eBay

aubreyclay56 · ‎02-18-2016

is anyone else notice sale down in febuary,dec and jan were awesome months but this month im at 25 percent,i do know that the lack of free listings is part of the problem,so i opened a store so i could save money on listing prices,although i havent quite figured out many things as far as how to take 10 percent off and such and a lot more things you can do like categorize items,but even with all my listings i am still mainly having watchers,is it just slow for this time of year?I do list in us dollars but take into account the dollar difference,for example if i start an auction at 7.99 it is the same as if i started it at 10.99 canadian,same with shipping tracked,to the us is a minumum of 12.00 us to arrive at 15.00 can dollars,taking in the charge by ebay of 10 percent,it would be nice if ebay wasnt so greedy as to charge on the shipping,i would be able to reduce shipping,by 10 per cent?I do notice that a lot of sellers sell with shipping inc. in the price but that seems too phoney,??? like ive tried that a couple times but just dont feel right about asking say 25.00 for a 10.00 dollar item???

dutchman48 · ‎02-18-2016

I looked at a few items and you are charging US $10.00 to ship a $3.00 item in Canada. That will not work.

If you want to send everything with tracking, you are going to get very few sales to either Canada or the US.

I think you need to review all you shipping costs on low priced items and possibly on some of the mid priced ones, especially those that can be sent with letter mail.

aubreyclay56 · ‎02-18-2016

if i dont use tracking im a target for people looking for free stuff,i realize that 5.00 dollar shipping is great but how manny claims will i get for not shipped?

hlmacdon · ‎02-18-2016

@aubreyclay56 wrote:
I do notice that a lot of sellers sell with shipping inc. in the price but that seems too phoney,??? like ive tried that a couple times but just dont feel right about asking say 25.00 for a 10.00 dollar item???

What percentage of your transactions involve more than 1 item sold to a buyer? If you rarely get multi-item orders, consider building the cost of shipping into your items for the US and advertising as free shipping. With Canada that is a bit more difficult given the variance in parcel rates. You may find it silly, but this exactly what sellers in China and Hong Kong do. Most savvy shoppers are going to shop by total price with shipping in and use that as a basis for comparison anyways.

February - April are generally pretty slow months when it comes to consumer spending at the retail level, but that being said it depends on how much new stock you introduce during the time. I'm about level with January for sales, but that includes new stock arriving that has bumped up sales. Compared to the previous year I am tracking down for the same two months, mostly due to many more new arrivals in that period the previous years. It's all relative.

You may want to review your shipping options. Just eyeballing your listings, it appears that you have stuff that could go cheaper via expedited parcel USA or tracked packet in some cases, and you have them at higher shipping prices with more generic shipping services selected. If you are shipping them tracked and not advertising that fact you are selling yourself short. If you want consistent growing sales you really need to have your shipping down to a science and know your services and costs inside out, and have this accurately reflected and described in your listings so buyers are fully aware.

hlmacdon · ‎02-18-2016

@aubreyclay56 wrote:
if i dont use tracking im a target for people looking for free stuff,i realize that 5.00 dollar shipping is great but how manny claims will i get for not shipped?

When I didn't ship tracked I was sub 1% in INR claims across 3000+ transactions, with the vast majority of those to US/Europe. This will vary by the category you sell in, ie: newer electronics are high risk, goods that appeal to younger buyers are higher risk. Coins, gold, silver, handbags, etc are higher risk. There is always third party insurance through people like insurepost if you have higher value items.

Again I stress if you are shipping tracked and customers don't know this fact, you need to make that apparent.

aubreyclay56 · ‎02-18-2016

thank you all for your help i have been selling for over three years,i love doing this and i really like the help i have gotten from my posts,i try to do the best i can and the fb i get from other sellers helps so much,i find this a great comunity,i have came a long ways in the last few years,i want to keep growing,i rember my first sale in sep 2012 i think i lost about 10.00 bucks with shipping costs ebay fees and listing way too low,LOL but hey you learn fast and the help you get along the way is awesome once again its people like you that respond to other sellers are what makes ebay an awesome site kinda like a big familly best wishes to all

katlover1952 · ‎02-18-2016

My Feb sales so far have been much slower than Jan also. Not sure why. Hoping it will pick up a bit this next week. Good luck!

