I know it sounds like a no win situation but in reality it is a Win/Win situation! You add shipping to all of your items and offer free shipping. You also do not charge if it is purchased with something else. This is for domestic shipping of course. You still charge shipping on International orders but you take the Domestic charge out first. Here is an example:
Fabulous Item
Retail cost: $15
Actual Domestic Shipping with Materials: $3
International Shipping with Materials: $7
Listing Price: $18 w/ Free Shipping
International Shipping $4
Now if your customer buys a second item, they will also be paying full shipping in the cost of the item. You win. The customer wins. Everybody is happy. It may take you a while to change over your shop, but you will see an increase in sales.
That is it for today. Tomorrow I will be talking about special packaging that will double your chances of repeat customers. Also, if you don't follow this blog now is a great time to do so! Next week I will start a week long series on Advertising with Facebook! Until then, let me know if you have any questions! marketmyshop@gmail.com
That's an interesting thought. Have you done any actual analysis on this to see what kind of sales increase you do see with this methodology?
ReplyDelete-Andrea
stitchsilly.com
I started this during Christmas so it is a little difficult to analyse it at the moment. I plan to leave it this way, so, I will update you as the months progress.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this does not apply to my shop. I ship from Canada, and it's more expensive to ship domestically than it is to ship to the US. And since my items are on the heavier side, the shipping is quite a bit more than $3.00. If my shipping wasn't so high, I would think about doing something like this.
ReplyDelete-Shirley
theorangewindmill.etsy.com
Interesting way to go about business, wonder if it works.
ReplyDeletehttp://thevicagirl.blogspot.com
Unfortunately I have some heavy items (bath tea in glass) that easily costs $8-10 just to ship. I couldn't feasibly add on the cost of shipping there, but I'm interested to see how it works for you!
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely do this, thanks for the advice!
ReplyDeleteUnusual Fascinators xx
I've been doing this since November and I didn't see any increase in sales. Actually I haven't even had a sale since then. Oh dear!
ReplyDeletewww.katezat.etsy.com
Sadly, I can't do this, since most of my items are in the $2-4 range. Adding $2 to all of my items would probably upset my customers. It can be a good idea for some people, but difficult for others, I think.
ReplyDeleteActually, I switched over my some of my jewelry listings to reflect free domestic shipping and reduced International shipping and am working my way through the listings to switch them all over to this.
ReplyDeleteMy ACEOs which I can ship in a 1st class letter, I'll also be switching to free shipping.
The heavier items I'm leaving as-is and the inexpensive items also as-is.
I started with a few items in November and have added more since then and they have been receiving more attention and sales are steady so I believe this is working for me.
Keep up the great advice! :-)
Fantastic article. I wonder if the 'free shipping' will actually offset the fact that your item now shows up in the searches at a higher cost with the potential of turning away shoppers at a glance?
ReplyDeleteI found that customers were turned off by the higher item price, since many of my items are heavy. I came up with a compromise, which is "no sticker shock" shipping. I try to keep shipping low enough that when someone sees what it is, it won't be shocking or off-putting, and I add a little to the cost of the item. That seems to be a compromise that has worked pretty well.
ReplyDeleteI find many useful things herewithInternational shipping
ReplyDelete