As of today, I have 27 active sales in my eBay store. Since posting my items, I have thought about offering free shipping (on MOST shop items, with the exception of a few)
After running circles upstairs in my crazy brain and consumed half a dozen of Bavarian filled chocolate donuts, went ahead and revised most of my listings to free shipping. Is this crazy? Yes! It is very much crazy! In fact, my friends and family, think I have gone mad?! Maybe even lost my marbles! But honestly, neither have I gone mad and / or lost any marbles because quite frankly, I don’t physically own any marbles to loose!)
The decision to offer free shipping on my eBay store was very calculated but also equally risky.
I had to really dig deep in the trenches of my brain, the reasons to offer free shipping:
- The word “Free” is always striking to the eyes when shopping online – I believe “Free Shipping” is a simple marketing technique to entice or spark buyers interest to a listing. Free shipping is an attention grabber and it also can act as an invitation to view a listing and / or click the “buy now” button.
A good example of this would be of my own personal experience of shopping online, especially on Amazon.com. If an item, I am shopping for does not include FREE SHIPPING, then it is a BIG HARD PASS!!! Quickly, my eyes and money go elsewhere! When a listing offers free shipping and within the price range I am willing to pay…then of course it’s a BIG YEAH!!!!
- Improve the clickthrough activity – free shipping could increase more eyes on my shop – that’s the goal!
- Less likelihood of backing down at checkout – If shipping costs becomes too expensive at checkout, a listing item is quick to be removed. Why pay more if you don’t have to? However, items with free shipping are less likely to be affected in this way. This means a seller makes a sale, and buyers are happy!
I am sure after publishing this post, I will come up with a few more reasons! But for now, I gotta get back to posting more listings – because everyday is an eBay Day!!!!
Coffee with Isla 