Discounts and fvf

[around_again_records]

Spoiler

Hi everyone: I would like to offer a significant discount to anyone who purchases 3 or more items.  The only way I see to do this is to put the discount on the invoice after the purchases, minus $xx.xx in the discounts box.

My question is will final value fees be calculated based on the listed price or on the discounted price shown on the invoice. Seeing as the discount will be spread over multiple items, I'm not sure how this would work, and could end up shooting myself in the foot as the fvf on the original price will put me in a loss situation.

What is the best way to set this up? I would like to post a group of listings with a 3 for offer. i.e. Any 3 of my current listings for $xx.xx. For instance single price $5.50 or 3 for 9.00. and then do minus $7.50 on the invoice.

Any help is appreciated.

[rose-dee]

Have you considered offering a significant discount on the shipping (or free shipping) on a multiple purchase, instead of reducing the selling price? 

In some cases, reduced or free shipping would be equivalent to a purchase price discount (or perhaps even better).  It's also a lot easier to accomplish (set the shipping discounts up through "Seller Preferences\Shipping Preferences") than fiddling around with invoices after the fact.  Your invoices will automatically apply the discounts.

Secondly, shipping discounts for multiple purchases may attract more buyers because eBay is set up to automatically promote free shipping in listings, as opposed to multiple purchase discounts, which must be shown somehow on the individual listing (or in a subtitle, for which you pay $1.50). 

Thirdly, you'll save the time you'd be spending composing such multiple "custom" listings, and then trying to explain and handle buyers' questions, problems, messaging and invoicing after a purchase.  With shipping discounts properly set up, it's all done for you.

Lastly, you may find you'll save additional money on FVFs if you offer free shipping domestically, even if you only offer a percentage off shipping on US or international. 

I've had a free shipping promotion set up for some time now (free shipping on any 5 items purchased together), and I can say it's been successful and simple.  I'm sure I've made multiple sales that I would not have done otherwise, and the way I look at it, one of the items in the multiple purchase covers the shipping cost.  In fact, it's done so well that I'm actually considering changing it to "buy 4, get free shipping". 

Why not give it a try?  Best of luck!

Oh yes, P.S. -- You don't have to use multiples as a basis for shipping discounts/free shipping.  EBay has a number of relatively flexible options for automated shipping discounts.  Take a look under the "shipping preferences" tab.

[around_again_records]

Thanks rose-dee. I was considering the shipping discount but thought it would be a big hassle because of the difference in prices between domestic and international shipping. I just figured I'd end up loosing if anything sold outside of North America.

You make a number of valid points though. I know I was not looking forward to revising all my listings and I was only planning on doing it for certain ones and then I would have to make sure nothing else was listed at the same time etc etc. My first thought though was that it would be simpler than trying to figure out how to set up the shipping discounts.

I did not realize that I could set up different discounts for Domestic and International. I am going to give the shipping rules another look and see if I can figure it out. I will probably be back with more questions.

In the meantime though, just to keep my options open, does anyone know how the final value fees would be calculated if I simply put the discount (minus amount) on the invoice. I'm thinking I would pay fvf on the listed price in which case it's a really bad idea.

Thanks again rose, for taking the time for such a detailed reply. Everything you said makes perfect sense, and the more I think about it the better it sounds. I will just have to take some time to figure out what the discount should be and how to set it up.

[rose-dee]

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@around_again_records wrote:

Thanks rose-dee. I was considering the shipping discount but thought it would be a big hassle because of the difference in prices between domestic and international shipping. I just figured I'd end up loosing if anything sold outside of North America.

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You're very welcome, and I hope the information was of some help. 

By the way, you canspecify whether to turn on/off your promotional shipping rules for each individual listing.  I often forgot to check off that box when I first started offering discounted shipping, and wondered why the discounts didn't appear on my buyers' combined invoices -- this is the one trick you need to remember about automated shipping discounts.  If you don't check that little box, your buyers don't get the discounts.

That little box is at the bottom of each shipping details section on the Sell Your Item form -- there is one for domestic, and a box for international. 

The one issue I have with eBay is that I wish they'd separate the US from all other "international".  Unfortunately it gets lumped in as one "international" category.  There may be a way in "Shipping Preferences" to get around this, but I haven't delved into it that far.  I make so few overseas sales these days that I figure if an overseas buyer purchases 5 items from me, they deserve the discount.

Good luck with this -- snoop around in the "Edit" sections under "Shipping Preferences" and you'll see how many options there are. 

[around_again_records]

I just printed out the shipping discounts info from ebay and will study that for awhile and try to figure out which method is the best.

There are so many variables, and I never was very good at algebra

I do think this is the way to go though. I'll read and think about it for awhile and see what I can come up with. Then I will check it out here before I start the listings.

Stay tuned for more questions - probably by the weekend.

[pjcdn2005]

I was curious about this so I asked the mods about it on the weekly board session.

Here is his answer:

Final value fees are calculated on the item price as it shows on the completed auction or BIN (the item price FVF part), plus on the first domestic shipping price stated on the listing or the shipping price actually paid by the buyer, whichever is lower (the shipping FVF part. Without looking at the link you provided (please bear with me I'm alone for all you guys today!), it sounds to me like that seller would end up paying more than he should on item price FVF if he was to proceed that way. Keep in mind that the minus feature on the seller invoice is meant primarily for shipping price adjustments, although I'm not entirely sure of where that adjustment would fall in terms of line item, I'm almost certain it wouldn't alter what the item price FVF is as those are invoiced right when the listing ends.

You might want to read my post as well to see if I explained it the same way that you meant it. You can see that at http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Weekly-Board-Hour-Session/January-29th-Weekly-Board-Hour/m-p/196081/high... Post 11

[pjcdn2005]

He (Raphael from ebay) also just mentioned that there would soon be a way to set up multiple item discounts.

[around_again_records]

Thanks for bringing this up at the meeting PJ. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what kind of new discounting system they come up with.

I've had a good look at what is available to us now and I understand how they work ( I think) but none of them would work for me. The promotional discount is the closest but would only work for Domestic. I couldn't possibly set one shipping rate that would apply to all countries.

rose also mentioned US and International being grouped together for most of these shipping rules and she is right, that is a big problem. There is such a difference in the cost between the 2 (for what I ship anyway) that I could not possibly offer the same kind of discount to USA and International.

I was hoping there would be something to the effect that if you purchase more than X amount of items a percentage discount could be applied, and also that a different discount or even amount of items could be specified for Domestic, US, and International sales.

For now I will just carry on as before. I was considering applying a rule so my multiple item shipping could be calculated automatically but I'm finding that I cannot do that either. I can standardize my packing material weight and subtract that from each additional item BUT if someone purchases one of my heavier items that is the one that will be used as the starting shipping cost and adding say for instance $1 more per item would end up costing the buyer more than actual shipping.

It kind of seems to me as I read the examples that they show for setting this rule up that the programmer did not take into consideration the weight of the packing materials. For instance here is one of the examples.

•  If a buyer purchases 3 items from you, and each of them weigh 5 ounces, you can set up a rule that, instead of 3 different 5-ounce shipments, the buyer will be charged for one 15-ounce shipment.

In the above case the buyer would be paying 3 times for the packing materials possibly sending the parcel into a different weight category.

Anyway, it's all too complicated to me right now. Perhaps there is a way I could fudge what is there and make it work for me, but I think I will wait and see what the new options are.

Thanks again for bringing it up.