Do buyers prefer free post, or post cost listed separately?

[extra-keen]

For those buyers who don't know, ebay soon will require sellers to offer "free post" or in real terms, post cost included in the price of the item being sold/listed.

Sellers who choose not to offer "free post" on all their listings will loose their "Top Rated Seller Status" and be lower in searches.

So what I would like to know - do sellers prefer listings with "free post" or would you rather see the cost of postage and handling listed separately.

Love to know what sellers and buyers think!:-)

[zanadoo_56]

I'd prefer to know the postage cost, as I'd like to know what kind of postal service I'm paying for.  For instance I prefer not to pay for registered mail (unless the item was extraordinarily expensive) purely because I have to take time off work to collect it.

If free post also said my purchase would be sent by registered mail I suppose it doesn't really matter.

[thesoulyearns]

LOL D*G... eBay is becoming self-aware... 😉

When I first started selling, I offered free post on a number of CDs and they all sold pretty easily. Maybe they were priced very low (I didn't really check their worth) or maybe free post was the deciding factor... honestly don't know. A couple of times later I've tried free post and it hasn't worked at all. So, it probably depends on various things like total price, how much the sale price jumps up when postage is added on to it, the item, etc.

As a buyer, I look at the total price so free post doesn't matter much. However, it's safe to assume there are still alot of people who are seduced by the "free" post idea, so it's worth trying on things.

[kayedonproducts]

As a seller and a buyer, I prefer postage to be shown.

I offered free post for a couple of weeks and had one buyer comment in my feedback that they liked free post, but it hasn't made any difference to my sales.  I didn't inflate my prices, so was losing money.

I would rather know postage costs when buying, as know cost is included in item cost - yes we can do the maths Judy - Waves!!!

As a seller I have given it some thought, and because some of my items are quite low priced, and now can't be sent as a small parcel, I figure if a buyer knows the "real" cost of an item and postage, and combined postage is offered, then  they know if they buy a more than one item the postage cost in most cases will be the same.  I have made a note in my listings that I don't offer free postage as I prefer to keep my prices reasonable, which is true.

I also note in relevant listings if postage will be dearer if more than one item is purchased, postage will be dearer because of weight - think this only applies to one item ATM.

Free post is only giving ebay the chance to grab more fees - postage is not free, just as there are no free lunches!!

As for TRS - Im not worried if I'm one or not.  If buyers return, I guess it's a sign you are doing something right.

I'm also going to keep my 2 business day timeframe for postage, as I suffer migraines and can't always post the same or next day. I would rather err on the side of caution than be stressed out of brain and laid out for a week.

Just a few of my thoughts - others probably will think differently.

Interesting to see the poll results Colleen.

[davewil1964]

I use 'free' post for items that can go as letters and postage price for the rest.

As I'm unlikely ever to be TRS, due to $$ volumes, the hoops eBay want us to jump through don't really interest me.

Anecdotally, very few experienced buyers search by 'best' match anyway.

[lyndal1838]

As a buyer I do not like Free Postage.  It might be fine if I bought just one item from a seller, and yes, I have bought the odd set of DVD's or a CD as free postage.

But for the most part I buy multiple items from my favourite sellers and if it is free (i.e. the price is higher to cover the postage) then there is no room for combined postage discounts.

[flashback_deals]

Free post is only good when it is is only $1 or $2 when it is built in the sale price.

As an example: A $2 book that weighs 400g. In a satchel would be the cheapest way, but the $7 extra takes all your little profit out of the $2 book, making free postage worthless and a waste of time if you sell cheap as a hobby seller

Only way you can fix that is charge a higher price for the book and have it sitting possible for months trying to sell it

[flashback_deals]

As a buyer I do not like Free Postage.  It might be fine if I bought just one item from a seller, and yes, I have bought the odd set of DVD's or a CD as free postage.

But for the most part I buy multiple items from my favourite sellers and if it is free (i.e. the price is higher to cover the postage) then there is no room for combined postage discounts.

Yes Lyndal. If you say buy 5 items with free post, if a seller can combine them, thats how they make their profit out of it

[digital*ghost]

LOL D*G... eBay is becoming self-aware... 😉

Oh, eBay's already very aware of itself. It's everyone else that it remains oblivious to. 😮

Actually, I envisage a Space Odyssey type scenario.

March 16, 2013, Joe Bloggs logs onto his eBay account and conducts a search for spanners, fully expecting to see a page of results for spanner listings.  Cassini swiftly deduces, due to the nature of the mechanical problems Joe googled earlier in the day, that Joe is not in need of spanners.

"What are you doing, Joe?" 

"Err..., looking for spanners... " ?:|

"I can't let you do that, Joe. Please select one of these sets of "chrome" socket wrenches."

This is the article I was referring to, by the way: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2012/10/1351518791.html, which states that Cassini will (or may) manipulate (and omit) search results no matter what the order is - Best Match, ending soonest...etc. I personally read it with a grain of salt, but it's interesting none the less. 

[thecatspjs]

Whilst I offer free post on a couple of my listings and I have a Free Post conditional special,  I do struggle with the term -  free post  - in an Australian market as it can be seen as being very misleading to consumers.

I don't think that any seller, or ebay, could really back up that post is actually free - the cost just becomes hidden, absorbed into overheads and added to products across the board, or factored into the item price in the first place.  

Whilst some buyers will not wear all of the post costs, I think many, many more actually will. 

[peternt2001]

As a buyer i sort of like the idea of free post a little, mainly to stop people offering cheap items but then having through the roof postage ( mainly overseas stuff ) there is always the possibility that you will get burned on a claim, because you dont recoup the postage on a claim. But at the same time by offering " free " post i am sure that there will be sellers who will make a conscious decision to bulk up their postage and handling costs into their start price. I can see it having good and bad effects. So i will wait and see what happens when it starts.