Simple Delivery & Variation Listings

se2020

How does simple delivery work on a varation listing?

I have a listing with variations on the pack sizes,
Pack of 1 is a large letter,
Pack of 10 is a 1kg Small parcel, 
Pack of 100 is a 5kg medium parcel. 

Previously I just offered free postage and worked the postage cost into the pricing.

Now, the only option I am being offered is Simple Delivery so either myself or the buyer could be over charged or under paid for some sales?

Unless there is an option to change delivery for each variable that I am missing?

PocketWatchMan

I'm only going by anecdotal experiences, so, from other people that I know and also a couple of other industry forums that I use. But I have heard many people say they are leaving or have left ebay now, specifically for this reason. You are given no choice but to use simple delivery. Further complicating the issue is the number of people who say they use the (SD) postage label ebay give them and the parcel has been rejected when they go to post it at the post office. Not sure what people have been doing in those situations. 

Spoonie_Turtle

Do private sellers still have the facility to do multiple variant listings?

If so then I guess choosing 'seller pays' makes it effectively the same as offering free postage, on the buyer's end (unless I've badly misunderstood, very possible) so you still just factor it into the listing price anyway.

Although I don't know about the reality of whether you're able to have options of different parcel sizes on the same listing for simple delivery.

se2020

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Do private sellers still have the facility to do multiple variant listings?

If so then I guess choosing 'seller pays' makes it effectively the same as offering free postage, on the buyer's end (unless I've badly misunderstood, very possible) so you still just factor it into the listing price anyway.

Although I don't know about the reality of whether you're able to have options of different parcel sizes on the same listing for simple delivery.

Yes, variation listings are still available for private sellers.

It's the multiple quantity discount that they removed for private sellers. 
You can still do basically the same thing with a variation listing by making the only variation Pack Size though


I can choose Seller Pays which is the same to the buyer as the free postage I was offering before.
The difference this time is, what option do I pick for the Simple Delivery?

If my lightest variation / pack size is under 100g and the heaviest one is over 3kg  and I can only.choose 1 SD option I'd have to choose the 15kg option and I'll be paying £8.41 for every postage label 
That won't work when the smallest pack size (1) is only selling for £3.50 including delivery

The only way around it I can see so far is to forget about the variations and create a different listing for each pack size.

The funny thing is,  On a single listing I still get the option to use custom postage. It's only on a variation listing that I only get the choice of simple delivery. 

soolin

EBay have been threatening to remove MVLs from private sellers for a while, they did seem to disappear from the private listing tool, but whether it’s a glitch or not, it does seem to have come back in some categories now.

I don’t think there is a way round the SD issue now as there’s no option to add different rules for different purchases within the same listing so eBay have in effect made it difficult for a MVL listing on a private account, which was always their intention. However since a private seller has 300 new free listings a month, set each variation up different.y and control it that way. 

soolin

PocketWatchMan said:

I'm only going by anecdotal experiences, so, from other people that I know and also a couple of other industry forums that I use. But I have heard many people say they are leaving or have left ebay now, specifically for this reason. You are given no choice but to use simple delivery. Further complicating the issue is the number of people who say they use the (SD) postage label ebay give them and the parcel has been rejected when they go to post it at the post office. Not sure what people have been doing in those situations. 

There is a dedicated SD thread and yes a number of people completely panicked and ran about waving their arms in the air crying they were all doomed. Some fairly vocal users have left , many though have crept back and work SD to their advantage rather than just assume they can’t manage it or work with it.

the SD roll out has completely missed the eBay deadline dates, which always seemed wildly optimistic, and changes have been made, notably the exemption for quite a lot of large letter items and overweight parcels. Many of us are still able to use custom postage even on our parcel size items, no idea why that is still happening.

As stated though there is a dedicated SD thread where all this has been covered already, and discussing it further on this thread is not helpful for the OP. 

RedImp_2

How many private sellers are selling things that can be bought in quantities ranging from 1 to 100?

se2020

RedImp_2 said:

How many private sellers are selling things that can be bought in quantities ranging from 1 to 100?

I don't know.
If ebay would add Private Seller/Business Seller as a search filter and add the listing type as a search filter you could probably work it out..