With free shipping, you can end up paying higher fees. For example, a 9.99 item + shipping will be 50 cents fee, while a higher total including shipping will bring your fee to $1.00. Double loss. Most customers realize the price is inflated to include the shipping, and it ends up costing you more, especially if you also possibly miscalculated postage. That’s my 2 cents on the topic. Best wishes making the right decision for your business.

I prefer to put the shipping cost(s) in the ad. I calculate shipping from my zip code to the farthest zip away from me. I refund, or give a store credit for anything over $1.00. This way there are no problems, and the buyer knows exactly what they will pay. 99% of the time I’m right on…especially with the flat rate option.

I prefer calculated shipping when I have weight information for my products…free shipping or estimated shipping could eat into your profits base line

Hiya You Two! What ZenGirl said is Absolutely True…but..;;;giggling;;.. I still Offer FREE Shipping, anyway! Why? It takes up even MORE of my time to do OBO’s and/or Shipping Calculations, for either 1st Class, USPS Priority or UPS, as I mostly Sell High to Superior Quality Quilt Shop Fabrics, and My Ladies, well Mostly Ladies, Love the Free Shipping Portion when They Realize even With FREE Shipping, Most of My Brand New Quilt Shop Cottons cost a LOT Less than Anyone Elses Do whereby they don’t Offer FREE Shipping. So I Would Say, Be Aware, and then Go from There, Whatever Works for YOU, Dearies! I Wish You Joys and Happy Sales! Dee :)

Doesn’t google prefer not to list free shipping items?

I use free shipping for things like patterns or small booklets that can be mailed first class; for china and books, calculated. This seems to work pretty well. I list the information a buyer will need to check out the calculated shipping charges themselves, but I never mind personally quoting a price to anyone. I would love to see Bonanzle offer to calculate first class, parcel post and UPS sometime soon.

Most of my items are very small jewelry items and I have free shipping. I do not inflate my prices.

For most items calculated shippng is really the best.

We picked free shipping when we found out that many customers gave low bad feed back for shipping.
Example 1 We were rated the lowest rating for a shipping cost of $4.95 for a package the weight was 1 pound 4 ounces.

Example 1 We were rated the lowest rating for an order that the shipping calculator showed a rate and the customer paid and because we shipped the order in a Flat Rate Box and did not refund the change we received the low rating.

Our goal is Happy Customers! Shipping calculators don’t work and buyer think shipping is to high with out knowing the rates.

If you were to ask a person do you like paying $2.50 for a gallon of gas most will tell you no because they want it lower. When gas was over $3.00 a gallon did any one not pay to fill up their car. Was gas over priced. The point I am making is buyers don’t like the postage rates and in a few more months the rate are going up again. I feel if we are making money we can lower prices and if we are not we will have to make sure we come out ok.

I prefer to let anyone that visits my booth to know how much the shipping rate would be for each order they place by their zip code aka calculated shipping. They put in their zip code and know instantly how much shipping will be.

Offering combined shipping discounts for multiple items in the same order is ALWAYS a plus because it saves your customers some money that they would have paid if you did not offer it.

Find out what works best for your situation and stick with it. That’s how I learned.

FREE shiPPinG is the only way to gO in my booth!
Infact, I also send all my packages USPS Priority Flat Rate Mail because I want my patrons to get it faster from me…

For Normal Sized Parcels, Calculated Shipping has been tweaked and is pretty close to accurate in my opinion. It took awhile, but in the beginning, the system was very primitive and inaccurate so I used free shipping and flat rate shipping, but have been converting in the last four months to make combined shipping easier to manage.

Our calculator now recognizes First Class too. I have found UPS even to be very accurate, as long as the package is not oversized. Some have reported issues with Fed-ex and oversized packages as well.

I use FedEx and UPS as often as possible and I charge shipping. The reason I mostly charge shipping on everything is because buyers KNOW that it cost to ship and will believe that you have inflated your pricing to cover shipping, regardless if you haven’t. Also, by charging shipping and keeping the prices lower or offering “best offer” you are not going to pay as much in “fees” because you are not charged (or are you?) on shipping? Customers know that it cost to ship. Usually when shipping via FedEx or UPS, you normally have a basic shipping chart to charge shipping by price. Most ALL retailers have this feature.

I offer free shipping on all of my small items, particularly jewelry. I don’t care if the item is $8 or $180 if I can’t afford the $1.50 – $3 shipping then I guess I’m losing out. If it is a larger item I enter the weight and use the calculated shipping. I haven’t lost yet.

I have noticed that some sellers on here use calculated on small jewelry items. There was one I looked at today and would like to have bought but when the shipping came up as $5.80 I said no way. I know for a fact that using first class shipping through the PayPal system the item I was looking at, as small brooch, would have cost less then $2 to ship including the 19cents tracking.

