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03/14/2018 at 9:19 am in reply to: Upgraded Store, 7 Day Listings, 100% Promoted, 24 hour sales, and Best Offer. #35141
Very interesting, thanks for sharing! How did you arrive at $18 as the cut off for Offers?
MrsKensington, Not that I know of. I do wonder though, if enough sellers use this, will they start putting the info in Sellers Hub? I think it’s possible, but not sure they will. First, because judging by many posts I’ve seen on the ebay boards and FB groups, a lot of sellers will refuse to do it. And second, because , on the opposite end, some sellers might go overboard, discounting again and again so that ebay keeps sending the emails, but buyers can get tired of that sort of thing. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Jay, I think as long as you sign up for it, you’ll be able to watch the replay later. I’m signed up but not sure I’ll be able to attend on Wed.
Jay, that’s correct, something like 60+% of ebay items are sold with free shipping. I agree, the free shipping is probably concentrated in certain categories and primarily new items. But then, ebay has said many times ( statements usually ignored by , say, Ina Steiner of ecommercebytes), that free and fast shipping are not as important for things like antiques and collectibles. So the numbers I provided don’t surprise me. As I said, when I get time I’ll run them for some other searches. I’m also going to run some searches for free return shipping numbers (which I would expect to be pretty low in almost all cats)….but I’ll run them and post them here so we can compare them in a year—should provide some idea of how successful ebay’s efforts to encourage free returns will be.
When I get a chance I’m going to do some more of these, but for now, and with no claim that this is a large enough sample to mean much, a few numbers:
Searched : “vintage trucker cap snapback hat” in all cats 17,798 listed, 5937 with free ship (FS). 5854 solds, 1831 FS.
Vintage real photo postcard in all cats: 32.958 listed, 7758 FS. Solds: 7304, 1639 FS.
Polo Ralph Lauren Shirt in Mens Clothing: Preowned: 70,859, 22,976 FS. Solds 48,714 13,831 FS
Same search, but “new with Tags”: 58,749, 34,237 FS, Solds 29,815, 14,333 FS
Thought the numbers were interesting.
Jay, Are you going to try lowering the price?
Jay, I agree to some extent it’s a question of philosophy. I don’t use it much, for a number of reasons, but I might start using it more. I wish we had more data from ebay on this. For example, what percentage of clothing buyers routinely use the free shipping filter? What percentage of book buyers, or antique buyers do? What percentage of clothing items are offered with free shipping? If I knew that most people searching for mens ties, for example, use the free ship filter, I might decide to list all my ties with free ship. But I have no way to know that, so I have to guess.
I also consider that for some things, like mens ties, would it be better to charge shipping on the listing, but run promos (Buy 3, get free shipping)” to encourage multiple purchases? I have a huge backlog of ties, if I ever get them all up, that might be the way to go….
For most of my stuff, I am guessing buyers aren’t using the filter, and are less worried about free and/or fast shipping. It would be different if I were selling mostly new stuff….
Jay, Yes, people brought up that hack on the thread, some seemed to think with Amazon especially, that if they just wait they’ll get a discount. I think this may be different in that only some ebay sellers will actually take ebay’s advice and reduce, so buyers really won’t have much assurance, any more than Put it on a watch list and wait for the price to go down. For our kind of stuff, buyers know there’s a risk: wait too long, and maybe someone else buys it. If it’s the only one on ebay, buyers may learn not to wait LOL
Mike, I definitely agree about measuring the impact of things like free shipping. Scavenger sellers have a far harder time than commodity sellers, because we can’t set up those nice A/B tests very effectively: I’ll list half with free ship, half without…..because our stuff is so varied, it’s hard to make an accurate comparison. I’ve been using PL a lot….a number of my sales have been PLs (still within my quarterly credit, so no cost to me)…but, would they have sold without the PL? No way to really know for sure. The best I can usually say about something we try is: Well, it may have helped, and I don’t think it hurt. LOL So, we just plod along, trying this and that and following Jay’s dicta: List. Then list some more.
Mike, I think a requirement for the buyer to be able to use an ebay return shipping label is that the original label be an ebay label. ebay doesn’t really care what you charged the buyer in shipping, they just need to know what the original shipping cost was and the method.
There was a screen shot, but I think it was just the top of the page, didn’t include details. I got the impression the email included a list of specific items, because she said before she could make the changes, one of them sold LOL (which does hint that maybe it was in someone’s cart).
Hoping I get one of these at some point…
Jay, I did mine using math and afterwards, my better half said : Well, why didn’t you just look in Seller Hub? LOL —At least it confirmed that my math was right. I’m a little less than .5 % for the last 12 months. I think that’s due to the fact that I’m a low volume seller and don’t sell in a lot of the high return categories. I do sell some clothing, but mostly mens, which I suspect is a lower return rate than women’s. Also, I just got lucky.
From the Seller Release: “Sellers will see new information about transactions where buyers contacted them about items not received, and requested returns for items not as described. Sellers will see their own rates as well as peer benchmarks to compare with other sellers on eBay.”
So, apparently ebay will be providing a way to compare one’s return rate (at least for INADs) to other “comparable” sellers….not sure how accurate or helpful that will be, but it’s something. I’d like to see some category benchmarks from ebay: average clothing returns, electronics, etc. Maybe some day….
MIke, I do free shipping on some things, but most things, no. I’m on the east coast. I know you crunch numbers far better than I, so can I ask: how did you decide on 3 pounds as the cut off for free shipping? I might try something like that…
T Salt,
I don’t think you can exclude international from free return shipping just yet. I asked them to do it a couple years ago, but they are only now doing it when they might have to pay out their own money LOL I think they said the option will be in place by May sometime. Would be nice if it was already an option, but I don’t think it is. I’ve been lucky, haven’t had any international returns using the free return shipping. But as soon as the option appears, I’m going to domestic only.
Atomic Star, The TRS Plus requirement for free return shipping kicks in June 1st.
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