Combined postage

[20sent06]

Quite often I get buyers who do not wait for, or create for themselves, a combined postage invoice when buying multiple items... this is quite tiresome for me as I then either send them postage or a partial refund to compensate as it is not fair to overcharge on postage. And I end up paying more in Paypal fees as well...

+ I do have a notice - in red - stating 'combine lots to save postage costs' in all my listings!

The billing/invoice screen needs updating to allow the buyer to continue without paying straight away.

Currently it is not so obvious.

[BigKidsAttic]

Quite often I get buyers who do not wait for, or create for themselves, a combined postage invoice when buying multiple items... this is quite tiresome for me as I then either send them postage or a partial refund to compensate as it is not fair to overcharge on postage. And I end up paying more in Paypal fees as well...

+ I do have a notice - in red - stating 'combine lots to save postage costs' in all my listings!

The billing/invoice screen needs updating to allow the buyer to continue without paying straight away.

Currently it is not so obvious.

Very true.

I have new buyers who ask if I do Combined Shipping, to which I always reply "Yes, just select the item/s you wish to purchase, do NOT pay, once you have selected all you want, use the drop-down menu (ASL) to request an Invoice, where we will send one out with adjusted shipping."
As for those who buy multiple items and pay for each one seperately, I include a slip with the first set of purchases stating "we do combined shipping and we will refund you the excess postage only on this occasion, please request an invoice for future purchases."
If after that they continue to pay for each item seperately, then I do not refund.

[20sent06]

Very true.

I have new buyers who ask if I do Combined Shipping, to which I always reply "Yes, just select the item/s you wish to purchase, do NOT pay, once you have selected all you want, use the drop-down menu (ASL) to request an Invoice, where we will send one out with adjusted shipping."
As for those who buy multiple items and pay for each one seperately, I include a slip with the first set of purchases stating "we do combined shipping and we will refund you the excess postage only on this occasion, please request an invoice for future purchases."
If after that they continue to pay for each item seperately, then I do not refund.

A good response, many thanks

[cmjharrison]

A good response, many thanks

Hi
I hope that in the future combined postage will be an option available in the new shopping cart which ebid are supposed to be working on in their revamp.
However there is a way of automating combined postage without buyers waiting for an amended invoice.
If you have a paypal business account, you can set it up so it only has one postage amount for a combined order. This can be set as one single amount no matter what quantity of items have been ordered, or you can set it to have increasing postage prices with increasing total price of order ( for instance a £5.00 order could have £2.00 postage , a £10.00 order could have £3.00 postage, £20.00 order could have £4.00 postage etc ). This feature seems to be ignored by other market places so nothing changes but on ebid orders paypal over-rides any set postage. It will over-ride a single order or multiple order, works fine with either. There are a few minor drawbacks; It is best to set all the postages in the UK to unknown. You cant set an International shipping fee because paypal would over-ride that to the set postage. If you set postage to Unknown, if Google shopping picks the item up it will display it as Free postage. Any comments welcome

[Policequilts]

I would love to see a revamp of the shopping cart myself.

I did purchase multiple items from one eBid seller and I thought I was going to have to pay for each one right off the bat with how it's set up.

I would love to see that you are able to also remove items from the cart without being penalized for not paying for the item.
On eBay, site for my vitamins and such, I will fill up my shopping cart with items and then see what the total purchase of items to see if it's in my budget and may have to adjust the items in my cart for my budget (plus shipping)

[BigKidsAttic]

Hi
I hope that in the future combined postage will be an option available in the new shopping cart which ebid are supposed to be working on in their revamp.
However there is a way of automating combined postage without buyers waiting for an amended invoice.
If you have a paypal business account, you can set it up so it only has one postage amount for a combined order. This can be set as one single amount no matter what quantity of items have been ordered, or you can set it to have increasing postage prices with increasing total price of order ( for instance a £5.00 order could have £2.00 postage , a £10.00 order could have £3.00 postage, £20.00 order could have £4.00 postage etc ). This feature seems to be ignored by other market places so nothing changes but on ebid orders paypal over-rides any set postage. It will over-ride a single order or multiple order, works fine with either. There are a few minor drawbacks; It is best to set all the postages in the UK to unknown. You cant set an International shipping fee because paypal would over-ride that to the set postage. If you set postage to Unknown, if Google shopping picks the item up it will display it as Free postage. Any comments welcome

For myself that wouldn't work even if eBid did a shopping cart with the facility to automatically provide combined shipping.
Why?
I sell collectable toys so they vary in size/weight/value. Lets take small parcel sized parcels for example:
I have items that are way below the size, items that are just under the size and items that are over the size of small parcel, therefore if I sell a number of items that are way under then the system works, but if I sell just 2 items that are just under small parcel size, then the system would not work as it then becomes a Medium or even Large parcel.

