Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

Two weeks ago I had a customer who could not "purchase" separate items without immediate payment. She purchased the items separately (paid shipping on each) and I refunded shipping.

 

I then went in to my shipping preferences and changed shipping option to 'accepting combined' payments.

 

Last week I decided it is not what I want and changed back to 'no combined shipping' but the cart option button is still there, under Buy it Now.

Was it always there?

 

Because somebody "purchased" an item last night and has not paid. It may be because they wanted to find out how much shipping would be - without knowing about the tab for entering your postal or zip code. (This has happened to me before with new eBayers).

 

I hope this is clear enough and someone can tell me why the first customer could not purchase without payment, but the second customer could even though theoretically nothing changed. The first customer was a long time, large feedback eBayer.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

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Re: Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

If the buyer was on a site with a cart such as .com, ca. Aus, U.K. Etc  they would see the add to cart button and yes it is always there regardless of your preferences..  On .com eBay requires some items to be paid for once the buy it now button has been used but the buyer could add multiple items to their cart instead and then in some cases, ask the seller for an invoice.   On .ca the buyer can click buy it now and then commit to buy and they are not required to pay unless the seller has enabled immediate payment required.

 

You can set it up so that buyers are required to pay right away and that will apply to whichever site they are on.  That means if they buy one item and click on buy it now, they will have to pay in order to buy it.  They can still use the cart but items in the cart are available to others until the buyer checks out or requests an invoice from the seller. if the sellers listings do require immediate payment then the buyer can't ask for an invoice, they have to pay whatever the total is in the cart so if you don't have combined shipping set up they will have to pay full shipping for each item.  Since it often does cost less to ship 2 items together rather than separately you may turn off buyers if you require them to pay the full cost of shipping on each listing.  

 

I realize this is a long of information, I hope that it all makes sense.

 

 

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Re: Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

Can you provide a bit more information, e.g. are you referring to .com or .ca?  Do you use flat rate or calculated shipping?  Was your buyer shopping on .com or .ca (or another site)?  

 

We were told that the U.S. (.com) cart had finally been updated to work with other sites, but I believe there is still a problem with the "Request Total" button/feature not working properly.  Selecting "accept combined shipping" doesn't seem to make any difference.  Is this possibly what your first buyer encountered?  

 

I intend to bring the "Request Total" issue up with the eBay.ca staffer(s) at the Weekly Board Hour this week, as it was supposed to have been fixed months ago, but my recent experience has shown that it's still not functioning.  I consider it a fairly serious problem.  Actually, anything that hinders or complicates checkout for buyers is a very serious problem.  

 

One thing I can suggest is that you may want to message your 2nd buyer directly (the one who hasn't paid yet) and ask if they encountered any problems in trying to checkout, or if they wanted to ask for an adjusted total for shipping.  Then you'll find out what your buyers are seeing at their end, and you can solve the problem through direct communication and by sending an invoice.  If worse comes to worst, you can send an adjusted invoice via Paypal. 

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Re: Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

Thank you rose-dee.

 

I sell exclusively on .ca and use calculated shipping.

 

I have just emailed my first customer to see if the 'add to cart' button was available (and if it was used) and what site they were on. Luckily they were a great and patient customer.

 

I have not yet had a response to an email sent to the second customer, but will also ask if any problems were encountered and what site they were on and post it here.

 

Ideally, I would like to get rid of the 'add to cart' button on my listings, but I do not know if it is possible.

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Re: Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

It is not possible to eliminate the Add to Cart button. 

 

You'd be well-advised to establish your Combined Shipping rules so that buyers can shop and pay seamlessly. 

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Re: Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

Thank you for the information about the add to cart button.

 

One problem with having combined shipping is that (if I am not mistaken) it can take longer to get paid. I do like having the payment with the purchase, but I might rethink that. For the odd time someone is a non paying purchaser, it would only add 3 days (or whatever time I set) on to the time it takes to get fees back and the items relisted.

 

Although, in the last few years the combined shipping issue (not being able to send a revised invoice) has only come up once, whereas non payment comes up a couple of times a year so I am not sure it would help in my situation.

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Re: Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

If you require Immediate Payment, you never have non-paying buyers.
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Re: Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

If the buyer was on a site with a cart such as .com, ca. Aus, U.K. Etc  they would see the add to cart button and yes it is always there regardless of your preferences..  On .com eBay requires some items to be paid for once the buy it now button has been used but the buyer could add multiple items to their cart instead and then in some cases, ask the seller for an invoice.   On .ca the buyer can click buy it now and then commit to buy and they are not required to pay unless the seller has enabled immediate payment required.

 

You can set it up so that buyers are required to pay right away and that will apply to whichever site they are on.  That means if they buy one item and click on buy it now, they will have to pay in order to buy it.  They can still use the cart but items in the cart are available to others until the buyer checks out or requests an invoice from the seller. if the sellers listings do require immediate payment then the buyer can't ask for an invoice, they have to pay whatever the total is in the cart so if you don't have combined shipping set up they will have to pay full shipping for each item.  Since it often does cost less to ship 2 items together rather than separately you may turn off buyers if you require them to pay the full cost of shipping on each listing.  

 

I realize this is a long of information, I hope that it all makes sense.

 

 

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Re: Do all of my listings have an 'add to cart' button - even without combined shipping?

Thank you so much for the detailed information! It is very generous and I appreciate your help.

 

I am actually happy to combine shipping, it is just that it has only come up once (in several years) so I am not sure there is a benefit to having my preferences set up that way. I might just do it to see if anyone does use it, maybe I am losing sales and don't know it.

 

Lots of food for thought, I have just kept status quo for so long.

 

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post!

 

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