paid for. Sometimes I think I should amp things up, other times I think what's the hurry!
intimewithmusic
·3 years agoHi.
I'm sorry. My misunderstanding. When you said "I don't have immediate payment set,"
I thought you meant you don't have it turned off yet. I looked at your items and another "Check Box" for whether or not to use IP opens up. Having a store, number of skus, diversity of skus, target market location etc. With a low number of skus you may be making more work than it's worth.
I talk about keeping potential buyers in my store. If I had a small number of skus I wouldn't worry about combined shipping rules, info in eBay listing templates, settings and business policies etc. I would build my skus in a specific niche high enough to reach a level when buyers may want to hang out. Then set it up as best you can. In the meantime it's easier to offer refunds for any shipping overpayment.
That said on your flagship items over your unique threshold, say $50? I recommend using Immediate Payment. Those are the items that attract new buyers. You don't want them off the shelf for 4 days waiting for someone to pay. Delayed Payment is for the collectible multiples and not the flagship items. The choice between Immediate or Delayed Payment is where multiple Business Policies come into use.
flipistics
·3 years agoAs PJCDN said, for small light items like stamps or cards, set up a flat rate shipping rule and it makes it dead simple for both you and the buyer.
For larger items it's ... annoying. If you're only shipping the item domestically, you can set up a combined shipping rule based on weight (when you list the item, put the weight as the greater of the volumetric and the actual weight). This does quite a good job assuming one item isn't cubic and another thin and long, in which case you'll eat some money. It also can't account for the potential ability to use flat rate boxes. If you're shipping internationally, that might be problematic as it can't really account for small parcel rates.
Your other option is just to do as you say. Let the people know you'll refund the difference, or offer to make them a custom listing with the bundle they want.
ypdc_dennis
·3 years agoYour shipping settings are here: https://www.ebay.ca/ship/prf
Help file:
https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/shipping-items/shipping-rates/shipping-discounts?id=4168
It works best for similar things using the same shipping method.
-;-
pjcdn2005
·3 years agoYou would set it up on your shipping preferences page. https://www.ebay.ca/ship/prf
First make sure that you use the edit button to the right of 'allow combined payments and shipping' and make sure that you are allowing them. If that is set up, buyers on a computer (but not the app) can request an invoice for 2or more items that they have put onto their cart. But this only works in some cases.
But if you get a lot of multiple sales you can set up flat rate combined shipping rules. That is also done on the shipping preferences page. For example you can set it up so that shipping is free for each additional item or set up a price that you want to charge for additional items. Once you've done that you need to associate the listings that you want to use that rule. You can do that on each listing just below the domestic shipping area. If you want you can set up a different rule for international.
You can also set up promotional shipping rules on the preferences page.
If you use business policies you probably have to set up combined shipping rules with the policies but I don't know exactly how that works.
mrdutch1001
·3 years agoCombining shipping for fixed price items on.CA hasn't worked in years....
and no, you are not alone in the frustration over this...
rarely does anything get fixed on the eBay Canada site...and eBay DOES NOT care!
pjcdn2005
·3 years ago??
I use flat rate calculated shipping rules on FP listings so I'm not sure what you mean.
If you are referring to the cart, the cart here works the same way as it does on .com so it is not a .ca 'thing'. eBay doesn't think it needs to be fixed, they set it up to work a certain way but they didn't seem to take into account that it doesn't work in all situations. eBay wants sellers to set up combined shipping rules and don't recognize that is very difficult to do if you sell various sized items.
mrdutch1001
·3 years agothe method of which you are referencing is fine for those sellers who are listing/selling multiples of same item and/or items of same/similar weights and size but is totally useless for all else....and IF ebay had left things alone many years ago there would not be these still existing problems. For myself, I resolved the problem by using auction format 99.9% of the time.
msau4301
·3 years agoThat is exactly the same as me and why I continue with the auction format as well since I can always easily combine that way, and auctions still work well for me in my vintage Barbie category anyways.
I do remember years back combined shipping was super easy no matter how you were listed but when like you say your items are different sizes and weights it's not so easy any more.
pjcdn2005
·3 years agoI realize that but the op said that they sold stamps and your reply suggested that flat rate combined shipping didn't work at all on .ca.
royfan33
·2 years agoI think the issue is, for those who HAVE created proper shipping policies AND rules. When creating a listing on the computer and adding in the Rule, look where the box to add it would be on the American site. For this look at how YouTube videos explained it for American ebay users. There is no add Rule box for the .CA users. There is a box yes, but it is for something redundant for the .ca users. It is international shipping or something we don't need to use. So the box is there but someone has it coded and described as something else. If this box is used for something else fine, but the box for adding your shipping Rule is missing.
Hope someone who can fix this reads this...