International shipping without tracking - is it worth the angst?

[tentrees123]

Hi to all the board brains trusts 

If you can bear to read through my long missive, I would love your advice & your experience with non-tracking shipping options, particularly for international sales.

Every year I go through the same debate - should I offer regular Airmail large letter shipping on a particular stock line I sell?

They are small Venetian glass intaglios - even with some protective wrapping they easily fit a small padded envelope and can be sent for the up to 50gm $2.95 Economy Air Letters (using the CN22 Customs declaration and ticking the Merchandise box)

I probably wouldn't hesitate if they sold at $10 even $20 - but they are priced from $40-$100. Actually I don't have much stock of them here anymore - I mostly sell them as jewelery supplies elsewhere and I have the same shipping debate there too 

I am regularly asked by buyers to ship them for cheaper - I probably would charge $5 to cover postage, packaging & eBay fees - but compared with the $25 flat rate I currently offer (standard international shipping with tracking) it is a more attractive rate for buyers.

BUT - is it worth the angst? No tracking - too much paranoia on eBay these days with the estimated delivery dates being taken as gospel truth by buyers, and everyone believing every Seller and every Buyer is out to rip you off 

They are a niche market - won't ever be huge sellers - but I do feel I would sell more with cheaper shipping - but again, is it worth the angst? My profit margins are not high - one 'item not received' forced refund would hurt - I can't up my price (that is set by my supplier anyway)

Sorry - I write way too much....

If someone bought multiples - other than adding a cost for each additional piece, is there anyway to set up the shipping to change rates depending on the dollar value of the transaction?

I know some of you ship without tracking all the time - but you may be way bigger than me - high turn over can take the sting out of losses

Thanks for any guidance....

BTW - once upon a time I actually won a chargeback case- as proof of postage I had a photo of the addressed envelope at the point of posting with the postage receipt 

[digital*ghost]

You could compromise and send large letter with extra cover. That will add $9.60 to the cost, but then the total would be less than fully tracked and youd be covered by losses. My PO lets me take a quick snap of the fully addressed letter with the postage paid label on it.

[tentrees123]

Thanks for that - must look into how that would work & how easy it would be to make the claim with AusPost. Probably requires all kinds of 'proof' from the buyer claiming non receipt....

Boy - I have been spending too much time reading the community pages - it is turning me paranoid 😞

[digital*ghost]

If you have an ABN and send at least 250 parcels a year, Business 250 would also be an option. That will at least give you a 10% discount on fully tracked international packages.

[tentrees123]

Sadly nowhere near that amount of sales anymore 😞 It still is not a significant saving to pass on to buyers who only want to pay a few dollars for shipping

[digital*ghost]

There's really going to be pros and cons to whatever option you choose, so you just need to decide on what pros you prioritise, and what cons you don't want to be involved. Or, in other words, will the (potential) rewards outweigh the risks. 

One thing I do know is that I let international selling scare me off for a long time, for no real good reason. Granted, I don't sell internationally on eBay (for some of the reasons you mention), and many of my item values are quite a bit lower than yours on the stuff I do most international trade on and send at letter rates. For the higher value stuff ($40+), since I'm able to set my own prices, I actually set it up so that prices are inclusive of postage for domestic (Australian) buyers, and then I add the difference for tracked packages for international buyers, eg $50 free post to Aussies, $50 + $15 for international buyers. It makes things a little tricker if someone returns an item (since to them they only paid $15 post even though technically I charged $25), but it happens so rarely I haven't even thought about charging a restocking fee or anything. Personally, I like using $3 letter rates more, because the less I'm spending on postage, the less I am risking if I have to refund for legitimate reasons (faulty, arrived broken, got lost in the mail etc). 

I hate to say this, cos I'm an Aussie and all that, but I have a higher rate of dodgy things coming from fellow Aussies (who always also seem to be sellers themselves 😞 ) than I do my international buyers, others may experience things differently, though. 

Other alternatives would be Skippy Post (cheaper tracked postage to international destinations, takes longer, costs $11 to ship a box of parcels to them in addition to actual postage costs, and they then ship on to Singapore, and tracked shipping is purchased from there - these may not make it within eBay's estimates, and you won't get tracking numbers for individual packages until they're shipped from Singapore, so you also wouldn't be able to prove shipment within handling times unless you extend it out a fair bit). 

Or selling them in sets, if applicable - eg $25 postage on one $40 item will put a lot of people off, but $25 on a $100-$200 purchase will feel  more reasonable), so that would be worth considering if they can be sold in matching sets or lots, and / or the frequency of multiple item purchases warrants it. 

[tentrees123]

Thank you for the thoughtful & insightful post - I really appreciate your time!!

Yes, I have much to think about - have been playing with the extra cover idea, but I can see that isn't so straightforward either.

I have been selling for years and in all honesty have had very few problems and only ever had 2, 3 at the most packages never arrive. So it is a game of pros & cons - risks versus increase in sales

Thanks again.

Good selling