Bundle Discounts – Great Idea, But Without Combined Postage Will They Work?
Summary: trade-price-stamps-2015 discusses the potential benefits and shortcomings of eBay's new Bundle Discounts feature, pointing out that the lack of automatic combined postage could deter buyers. They express concern that buyers might abandon their carts due to high postage costs when multiple items are purchased. the_brick_lodge notes that similar features have been available before, and jonatjonatjonat agrees that eBay could improve clarity around postage fees to enhance buying experiences and conversion rates.
Bundle Discounts – a good idea, but are they missing the most important part?
I was quite excited to see eBay rolling out Bundle Discounts. Encouraging buyers to add more items to their basket in return for a bigger discount sounds like a great idea, particularly for sellers of lower-value collectables, stamps, postcards, cards, coins and other small items.
But there seems to be one major problem: combined postage.
If a buyer adds several £5–£10 items to qualify for a bundle discount, but their basket then shows the full postage charge for every individual item, the saving can quickly disappear. I suspect many buyers will simply abandon the basket when they see the total.
Yes, sellers can refund excess postage afterwards, but new buyers don't necessarily know or trust that this will happen. They want to see the correct price before they pay.
Free postage isn't necessarily the answer either. On low-value items the postage cost has to be built into each item's price. A multi-item buyer then effectively pays that built-in allowance several times while also receiving the bundle discount, which can wipe out much of the seller's benefit from encouraging a larger order.
There are other limitations too. Sellers with large and varied inventories need much better control over which listings or categories receive particular bundle discounts. A buyer shouldn't be able to add a couple of very cheap items simply to trigger a large percentage discount on an expensive item.
Returns appear to be handled sensibly, with the discount recalculated if returned items mean the buyer no longer qualifies for the original bundle tier. That's a welcome feature.
But I think Bundle Discounts + proper automatic combined postage could be far more powerful than Bundle Discounts alone.
Imagine being able to set:
Buy more items → receive a bundle discount → eBay automatically combines the postage → buyer sees the correct total in their basket before paying.
That could genuinely encourage buyers to browse a seller's shop, build larger orders and complete checkout.
Bundle Discounts are a promising idea. But without solving combined postage, I fear eBay has built only half of the system.
What do other sellers think? Would proper automatic combined postage make you more likely to use Bundle Discounts?
suelel1968
·1 week agoI agree. They only work for delivery with SD. No surprise I suppose. Also it gets messy if you offer individual discounts so I gave up in it.
jonatjonatjonat
·1 week agoI'd agree. I know it always used to be an issue if you offered a postage upgrade. It never made it clear that the upgrade to a more expensive postage option would only apply once - but this isn't clear in the ebay checkout as it initially looks like you'll be charged the fee for EVERY item from the same seller.
I assume this is the same issue - I'd agree - ebay could do things to improve this which would improve conversion.
the_brick_lodge
·1 week agoThis is just order volume under the name of a competitors idea. Business sellers with shops have been able to do this for a long time.
You can set up combined postage rules here
https://www.ebay.co.uk/ship/prf