Anonymous · ‎02-19-2016

Not really. Lots of buyers demand tracking numbers the last 2 years and I am able to provide that to make them happy even if they pay more than regular mail service.

Right now I have lots of buyers in the International countries demanding tracking number even it costs Tracked Packet around $47.50 and XpressPost around $85.50 and I got about 10 the last 3 months paying for those mail service with tracking number and they ARE HAPPY!! Go Figure!!

Anonymous · ‎02-19-2016

You need to use "Expedited" mail in your listings not "Standard" Mail. When my buyers see "Expedited" in my listings, they knew it include tracking number while "Standard" not. "Expedited" is more cheaper than "Standard" if you use PayPal Shipping.

dutchman48 · ‎02-19-2016

It all depends what you are selling and price. Very few of my buyers want tracking as they know the cost of it in relation to the price of the item.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-19-2016

@aubreyclay56 wrote:
if i dont use tracking im a target for people looking for free stuff,i realize that 5.00 dollar shipping is great but how manny claims will i get for not shipped?

Obviously no one can answer that but are you just assuming that you will get many inr's or have you actually tried shipping without tracking for your larger items and had a problem doing that?

I do know that many Canadian sellers sell without tracking and have had very few problems. It may vary by category and of course it depends on your tolerance level. If you send an item without tracking and are stressed out about it, it probably isn't worth doing it that way.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-19-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
You need to use "Expedited" mail in your listings not "Standard" Mail. When my buyers see "Expedited" in my listings, they knew it include tracking number while "Standard" not. "Expedited" is more cheaper than "Standard" if you use PayPal Shipping.

I agree that it is less expensive to use expedited when using Paypal shipping but regular parcel does include tracking too. Plus, I would think that expedited means 'faster' to most people..not 'tracked'.

p009731 · ‎02-19-2016

Ask Canada post for a Venture One card it can save on shipping and sometimes includes free tacking.

p009731 · ‎02-19-2016

Venture One is a free card from Canada Post.

femmefan1946 · ‎02-20-2016

While Venture One (which changed its name last year to something like Small Business Services) gives some discounts, most sellers are better off using Paypal shipping labels which give 5% to 17% off some services, and allow the seller to drop the labelled parcel in a post box, rather than deal with PO counter staff* and lineups.

PP labels also keep all your shipping information in one place and will cross reference fairly easily to eBay sales.

*Most of whom are pleasant and knowledgeable.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-20-2016

Thanks, but as Femme mentioned, the discounts are higher if you use Paypal shipping.

xenotime · ‎02-25-2016

I've never heard of Paypal shipping before. How do I calculate the rate when listing the auction? Is the option in Turbo Lister? (I don't have TL in front of me right now)

wonsxela · ‎02-25-2016

You should see fields in your listing page (the one you compose/edit the listing from) where you can enter the item's dimensions and weight. Then for the shipping options, choose Calculated instead of Flat. Canada Post also has an online shipping calculator here.

In Turbo Lister, yes, all of the above are there on the right side when you compose or edit a listing.

reallynicestamps · ‎02-25-2016

Be very careful when entering dimensions and weights.

Use metric measurements. Canada Post went metric in 1974 and every thing else is guesswork.

You also get to choose what service you will be using.

But the Calculated Shipping does all the work for you after that.

Some refer to Paypal shipping as eBay shipping. And just to be clear, while you buy the label through eBay and PP, it's a Canada Post label, just cheaper.

Hmm-- the other thing that confuses some people is the customs form on the label.

It's other. Not documents or sample
You can change the description. The label automatically fills this with your eBay listing title.
To get the code, Google.

mr.elmwood · ‎02-25-2016

@xenotime wrote:
I've never heard of Paypal shipping before. How do I calculate the rate when listing the auction? Is the option in Turbo Lister? (I don't have TL in front of me right now)

On your My eBay: Sold, in ebay.ca, there is a list of what you have sold. To the right of each widget, it says, "print shipping label".

You may have to log into ebay, you will need to log into PP. Fill in the first two screens, third screen is a summary, click "print", or whatever it says, bottom right. Another screen comes up and a popup window with the label.

You will need to allow the popup. Print.

The first few times, due to different dimensions,destinations, etc, is learning. After that, easy-peazy.

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