How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping even the item located in Australia??


 


For example, seller post their phone cases and screen protectors for free.


 


Anyone can figure it out for me?


 


Thanks

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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

The cost of shipping is included in the price. There is no such thing as free.

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Message 2 of 54
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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

As GL said or sometimes sellers will wear a cost to get more buyers to their site for a period of time.

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Message 3 of 54
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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

There is no such a thing free shipping. Shipping always costs.


 


Free shipping means shipping cost included in item price. And that is what eBay encourage sellers to do.

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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

Screen protectors are only 60c to post if there is not a bilk amount being sent and the covers are only about $2 to post so the price is built into the item cost.


That is what I do with mine.

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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

Actually there is free shipping. I have seen items sell for less than the cost of shipping and fees.  I offer free shipping if a buyer purchases 3 items or more. Since the cost of shipping is added if they only purchase one item then obviously shipping is NOT included in my prices.  I also offer free shipping on some of my big ticket items. Since I have already discounted the price of the item PLUS offered free shipping regardless of location then obviously it is in fact FREE.


 


To answer the OP, some businesses are happy to run loss leads in order to attract buyers to other items they might be selling. 


Some will do it to build up feedback. 


Some sellers use eBay as advertising for their online business. They run their eBay sales at a loss and include a card/pamphlet with their website or retail details with every parcel delivered. 


 


There are possibly many more reasons and hopefully other sellers will let us know why they offer FREE shipping 🙂


 


P.S.  I used to offer free shipping on all of my items but stopped doing it because the members on these boards kept insisting it was included in my price.  To prove my point I started charging for postage and only offering free for multiple purchases .... but my sales increased so I left it that way 😄

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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

I guess it really depends on the way you break down the equation of any sale, the main jist of which is "I want to make $X after all expenses associated with the sale are allocated", or "I am prepared to lose up to $X after all expenses associated with the sale are allocated" in the case of loss leaders - postage, if the item is being posted, is factored into that equation at some point, whether the buyer actually pays for it in the sale price is one thing, but someone always has to pay for it no matter what.

Message 7 of 54
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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

It's a simple marketing tool to give the illusion that the buyer is saving money. Shipping will cost the seller 99% of the time.

Message 8 of 54
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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

As postage will always cost the seller, whether or not they charge it, there is no such thing as free shipping.


 


The postage price can be built into the item price (as I do) or taken out of profit (as austeam seems to do), but the carrier still requires payment for the service they provide. 

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How come an Australian seller can offer free shipping?

m4yb
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I have ordered phone covers and leads from "Australian Sellers", with free postage.  Then the item arrives from HongKong, where the postage is much cheaper, so what postage is built into the price isnt very much anyway.

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