Are sales any better if you offer free shipping? Any bad experiences?

[julieo459]

I have never offered Free Shipping, But am now looking for a way to work around the increased shipping costs. (higher cost on the listing might scare buyers away) Most of my buyers are are in the USA.

How is everyone dealing with all their current listings at the old shipping rates? Is there a way to make bulk changes? (probably a dumb question), Agh 

[pierrelebel]

"Are sales any better if you offer free shipping?"

Yes.

An unqualified yes.

And I have over 105,000 eBay transactions to back up my opinion!

[pierrelebel]

To be more specific, "free shipping" (shipping included in selling price) is ideal for sellers offering items made perfectly for mail order such as postcards (like you sell), stamps (like I sell), trading cards, etc... Great if your merchandise can be shipped by Lettermail, Letterpost or Light Packets.

On the other hand, some eBay sellers offer items where the shipping cost is very high in relation to the value of the item. That is a totally different story.

Is there a buyer out there willing to pay the high shipping cost for the convenience of getting the item?

[i*m-still-here]

Is there a buyer out there willing to pay the high shipping cost for the convenience of getting the item?

The answer to your question is "It Depends."

On what you may wonder?

Well, a few buyers have more money than they know what to do with and a few want the item yesterday for their own personal reasons and are willing to pay for that service on occasion.

In general, however, buyers willing to pay high shipping are few and far between regardless of item cost.

IMO Free shipping does not boost sales for most items on its own.  That is, it might because it puts the item higher in the search, but not due to Free Shipping alone.

However, a high Shipping cost without a doubt hurts sales.

That is true even when the item is very expensive.

[pocomocomputing]

Bulk edit

From your listings, I see that you use Turbo Lister. Bulk edit is available in Turbo Lister but I do not know how specifically to do this. From what I read, it should be easy to bulk edit your eBay Active Listings using Turbo Lister. I do have Turbo Lister installed but only for backing up old listings.

I list online using the eBay Online Sell Your Item form. I have eBay Selling Manager (basic free version). This allows me to bulk edit online.  You can also bulk edit using My eBay. The same Bulk Edit is brought up for Selling Manager and My eBay.

So you have three ways to do a bulk edit. Remember that no matter which method you use, the changes are in your Active Listings and not in your saved inventory listings in Turbo Lister. So you will need to bulk edit the Turbo Lister inventory listings copies.  Someone with more experience with Turbo Lister can comment on keeping the inventory listings current.

To use the Selling Manager or My eBay bulk edit, you select the Active Listings you want to bulk edit, click on the edit button at the top of the Active Listing page and up comes a spreadsheet table. Select the listings you want to change (usually all) and click on the Edit button on the left and a dropdown list of options appears. Select say the domestic shipping and make the changes. Then submit the changes to be implemented. You can back out if there is something wrong. Do a few listings at first to gain experience.

I assume it is similar with Turbo Lister.

[pocomocomputing]

One issue with Free Shipping is with multiple purchases from the same buyer. Most sellers offer combined shipping to reduce shipping costs. When you have the shipping cost built into the item price with "Free Shipping", then a buyer who purchases multiple items will usually pay a lot more in shipping costs. Now you potentially run into problems with buyers if you do not refund some of the shipping costs on Free Shipping.

If most of your sales are one listings to one buyer, then Free Shipping will make sense. This will work for lower priced items and attract buyers with the "Free Shipping". It will supposedly also get some better search placement by eBay.

[pierrelebel]

" then a buyer who purchases multiple items will usually pay a lot more in shipping costs."

That would be true if a seller moved the total cost of shipping an individual item to the listing price.  Many have found a better solution.

I have been offering "free shipping" for years. And it has worked perfectly for me. I do not include the cost of shipping an individual item in the listing price as most transactions involve more than one item.  My long-term average on eBay is four to five items per transaction (payment).

So, I take my annual shipping costs (outgoing postage) and my payment receiving costs (PayPal) and divide the total by my annual sales. 

That relatively low percentage is part of the profit margin earned on every item.  It averages everything: low value items, high value items, domestic (lower cost) shipping, overseas (higher cost) shipping.

[pocomocomputing]

julieo459, I was looking at your current listings and pricing structure for multiple purchases in the description. Since you sell postcards, you have very attractive shipping rates that encourages multiple purchases.

If you go to free shipping with the postage in the item price (whether full or partial), I think it will discourage multiple sales to a single buyer since there is no way to save money with Free Shipping. I think your sales will suffer a great deal.

Do you get repeat customers? They might not come back since they know the current shipping structure.

Do buyers wait to pay and ask for combined shipping? Are they experienced eBay buyers who know how to request combined shipping after purchasing multiple items and know to wait to pay?

What do your competitors do?

[i*m-still-here]

Personally, I would love to see ebay go to Free Shipping or Shipping Included across the board.

 IMO it would do away with most of the tension between buyers and sellers.

It would, however, introduce a whole new set of issues which would need to worked through and ironed out before such a system could work smoothly.

For example, to avoid the problem described above, in cases of multiple purchases a seller could offer discounts for additional items, and that could be a nice incentive for buyers to buy more from the same seller.

Also, international sales would require some thought as would shipping methods, but IMO it is all very doable.

Such a system would take some time until it ran smoothly and there are obvious problems which would require re-working.

Hoever, in the long run I'm pretty sure the benefits would be well worth it for buyers and sellers alike.

