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Ok, down the wormhole that is US Vanity Sizing. Somewhere along the line in past decades the US began making sizing changes, especially in the casual/mall brand clothing sector, while higher end designers still adhere to traditional sizing methods. This is what is causing a lot of the confusion for buyers.
For sizing, basically it depends on the item.
Example 1: A typical pair of jeans made for the US market is 3-4″ larger than the tagged size, when the size was initially the respective measurement in inches. I will list jeans with the tagged waist size and measured inseam in the title, and with full measurements in the description.
Example 2: A pair of tailored dress pants/suit pants will typically be tagged in size which is the same as the actual measurement. You will see inexperienced menswear buyers return dress pants because they are “way too small” not realizing they have become a victim of vanity sizing. Additionally tailored pants can also be altered in the waist and length. I list the measured waist/inseam as the size, with complete measurements in the description. If there is a discrepancy in the tagged size and the measured size, I highlight that info in red, and add it to the condition details “Tagged XX, but measures ZZ, see full description for detailed measurements”. Or “Tagged XX, altered to YY, see full description for detailed measurements”
Example 3: Belts are typically sized in actual inches from the buckle to first or center hole. You may see higher returns on belts, due to the fact that someone may place their order based on the size of their favorite Levis, and then discover the belt is several inches too small.
I list at the tagged sized, with detailed measurements in the description.Returns still happen, returns will always happen.
If you want an eye opener, go measure your favorite pair of jeans. I learned my lesson in 2012, when I ordered a pair of size 38 linen dress pants for an outdoor wedding. When they arrived, I couldn’t button them, so I measured them and they were indeed 38″. When I measured my size 38 jeans, I discovered that my waist was actually 42″!! That’s when I started slimming down.
Week Oct 27 – Nov 02, 2019
Items in store: 4574 Listings for 7294 Items
Items Sold: 103 transactions for 109 Items
Gross Sales: $7123.78
Highest Price Sold: $375 Tanuki Fur Coat, Unpaid, $320 LVC Sheepskin Jacket
Lowest Price Sold: $2.75….Shoelaces
Average Sale Price: $65.36
Cost of Goods Sold $445, Plus consignment payout, roughly $1130
Number of new items listed this week: 134
$$ spent on new inventory this week $0
International Sales, 33%
Returning Customers 9Hit my $30K goal for October on the last day! Woohoo! last October was the first time I hit $20K. So I’m liking the progress.
Thanks again to @StainedGlassKarin for the tip on the Pirate Ship international simple export rate, I’ve already saved $46 on my international first class shipments, since Wednesday. Minimizing daily expenses to grow the bottom line is my favorite.
Hmm, I wonder why the pirate ship rep told me it was not insurable. Good to know. Thanks.
Here is a small closet converted to accessory storage with adjustable shelving. Helped eliminate the stack issue.
The bins are Sterilite Clearview 32 Qt. I get them at Target. Nice and manageable for someone with back trouble.
Of course it’s always the ones in the bottom boxes that sell, even if you mix them up.
If you want something to sell faster, make it harder to get to.
This is what 4000 ties looks like if anyone was curious. Each box has around 60 ties. These are the NEW stock. I have another area with about 1000 or so secondhand ties.
I crack up every time I see that word “Exstra” lol. Someone at the manufacturer’s warehouse couldn’t spell very well.
Based on my international shipments for the last 12 months, I think Pirate Ship could save me about $2000/year.
Now I’m just have to decide if I keep my already competitive international shipping rates the same, pocketing the $2000, or lower the rates and hope it sparks even more sales.
Thanks again @stainedglasskarin
@stainedglasskarin Awesome tip. I’ve used Fitshipper to ship via cubic weight since Jay and Ryanne interviewed them. I will continue use them for cubic rate, but Just added Pirateship to my rotation and had them add the International Simple Export Rate. One thing to note is that the Simple Export Rate is not insurable, but I’m willing to risk a lost package on lower value items. This will save me some bucks on international shipping for sure. Thanks!