Oh, and as for the gas/wear and tear on car, paper cut finger, etc, do you know you can schedule pick-up? If you are doing your postage on line like most do there is a place to check for this service! Sweet deal! The PO is already charging for gas and autos, etc! ; )

Hi,
I use Fedex Ground as much as possible. I set up an account to receive a shipping discount. They also provide insurance at no cost and their great a handling claims. I ony use the PO when I can use a flat rate box. Plus Fedex is close to work so I can drop them off on the way. Saves me time and money.
Have a great day!!!
Gilly

I always use free shipping on all my Jewelry My Customers love it .I SHIP ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!!Just use what works for you and honest shipping would be the way to go!!!

Agree with Dealman 2009! I do calculated as most of my items are larger and I sell on eBay via auction format. I am up front regarding my $1 handling fee in all of my listings, no matter how many items are won by the same Bidder. Also, since I sell Internationally, the calculated has helped so much in reducing questions. The majority of the time, I have had no issues doing it this way. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

I too use calculated shipping, so far its right on. I have a small electronic scale that weighs up to 10 lbs, weigh the item in a box with packing or bubble wrap, put in that weight, change USP that shows up as default USPS. If you catorize books as books you will get media mail price, items under 13 oz will be assumed to be first class. I have had very good luck with that method.

In my listings I have it listed right away what the shipping will cost. I have things weighed at home here, the boxes are weighed, calculate the wts together, etc. I have my charts done up that I have an average of what the shipping will be, and that is what I charge. The only time I am off quite a bit is if the order is shipping close to home-same state. If I over charge, I do reimburse.

I have done it this way for years with no problems, and can only think of 3, maybe 4 times when I have reimbursed an over payment on shipping. I have never had any customer complaints about shipping being to high, and never had anyone get upset about any of the shipping costs I’ve charged.

Shipping will always cost, and it is only going to go higher…again. Free shipping…reminds me of ebay all the time as that is their thing.

The vintage postcards I sell are small & often only weigh 2oz or less to ship. I realize the actual shipping cost is low, but there are other costs involved too (wear/tear on my car from making short trips, insurance, gas, packing tape, envelopes, etc). The post office also charges a non-machineable fee for stiffness (necessary to safely ship paper collectibles), which I include in my handling fee. I am very open about why I charge what I do for shipping/handling (see my shipping policy page). It seems to cut down on shipping cost questions.

I realize people want things FREE (I do too), but I’m in business to make money. With my low profit margin to stay competitive in my niche, I can’t afford to offer FREE shipping. My advice would be to tally up “ALL” your shipping costs & compare against your profit margin to see if you can afford to offer FREE shipping.

There is no perfect answer. But…I use a combination of Free Shipping and Calculated. I primarily use USPS. UPS and FedEx Don’t offer as much of an advantage in an urban area, especially when you deal with low cost items. Sometimes it USPS First Class, But mostly USPS Priority Mail. Low USPS Media Mail costs lend themselves to Free Shipping; Low Weight Items lend themselves to a Fixed Shipping Cost; While Priority Mail lends itself to calculated. USPS offers wonderfully constructed rugged shipping boxes for Priority Mail FREE; They even deliver them FREE; And as Froggieb said, If you print labels and prepay postage, USPS will pick them up FREE. I normally throw in Delivery Confirmation and possibly Insurance on my dime. And immediately add it to the Bonanzle Shipping information so that Otto can alert my Client. Nothing is more empowering for a Client than being able to track their treasure on line. One printed the Tracking Information and Took it Down to Her Post Office to “Prove” that the Local Office had accepted Her package days ago. It didn’t Help Much but it directed Her frustation where it belonged. But, Until those nice people at the Post Office offer to move my items from point A to point B for free, Buyers need to know that shipping is a real expense that someone has to pay for.

I really like the Google Checkout because they make an adjustment to an overcharge real easy. Many impatient Buyers will accept a Billing that doesn’t account for Shipping Discounts or such. PayPal is now charging for refunds and adjustments, while Google Checkout doesn’t (at least right now). If I overcharged shipping by .50; It’s hard to swallow a .30 Charge to to spend 15 minutes on a seperate .50 refund; Google Checkout gives You an Alernative.

Presently the Bonanzle Checkout doesn’t allow a Choice between Priority and First Class Choices when you calculate; I’m pretty sure that everything calculated is by Priority Mail Rates. Personally I think Calcuated USPS Priority is Best Way To Travel.

I just sold a small cd stereo system with speakers. The customer paid me $15 for shipment from Florida to California on a heavy package. It ended up costing me $35 to send the package. Was I wrong to ask the seller for additional postage fees? I don’t know how that postage got calculated.