NothingYouNeed
|
posted on July 29, 2001 10:11:51 AM
I am already tired of the nitpickers and whiners who question my shipping and handling charges, and don't want to pay for insurance and then think I should give a full refund if the item breaks in transit.
So I am toying with the idea of building the shipping, handling, delivery confirmation and insurance charges into all my minimum bids. I am afraid, of course, that with the drastic increase in my minimum bids, I will end up with NO bids even with the alluring (if not exactly factual) **FREE SHIPPING** banner across my listings.
Most of what I sell is relatively heavy, with shipping falling mostly into the priority rates of $5-$8, add in two bucks for materials, delivery confirmation and insurance and I will be kicking up my minimum bids which are usually somewhere between $5 and $10 to $12-$20.
I deal mainly in mid-century glassware and kitchenware, and while not exactly dropping into people's laps, most can't be called rare or unique. Will buyer's understand that a bid of $20 for my item is the same as a bid of $10 on another seller's item? Or do most buyers only think "bid price" when they are bidding and don't really think about the shipping charges until the WBN comes along (and then they faint).
The sellers I know who offer free shipping are dealing in lightweight items that ship for $2 or less for first class mail. I don't personally know anyone dealing in my kind of stuff who has taken the leap to 'free' shipping.
Any boardies out there have any experience in this? Should I experiment and see what happens or just forget it?
Thanks for any input!
Gerald
"Oh but it's so hard to live by the rules/I never could and still never do."
|
ExecutiveGirl
|
posted on July 29, 2001 10:20:13 AM
I've thought about doing that in the past also, but I always came to the conclusion that I didn't think I'd get nearly as many bids, so I've never tried it.
I think no matter how BIG the banner that says "FREE SHIPPING" is or how many of those banners there are on your auction - many buyer DO NOT READ. In their mind I think they will be adding a shipping amount to the bid amount and THEN decide if they want to pay that much.
I'm almost certain that if I was to do that, I'd be overwhelmed with emails asking "how much is shipping???" 
|
Microbes
|
posted on July 29, 2001 10:20:22 AM
Pro:
No Complaints about shipping costs.
Con:
You are paying eBay FVF on shipping costs.
|
deanawo
|
posted on July 29, 2001 10:27:55 AM
I am glad you started this post, I am interested in this also.
I am considering offering free shipping if you BIN, figuring the cost of shipping into the BIN price. I have seen a lot of other sellers doing that lately, with what looks like good results.
|
yisgood
|
posted on July 29, 2001 10:34:34 AM
Tried it both ways and definitely lost bids on the free shipping stuff. Also, I mention in my EOA that I combine items to save shipping for the buyer. Hard for the buyer to calculate if the price of every item already contains the full shipping price as if it were the only item being shipped. And if a buyer returns an item for a refund for something that was their problem (buyer ordered the wrong item), they will now expect the full price including shipping. My return policy says they pay shipping both ways if they ordered the wrong item.
http://www.ygoodman.com
[email protected]
|
rarebourbon
|
posted on July 29, 2001 11:19:53 AM
Dear NothingYouNeed:
While I agree with ExecutiveGirl that people don't read, I have personally responded to auctions with free shipping, especially when the item is something I know will be in the $5-$8 Priority Mail range. If I think the whole package is a bargain, I'll bid.
Why not give it a shot with some of your lower priced items just to see how it goes?
Since your items are unique (relative to others on this board, not in and of itself) you'll never know for sure until you try it. Just take some less "risky" merchandise and try it out. (Then be sure to let us know the results!)
By the way, your tag line is driving me crazy... what 70s song is that from?
rarebourbon
edited for clarity
[ edited by rarebourbon on Jul 29, 2001 11:22 AM ]
|
cabledogii
|
posted on July 29, 2001 11:43:50 AM
I've been playing around with this myself lately. I have some items that only cost about $1.50 to ship. I raised the initial fee $2.00 and include FREE SHIPPING in both the title and description. I had trouble moving some of these items before, but now I am getting many more hits and purchases.
|
dman3
|
posted on July 29, 2001 11:53:23 AM
I tried this for two months from feb to april of this year with not so good results.
