Does Fast N Free get more sales??

[little_whimsy]

I see eBay says that fast and free give an average of 11% more sales. Has anyone else found this to be true??

I already meet the requirements, however i charge shipping on the item, but am happy to include that into the price of the item if its worth while. 

What do you think most buyers prefere to see:
xx product cost $20 with free shipping 
OR
xx product costs $12 with $8 shopping?

Would love to know your thoughts and experiences! 

Thank you! 

[lyndal1838]

As a buyer only it makes no difference to me as I search by price + postage, lowest first.

On the items that I buy I would say that 90% of them are Free postage under this search criteria.

[kopenhagen5]

I don't know, I look at your items and 4.99 plus $3 postage seems like a good price because I know I need to pay postage.

Then if I saw your item at 7.99 free post, it sounds dearer and many I think search lowest price first so your items may be a lot further in.

Also the fast n free sets up problems, buyers having higher expectations and we all know how eBay's delivery estimates are on the ambitious side.

If you have 2 same or similar items that have similar sales over a period of a month, perhaps put one as fast n free as a test.

[gec2002]

If you use Turbo Lister you can get a good idea from lookingat the Listing Activity - Ended Listings.  Go to the sold list and sort by  postage cost and count number listed $0 (free Postage)  vs Postage charged for.  (A quick way to do the count  is highlight the free post items then click "Sell Similiar" it will show "x" listings waiting to upload, then cancel, you just want the number not to actually relist them)  Now compare this percentage to "Free Post" vs "Paid Post" in the Unsold over the same period of time, checking using the same method.  So if your sold shows 25% free and the unsold shows 20% Free using Free post gains you a sales advantage.  You need quite a few sales for it to be accurate and other factors can bias the result but it gives you an idea.

[gec2002]

Forgot to add you need to check using equivalent listing times eg 30 days against 30 days

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

another issue with offering free postage on your items is that you can't offer postage discounts for combined postage on these freepost items.

[davewil1964]

If eBay don't end up charging GST on postage costs (which is a point they have yet to clarify) then 'free' post will attract GST, whereas separate postage won't. Which means they will in all likelihood charge GST on the actual postage (at least for eBay labels, I doubt they could do it for postage that isn't using their system) as they don't want sellers separating postage. In which case there is a fair bet a lot of sellers will stop using eBay labels as they will become more expensive than similar services through AP. In your situation, if you are using letter post, 'free' postage will definitely cost you more in eBay fees than not.

[davewil1964]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

If eBay don't end up charging GST on postage costs (which is a point they have yet to clarify) then 'free' post will attract GST, whereas separate postage won't. Which means they will in all likelihood charge GST on the actual postage (at least for eBay labels, I doubt they could do it for postage that isn't using their system) as they don't want sellers separating postage. In which case there is a fair bet a lot of sellers will stop using eBay labels as they will become more expensive than similar services through AP. In your situation, if you are using letter post, 'free' postage will definitely cost you more in eBay fees than not.

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Actually, that's garbage.

If you are NOT using eBay labels, it will make no difference to eBay fees either way. As the GST will be charged on your eBay fees, regardless of how the listing prices are apportioned.

[jfmgray]

I have tried various combinations of things to see if it helps sales or improve my best match exposure.  I found that premium seller, free post, handling time, etc makes no difference to best match.  The things that seem to make a difference are repeated sales, watchers and freshly listed items (get an iniitial boost on best match).

In terms of free post vs a set postage cost  I mix it up a bit.  In my category I find free post works great with new items. Of course with free post, I add the posage cost to the item cost and set the other parameters to meet the fast n free requirements.  Seems to work well especially when you have a sale history for an item.

As my buyers of used items are often interested multiple purchases, I set a postage cost for used items with combined post discounts.

[digital*ghost]

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@little_whimsy wrote:

I see eBay says that fast and free give an average of 11% more sales. Has anyone else found this to be true??

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The only thing I can really add to what others have said, is:

Beware of ebay brandishing unquantified statistics.

Leaving aside the "average" part of the equation for a moment, an 11% increases in sales is meaningless without proper context - did someone go from 50 sales a month to 55 sales? Did someone else go from 5000 sales a month to 5500+ ? You'll never know, and that's how eBay seem to like it when they encourage things like this. Getting back to the "average" part, that's also pretty meaningless. One very high volume seller might have run a promo after introducing 'Fast & free" and had a massive spike in sales, while several hundred other sellers had moderate to no noticeable increase - averaging results like that is pointless, what you want is a genuine mode figure - i.e. the most commonly experienced increase, if there is one. 

"Fast & Free" is unlikely to be shown to buyers Australia-wide, because it's only shown to buyers when the eBay estimate for delivery is within 4 days (this is another thing that makes the percentage quoted unreliable - of that 11% increase, how many buyers were actually seeing Fn'F when they purchased?). If you have a 0-1 day handling time, a higher number of people will see it if you switch to free post, but if you have a 2+ day handling time, only those within your own state are likely to see the logo. 

What I can tell you for sure is that I have never been tempted to purchase one item over another because it had Fast n' Free showing - some might be, but I honestly think they would be few and far between, especially on lower value items because in my experience, as kopes has mentioned, many buyers do still very much separate price and postage, and place separate values on each component - meaning that if a buyer values an item at $10, it can seem quite expensive at first glance if it's listed for $15, despite the overall price being the same, or even lower, than another one with post listed separately - eg "I'm not paying $15 for a $10 item... but I'll pay $9 for it and $6 to have it delivered to my door so I don't have to go anywhere" 😄 (this is similar to the effect of $9.99 pricing over an even $10 - because we read from left to right, the brain automatically registers $9 - a lower number - first and it makes a difference to the perception).