Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Free Return Shipping (eBay data)
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AdventureE.
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03/15/2018 at 12:33 pm #35249
Malinda sent me this eBay page that shows how many more sales a seller should expect if they offer Free Return Shipping: https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/returns.html#m17-tb3
We already offer 30-Day returns, so eBay is saying our sales will only go up 5%.
If we sell 250 items in a months, that’s about 12 extra items.
At $30 each, that’s $360 more profit.We’re may just try it on t-shirts and hats to begin to see what happens.
5% isn’t a real game changer for us.Has anyone turned on Free Shipping and seen any data?
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03/15/2018 at 1:08 pm #35252
I think I will turn on 60 Day Free Returns but exclude the larger and heavy items. What I am not sure of is at what point does eBay say you don’t qualify for the 10% TRS+ discount because you’ve excluded too much of your inventory from Free Returns. I currently get very few returns.
I don’t like the idea of Ebay approving returns and charging us for a label without giving us a chance to let the buyer keep the item instead.
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03/15/2018 at 1:53 pm #35254
That’s a very good question. We’d also have to exempt all our heavier items from Free Returns as well. So at what point does eBay not give us the 10% discount with TRS Plus?
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03/15/2018 at 2:10 pm #35257
TRS+ is something you get on a PER-ITEM basis, not in general. So you could have TRS+ on just one item if you want. In other words, that discount applies on a per-item basis.
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03/15/2018 at 2:14 pm #35259
This is great news.
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03/15/2018 at 2:24 pm #35263
Jay,
While a seller might see an increase in sales, the other side of the coin is: the loss in shipping a seller will assume as well as the possible loss of dollar value and time for any items returned that cannot be resold because of the condition they are in. Of course EBay is going to “sell” the upside of free returns. It’s good for their marketplace ( just like charging us extra and/ or higher fees), but it is not necessarily good for the sellers.-
03/15/2018 at 2:30 pm #35264
Totally agree. A 5% rise in sales for us might not be worth the shipping expenses we could incur with Free Returns.
So the equation we each must do:
–how much more in sales will we make?
–how much will we lose on shipping with Free Returns?
–how much will we get back from the 10% TRS discount?
–How much extra work/hassle will accepting Free Returns be?-
03/15/2018 at 4:38 pm #35292
Absolutely Jay.
So for discussion, I have posted our calculation of our Baseline, 5% increased sales, and 13% increased sales.
Based on what I’m seeing (if the increase does occur), then the increased sales will far outweigh the cost in returns.
PS – I used a much higher return cost of $8 per return. Almost all of our returns are clothing, so an average of $4 would be much better, but I wanted to see the more extreme side. I also even assumed a higher Baseline return rate of 3% (we are at 2% now), and a DOUBLE of our return rate from 3% to 6% on the increased sales.
BASELINE
Number of Sales: 281
Avg COGS: $5
ASP: $27.70Sales: $7,784
COGS: $1,405Return Rate: 3%
# of Returns: 8
AVG Cost of return Shipping: $8
Cost of Returns: $64
TRS+ Fee Savings: $705% SALES INCREASE
Number of Sales: 295
Avg COGS: $5
ASP: $27.70Sales: $8,172
COGS: $1,475Return Rate: 6% (I even doubled the return rate)
# of Returns: 18
AVG Cost of return Shipping: $8
Cost of Returns: $144
TRS+ Fee Savings: $74Increase in Gross Profit over Baseline (after taking out eBay fees): $283
Cost of increased returns: $8013% SALES INCREASE
Number of Sales: 318
Avg COGS: $5
ASP: $27.70Sales: $8,809
COGS: $1,590Return Rate: 6% (I even doubled the return rate)
# of Returns: 19
AVG Cost of return Shipping: $8
Cost of Returns: $152
TRS+ Fee Savings: $79Increase in Gross Profit over Baseline (after taking out eBay fees): $748
Cost of increased returns: $88
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03/15/2018 at 2:42 pm #35265
TRS+ level is based on 4 overall performance metrics on all transactions over the last evaluation period. Once you have it, you get a 10% discount on the total final value fees on each transaction that met each metric in that period. What they likely might do starting June 1 is to not provide a TRS+ discount on Final Value Fees for items you do not offer Free Returns on assuming you met all the other metrics in the period.
