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. 

[digital*ghost]

All true, but I'm not trying to make money on tracking per se, I'm trying to simplify my business and bring it to a level where I am not running myself ragged fulfilling hundreds of $5 item orders, and fielding multiple post-sale enquiries on those orders ("where is my order" type enquiries I mean), when I can be in the same position fulfilling a dozen $100 orders with far fewer post-sale hand-holding required (it's weird, but the most anxious buyers are always the ones that have spent a few dollars, whereas I have buyers who spend $300 on an order and they are almost invariably the most chill people lol).

The "cheapest price possible" buyers are now well catered for, so while AP might be making money on the service itself, that doesn't mean I can't use that service to my own advantage. 😉 

[digital*ghost]

Update, on the off-chance anyone was interested 🤣

This week, I am switching to tracked-only on all platforms. My sales volume actually never quite "recovered" after the change here, but they are now at a very comfortable level for me and I consider the experiment to be successful due to the various other benefits having tracking on all shipments provides.

I also think doing it now and making it work will kind of "future proof" the business against most potential and / or dramatic changes to postage rules & prices (that is, if for some reason I have to do something like switch to parcel shipping only in the future, the jump will only be a couple of dollars instead of $6-$7. 

Once more unto the breach.... 🙃

[south.coffee]

We also moved to Tracked Envelopes for low value goods less than 20mm and not a single INR case since.  It makes any dishonest buyers, AP 'staff' and others in the delivery chain accountable.  At least letter mail is not going up unlike the recent MP parcel hike...

[merfar2107]

'At least letter mail is not going up unlike the recent MP parcel hike...'

Give it time. 😒

[davewil1964]

Letters normally go up in January.

[digital*ghost]

They also need approval for increases to stamp prices and there's usually news articles well before about AP submitting an application for approval, though they don't need to do that for registered, and the tracked letters are under the "registered letter" banner -  if / when registered costs increase, that theoretically allows for an increase to the tracked letters, too.

[purplemon18]

Just thought I would mention that if you mark items as sent on your phone, you can scan the tracking barcode of those letters and it gets added automagically. I do that for all my tracked letters.

[digital*ghost]

ooh, I'll have to give that a go - is it easy to use when there's a lot of items in an order, or do you have scan individually? (I had an order on Monday with 40 line items, entering the same number for each item is such a PITA, but opening each item to mark as sent on the phone may be a similar exercise  - why eBay don't at least have an "apply to all" option I'll never understand >_> ). 

[everard6920]

Am I hallucinating? From what I can see, letters are also going up on September 6. The prepaid envelopes with tracking, anyway (I don't use untracked so I can't compare)

https://auspost.com.au/service-updates/current-updates/pricing-updates

[digital*ghost]

Oh you're right, registered is going up so the associated pre-paid letter services are, too.

Individual pricing is going up by 10c for small ($3.05), 15c for medium ($5.10), and 20c for large ($6.15).

Bulk pricing (on the two I use) will mean the medium jumps from $4.46 per envelope to $4.59, and the large is jumping from $5.36 to $5.54. I just bought a bunch, but will try and sneak in a couple extra packs if I can. It's not much of a saving, but better in my pocket than AP's, lol.