Selling stacks of $6 items, offering free shipping and paying $7 shipping cost ? Any thoughts ideas?

[gumdropaustralia]

Just wondering if there is any magic solution out there that i am unaware of !!!

We sell a lot of 5 and 6 dollar items. Our entire store offers free shipping so am suffering on these cheaper items, as they make up 50% of sales. Delivery costs $6.90 let alone fees and profits etc.....

How do others manage this? And wonder how the $1 items from china get away with postage costs?

Thanks

[davewil1964]

If they're thin enough, send them as letters.

Or start charging postage.

Or sell items you can make a profit on.

Chinese exporters are subsidised by the Chinese government.

[go-tazz]

Simply put is to stop selling at a loss (either raise the prices to cover most of the postage or add a postage cost).

[digital*ghost]

If you're worried about remaining competitive, you could implement a few different stategies, eg raise the prices a bit (if you want to keep postage as free, especially ), but also offer some incentives for buyers to purchase multiple items in an order, like volume discounts or buy one or two, get a percentage off the second or third.

[gumleaf_goodies]

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@digital*ghost wrote:
If you're worried about remaining competitive, you could implement a few different stategies, eg raise the prices a bit (if you want to keep postage as free, especially ), but also offer some incentives for buyers to purchase multiple items in an order, like volume discounts or buy one or two, get a percentage off the second or third.

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I tried this once - buy more than one ($10) item and I will reduce the price of the next two subsequent ones by $2 per item. I don't think I had a single taker.

Then I tried 'buy 3 of these $10 items and pay just $10 for postage' (where postage on one would be $9). Again, I don't think I had a single taker. 

Dunno what you have to do to encourage sales....

[chameleon54]

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@gumdropaustralia wrote:

Just wondering if there is any magic solution out there that i am unaware of !!!

We sell a lot of 5 and 6 dollar items. Our entire store offers free shipping so am suffering on these cheaper items, as they make up 50% of sales. Delivery costs $6.90 let alone fees and profits etc.....

How do others manage this? And wonder how the $1 items from china get away with postage costs?

Thanks

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I know this will sound harsh, but a better way to manage this low value stock is to wait until it comes in and then take it straight out the back and throw it in a skip. This will save you heaps on postage and cut your workload down considerably for the same or maybe even increased profit.

When ordering, freighting, listing, storing, picking, packing and shipping is taken into account, you are doing A LOT of running around for absolutely no return................ Why ???

[springyzone]

I must admit I couldn't believe my eyes either, chameleon.

GumdropAustralia, I think the best solution to your problem is to cut out the 50% of products that are causing you grief.

Obviously the other 50% where you make a profit are the ones that are subsidising them.

It sounds as if you have a store and you probably want to continue to offer free postage.

That's fine, but only include an item where there is at least a very slight profit. I am sure even your $9 items are not raking in a fortune by the time you pay postage.

Either cut out the products that are losing you money or have a separate category for them where postage applies.

[brerrabbit585]

There's a good reason why those items are selling, isn't there? I think there are probably thousands of sellers on ebay who make absolutely no profit but are blissfully unaware of it.

[twyngwyn]

have you tried selling the cheaper stuff in bulk?