If you go to your dashboard, at the bottom it shows the number of active items that quality and do not qualify currently for TRS+. I have 2245 that do and 2 that don’t. Those 2 are Sold AS-IS no return items. This suggests we could have a large number that we do not take returns on, and thus we do not get the discount, which is only worth pennies on most items anyway.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by
PickingPair.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by
PickingPair.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by
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03/15/2018 at 3:11 pm #35271
I think the real issue is going to be search rankings. If we don’t offer free returns, how will it effect search rankings.
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03/15/2018 at 3:49 pm #35282
Out of curiosity, I did a search just now on:
“Valentines Starbucks mug; Buy in Now”742 results … then added filters one by one:
653 USA only
511 Returns Accepted
265 Allows Best Offer
194 FREE Shipping
57 On Sale
18 FREE Returns
12 Guaranteed 3 dayWhat is interesting is when I sort by Lowest Price w/shipping, many of those 18 that offered FREE RETURNS were near the top.
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03/15/2018 at 5:47 pm #35307
Malinda from eBay says that eBay will not punish sellers in search for not offering Free Returns: https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/scavenger-life-episode-350-free-shipping-is-a-lie/#post-35261
But obviously if Sellers turn on a filter to just show Free returns, then I guess that’s the punishment.
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03/15/2018 at 6:57 pm #35317
Plus, there isn’t a punishment for not offering, but there is a benefit for those that do…
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03/15/2018 at 7:01 pm #35322
True. when eBay was trying to push Free Shipping several years ago, most of us chose to continue to charge for shipping. Did not seem to affect sales.
I can see the logic of Free Returns. Most buyers want to to keep the item, so you’re offering a benefit that few will use. Not a bad thing.
We’ll see!
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03/15/2018 at 4:04 pm #35284
Rethinking here. Ebay could do one of 2 things:
(1) You can keep your TRS+ rating and Badge if you meet the 4 metrics currently evaluated monthly, but get no 10% discount if you do not offer Free Returns.or
(2) Make Free Returns a 5th metric, that you need to maintain (ie: >98% of active listings) to retain the rating, Badge, and discount.
I tend to buy from TRS+ sellers, so to me the Badge is very important to maintain.
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03/15/2018 at 4:07 pm #35285
Yes, Free Returns will probably effect search rankings. A seller will have to make the decision as to what is best – the search rankings + sales against the factors involved with free return shipping.
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03/15/2018 at 7:02 pm #35323
1. Free returns will have a filter, just as free shipping has a filter. That will negatively impact you if you are not in the filter, BUT ask yourself: how often will MY potential buyers actually use that filter?
It will not be a factor in Best Match/Cassini, but to some extent, with ebay moving to Product pages, the importance of that will diminish anyway.2. Just want to affirm what someone has said: free return shipping has NOTHING to do with your TRS status. TRS Plus is NOT a seller status, it’s a badge that either appears on a listing or not, depending on whether the LISTING qualifies. If you want the badge and the FVF discount on an item, then going forward you will want to include free return shipping on that item. You can do it for one item, all your items, or ANY percentage of your items. eBay doesn’t look at the percentage of items you have that meet TRS PLus, it only looks to be sure that a particular listing either qualifies or not.
3. A consideration I don’t see being mentioned here, but one that loomed large when I decided to add Free return shipping to all my listings several years ago: this one act will eliminate or drastically reduce the number of false INAD claims you will get on returns, as the incentive to falsify the claim (in order to get free return shipping) is eliminated.
4. Also, keep in mind that on those items for which you offer free return shipping, you will be able to refund a partial (up to 50%) in the event that item is returned in less than original condition. No appeal to ebay, no fighting about it with the buyer. I like to reduce my potential aggravation, and that’s one way to do it. I can’t assign a dollar amount to that, but it has value to me.
5. Given the kind of stuff I sell (and most of us sell, I gather), I think it’s pretty hard to prove the impact on sales of adding free return shipping, since so many factors can be involved in the ups and downs of sales, especially for long tail items.
