Tracked Postage on Low Value Items - Experiment

[digital*ghost]

For various reasons I've decided eBay will be the guinea pig for trialling tracked postage only, starting from tomorrow (my shop has been closed over a week, so this will be interesting) - I'm posting about it here because a lot of my items are low value ($4-$7), and just thought there might be some sellers with similar business structures who could be interested in the end results (whether it be a success or failure etc), in which case I'd follow up in a few weeks, and again in a few months. 

If there's any specific info or stats someone would be interested in knowing, let me know so I can keep track of it. 

A couple of things to note, in case it puts any subsequent info I post in the right perspective, while I do get a lot of single-item purchases, the core of my business is multi-item purchases from repeat customers; which is something I expect would make the higher postage cost a little easier to take (postage is going from a bit over $3 flat rate to a bit over $6 flat rate). 

I've also set up a discount for orders of $50+, so this may have an effect on some of the changes in buying patterns (if I still get any sales, anyway  ).

Lastly, some of my buyers are quite aware of the other platforms I sell through, and I won't be making any changes on those as yet, so this may result in decreases on eBay, but increases elsewhere (if I detect a significant pattern of that, I'll note it here when I update for anyone interested in that kind of stat). 

If no one is interested, all good, and we can carry on as though you din't see nuthin' here. 

[countessalmirena]

I don't think it's likely, digital*ghost... AP seem to have gone in a different direction from anything that makes "own packaging" more attractive, I think.

Interesting results so far. Are the peace of mind and $0 loss on missing parcels worth it to date?

[digital*ghost]

Probably, it's just such a colossal waste of resources, though.  And I think there'd be more pros than cons for AP to allow it, since they could reduce production costs, and they can impose the size / weight restrictions in a much more practical way (by which I mean, if you generate a label through an account and try to sneak oversized / overweight packages with letter labels, they'll know exactly who is pushing envelopes in that regard, pun intended. 🤣

They brought in compostable satchels a while ago which I was happy to see, but they aren't for My Post usage (they cost $1 for a 500g one I think, and then you pay for the postage  / tracking label over the counter after) - down to 75c per satchel if you buy 100+. I asked AP via Facebook if they'd consider introducing them for use with My Post since they'd have the most impact with people who send in volume, and got the most politician answer ever back (i.e. a complete non-committal non-answer, "we're always looking to introduce new and exciting products, stay tuned for what we've got coming up next" kinda response 🙄). 

I bought my own compostable satchels (26c each, Aus made etc), but they're only good for up to 500g due to the price jump for own packaging. 

Anyway, to answer your question (I'm getting a t-shirt made with "but I digress..." printed on it, 😁 ) - the last couple of weeks were quite good, but as I rather prophetically noted at the time, that was subject to change, and change it did. 

Super slow this week, but it's not just eBay so while the postage could be a contributing factor, I don't think it's the only one. I do have quite a bit of work to catch up on (re-organising, photos, listings etc), so I might actually get a chance to do some of that over the next week or so, so silver linings and all that (as long as this dry spell doesn't last too long 😅 ). 

[digital*ghost]

And I didn't actually answer your question.... 🤣

" Are the peace of mind and $0 loss on missing parcels worth it to date?" 

Yes, for me anyway. If I'm being really honest, I'm still recovering from last year (I have never worked so hard in my life during those peak retail months 😳), and I'm actually currently enjoying the slowdown, along with fewer "where is my item" enquiries (they now only come in occasionally for untracked packages from other site orders). Having that peak to compare current sales to makes for an odd juxtaposition of "darn, things are really slow right now, this is a bit scary", and "thank goodness I get a chance to breathe for a while". 

Perhaps I need to fully get my groove back before I can assess things truly objectively, but as an attempt at that now - financially, no, not really worth it thus far, but health-wise (both physical and mental) most definitely. 

[eol-products]

Have you been checking your tracked letters for delivery. I went back through the last month of mine and find a lot dont show in the system. Some don't show delivered in ebay but delivered on Aust Post.

[digital*ghost]

I usually check them 24 hours or so after uploading to make sure I entered the numbers right, if no tracking events on eBay I check via AP to make sure there's results there (if I've gotten one wrong, I'll usually have gotten multiple wrong, since I copy and paste the first number and just edit the last few digits as needed). 

I checked a few just now and got a really weird result with AP on one of them - it said no results but was one of over 100 numbers that I could select from in a dropdown menu (never seen anything like that before) 🤔

Most were showing as delivered, but of the ones that had no results, nothing showed on AP either, so I can only presume I got the number wrong (they were all sales from early April I was checking, so I would have heard something from the buyers if not actually delivered so I didn't bother checking back and updating lol). 

[eol-products]

I thought the same that I may have made an error so will go looking for those and double check. But I doubt I got most of them wrong. Either way letter tracking appears to have some issues.

[digital*ghost]

Pro: Received a chargeback (unauthorised transaction - first one in a few years), that was resolved immediately and relatively painlessly due to tracking showing delivered (i.e. buyer was refunded, but not by me).

[eol-products]

Was it on a cheap item or dearer item.

[digital*ghost]

Cheap, so I expect the process would be different on a more expensive order (total was under $12, and postage made up more than half that). It's probably cheaper for eBay not to even dispute claims of this value, and just provide protection where the seller is eligible; and I know others have had to fight to get eBay to acknowledge they qualified for seller protection, so I was somewhat pleasantly surprised the outcome was favourable as soon as I confirmed the tracking). 

Side-note, the buyer's name was familiar to me so I looked for past orders and couldn't find any on any of my platforms. Then realised it's because they're a member of a Facebook seller support group I admin. 😕 I can't really do anything with this information, but I'm feeling very 😑 right now, lol.

[eol-products]

Whenever a letter went missing it was always a cheap item I had plenty of. Same as parcels before tracking was standard. This is why I feel I need to keep a savings fund for postage saved when I don't use tracking or insurance then treat myself to an interstate holiday with it each year. 

The only one making money on tracking is Aust Post. What other business do you pay for a product then not be guaranteed of getting what you paid for unless you pay a bit extra. I'll have a coffee with milk thanks, here's your coffee and milk but unfortunately we are out of coffee but its still the same price.