Catch-22: as shipping costs rise, customers want discounts

HenriettaOn 06.24.2008 at 6:18 pm Said:

@ FormerlyMarikabooks

I have formed the habit of copying my posts to clipboard. If they go pfft, which they mostly do not (to be fair) I paste to my blog and really go to town.

HenriettaOn 06.24.2008 at 6:25 pm Said:

@ Mechelle, you are ALREADY offering free shipping on multiple item purchases, as I did when I sold on eBay. Didn’t do me much good on the shipping cost DSRs either. I would like to point out when I invoiced I always expressed the free shipping as a discount on the listed shipping charge so there is no question my buyers didn’t know how much they were saving.

When I used to buy on European eBay sites I was apalled at shipping charges, but you know what, their shipping costs are much higher than ours. In fact I can and do ship to the UK for less than your UK seller can ship domestic mail.

Patricia1On 06.24.2008 at 6:37 pm Said:

Henrietta - you’re right. When we give combined shipping - that, too, constitutes free shipping. I’m presently selling some prints with shipping at 3.00 each. Customers are buying more then one - I’ve shipped up to 5 prints on that same 3.00 and even with breaks like that - they just love to play around with that shipping cost star. Its just a toy to them…might as well deal with it. I might add you almost never get a thank you for combining shipping like that. Sometimes I feel so unloved

DavidOn 06.24.2008 at 7:21 pm Said:

I thought the research showed that buyers were not coming back do to receiving retalitory Negative feedback. This story does not fly with what they were telling us before.

Not all of a sudden it is about “FREE” shipping? Give me a break, it is just another way for ebay to make more money, not to give a better buying esperience.

AmberOn 06.24.2008 at 10:08 pm Said:

Free shipping on websites has nothing to do with free shipping on eBay.

Notice that even Amazon and BN have minimum purchase requirements despite receiving MASSIVE UPS discounts. Amazon also CHARGES for shipping for it’s Marketplace sellers. My initial and combined shipping charges are LESS than Amazon’s charges for Marketplace sellers.

And re: the DSRs, so many who offer free shipping are getting dinged unknowingly by buyers who think a 3 is the same as N/A. There’s no such thing as free shipping–it is shipping included, as the price of the items are nearly always raised to cover it.

No way am I going to offer free shipping internationally. Books are heavy!

SunOn 06.24.2008 at 10:35 pm Said:

Do an A/B test. Create another ID that sells the same stuff but offer free shipping to a limited region (48 states, 50 states & APO/FPO, whatever). The free shipping would have to factor in higher listing fees & FVF, but if free shipping is that of a strong pull, then convenience shoppers may not care enough about the price difference. I know in my category, margins are made on the penny so free shipping is impossible on eBay. (Your own web store is a different story). Of course, eBay wants to push the free shipping idea to increase revenue for them, but accept any marketing advice carefully as it may or may not apply to your business.

Concerned ebayerOn 06.25.2008 at 1:31 am Said:

Maybe ebay should lower their fees to help sellers offset the margin crunch.

Oh wait, JD said they lowered their take rate already I forgot.

That’s right they gave BUY free insertion fees!!

haha

What a bunch of liars.

Patricia1On 06.25.2008 at 9:05 am Said:

Please don’t ask ebay to lower their fees again. We’re still staggering after the last fee “decrease”. JD said “we listened” - well, unfortunately it wasn’t to us….maybe to their own number crunchers but certainly not to us. Talking about fees - I can’t believe what they’ve done to stores. LOL Glad mine is closed and gone.

AmberOn 06.25.2008 at 9:18 am Said:

Patricia,

My store fees have actually decreased overall.

Of course, my sales are so dismal thanks to the buy-flooded category that they are taking a larger % of my gross sales.

Received my first neutral in 5 years of selling the other day. Clearly a case of a buyer not reading the description, but I can now safely say that the Are You Sure? page with the little checkmarks doesn’t do anything. The buyer never contacted me until the little gray 1 appeared on my feedback page. And, as ebay corporate is realizing, I’m completely disinclined to work with the buyer now. No reason to, as the item was as described and the feedback is permanent.

As for blaming the websites, Brews, that’s not always the case. Amazon does not show you shipping charges unless you hunt for them or you are in the middle of checkout. It’s important to keep in mind that Amazon does not offer Free Shipping on every item or purchase. Only those shipped by Amazon with Amazon’s deep UPS discounts. And let’s not forget the 3-5 BUSINESS day delay in processing should you choose free shipping. No way would that fly in the DSR world of eBay.

(P.S. Looks like I can post again–wahoo)

MechelleOn 06.25.2008 at 10:25 am Said:

The store Subscription fees, Picture Manager fees Listing fees, and FVFs seem to be excessive charging to me. I think a store subscription should cover the store listing fees and picture manager- really why pay 50, 10 and .03 for each listing each month and the picture service.