6. Finally, with the standard “your mileage may vary” disclaimer, I’ve been offering free return shipping for several years now, and it hasn’t been a problem. The addition of the partial refund ability and the fact that I will finally be able to offer it for domestic shipping only (currently, free return shipping means domestic and international)….that just sweetens it for me.
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03/15/2018 at 7:40 pm #35324
Well said MyCottage.
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03/15/2018 at 8:14 pm #35327
MyCottage,
I was wondering what your rate of return is and on what items. I was also wondering if you could share a little more about your statement “it hasn’t been a problem”.
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03/15/2018 at 8:24 pm #35328
I sell mostly used stuff, antiques, collectibles, some clothing (mostly mens)…I’d say a fairly typical scavenger assortment. My rate of return is less than 1%. Not a problem means, well, just what it says. My returns did not increase after I went to free return shipping, (just as they hadn’t increased when I went from 14 days to 30 days even more years ago). Because my margins are good, and flexible, I don’t even factor in the return shipping cost when I price stuff. If my margins were tighter and my return rate higher, I probably would. The one place it can be a factor is international: I will sometimes not offer international (I don’t use GSP, maybe I should, but that’s for another day LOL) because of the potential cost of return shipping. But once the new rule goes into effect I will finally be able to limit my free return shipping to domestic, and even that concern will go away.
But again, I stress: your mileage may vary. My post wasn’t designed to push people to do as I do, each seller must decide what will work for him or her. I was just suggesting a few more factors people might want to consider.
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03/15/2018 at 9:05 pm #35331
thanks T Salt
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03/16/2018 at 2:01 pm #35378
Has anyone shopped on mobile lately? A Youtuber mentioned a bunch of Instagram reseller chatter about changes so I looked. Guaranteed delivery is set apart right at the top of the results display as a separate toggle filter (not just nestled in the filter menu). This, of course, bums me out a bit since I’m still waitlisted. It also makes me wonder if free returns will be treated that way since it’s EBay’s new thing. I also noticed one of my promoted listings keeps popping up on the search results again and again with every scroll down. It’s got a gray tone. Interesting…
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03/19/2018 at 3:43 pm #35591
I’m issuing a BOLO to you for a free returns filter in this thread. I just noticed on desktop that it is at the top of the filter list now. Nothing on mobile yet, but I’m wondering if mobile will place it on top of your result as a prominent separate toggle filter, as they are currently doing with guaranteed delivery. I also found one of my promoted listings appears along with the only result showing after I filtered for free returns. My listing does NOT have free returns, so that’s pretty interesting.
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03/19/2018 at 3:49 pm #35593
I added free returns to my mens shirts that would ship First Class a few weeks ago when this eBay update info came out. Since then 2 have sold and been delivered and 1 of these already had a return request for fit. Sold 3 more over the weekend that shipped out today but obviously haven’t been delivered yet so can’t say if they will get a return request. Too small of a sample size yet to get an real idea of impact on sales or returns but already having a return for fit is discouraging. My overall return rate is 2.66% and sell a mix of clothes/shoes, hard goods, and electronics.
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03/20/2018 at 7:24 pm #35695
I think the clothing sellers like myself will get hit hardest. My return rate is 5% already which I think is super high. With 6-10 photos and measurements included I dont understand why its so high. I have it turned on in my second store and had 1 return last week. A pair of $20 jeans that cost me 7 dollars for return shipping. Also lost my 4 dollar restocking fee. It really hurt. I have added .25 and .50 handling fee to all my listings to cover this added cost. If my return rate stays the same I will keep it. Only time will tell.
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03/20/2018 at 7:29 pm #35696
Tina: look at Shippo. Your Padded Flat Rate will be $5.83. Keeping a $6.99 Shipping Price, you can build up a reserve to cover returns. This is what we are doing.
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03/21/2018 at 10:26 am #35751
Thanks for the info. Is it compatible with a dymo printer? What other platforms does it work with?
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03/21/2018 at 2:57 pm #35782
Printing to a Dymo should be no issue. Our EBay and Etsy are linked already, anything on other platforms are entered manually.
Check their site. Really easy to sign up, site is easy to learn.
