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The New ebay: The Official Guide to Buying, Selling, Running a Profitable Business
book

The New ebay: The Official Guide to Buying, Selling, Running a Profitable Business

by Todd Alexander
July 2013
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
296 pages
6h 22m
English
Wiley
Content preview from The New ebay: The Official Guide to Buying, Selling, Running a Profitable Business

Chapter 15

Postage and handling tips

It’s standard procedure on eBay not to send your products until payment for the item has cleared. Once payment has been received and processed, take the time to offer great service through the postage, handling and packaging methods you use.

Free postage

A common e-commerce standard is offering free shipping or postage. It has become so common, in fact, that some buyers have come to expect it. But while it’s all well and good for a business seller to absorb postage costs within a product’s sale price, for us private sellers it can be more difficult to provide free postage. The secret here is to be certain what the postage costs will be. I’ve seen too many casual sellers make the mistake of estimating their postage inaccurately and ending up forfeiting most of their profit because they quoted the wrong amount. If you’re prepared to send an item via the post or courier, get clear estimates from your shipping provider (visit the Australia Post website at www.auspost.com.au for postage estimates).

Here’s a handy little tip for helping with your selling success. Once you know your postage costs, consider increasing the auction start price or your Buy it now price to cover the postage costs, then offer ‘free’ postage. You’ll be surprised how much buyers love the idea that anything comes for free!

Postage options

Other buyers, however, are prepared to pay reasonable postage costs, so again ensure you have an accurate guide to avoid surprising ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781118588543Purchase book