@digital*ghost wrote:
Would any of the automatic postage discounts work for your items? There's a few different ways you can set them up - X amount extra for additional items, X discount on postage after the first, highest charge, postage caps, free postage if a certain quantity or dollar value is reached on items.
The last two are promotional postage options, and if you have a store you can also use the new tools (via the "sales maximizer" to advertise the postage promo at the top of listing descriptions, which also has the added benefit of prompting buyers to use the cart to access the discounts (though not always visible on apps, I believe).
It won't stop all of the individual payments, but the more who are encouraged to purchase and pay for multiple items together, the better.
Most of my items post in small prepaid envelopes without tracking so none of the automatic postage discounts or postage tables work on that ID. I've got it set so that subsequent items cost the same as the first because if they buy certain quantities I need the extra to cover reg'd post. Less and less people are waiting for an invoice on this ID so either they don't care about the extra postage they pay or they just assume I'll refund it.
I have another ID where everything is either small parcel post or satchels. For the largest items, 1 or 2 items = a 3kg satchel, and 3 or 4 items = a 5kg satchel. With a slightly smaller item of the same product I can fit 2 or 3 in a 3kg satchel, and 4 or 5 in a 5kg satchel.
I sell one item that's under 500g but I've just start relisting something that weighs between 900g and 1.2 kg. I haven't sold this particular item for a couple of years and I didn't sell it for long (I had too many things on the go at the time) but most people bought one or two, and one person requested four. Most waited for an invoice then but I know that a lot less people wait for them now, and back then it didn't matter because there was no fee on postage. Others selling the same product obviously have problems getting people to wait for an invoice because some have detailed instructions about going through checkout and not paying in their descriptions.
I had a fiddle with setting combined postage by weight the other day and managed to get it so 2 items showed the same postage as 1, but when I added a third item to the cart it just put 2 x $12 (ebay satchel) instead of bumping it up to a 5kg satchel. I tried putting them in my cart on my other ID and I had a combination of items that weighed just over 3kgs.
I realise this is because I had it set for ebay satchels but if I have it set for calculated parcels I'm assuming it'll ignore satchels altogether and postage will show a lot higher than it need be to some states. I'll have another play with it and see whether I can set it for pre-paid satchels and get it to work. I'd prefer it showed at $12 than $13.40 because that extra $1.40 can be the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to price (it's a very competitive category), but I could lower my item price by $1.40 to compensate. If they buy 2 I've lost $1.40 on the second one, but paying no postage fees on the second one will almost balance it out. The postage fee savings on multiple items were the cream that I was hoping to keep myself but I might have to forego it in lieu of an easier system - assuming that I can set it to work properly for normal satchels! I may even be able to get it to work correctly for a combination of ebay and prepaid satchels but I won't hold my breath on that. It seems to want to work on ebay OR prepaid satchels OR calculated parcels.
The other promotional discounts won't work because we're talking products that cost around $17 each. If they buy 3 of the smaller size (just under 1kg) I can post them for $12, but if I add anything extra for postage on each subsequent item they'll be paying too much if they buy two or three. If I have no extra postage for subsequent items and they buy more than 3kgs, I'm out of pocket for the difference between a 5kg satchel and an ebay 3kg satchel, which means I've worked for nothing to make that item. If they buy more than will fit in a 5kg satchel then I'm really out of pocket. Some buyers would be sure to buy extra if they saw that postage on subsequent items was free.
Some of the different options would probably work if everything I sold was the same weight, but alas, that's not the case. I've read a few of your other threads on setting up postage discounts in the past and really appreciate the time you've taken explaining things.