I was very shocked to see how much they increased store fees.- 2 cent listing discount 2% FVF increase - I don’t see how this fee change decreased eBay’s take as they said it would. they gave me 2 cents, but took an additional 20 cents for every 9.99 purchase- they gained 18 cents. This is how they treated their sure thing sellers- people who have a store (prior to this debacle) pretty much guaranteed products listed on the site. Rather than demonstrate appreciation by decreasing fees(getting rid of picture, gallery, and listing fees) they insult us by decreasing our fees 2 cents and increasing them by 2% of the sold price-p 18 cents for 9.99.

Really eBay you take to much- 50 dollar store, 3c cent store listings (for low priced items) 12% sold price, 3 to 4+% + .30 paypal, and picture manager. Do you see how greedy you are being. To see this and to want us to consume the cost of shipping (because as Norrington said we own the inventory so we can afford to assume to loss - interesting) for our customers.

It really is as though you guys think we, our money, and our products are your products. You actually believe eBay sellers means eBay’s Sellers.

MechelleOn 06.25.2008 at 11:14 am Said:

Yes- scaring off buyers

I know eBay “leaders” think they are gaining favor with the buying only members with their little pop up feature communicating they no longer need to worry about those big bad criminal thieving sellers because eBay took care of you and no longer lets them leave you negative or neutral feedback, but this looks so bad!!!

One of my customers told me she found the message DISTURBING and she only buys on eBay. So a buying only member finds the message DISTURBING- that’s a pretty strong word. Not annoying, stupid, bothersome- DISTURBING.

You may want to think about how many other buying only members find your message DISTURBING and are turned off by the DISTURBING message so much that they don’t return.

I read some where that eBay acknowledged that they looked at the data in the changes but didn’t consider the emotions- this is another example of not considering emotion.

You can not send the message that you are their protector from the big bad seller and expect them to come and shop from the big bad seller. You must remember you don’t have a product to offer these people. If they are not comfortable shopping at our stores because of your DISTURBING message then what is the point.

I find it interesting that all of the policy changes that take place are not effectively communicated to all eBay sellers- no pop up reminders - or messages for us we learn about the new rules with policy violation sanctions. We don’t even get a mass DISTURBING message.

The reality that some buyers (and I’m sure it is more than 1) find your message DISTURBING should DISTURB you.

MechelleOn 06.25.2008 at 12:15 pm Said:

My fees have decreased as well, but not my store fees. I am one of the low str people who did benefit from the gallery free change. My comment specifically is directed toward store fees. I simply feel as though I should be charged less because I have a store- listing fees and picture subscription fees seem like over kill to me.

sandiOn 06.25.2008 at 12:50 pm Said:

I am not sure why my post was deleted. It was simply data from the latest survey on ecommerce trends?? Granted it contradicted eBay’s free shipping propaganda.

Ebay needs to get it; free shipping is so last year. All data from other retailers supports this - free shipping is NOT the direction ecommerce is going. I posted the trends report from Feb 2008 that clearly states that previous. The report that was deleted showed the large leaps in growth ecommerce has experienced so far this year (it has disappeared since I posted it last night) the data also shows sales are up across the board (well except ebay).

If ebay was truly concerned about free shipping, truly believed that is why sales are down because of shipping costs - they would in fact find a programming method that would enable sellers to offer free shipping, yet not charge said sellers FVF on the shipping amount.

Until they do that, the push for free shipping will be seen for exactly what it is, yet another way for ebay to make more money with no regard to either the buyer or seller. They continually place all burdens on the seller, Here is an opportunity for them to “show” everyone really is in this together.

EricOn 06.25.2008 at 1:24 pm Said:

I know free shipping pulls in buyers from the categories I have listed and sold items in eBay. However eBay is “taxing” free shipping more by their own policies. Most sellers will increase the price of products with free shipping a bit to make up the increasing cost of shipping and thus reduce the risk exposure of increasing shipping costs. eBay decreased the price on the listing fees and increased the price on the FVF fee. This increases the fees eBay receives for the increased price in the product due to increasing shipping costs.

If eBay is serious about increasing conversion through free shipping, eBay should offer FVF discounts for all listings with free shipping. Otherwise eBay is expecting to reap the benefits of free shipping while doing nothing to mitigate the extra risk of free shipping for sellers.

Patricia1On 06.25.2008 at 2:08 pm Said:

I don’t feel ebay knows or cares to know what little profit they are leaving their sellers - the only thing they can see is their own bottom line and how to make it fatter. They fail to see that a seller’s bottom line has to be fed as well or they can’t sell on Ebay. Yes, get with it Ebay - you’re not the only one in this business venture. Sellers realize you need to make a profit but if you keep running roughshod over them they have no choice but to leave! Nobody lists on Ebay for the “fun” of it!….and you no longer are so hot about bringing buyers and sellers together. Believe it or not!

YES! Heaven forbid they come out with another “decrease” in fees!