Selling Your Stuff on Amazon Part 13 - Advice for newbies in first two posts

petestan

larlie1983 wrote: »

Is there any way to lower the postage charged to buyers? Another seller is selling the same item I have on Ebay and they are charging the buyer £2.51 UK delivery, however when I try and list the same item, the buyer is going to be charged £4.59. The item only costs 75p to post so if I was the buyer I wouldn't be happy if I was charged £4.59.

Thanks

The other way is to lower the cost of the item so that the total including postage is what you want it to be, so for example £4.59 + 1p for the item = £4.60 total.

larlie1983

forgotmyname wrote: »

For some reason amazon adds a postage cost way above whats sensible, I have no idea why.
I do know that some 2nd hand items are actually dearer than the new items that amazon themselves sell. Because amazon offer free postage.

Sell it on ebay with 75p postage or even free postage.

petestan wrote: »

The other way is to lower the cost of the item so that the total including postage is what you want it to be, so for example £4.59 + 1p for the item = £4.60 total.

Thanks for the replies. I'm currently selling the item on Ebay and it's doing very well. I was just looking at other places to also sell it.

It seems that with the set Amazon postage, I would be pricing my self out of the market before I had even started. A competitor does have cheaper postage charges but it just keeps setting mine at twice as much.

Taadaa

...on the other hand, I have got stung with a 4.88 postage bill when Amazon would only let my charge 2.80. Adjusting the price of the item would have made the price uncompetitive and I would never have got a sale, so I took the hit to at least get something back. I have e mailed them about this on several occasions, but to no avail.

Blackjack_Davy

forgotmyname wrote: »

For some reason amazon adds a postage cost way above whats sensible, I have no idea why.

Or way below whats sensible, I recently sold a games console and accessories on Amazon, they seem to fetch better prices there than on eBay - and Amazon would only charge £2.20 for postage! For an item weighing up to 10Kg's?! Bizaare.

petestan

Taadaa wrote: »

...on the other hand, I have got stung with a 4.88 postage bill when Amazon would only let my charge 2.80. Adjusting the price of the item would have made the price uncompetitive and I would never have got a sale, so I took the hit to at least get something back. I have e mailed them about this on several occasions, but to no avail.

If the item was book then the way I describe it is swings and roundabouts, as if it's a heavy book yes it means you lose on the postage costs but if it's a light and thin book then you can gain significantly on postage.
If you sell on amazon you have to accept that otherwise simply don't sell there, sell everything on ebay. Personally I just don't like selling on ebay I much prefer amazon there's not as many scammers as on the bay, but I do mostly buy stuff on the bay due to it being cheaper.

lovinituk

larlie1983 wrote: »

Is there any way to lower the postage charged to buyers? Another seller is selling the same item I have on Ebay and they are charging the buyer £2.51 UK delivery, however when I try and list the same item, the buyer is going to be charged £4.59. The item only costs 75p to post so if I was the buyer I wouldn't be happy if I was charged £4.59.

Thanks

To be able to set your own postage fees you have to pay a monthly fee to be a Pro Merchant Seller.

Crowqueen

I wouldn't be happy either with an item costing 75p to post but an ebay seller charging 2.51 to send it. Amazon give postage credits and some buyers are daft enough not to realise that this is beyond the seller's control - but not many.

As a buyer I'm not keen on Amazon's postage costs (£5 to post a pair of sunglasses a few years ago was a bit steep! :eek:) but at least they are good value for money and hold sellers to their responsibilities, so I come back.

larlie1983

lovinituk wrote: »

To be able to set your own postage fees you have to pay a monthly fee to be a Pro Merchant Seller.

Thanks, I did wonder if that was the case but couldn't see it mentioned on the info I read about becoming a Pro Merchant Seller.

petestan

lovinituk wrote: »

To be able to set your own postage fees you have to pay a monthly fee to be a Pro Merchant Seller.

Not necessarily, the postage for books, cd's, dvd's and videos is fixed whether you are a pro seller on a non pro seller, if you sell items in other departments you can sometimes set your own postage but you have to be pre approved by amazon to do this.
However if you go down the fullfillment by amazon route (FBA), whereby you send all your goods to amazon's warehouse for them to send the items out on your behalf that is where you can charge less for items than everyone else.

http://services.amazon.co.uk/services/fulfilment-by-amazon/features-benefits/?ld=AZUKFBAFooter

Kite2010

Is there an easy way to update all my listings to get rid of international postage as it's not going to be worth it offering international postage when Amazon gives you £1.80 and it will be at least £2.70 to post out. Although I might go though my listings getting rid of my First Class delivery line (not sure if it helps win me sales against Zover as people often go for the cheapest even if it is coming from the channel islands [although they might move back to the mainland as the Vat relief is gone]