RE: Ebay Is Kind of Confusing

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alonicus in Rant, Complain, Talk • 5 months ago

I've been there and done this.... actually, it's the bread and butter of the business I run.

What I'd suggest is this;

Go to the An Post site and check the different post services available to Ireland, with prices, size limits etc.
Look at what you are selling and try to come up with a few "standard" type packaging types and weight.
Work out what it'll cost you in postage.
Then look at international destinations and do the same. It's almost certain you'll be able to break it down into UK, EU, Rest of Europe, North America and one or two "Rest of World" zones.
I don't know how similar Irish eBay is to the UK site (a lot of Irish sellers actually sell direct on the UK site as well to access a larger market), but their shipping is a bit of a mess to set up. You should be able to nail it down to Ireland and a couple of international zones.
The key thing is to offer the base service as Free Shipping by building it into your item price, so for example a £10.00 item that'll cost £2.50 to post will have £2.75 added to the price to allow for 10% eBay fees on the postage. Having a free shipping option gives you a serious boost in eBay search ranking.
Then add any premium services (e.g. next day delivery) as an extra shipping method, but reduce it by the amount you've already built into the item price.
Work out your "risk threshold" above which you want to send items tracked & signed for, and incorporate that into whichever service you use. Don't give buyers a choice at that point, they'll always go for the cheapest option because you're the one who will lose out if they claim non-delivery.
For international orders, there are some places (Italy, France, most of Africa and the Middle East) where the buyer mantra appears to be "if I didn't sign for it, it must be free". ALWAYS send items to those countries tracked & signed for !!

Aaaand I should have just made this a post. Maybe I'll copy it, add a bit more detail and do just that 😁 But hopefully it makes sense ! After a very short time it'll become second nature. Excel is your friend.

5 months ago in Rant, Complain, Talk by alonicus

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grindan 5 months ago

I did not know that free shipping was THAT helpful- I got a whirlwind of sales and then my eBay just sandbagged. I think I will do what you said and see if it helps push some more sales. Thank you! 😄

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alonicus 5 months ago

Ebay's algorithm is a closely guarded secret, but I've learned (and been told by others wiser than me) of things that can be done to improve sales.

Adding fresh listings every day for a week or so is good, they get pushed up in search and then people click the "view other listings" to see what else you've got. Closing and re-listing slow sellers can sometimes trick the system into doing the same, or editing existing listings by dropping the price a little or using one of the promotional tools eBay has.

It's worth reviewing eBay seller requirements to see if there are any extra boxes you can tick that can help with search placement - longer return periods or free returns, free shipping, faster delivery options, stuff like that.

I use repricing software, but that's mostly because I've got listings for items I always keep in stock in a very competitive category, so it's not a thing that works for everyone.

But overall it's just a case of continually experimenting to see what works best in your category and against your competitors, and keeping up-to-date with eBay policy announcements.

Good luck ! 😀

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drawmatic 5 months ago

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alonicus 5 months ago

Forgot to add.... if it gets really confusing, post a screen shot (with user names etc blanked out) of the Irish shipping setup screen and I'll see how close to the UK one it is. Also look for a thing called "Business Rules" although that may be a peculiarly UK thing only for business sellers. You will likely also find a lot of shipping setup stuff in your "Account Settings" eBay section.

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killerwot 5 months ago

I'll do that and send it over to you, I'd really like to get some advice from someone who knows what they're doing, and by the sounds of it, you're that person. Hopefully the Irish one isn't too different.

I really appreciate the advice and a lot of this makes sense. I think what I need to do is bring an item down to the post office and ask them to weigh, measure and tell me the price for sending to America, Canada, UK and Australia. Mainland Europe would be good too, and from there I can come up with a happy average where I'm not ripping buyers, or myself, off.

Luckily the only things I'm selling is games, and it seems to be about 160 grams, 18x14x3 CM, and those dimesions don't seem to change from item to item.

Good shout on the signed shipping too, I'd be much more comfortable for that being the norm when sending out items. I've heard of some scams, and makes me weary, especially knowing the price of some of the games I'll be sending out.

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alonicus 5 months ago

Gotta be honest, 90% of what I send now is tracked.

Check the thickness if they have a "large letter" size. It can make a serious saving on post costs ! The UPU (Universal Postal Union, an international association of various countries' post offices) has set a 3cm standard, but Royal Mail makes it 2.5cm. It enables them to make extra money on international cross-charges for items from 2.5-3m thick.....

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killerwot 5 months ago

An Post has a size for a padded envelope, or large envelope and it actually mentions DVD/ Game as an example.

Luckily the calculations online seem reasonable. I just need to go through it again and figure it all out.

Am I able to set prices for seperate regions/ countries so that a potential buyer will see the relevant shipping price?

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alonicus 5 months ago

Yes, you should be able to, as well as picking which countries you do or don't ship to.

Below is the Account Settings screen. It's the UK version (my secondary personal account, not my main business one, which looks very different !), but hopefully the Irish one isn't too different ! I've ringed the interesting bits in red....

This is the Shipping settings screen accessed from the previous one;

You may not have Click & Collect in Ireland, but you may well have Global Shipping. It's an easy way to do international, but is expensive for buyers, so only worth doing if you're not that interested in international sales.

The "Exclude Postal Locations" setting takes you to a screen where you can select country by country, or for whole continents, where you don't ship to.

"Postage Rate Tables" is where you can set postage rates up country by country, although it's a pig to work out the fine detail.

But I spotted that they'd opened up Business Policies to non-business sellers. Although it's slightly less flexible in terms of individual country settings, once set up it makes the actual listing process a total doddle !

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killerwot 5 months ago

Thank you so much! I went into my business policy screen and set all my prices according to what the varying prices are, and to make things a bit easier I just excluded a rake of places but checked the option to let people contact me about prices to ship items.

Registered is the only way I'm doing it, and have priced according to that.

So, Ireland 9.50 - which I think is a bit high, but that's what it says. Unregistered is 2.95 in Ireland, so it's a steep jump. On top of having it registered though, my item is also insured, so at least there will be some fallback, should anything happen.

UK and Mainland Europe - 12.50

America, Canada and Japan - 16

Australia - 18

I wish it was a bit cheaper, but that's the price of registered post sadly, and it's the safer option.

To counteract the pricing, I may lower my asking a bit to help out the customer and make some sales.

Just in case I've messed anything up I'm only going to upload games which are less than 10 Euros in value, and I'll sell them at a lower-than-average price. Hopefully, I'll be able to unload some stuff, test the waters, and also earn a bit of positive feedback. I don't want to put my most valuable items up first, just so I don't unknowingly make any screw-ups.

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alonicus 5 months ago

Sounds good ! Another option to consider is selling small batches of two or three games per eBay listing, so that buyers look at the item cost in relation to the postage and think it's reasonable. There are so many different combinations of ways to sell, it's worth experimenting to see which get the fastest and most profitable sales.

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