free shipping

[dipmicro]

I have noticed several higher volume successful sellers were running their auctions with free shipping. So I tried this last two weeks. It apears as if free shipping auctions attracted more traffic and finished with higher value than auctions with specified shipping.

What's the deal? People cannot add $7 + $3?

Listings with free shipping also rank better in eBay Best Match (perhaps that's causing this mystery in the first place).

[westernstargifts]

If people perceive they can get something for nothing they will go for it. That is why we get emails and phone calls from scammers offering us a free trip to the moon if we send them a $25,000 "refundable" deposit to book the flight...;-)

[craftycatsattic]

Oh...is that what that scam is all about? I have won that free trip to the Carribean several times but always hang up!

[dipmicro]

Once long time ago we "won" a trip. We wondered how could we win anything if we did not buy anything from this company. Being new in Canada, we agreed to meet with them. It's free, right? Well, the guy wanted to come to us, instead of us coming to his office and there were strings attached (many strings). We politely declined. It was quite hard to shake him off, at the end he even got rude and told us it costs him money to come to us and get nothing, blah, blah. Idiot!

No, free shipping is something completely different. They all know you have to pay for that shipping somehow and it's embedded in the price, but it still appeals more to them.

I was thinking about this and my theory is that people are willing pay different amounts for different things ($1.50 for a bottle of coke and $20k for a car, right?). You buy a fridge and pay $1000 for it. Free shipping, what a deal! Then somebody offers you a fridge for $0.99, but it has a $999 shipping fee attached. F***ing scam! We are willing to pay those $1000 for a fridge but not for shipping. Just my opinion.

[ricarmic]

I have tried a couple experiments auctioning the "same" lot that has relatively high shipping costs both free and non-free shipping (lot should sell for about $20 and the shipping is a hefty $14). It appears that the lot goes for about the same either way, more action with free shipping and higher final auction price but if one accounts for the missing $14 shipping it ends up the same. Having said this, the only reason I run auctions is to get people to go to my store and as a result I'm sticking with the free shipping which gets more lookers! I've also noticed that the lots I have in my store that have shipping extra are (relatively speaking) lower priced before shipping and are attracting more buyers but they cost more relatively speaking after the shipping! As you say, people don't seem to be doing the math! I noticed whilst I was in conversion to my free shipping that the lots with free shipping sold a squeak slower than the ones with it on top, and if the buyer added the item plus shipping cost it was MORE than the price with free shipping! That put me in a quandry as to whether it made sense to convert to the free shipping but I decided to move ahead. So far it seems ok. It is so hard to try to figure the buyers out, just when you think you've figured something out, something seems to change!