Frist problem many buyer complaining that they are not stupid MY shipping isnt free because my starting bid was higher they didnt mind this but most say not to insult there intelgents buy advertizeing free shipping when its not !!!
also in that time period I ran listing
50 \50 half had free shipping bidding was higher on item that didnt offer that didnt use the free shipping in the title.
also it made my starting bids less competitive in the category I sell in.
if you in a category where you can ship everything media rate and can keep your start bids normal not say free shipping this might work out well low shipping cost comes out of the winning bid and select the seller pays shipping rather then buyer pays shipping but useing The words free shipping gets you loads of mail from upset buyers ...
http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
Email [email protected]
|
NothingYouNeed
|
posted on July 29, 2001 11:54:58 AM
rarebourbon - I think I will end up just testing it out on some of my junque-ier items and let you know how it goes.
The tag line is from The Pretenders "Talk of the Town" which was either late 70s or early 80s. I listen to their CD "The Singles" all the time.
Gerald
"Oh but it's so hard to live by the rules/I never could and still never do."
[ edited by NothingYouNeed on Jul 29, 2001 11:56 AM ]
|
yisgood
|
posted on July 29, 2001 12:01:59 PM
>>Frist problem many buyer complaining that they are not stupid MY shipping isnt free because my starting bid was higher they didnt mind this but most say not to insult there intelgents buy advertizeing free shipping when its not !!!<<
These same buyers insist that if a seller charges extra for paypal he is a crook and the correct way to handle the fee is to hide it in the starting price and make everyone pay it, even if they don't use paypal. Talk about an insult to intelligence.
http://www.ygoodman.com
[email protected]
|
dman3
|
posted on July 29, 2001 12:04:38 PM
Really I have learned you cant please everyone so you have to please yourself no matter what way you do things buyer will have a complaint if your shipping is to high or even fraud .
You can offer free shipping and they get insluted they pay a higher price and so shipping isnt free.
I believe you could give things way on ebay or other sites and people would complain every body wants to be in charge so there is no one working or buying in the store all are trying to run and manage.
Ever heard the saying to many chefs spoil the soup ?????
I have taken and fixed all my shipping prices buyers can bid on my stuff the way I do it or they can leave it but there can only be person who decides how you sell and that is myself.
Im the one who knows what my bottom line is and what it will take dollar wise to make it work for me.
http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
Email [email protected]
|
jumpinjacko
|
posted on July 29, 2001 12:59:47 PM
Well for us ......it saves a lot of time and hassles with multiple
auction bidders.....In the days before we offered free s/h
we would gets tons of email like this one... “I won auction # so and so
but we are as of now high bidder on your auction # so and so.....
Can I wait to see I win and then you ship then both together.?”
Well you can a imagine the problem this caused..or this one...
“I won ten auctions from you can you ship all at once..?” no problem
until you hit then with a 40 or 50 dollar freight bill..or my favorite... “I think I can beat the price you quoted me..can you tell me how much it weighs and I’ll call UPS and see if we can get it down just a little bit”
As for the me when im an eBay buyer to see the frees shipping banner
does not “insult my intelligent” but what does is to see an item with a
10 dollar shipping and handling charge ..when I know it will only cost a fraction of that..
I will not bid on any auction that I feel the seller is making a profit on the shipping..
At the end of the day just remember....it’s your eBay business and nobody
can tell you the right way or the wrong way to run it...
One love
randy
.
EBAY ID
JUMPIN*JACK
[ edited by jumpinjacko on Jul 29, 2001 01:00 PM ]
|
mballai
|
posted on July 29, 2001 02:49:44 PM
I've dealt with sellers who provided "free" shipping. I also was very fond of a couple of web sites that built their businesses with free shipping: they recently abandoned it because it just wasn't cost effective for either them or their customers.
