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Shipping Cost Disputes Becoming a Pattern

By: Laura Thykeson - Owner of "Ice Originals II - Vintage, Sat Dec 10th, 2005 11:15:51 AM

Are disputes over shipping costs becoming a regular pattern with your online shop? I have noticed a trend lately with many of my online buyers, where they either argue for cheaper shipping charges, some bordering on being belligerent, or don't want to pay shipping charges at all. They seem to have forgotten that we, as sellers, have to furnish at a charge all of our boxes, bubble wrap, peanuts, etc. Now I am the first to want to save a buck or two myself, but I cannot seem to convey in a nice way to my buyers that shipping costs are a fact of life! When they order online from a major corporation, do they attempt to argue down the shipping costs, or is it just with smaller, more personally ran shops that they do this? The majority of the personally owned online shops calculate the shipping costs by the actual weight of the item, with a small amount figured in to try to recoup for the items they must buy to ship items in a professional and safe manner. They don't "pad" the shipping in order to make a few more dollars, but perhaps the buyers have been burned in the past with a bad auction seller that did do this. When we ship the item for free, that takes away from our profit on the item we have sold, which may have not had much of a mark-up on it in the first place.

Of course we, as sellers, could always refuse to budge on shipping calculations and assume a "take it or leave it" attitude, but I for one wish to move my merchandise and this approach would no doubt kill the sale. I have found myself selling items at a loss at times, simply because the buyer refuses to purchase if they have to pay shipping. Good business sense? No, but there are times I get so tired of not moving items that I will go ahead just to clear out items to make room for fresh items and recoup at least a portion of my money. I have tried the "soft" approach to buyers, politely explaining to them the reasons behind shipping costs, and I have tried the "strong arm" approach" and neither seems to work with buyers that want to buy, but refuse to pay for the shipping. I became so frustrated over this that I decided to try an experiment. I decided to try increasing the price of my items by the approximate amount of what the shipping would be, and then charge no shipping within the United States. I know that other sellers do this also, and buyers must be aware of this, yet they seem to go right along with it with no problem! Therefore, I have come to believe that as long as buyers "believe" they are getting a deal, there is no problem! There is no explaining human nature, is there?

The majority of shops on places such as Tias and Ruby Lane, to mention a couple of the more well-known antique and collectible malls, are not major corporations. They are people just like like me, working from home, and trying to just make a living, not a fortune. I don't try to get rich off of one item, I try to make a little profit off every item I sell, and am doing good to do that after paying shop fees, advertising costs, etc. The majority of my items are not over $100, and yet, this problem with the shipping is becoming an everyday occurrence with the majority of buyers. I am hoping that buyer awareness can be raised if sellers begin to speak out in their own defense over this issue, as our ability to stay in business can depend on it! Personally, I think the online auction industry has gone a long way in putting the online shopper on the defensive when it comes to this subject, as there are certainly some auction sellers that do charge exceedingly high shipping charges. Now, I am not saying that all online auction sellers are bad by any means, but I have personally dealt with some that charged outrageous shipping prices to make up for the "steal of a deal" that I got on the auction. How can we offer our buyers great deals and then be expected to not charge shipping? Somehow we need to raise buyer awareness, as well as gain their trust that we are not trying to cheat them. This might be a good subject to use in your next customer newsletter, if you use this method, and I am certain all shop owners can come up with a creative method of approaching this subject in a gentle, non-threatening way so as to alleviate this problem for all of us!

About the author: Laura Thykeson is the owner of: Ice Originals II - Collectibles, Vintage Jewelry and Antique Sheet Music http://www.tias.com/stores/iceorig/

Ice Originals Toonz - Collectible Vinyl Recordings, Cassettes and 8-Tracks http://www.iceorig.gemm.com/

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