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Does free shipping make any difference for you? My markup is too low for me to give free shipping without adding it in to the cost of the listed price.

My concern is that if I offer free shipping and mark my price up to compensate, would I be making myself appear more expensive in my listings? Has anyone tried one way vs the other?

Does the free shipping listings receive much of a boost from Ebay in the search results?
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Free shipping is an ebay scam.
They tell you to offer free shipping.
Naturally you are NOT going to give your item away for free for the hope of a higher spot in the search listings, so you add the shipping costs to your bottom line (ie: the cost of your item). The item sells with free shipping and ebay PROFITS from the increased cost of your item via the % of the sales price they take at the end of the transaction. Whala! You've been hosed.
I'm still on fence on the Free Shipping issue. While I know that greedbay only promoted it for their benefit, (which made me NOT want to even try it ) I've had numerous customers write and thank me for making the transaction easier by offering free shipping. It's been a time saver on multiples as those who purchase more than one item just go ahead & pay rather than wait or write for a combined shipping quote/total. Does increase fees but time is money and I think sales have increased.
How's it working for others out there? I'm thinking about offering it in my Auctiva store particulary if we don't have USPS up & running in the near future.
uptowngrandma
The Free Shipping is a scam! I started offering free shipping on jewelry since I can ship it First Class, but naturally I consider that in my selling price. However, I also sell other items that ship Priority Mail or Parcel Post and I don't feel comfortable trying to guess the shipping cost since I live on the East Coast. And, I really can't afford to ship this stuff free. I charge actual shipping and a small handling charge. I think I am now getting dinged on everyone of those because my DSR for Shipping is getting lower than it has ever been. But with eBay promoting the Free Shipping to Buyers, how is a buyer suppose to rate the difference between "free shipping" and a shipping charge? It's not really the buyer's fault. A "4" rating is good, right? I also think that eBay is playing with the DSRs anyhow. I mean do we ever get any real feedback on why someone rates as a 4 or 5? I watch my 30-day DSRs after every feedback and the numbers just don't add up. I have a 4.99 for 2 of my DSRs and there is just no way you can come up with a 4.99 with. You'd have to have at least 70 feedback scores with 69 @ 5 and 1 @ 4 to get to a 4.99. I've had 4.99 for months now. I definitely don't have 70 feedback scores in any 30 day period. eBay is going to do what they want to do and there is really nothing we can do about it - so if I have to charge shipping separate for it I will because that's the fairest thing I can do for my customers. Smile
I thought free ship was't working at first, but when you do the numbers and the free adv. for store in the subtitle, my store sales soared.My customers also tend to buy two or more items with free ship. The traffic counts on Omniture are a wonderful tool. As is watching the keyword searches for Ebay, Google, Yahoo etc.I mostly use free ship on the 30 day BIN.

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