[julieo459]

I see in Turbo where I can do a bulk edit on shipping that I can perform when I download my next batch of unsolds. I think I will try a "free shipping experiment" in the near future

[mr.elmwood]

I am finding that I am not selling some things I should be selling. I research what my American competition is doing. I find that more and more they are going to the "free shipping" in the USA model. What I find interesting is that many of "widget + shipping" prices are still lower than their free shipping prices.

I realize there are other variables, but, the trend is growing. I do not get epeat buyers, or buyers of multiples so none of that applies. I am "one off" sales.

Regardless of what is happening eBay-wide, in my genre, my competition is going to the free shipping model. I simply need to wraqp my head around the concept of adapting.

So, Julie, it is not a case of good, bad, or indifferent. It is a case of whjat is happening in your field and with your competition. What do you need to do to continue to be successful?

I "thunk" the trend to free shipping is growing, rapidly.

[mr.elmwood]

speel cheque is my freind

[recped]

"Are sales any better if you offer free shipping?"

Yes.

An unqualified yes.

Sales? Probably yes.

Profits? Well that depends on a lot of factors.

What works for sellers where the shipping costs are very low relative to the item price may not work for sellers of items of low value with high shipping costs.

The absence of combined shipping discounts can really hurt, both in terms of sales and in terms of expenses.

If you raise prices to cover the `free shipping` you may appear non-competitive, buyers should look at the total price and many do but there are plenty who just skim the search results page and notice only the item price.

[tobyshitzu]

I changed to free domestic shipping on lettermail items only because it works to have the right relative amount with the .com USA media shipping cap, the fvf ends up slightly less, and it offers some protection from the dsr punishment scheme.

Looking at the completed listings and competitors who do/don't I don't believe it makes any difference in sales.  Of course if someone took their present price and  actual shipping cost and changed their listings to just the same item price with fee shipping, eating the postage cost themself, sales would increase.  The same as any retailer anywhere would increase sales by cutting  prices

pretty sure the vast majority of the growth in free shipping on ebay is motivated by the ebay policy changes with fvf and dsrs, not because sellers thing it increases sales to put the shipping into the item price

[brandeentertainment]

Free domestic shipping will allow you to to charge international buyers a little less for shipping as well .. I spent 2 years doing free shipping but changed this year because sales or no sales I want my paperwork to be nice and easy this year So I put in actual shipping cost and taxes now may sales slow for the month of Jan but I had lost my TRS Status for a month and sense I got it back 2 days ago sales are back up to norm foir this time of year so my opinion is yes and no ....

I find people who understand how the business side of things work also understand that shipping is NEVER FREE .. Everybody charges it wheter it is honest and upfront or hidden giving the buyer The illusion and feeling of getting a great deal on shipping ....

[i*m-still-here]

On ebay sellers sporadically offer free shipping.  Some items lend themselves to the use of the feature and some do not.  Some sellers use if for some countries and not others............ etc. etc. etc.

When all is said and done, this system causes more tension between buyers and sellers on the whole rather than less.

It's unpredictable. 

It's never fun to find out that you weren't vigilant during a transaction and are getting slammed with an unanticipated high cost of shipping.

Also, emailing every seller for shipping costs is stressful, tedious, and time consuming.

The list of problems and issues related to the cost of shipping is a long one.

IMO if ebay had mandatory Free Shipping (or shipping included or who cares how you label it), then everyone would see a surge in sales.

Everyone would benefit in the long run.

The single biggest reason for tension here is the cost of shipping.

Do away with that and suddenly buying becomes much easier.  Buyers spend more money.

Fewer shoppers leave ebay and more return because the shopping experience is much more pleasant.

[bb_cool_stuff]

When the Free Shipping option was implemented i did very well for the first couple of months, then hit the wall for good after about six months. Did not make a huge difference in my category, but can be used to move deadstock.

Some items lend themselves to the use of the feature and some do not.

Yes, yes. Again depends on your original cost & the shipping feature you are using. Some of my items have Free Shipping, items which were bought in a large lot.

IMO if ebay had mandatory Free Shipping (or shipping included or who cares how you label it), then everyone would see a surge in sales.

I don't know. Seems to work for Pierre & others i would imagine.

Not sure if it work for the majority of my items.

[dipmicro]

If S/H is under 1/3 of the item price and your items are priced as market average, free shipping will work for you.

If you are a dollar store and charge $3 for S/H, forget it, after you include it your sales will die faster than you can spell ebay.

The free shipping may rank you slightly better in search but according to my observation, computed portion off the boost is minor. It's buyer perception of value that gives you boost and ebay search is all about measuring and monitoring buyer perception. Usually item that is priced 20-30% above market average with free shipping does better than market average priced item with stated shipping that comes to same price as first item - not because ebay computed rank but because of buyer perception of "better value". Keep in mind that for the buyer, only item has value, not the shipping, so $7 item is more valuable than $5 item with $2 shipping.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Usually item that is priced above market average with free shipping does better than market average priced item with stated shipping that comes to same price as first item...

Does this work for you dipmicro ?

With the majority of my items i would consider it a hit & miss. Probably my category.

[i*m-still-here]

To me, as a buyer, I object to high shipping costs and that will prevent me from buying........... 

When I see Free Shipping I'm always relieved but not because I mind paying reasonable costs.

It's because I know I don't have to hassle with emailing the seller about shipping and that's a chore I've really come to dislike.