@maddkatt06 wrote:
That's an interesting idea about the processing time. If I mail it asap does it still give me that ten days? Or should I ship it asap an snit mark it shipped until the date it should be? Most of my candy fits on a small mailer so I mean I can mail airmail under twenty bucks and offer a price that includes the shipping If what you're suggesting will work out. I think that's a clever idea I never thought of it
At one time I would say that the estimated arrival time would not change even if you mailed the item earlier than your handling time but there have been reports on the US boards that if a seller consistently mails an item quicker than their handling time suggests, the arrival time may be changed by ebay. I've heard that they no longer do this but I honestly have no idea, you would have to experiment. Its possible that if they do that, it is only if there is tracking proving that the sellers usually ships earlier than stated.
If your handling time is more than 5 days, I believe that ebay shows buyers some sort of warning that the handling time is quite long.
I do think that you have to keep in mind that if your handling time is too long, some buyers may not purchase just because they think it will take too long. My guess is that this is the most true for US buyers. I noticed that you are using international options for US shipping rather than the actual services that go to the US...for example International Air does not go to the US. Since you are using flat rate shipping it really doesn't matter but the time of 9-22 business days seems awfully long for US buyers.
Another way to somewhat to control the arrival date is by using the options that have the longer time. I find that as a general rule...this may not be true in all cases...that using the generic options on the sell your item form give a bit longer of a delivery time than small packet air might give. Again, you would have to experiment as the results do vary.
I have to mention this one more time...I don't understand the need for free shipping to international buyers. When you include the shipping cost in the price of the item you often end up penalizing other buyers. For example, for a 170 gram package of candy you have free shipping to everywhere. Shipping that package to the US with small packet air USA would cost about $8.50 and about $12 to Australia and about $14 to Ontario. So if you add in $14 or even $12 to your price so that you have free shipping, your US buyers are being penalized. But I don't know where your main market is so that may work for you. If your products are easily available in the US and Canada than obviously your strategy would be different than mine because you would be aiming more at overseas sales:)
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