free postage - good idea or not?

ali-t

I am busy today writing up descriptions for items to sell on ebay today and am wondering whether to raise the starting price and to offer free postage or start lower and add postage costs.

I usually have postage seperately but with the price of postage going up, it seems a bit off putting to have postage that may be higher than the end price of the item.

The items are all NWT clothes if that makes any difference.

Any thoughts?

Crowqueen

To be honest, if the postage is going to be higher than the end price of the item, then it's probably not worth selling stuff at all.

I largely sell books and I know which ones are worth listing and which are just going to go to Oxfam. I've still got about twenty listings on the go, with free postage (I find it works for me), but I learned a long time ago, even when postage was relatively cheap, that it's a waste of time paying to list some things. With inclusive postage, you are paying fees on it (unless you caught the free listing weekend just yesterday and on Saturday) so you need to be a bit selective as a result to make sure you don't end up with a lot of unsold stuff.

Up to you; buyers seem to like seeing one price, you get automatic 5* ratings for postage, but you also pay a bit more to list.

ali-t

Thanks for the input. The points you made are what I have been swithering with. I might wait for the next free listing weekend and sell them then.

The items are all nwt and have price tags from £18 - £60 but TBH I only expect to get £5-10 per item if they sell as I haven't had much success selling on ebay of late.

chemical.galaxy

The main problem for me when offering free postage is that i can't give discounts on postage if someone buys more than one item, and have to faff around sending refunds from my Paypal account!

RainbowDrops

I've been experimenting a bit during the free listing weekends, putting free postage on the smaler items.
I figures it's worth it to try and get a feww easy 5*P&Ps, and guess what, the only buyers who don't seem to leave feedback at all are the one's who bleedin' well bought the free P&P items! :mad::rotfl:

ali-t

chemical.galaxy wrote: »

The main problem for me when offering free postage is that i can't give discounts on postage if someone buys more than one item, and have to faff around sending refunds from my Paypal account!

I don't understand why you would give a refund. If you have said free P&P, surely buyers don't expect money knocked off the price of the item to compensate if they buy more than one?

lovinituk

Free postage is rarely actually free postage unless you are being charitable! Free postage usually just means that the item price starts higher to cover the cost of postage.

chemical.galaxy wrote: »

The main problem for me when offering free postage is that i can't give discounts on postage if someone buys more than one item, and have to faff around sending refunds from my Paypal account!

But its FREE postage on all the items so there is nothing to refund for combined postage

Seriously though, I offer 'free' postage on some items but I don't refund anything if multiple items are purchased. This is one of the big advantages of offering free postage as everyone accepts it.