What's the advantages of offering Free Postage ?

virgil_tracy

I notice some sellers seem to prefer to offer free postage on items , is there an advantage to this (for the seller I mean ) ?

soolin

virgil_tracy wrote: »

I notice some sellers seem to prefer to offer free postage on items , is there an advantage to this (for the seller I mean ) ?

If you are a TRS you get discounts on fees and one of the requirements is that you offer free postage. For all sellers then best match is supposed to give preference to those showing free postage.

lastly, if you offer free postage then you automatically get 5 * in that category.

virgil_tracy

sorry - what's a TRS?

edit - also - I assume it only comes up in the listing as Free Postage for UK buyers .

soolin

virgil_tracy wrote: »

sorry - what's a TRS?

edit - also - I assume it only comes up in the listing as Free Postage for UK buyers .

TRS = Top rated seller

Free postage will apply to the host country- so if i list on ebay UK then it is free for the UK. However, 95% of my items are available overseas, so I just add the additional postage costs for 'Europe' and the Rest of the World appropriately when I list. The that means all my BIN items can be immediate payment required as the invoice picks up the correct postage for the country of the bidder.

harveybobbles

I generally offer free postage on most of my items.

Buyers like the F word.

pinkshoes

As a mostly a buyer, free sounds nice! It feels better value for money (even though it isn't obviously), and the likes of Amazon also offer free postage, so people are familiar with it.

If anything, people often expect it so will look for it.

I always offer free postage when I sell, and set the starting price at the lowest i am willing to accept, always working out what postage is obviously.

mrcol1000

Agree with the above. People are much happier about a transaction if the postage is free. It also saves the buyers who complain they got charged £3 for postage when the stamp price was only £2.80.

The only problem with it is that it makes it difficult to sell multiple items as there is no postage discount for multiple buys and so less appealing to buyers.

RMS2

harveybobbles wrote: »

I generally offer free postage on most of my items.

Buyers like the F word.

As a buyer, I'm more than aware that it is costed in and the total price is the important figure.



Postage included is useful if you have to return an item, because full cost is refunded.


It's also useful to stop the fools who charge ridiculous prices. I've gone to buy a couple of widgets (not on ebay) a few times recently, after searching I've found them, usually less than £2.


Can't find anything out about delivery until you go to checkout, only to find they charge £10 + VAT for orders under £30.

kalsha

mrcol1000 wrote: »

The only problem with it is that it makes it difficult to sell multiple items as there is no postage discount for multiple buys and so less appealing to buyers.

If a buyer buys multiple items, is it not possible to offer some discount - not just towards postage but any discount? If the buyer asked for a revised invoice would I be able to offer some discount on it?

mrcol1000

kalsha wrote: »

If a buyer buys multiple items, is it not possible to offer some discount - not just towards postage but any discount? If the buyer asked for a revised invoice would I be able to offer some discount on it?

I think you can if you have a shop. I am yet to find a way to do it without one though. You can not add discounts to the invoice though unless you charge postage. Unless someone else can correct me on this.

janb5

I offer free postage which does work well in most instances as my ratings have improved. I do get irritated that ebay constantly email me on items that haven't sold and suggest lowering my prices to such a degree that the postage costs would wipe out any profit. They seem to ignore that the prices include p & p!