Yeah, he’s a good guy and we’ve made a lot of money together. The store and ship idea seemed like an easy way to make $3000, but it ended up being a pretty big hassle. It was literally a stack of pre-packed priority boxes 35 feet long and 5 feet high, which took up most of my extra storage space at the time. It would have been ok, except for the unexpected time (multiple times) spent handling everything and trying to sort out his inventory issues for him. After a few months I discovered that over half of the items were not on eBay at all, and he had no idea. And since he was very busy with his contract work, it took him several months to get it fixed. So for quite a while I was just storing stuff for free with very few outgoing packages, and space is pretty precious around here. Over 100 listings were lost forever and those items were added to his consignment items. Fortunately, there are only about 100 items left…..and I’m itching to use that space for my own items.
They do sting at times, but the items almost always re-sell quickly the second time around.
I had a rare, controversial civil rights poster which sold for a best offer of $600, the buyer claimed he had found another one for cheaper, and returned it unopened. I was skeptical, as the only record of another sale of one was nearly 15 years prior. I relisted it and another buyer who was bummed to have missed out on the sale the first time bought it within a week for $800. Gotta love that.
I’ve never had anything delisted that I know of, but I do find a few unlisted items from time to time. We will begin consolidating and reconciling 4000 of our items this week, hopefully it’s not too bad.
However, A friend of mine recently had some issues with items he listed from the mobile app. I’m not sure what happened exactly. One of my side hustles last year was storing/shipping a fellow seller and consignors 600 item inventory while he was too busy with some contract work. He paid me $5 per package, and all I needed to do was slap a label on it. All his items were pre-boxed and numbered, so it should have been simple. Well…it wasn’t exactly that simple.
At some point half his inventory got delisted. As a standard he uses Auctiva to manage his listings, but at some point had listed or relisted many items with the ebay app. He determined that those items were the same items that were delisted. Though we never figured out when or why.
The result was 3 or 4 rounds of me reconciling his inventory. Many had to be consigned to me, which helped pay for my extra time. The pile is pretty small at this point, and I have convinced him not to sell off his items in a blow-out sale, but rather to consign more and more to me. Selling something for $9.99, and then paying me $5 to put it on my porch….plus ebay fees and COGS, just doesn’t make sense.
One note on the whole mess. He uses an inventory code which he puts at the end of each title. If he had that number in the custom SKU field instead, the reconciling process would have been so much easier. Still working on convincing him to make that change.
The returns come in waves, but I average 3-4 a week. Most of them are for “doesn’t fit”, several are still opened as false NAD with “doesn’t fit” reason given in the comments, and every so often I do miss something or something gets damaged/lost during shipment.
I rarely mention returns or buyer issues, because I just don’t like to dwell on them. In the clothing business, it’s just something I have learned to anticipate.
In the last year, I have issued roughly $15K in returns (including return shipping) on $270K sales. I charge an extra 50 cents shipping per item to offset the return shipping cost, which amounts to about $2600 collected in the last 12 months, which more covers the return shipping money spent.
Out of approximately 5200 items sold in the past 12 months, I had 210 returns opened, 30 of which were never returned.
My total return rate is about 5.6% ($return/$sold), and about 3.5% (#return/#sold)
My 90 day rolling NAD return rate is typically about 0.8% to 0.9%.Service metrics are found on the Seller Hub “Performance” tab drop down menu. It may be month or two before you see any change, depending on when you make the switch and the delay in reporting/projecting.
After you turn off free returns, be sure to monitor your service metrics carefully. Several of my selling friends who do not offer free returns have been hit with the extra 5% fee due to an increase in improperly opened returns by buyers who don’t want to pay return shipping. Additionally, once you make the switch, your evaluation peer group will change, so keep an eye on how that affects your group average as well.