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03/21/2018 at 6:46 pm #35806
My thoughts on Ebay Free Returns and a little background info first: I’ve been selling on Ebay for approximately 5 years, with 2.5 years of full-time selling and I’m a Top-Rated Seller with 100% feedback for what that’s worth. My inventory is highly varied with some specialization in a few categories, but I will buy and sell whatever I feel I can make a good profit on. Nearly everything I sell is either used vintage (90% roughly) or new old stock, so I’m not really competing in the race to the bottom with brand new merchandise sellers. Generally, items that I list are either unique or there are not many exactly like it. So, I’m not concerned with Cassini and search rankings; it just seams like a waste of time to me. My items always show up the few times I have done test searches and I currently sell about about 50-60 items per week. I chose not to opt in to the Guaranteed Delivery Program last Fall because it just seemed like another half-baked/unfinished product that Ebay wanted to coerce us into and it offered 0 benefit to me. I sold the most I ever did over the holidays and have not noticed any negative issues as a result of not opting in.
Now to the point, I always try to look at Ebay’s new policies objectively as to how they will affect my profits before drawing a conclusion as to what is best for me. My returns from 1/1/2018 up to now already total 15 or 2.6% of sales. I only had a total of 12 returns in the 15 months prior to this period or less than 1% and they have always been less than 1% the entire time I’ve been selling. I am not doing anything different in the way I list and sell, so I can only attribute this current higher return rate to Ebay’s new ad campaigns, slogans, and word-of-mouth where they push the ideas of fast and free shipping, and free returns. So, even though I don’t offer free returns, I think a lot of customers mistakenly believe this now applies to anything they buy on Ebay. Fortunately, for about 50% of my returns the buyer has been paying to return the item and are honest about why they are returning it. The other 50% are the typical BS INAD returns. I currently average a $77/month discount with the (now only 10%) rebate for being Top-Rated. A few free returns will easily wipe that discount out as it’s not unusual for me to ship something that costs $20-50 in shipping one-way. Not to mention the time (expense) it takes to deal with the return and relisting the item. I seriously doubt that my sales will increase much, if any, if I offer free returns as Ebay will have you believe. Also, I would bet money that anyone who does opt-in to free returns will see an even larger increase in their return rate; especially once this campaign is in full-swing. As far as giving partial refunds on free returns, how would you do this on used items and how many times do you really think Ebay will allow you to do this before they cut you off? I think free returns is inviting the exact kind of customers that you don’t want; the kind that never take responsibility for their own mistakes or the kind that simply want to “rent” your items for free. For now, I will take the wait-and-see approach to offering free returns, because it will probably be very time-consuming to un-do if it’s not working in my favor. Also, contrary to Ebay stating that free returns is the new “industry standard”, within the last 2 weeks I have read 2 articles stating retailers including Best Buy, Home Depot, etc. are monitoring returns either in-house or through outside private companies and they are actually denying returns if a customer has too many (as little as 3). Even Amazon doesn’t offer free returns for just any reason; ask yourself why? My guess is the big boys have calculated that free returns for any reason cost them more than the profit from the additional sales (if any) generated. I currently offer 30 day returns with the buyer having to pay the return shipping and that will be my policy going forward as long as I’m allowed.
Jay, it might be interesting if you could post a new thread with a survey/graph at the top that shows how people plan to handle returns with the 5 current choices: No Returns, 30 Day Returns -buyer pays return shipping, 30 Day Free Returns, 60 day Returns -buyer pays, and 60 Day Free Returns. Then, through comments we could monitor this situation over time and see how free returns are actually working for people once the program is fully implemented.
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03/21/2018 at 6:54 pm #35808
I don’t know how to make a dynamic graph based on people’s feedback. This thread is good for now, though anyone can start a new thread if they want to start fresh.
I agree with you that sales keep coming. We never jumped on board with Free Shipping several years ago. No issues at all.
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03/21/2018 at 7:30 pm #35813
B-Rock,
Your data gathering idea is really great and could actually help sellers when addressing ebay about the impact of their decisions on sellers.
I would offer that you start a thread with a specific title such as Returns Approach data – Please share. I would also offer that you then add the questions – Returns percentage. Is this policy new? Has this return policy effected your sales? Has this return policy effected your profits? Then either you or someone else who is able to can begin an excel sheet and include visual graphs which will tell the larger story.
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