Combined postage now that eBay charges Final value feed including postage

[gabrielle255]

I'd really appreciate any advice from other sellers on this one. Currently have my first lot of listings up, since the change in commission structure. Now that ebay's commission includes my postage costs, I will obviously make even less per item. If a buyer requests combined postage, what then? I've always been more than happy to oblige and have never charged buyers any extra to do so , but on my small cost items, this could actually cost me money! I really want to help buyers get the best deal, but don't know how to get around this. What are other sellers doing? Many thanks in anticipation.

[harley_babes_hoard · Accepted solution]

There is no need for you to make less, you increase your prices by 10 or 11% to cover the extra. As far as we know you are only charge the FVF on the invoice price, so if you combined postage before you can still combine postage before your buyer pays.

It gets a bit messy if your buyer pays for individual items/invoices because you will still pay the full FVF even if you then refund. Some sellers have applied to ebay to have the FVF difference credited back but I can't see that being a regular occurrence.

[clarry100 · Accepted solution]

All our items are "FREE" postage and have been for almost a year now. So the FVF on postage is already built in anyway and we are used to it. We just have our items priced to cover all the various fees & costs etc and return us an acceptable profit.

Since you can't discount on FREE post items, when customers order multiple items, so that we can compensate them for the combined postage we always include a FREE gift with their order.

So far that has been meeting with positive results.

If someone specifically requests a combined discount the only thing we can do is a partial refund thru paypal.

[*crikey*mate*]

Clarry has covered free post items, I don't generally combine post on such listings, personally.

as for Product Plus Postage formats - Harley is right - FVFs only apply to the amount actually paid by the customer, so if they contact you before payment, you adjust the invoice for the combined postage discount that you offer.

As for profit, you should already be building all anticipated expenses (which don't come under postage and handling policy compliant charges) such as fees (FVFs and PayPal etc) into item costs, the new format just means you add an extra 11% of the postage cost (depending on the FVF % you pay of course - store holders are less) to the item cost.

Or if starting from scratch - work out total price of product and post, and add 11% of that (eBay FVFs) plus another 2,4% +30c(PayPal Fees)  (I just round it up to 15% for on the fly calculations) and add that to the product cost along with your desired profit component and any other expenses whose costs you wish to recoup)

Thus, in theory at least, when you combine postage, you will actually make a greater profit than under the "old system" as allowance for full fees is already built in and you now have the additional component for FVFs on postage

as for FVF credits. The UK has a limited availability for this, but word on the street for us in Oz is that this will not be on the agenda, so any discounts given after FVFs have been applied (postage component on P+P at time of payment and on product at time of sale) will need to be absorbed by the seller as full FVFs will apply and will not be refundable in most cases, and definitely not on a regular or ongoing basis.

Thus if your buyer pays too quickly, you will need to make the decision to say "tough luck, you needed to contact me for invoice before payment" (for those that read listings, it could help to emphasize this in the listing) or consider the goodwill quotient and determine if you are prepared to absorb the extra costs yourself.

Someone may come along soon and advise if the cart is functional yet and how it works in Aust.

I haven't worked that out yet, just when I think I have, someone writes something contradictory on the boards, so i put it back on the back burner LOL - but I anticipate giving instructions for utilization of this tool in my listings in the future and featuring this prominently in my store account/s.

Disclaimer: Note i have not said i like any or all of the above, but it is how i have found and anticipate i will find that the eBay system works best for me. I might not like much of it and all that it implies, but as i want to sell here, i have to work within the constraints, policies and guidelines of the eBay system.

[phorum_junkie*]

I have always said on my listings that have a seperate postage charge that discounts are only given on items paid for on a single invoice so if they pay for items individually I assume they are not bothered by a discount and send the items out in different parcels just as if they were payments from different people. My store items have it clearly stated that there are no combined discounts on free post items aside from books all my store items have free post and have had since the start.

[iscrap76]

I was told by ebay that if you refund then you need to tell ebay that you refunded so that they can give you back some FVF. I have done this once without too much hassle.

[gabrielle255]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

[gabrielle255]

Thank you Clarry, much appreciated.

[gabrielle255]

Thank you, your advice is appreciated.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@iscrap76 wrote:
I was told by ebay that if you refund then you need to tell ebay that you refunded so that they can give you back some FVF. I have done this once without too much hassle.

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OK, but I am pretty sure they are going to nip that in the bud - too much double handling and accounting readjustments. Not cost effective for you or eBay.

Here is the word on the street as i know it. Reading between the lines, they're not providing credits in general, but as I said, they do in some circumstances in the UK system, so maybe here too? But maybe that's not something they'll let us have a free reeign on iykwim - otherwise they would make it as part of the already established claim for refund of fees form that we already have.