Low cost shipping versus free shipping.

[pinetreecottage]

Conducted a small experiment with shipping cost.   I had a lot of listings with free shipping.  They had the odd view.  Then this morning with the 5 listings offer for $1.00 final value fee, I decided to relist an item that I've had listed several times with free shipping.  I listed it for a higher price with $5.00 shipping.  It sold within a couple of hours.  I then revised my free shipping to $5.00 for my other listings, resulting in a lot of views and some watchers.  So I'm wondering if cheap shipping gets more views than FREE shipping.  If so, the push by ebay to ship for free, is counterproductive.  As I am an eclectic seller of pre-owned and vintage goods, I have the luxury of adjusting my prices to allow for shipping costs.  If I have to play the "ebay game" then bring it.

[hlmacdon]

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@pinetreecottage wrote:

So I'm wondering if cheap shipping gets more views than FREE shipping.  

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The bump in best match ranking for offering free shipping is relatively minor. It is only really relevant for the subset of buyers that use free shipping as filtering criteria for their search and those that find basic math hard. I've generally found that the newness of a listing (ie where it ranks for given search sorted by newest listings) is more important in generating views since buyers tend to be lazy by nature and will only scroll down so far.

[mcrlmn]

Interesting posts everyone! Thank you!

As much as I'd love to offer free shipping, I'm not prepared to increase item prices to compensate.

But when I'm the buyer, I must say free shipping always gets my attention.

[reallynicestamps]

@hlmacdon

and those that find basic math hard.

Well, that's me!

Also those shopping by phone, since scrolling through a full description and S&H tab is difficult on a mobile.

And that could vary by category.

My stamp customers are not likely (in my opinion) to be using a mobile (older demographic) while my sewing pattern customers are often looking at size and picture. Same with books, searching by title and price.

@mcrlmn

'd love to offer free shipping, I'm not prepared to increase item prices to compensate.

But you aren't.

The Flat Rate price and the Free Shipping price should be the same bottom line.
Just described differently.

Still it's how the customer feels about the price that is important.

Smoke and mirrors.

Warm fuzzies.

"I got a great price on this. Only $49 plus $6 shipping!" vs "I got a great deal on this . Only $55 and shipping was Free!"

Throw in a few $49.99 pricing (or WalMart's $48.88) and we all happily fool ourselves.

[ypdc_dennis]

$25+$5 shipping vs $30+"free" shipping

[reallynicestamps]

I'm stealing your meme.

But you can have this one:

[travis7s]

It seems like there is no real consensus on this. Some people swear by free shipping, others says buyers like seeing the 'truth' of shipping costs.

I often send heavy items where Expedited USA is $50 or more. I do wonder if some buyers who aren't used to international rates think I am scheming them with inflated shipping costs. And don't get me started when people ask to ship a $60 item to AUS/NZ and I have to quote $192 shipping. Thats a tough sell 🙂

[pinetreecottage]

To all of the above.  My comment was simply, that with $5,00 shipping, a lot of views and some watchers on items that previously had free shipping and no views.  I'm sure we are all aware of the formula with high price and free shipping.  I don't really care about the math, so long as I get traffic to my listings, which will lead to sales.  I can't sell, if I don't have visibility.  If low cost shipping works, then that's how I'll list going forward.

[ricarmic]

I've always believed that free shipping helps increase visibility some, and I have free shipping on 95% plus of my listings.

However I also believe in experimenting and sometimes interesting and surprising results come from it, like what has happened in your case!

Certainly if it is working I would keep trying it, there certainly is no harm, anything that provokes views,watchers and sales is to be treasured these days!!

As a traditional .COM seller, I only recently began selling on .CA and I have noticed that larger lots that I've listed on .CA (free shipping to .CA) that have a shipping cost to the USA seem to be selling to the folks in the USA at the usual rate which is a surprise to me.

I'm about to close for a month for my annual ebay holiday, and at the moment I seem to have a pattern that is working for me, but I will keep this in mind when I'm next experimenting!!!

[momcqueen]

Have a nice holiday!