So the only way the above system you have suggested will work, is for those individuals who sell items that are always roughly the same size/shape/weight.

Just my thoughts.

And as for listing with shipping as "Unknown", I used that in the past as there were a few items of mine that I didn't work the postage out for International sales, and the majority of buyers who see it and just buy the item thinking it's "Free Postage" is quite substantial from my own experience.

[cmjharrison]

It doesnt lend itself to every situation, it would work on my items as they are all small that would be multi-buys. How I would work with heavier items, have a basic postage charge set on any item and heavier items which would cost more in postage have a percentage of the postage built in the price of the item. It works OK for me like that. Only drawbacks are you have to have a business paypal account - as far as I know , to get that facility; you cant include shipping outside the UK because paypal would override that. If you set a postage price for in the UK, if someone was to add 10 items before making payment it would show on ebids purchase list that there were 10 lots of postage and then the buyer has to click to pay on paypal but that would put some people off from continuing even though once they go to paypal , paypal will override the multiple postages and just add the one postage that is set on paypal. So I set all my items with unknown postage which in the ebid listing says to 'see description'so people know there is only one postage. Only problem with this is if a buyer uses Google shopping to search for an item it will show the item as Free postage but I can live with that. I suppose selling collectables is a different ball game with having different postage rates depending on size/weight etc so wouldnt really work - you can only charge the postage cost accordingly. There is an option on paypal free shopping cart which sets the prices by weight but doesnt integrate with ebid only for your own website. Every ones items are different so it isnt easy to incorporate all eventualities. Also I am not interested in selling overseas myself because I have found Covid-19 has caused so much disruption with delays in the postal service it has become too much hassle.I guess it works OK for some.
Let us just hope we get a shopping cart with combined postage feature.

For myself that wouldn't work even if eBid did a shopping cart with the facility to automatically provide combined shipping.
Why?
I sell collectable toys so they vary in size/weight/value. Lets take small parcel sized parcels for example:
I have items that are way below the size, items that are just under the size and items that are over the size of small parcel, therefore if I sell a number of items that are way under then the system works, but if I sell just 2 items that are just under small parcel size, then the system would not work as it then becomes a Medium or even Large parcel.

So the only way the above system you have suggested will work, is for those individuals who sell items that are always roughly the same size/shape/weight.

Just my thoughts.

And as for listing with shipping as "Unknown", I used that in the past as there were a few items of mine that I didn't work the postage out for International sales, and the majority of buyers who see it and just buy the item thinking it's "Free Postage" is quite substantial from my own experience.

[tony41]

There is another method to combine postage automatically which can be used by those who sell small light items. In My eBid, go to My Defaults>My Shipping Defaults where you can set an additional charge for additional items. This additional charge can be zero for those selling small light items. It is not perfect but it can be useful. It does not stop those buyers who buy an item and pay for it immediately, then buy another item and pay for it and repeat the process.

[cmjharrison]

This is very interesting. I questioned the support team and no one said that you could do this, just said they were revamping the site and it would include a shopping cart. I will do a test tomorrow and see if it does what I expect it to. I will add my findings sometime tomorrow.
On heavier items you could always include an extra amount for postage in the item price. If it works OK that will suit me = many thanks for the suggestion, I was getting nowhere with the support team

There is another method to combine postage automatically which can be used by those who sell small light items. In My eBid, go to My Defaults>My Shipping Defaults where you can set an additional charge for additional items. This additional charge can be zero for those selling small light items. It is not perfect but it can be useful. It does not stop those buyers who buy an item and pay for it immediately, then buy another item and pay for it and repeat the process.

[cmjharrison]

Thanks to tony41 I have now set up an automatic combined postage exactly how I wanted it ( without having to use paypal shipping option). It works fine , I went into Myebid > My defaults > My shipping defaults and created a shipping code then used Bulk edit to apply it to all the items that I wanted included in the combined shipping.
The other thing to make sure Myebid > My defaults > general defaults > Enable Multi-item checkout is set to YES ; Buyers can then order and pay without waiting for an amended invoice