Free postage - does it attract more buyers

[jaks_thingz]

I am in the process of compiling listings for an assortment of video games. These are discs only, so can be posted as a large letter for a couple of dollars....

Normally I add postage to my listings.. But i'm wondering if offering free shipping would attract more buyers

[padi*0409]

---

@whiznumber6 wrote:

Having said that, I often have buyers purchase multiple items and paying without waiting for a combined invoice (so, paying five times as much postage as they need to in some cases), so free postage clearly isn't a determining factor for some!

---

I have to wonder that buyers paying before waiting for a combined invoice is either 1. Not reading the item description propery, or 2. Not even being aware that there is such a thing as "combined postage" (to save on postage costs).............

@ springy.

"What ebay's default setting is, I do not know".    It used to be "best match" springy (what is now called "most relevant" lol), but most members have searches set for "ending soonest", "newly listed" or "price + postage lowest".

[collect247]

Yes it did work pretty good as my items sold for a great price and the items were from a collection over 20 years so for me it didn't matter what I got in the end because it was way more than what it costed me to collect.

And the sellers now that sell the same stuff I used to do sell at BIN and also auction and the auctions are selling alot quicker than the BIN so I suppose if you want the item gone quicker then the auction is the way to go.

The catergory looks like it's split down the middle with free post and charging for post with the auction side of it having a postage cost rather than free post as they're being started between $0.01-$0.99 lol.

But the items are selling for good prices so basically it's up to the individual seller as whether to charge postage or not.

[davewil1964]

---

@padi*0409 wrote:

---

@whiznumber6 wrote:

Having said that, I often have buyers purchase multiple items and paying without waiting for a combined invoice (so, paying five times as much postage as they need to in some cases), so free postage clearly isn't a determining factor for some!

---

I have to wonder that buyers paying before waiting for a combined invoice is either 1. Not reading the item description propery, or 2. Not even being aware that there is such a thing as "combined postage" (to save on postage costs).............

@ springy.

"What ebay's default setting is, I do not know".    It used to be "best match" springy (what is now called "most relevant" lol), but most members have searches set for "ending soonest", "newly listed" or "price + postage lowest".

---

If all items are 'free' post there is no facility for the seller to offer any discounts. I suppose they just pocket it.

[heihachi_73]

As far as I'm concerned, free postage is a farce created by eBay to artificially inflate prices to they can get a higher cut of the profits. Allegedly free postage does nothing but pushes up game prices to cover the postage costs, while with genuine free postage the seller loses out by having to eat the postage costs.

When looking at games I select price+postage, lowest first (because Best Match is as useless as udders on a bull) so it doesn't matter whether a game is $7 + $2 postage or $9 + free postage. If a seller uses satchel/parcel post instead of a large letter their items are moved way down the search results due to the ripoff that is Australia Post's parcel rates.

If it's an expensive game (where tracking and/or signature on delivery would be nice), or if it requires parcel post due to the thickness or weight, that is a different story.

When it comes to listing items under $10, I wouldn't bother with "free" postage. I certainly wouldn't list a Wii Balance Board for $10 with free postage!

[digital*ghost]

---

@davewil1964 wrote:

---

If all items are 'free' post there is no facility for the seller to offer any discounts. I suppose they just pocket it.

---

That's what promotions manager is for, or at least, it can be used that way (i.e. pricing discounts for multiple item puerchases - the cart must be used, of course).

I once had to explain to a buyer why I refunded excess postage and she said that she had no idea she was buying from the same seller... Using the app, of course, so much less likely to see things like that, I guess. 

Re: free post auction items, this was a really long time ago now, and the poster in question hasn't posted in a few years, but when they did they related an experiment where they listed identical items at auction (not at the same time, but in succsession), some with free post and some with postage added (they also had these items listed at BIN). 

Anyway, pretty much without fail, the auctions with postage added separately acheived higher totals than the auctions with free post, which suggests that people do attach separate values to item prices and the postage component, and I think a similar experiment would likely yield similar results today (in an auction-friendly climate, anyway). 

[zanadoo_56]

I'm a buyer and I generally sort searches by lowest cost and postage.  However....

As the cost of postage for FREE POSTAGE items is factored into the cost of the item it really only works if you are buying a single item otherwise if you are buying more than one you are paying full postage for each item though they may be sent in a single parcel. 

So if you are buying multples then it's often better to look at postage as separate, especially if the seller combines postage or discounts extra items (eg ist item full postage, each additional item up to 5 is free postage or postage is a dollar per additional item etc).

I guess you need to consder what your customers buy - one off items or multiples, and how much difference the costs are.