Shipping is a lot like going to the dentist twice a year: something no one likes, but everyone does.
|
NothingYouNeed
|
posted on July 29, 2001 03:03:05 PM
Well I think I answered my own question during a little browsing spell on eBay. I came across a couple of "free shipping" items and even though I knew the minimum bid was fair considering it included shipping, I just couldn't bring myself to "commit". It just felt like I would be bidding too much and that the minimum bid would be my maximum and why bother because I would just be outbid. The allure of free shipping is less tempting than the allure of a bargain. Also, I did set up a couple of pending auctions with the "free shipping" minimum bid and I decided I was nuts...no one would bid on it, including me!
Gerald
"Oh but it's so hard to live by the rules/I never could and still never do."
|
tjbrocean
|
posted on July 29, 2001 03:10:35 PM
I always offer free shipping with my Buy It Now optyions and I can tell you I have had so many bids end with buy it now, I get my money quick the customers like knowing exactly what they are going to pay. I have had great success with this. It is so much easier for me this way.
I sell mostly clothes though, so I dont have to worry about high shipping cost, most of my items can ship first class for $2.00 and under!! Works pretty good for me.
Jen
|
BJGrolle
|
posted on July 29, 2001 03:13:53 PM
I tried the free shipping before a couple of times when the shipping was over $1.00. It never worked for me. Buyers generally don't like to see the higher bid price or like dman3 said, they think you're putting them down as being stupid or something.
They'll bid on an item that costs $5.00 plus $3.50 to ship for a total of $8.50 rather than bid on an identical or similar item that costs $7.00 including shipping that they can BIN and not get into a bidding war over.
Some buyers may look beyond the number to determine whether they're getting a true bargain, but they might be harder to find.
Right now I'm only offering free shipping on my phone card auctions, simply because the postage is less than $1.00. It seems to be OK to do that for the cheaper postage items because you really don't have to jack the bid price up any, if at all if the items are popular.
http://bjgrolle.freehomepage.com
|
dman3
|
posted on July 29, 2001 03:26:33 PM
Yeah I think the free SHipping would work as long as you dont say free shipping and if some one rights to ask What shipping is just tell them shipping is included in the winning bid or there BIN price.
Just dont call it free, I dont think its mucfh different then what many sellers feel about free auction sites there are many who like the Idea of free but they feel free listing and selling cant work they dont even bother.
Buyer or seller we basically have all the same thoughts and opinoins were all looking for a deal one side of the business or the other but free is just to good to be true for a vet of this internet buying and selling .
http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
Email [email protected]
|
kerrigirl
|
posted on July 30, 2001 12:04:37 AM
I think free shipping will HURT your sales unless the shipping is very very low, like under $1.00.
Keep in mind people search down the ebay lists for the best price. Myself, I look at numbers on the list and then decide to look. I tried free shipping a few times, and it seemed to be very cold reception.
Plus, as someone stated, you will be paying FEES on top of the actual cost. Of course, if you sell multiple items (dutch) then you will quickly make up for it.
I think the majority out there try to move as much to the shipping cost and "handling" as possible to make the item appear cheaper with a lower starting bid, and save on ebay fees.
|
quickdraw29
|
posted on July 30, 2001 12:24:47 AM
Don't do it. Speaking from experience, it didn't increase bidding, but it did draw out the biggest losers to bid on my auctions, and I'm talking about worse ones than I'm currently getting, and that is real bad.
|
quickdraw29
|
posted on July 30, 2001 12:26:03 AM
hic-up.
[ edited by quickdraw29 on Jul 30, 2001 12:28 AM ]
|
tjbrocean
|
posted on July 30, 2001 05:27:08 AM
I do think free shipping works great with buy it now. I definately had an increase in sales since implenting this, plus it helps me move inventory out a lot quicker--- but my items usually are under $2.00 to ship, so no big deal for me to build that in the BIN price. If they chose to bid and not use BIN, tuff luck, then they pay the quoted shipping price on the auction. I have not had one problem with this as of yet. Customers love the ease and so do I.
Jen
|
