Free Shipping On Ebay: Does It Change Purchasing Behavior?

I'm getting ready to list a fair amount of stamp material on ebay, and have only one lot remaining from my last listing push, so I'm in a position to make a change regarding shipping one way or the other.

I'd like to limit the scope of the discussion just to stamps, souvenir sheets, covers and other lightweight philatelic material.

I've seen arguments both ways, about whether free shipping encourages someone to buy, or perhaps discourages a buyer from buying more than one item at a time from a given seller.

The reasoning for the latter is that shipping has been figured into the asking price, so that a buyer may realize s/he is overpaying if buying multiple items from that seller, and therefore discourages multiple-item sales. (I appreciate that if these are rock-bottom prices, then it's a different matter.)

As a seller, I have tried it both ways, and to me the data is inconclusive, because I just don't have a large enough sample to draw from.

When I have charged shipping, it's usually been a flat-fee of $1.50 for domestic, and about twice that for international. (International is definitely trickier, because it can bump up into a high rate category pretty quickly.) Additional purchases don't incur any additional shipping charge, either domestic or international. I try to keep the shipping simple to avoid buyer anxiety.

I know my own pros and cons, so I'd like to hear from buyers and sellers their thoughts about offering free shipping vs simple flat-rate shipping.

I like free shipping. And I like reasonable shipping and handling charges. And those who come right out and list unreasonable shipping and handling just turn me off. I tend to skip them, but doesn't everyone.

I don't usually pay more than what an item is worth, so higher prices due to 'hidden' shipping costs don't really affect me. (Sometimes sentiment gets in the way of reason, though, I admit.)

I try not to charge shipping because people like simple and this is the price this is what you pay is simple

The question is whether you have made any allowances for postage and packing in the items listed. If you have already added a surcharge for each item then it doesn't matter if you allow free shipping but your items will be overpriced.

Pagoda

Of course every one would like to see free shipping in the listing (with starting bid at .01), but almost as good would be to start the bidding at the shipping cost and to state this in the listing. I would appreciate the honesty and if the shipping cost was fair I would be as likely to bid on the item as if it were "free shipping". However I realize that it is not always feasible - just a thought.

Dave

To be honest, it depends on what you're selling. If it's common material, I'll search for the lowest combined price including shipping. If you're selling uncommon material, within reason, the shipping charges do not enter into consideration whether I bid or not.

I've been strictly a buyer on ebay for 16 years. Free shipping is nice, but, unless they're ridiculously high, shipping charges have never influenced my decision to purchase a stamp.

For store items, I have free shipping for US locations. I would like to think that it's an incentive for buyers. ebay and PayPal costs are always more than shipping costs, so if someone is concerned about pricing adjustments, they should be considering those costs more imho. For auctions, I typically add shipping cost of $1 to cover loss of ebay, PayPal and shipping if the lot goes for a song.

This sums up my philosophy pretty well. I'll just add that if combined price with shipping is about the same for two or more sellers (this goes for things other than stamps), the tiebreaker will go to the one with the lowest or free shipping. The biggest reason for this is because you get ebay bucks on the purchase price of the item, you don't get anything for the shipping cost. That consideration comes into play more often on bulkier items where the actual shipping cost would be significant, and it's more of a consideration on bonus days when you can get up to 10% back. I usually build a watch list of household items I'm going to buy somewhere anyway and then buy them on bonus days. I accumulated enough ebay bucks doing this last quarter to get a free 2015 Scott Classic Specialized, which is still en route to me.

Philatarium,

For "Buy it Now"s, it doesn't make any difference to me. I just search lowest cost including shipping. I always try to figure total cost including shipping when bidding auctions. That sets the cap for me.

Jack Kelley

I don't care about shipping costs usually. I consider it part of the cost of the item. Before purchasing or bidding (sniping as I never bid any other way) I total all costs and if it exceeds my estimate of what I am willing to pay for the item, I pass.

I offer free postage (second class, but I upgrade to first for dearer stuff, and signed for over around £40) on all domestic items. I think it probably helps with some of the low-cost items. If selling for a decent price, it probably doesn't matter much to the buyer - but then it doesn't to me either. I don't sell much overseas, but always do so at Royal Mail's cost price, rather than a flat rate of my own devising.

If it is under $2.00 I usually don't factor it in because having sent stamps out myself I realize the cost involved. If it exceeds $2.00 I take a closer look.
Tom

ALL:

How much do you think it costs to send a single item ( up to 3oz)
thru USPS w/tracking??

I do not use free shipping, but I do what I think is fair and reasonable. I only charge what the post office charges by weight and the buyer's location - I don't make anything off shipping. I think that's fair not only to the buyer, but also myself. It's also good to combine items for one shipment as much as possible and buyer's appreciate that. Having said that, sometimes you can save the buyers more on shipping, by not combining items if a shipment is over 3.5oz or too thick for letter rates. The USPS parcel rates are more than doubles at 4oz thus sometimes I'll split international shipments.

kevin504: $2.54 for a 3oz PARCEL with USPS tracking if paid for at post office ( w/o any ebay or other online discounts), but you can mail a typical cover or sall group of stamps at letter rate w/o tracking for much less.

BATTLESTAMPS.....
That is absolutely correct.
So.....To protect yourself from chargebacks you have to use tracking.
$2.54 per shipment.

Since I have went to tracking....I have 0 claims for non-receipt.
Before...I guess I was at about 8-10%.
YES...that high.
We all know the PO does not lose that much mail.