Fixed fees on multi item orders

[don.g.ovany]

Hi

I'm getting an increasing number of instances where customers buy several items, pays for each individually and hence I get several eBay fixed fees of £0.36. Many of these happen when I send an offer to watchers. 

Is there any way to

a) encourage use of shopping basket or

b) claim back such fees from eBay.

I've tried things like buy 3 get one free in the past but to limited success.

Many thanks in advance

[jonatjonatjonat]

You can write as much as you want in the descriptions, include promotions all sorts.

There is a significant percentage of ebay customers who have always purchased everything individually and refuse to change from this approach.

[4_bathrooms]

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@don.g.ovany wrote:

Hi

I'm getting an increasing number of instances where customers buy several items, pays for each individually and hence I get several eBay fixed fees of £0.36. Many of these happen when I send an offer to watchers. 

Is there any way to

a) encourage use of shopping basket or

b) claim back such fees from eBay.

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a) You can use Discounts Manager to offer per-order discounts that are applied to the buyer's basket based on order total, number of items etc. This information is conveyed to buyers but it wouldn't hurt to highlight the discount in the listing description. The one potential problem is some buyers will still not use the basket, purchase individually then expect you to refund the equivalent discount after completing their purchases. This is why it helps to clearly point out in the listing description that the discount is only available if the items are added to the basket and purchased as a single order.

b) No, it is a fixed charge per order.

[lord_and_lady_m]

Ive noticed I've had a few all with different order numbers, and ebay has still given the customer the order discount for multibuys, even thought i've been charged fixed fees as seperate orders. I don't know how bad it is as i havent got the time right not to go through everything line by line. 

[bojangled]

@don.g.ovany 

Been a continuous problem for me, as @lord_and_lady_m says it’s happened on several orders over the years. I have an order discount set up. Even have an added graphic in the images advising add all to basket before checking out, (yes, I know not allowed). Still happens..

[fribblecollectables]

I just send in one box and refund any excess postage MINUS the fixed charge of the 30p per order.

I have had thanks sent for doing a refund, and nobody yet has asked why I didn't refund the whole price.

(There are the occasional buyer that literally can't get their head around putting individual items into their basket and paying at the end or requesting an invloice.).

[lord_and_lady_m]

My issue is not about postage or anything, it's that eBay is applying a "buy 3 saves x" discount to items that are not bought in the same transaction, so then I have to pay the fixed fees three times When I shouldn't have to. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@lord_and_lady_m wrote:

My issue is not about postage or anything, it's that eBay is applying a "buy 3 saves x" discount to items that are not bought in the same transaction, so then I have to pay the fixed fees three times When I shouldn't have to. 

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As I understand it "multi-buy" discounts are per SKU, not per order/transaction. You have to create an "order discount" for a discount to apply at the order/transaction level. 

I'm not sure why multi-buy discounts are not per-order but eBay does distinguish between multi-buy discounts and order discounts. 

[rainbowtrax · Accepted solution]

@don.g.ovany the reason you see it more on items that you've sent offers on is because ebay broke the checkout ages ago by forcing instant payment for offers, even when sellers don't require it themselves, and won't fix it. I added a couple of your items to my watch list and waited for offers to check that it looked how I thought it would. Below is a screenshot: 

When you send an offer, the potential buyer sees three options: Review Offer, Buy It Now and Add To Basket. If they use Add To Basket then they get charged the full price, no offer. The same if they use Buy It Now. Selecting Review Offer is the only way to receive the discount - and when they do that they get a popup with two more options: Go To Checkout and Decline Offer. They CAN'T add it to their basket at the offer price so they can't continue shopping and add more items to the basket if you've sent them offers on multiple listings.

I believe that once you click Go To Checkout, all you can do is pay but I didn't click it in case it committed me to buy at that point. If you want me to try it for you, I can if you don't mind cancelling it. But I'm pretty sure that ebay enforce instant payment of the single item as the only way to get the offer price.

[sml192]

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@rainbowtrax wrote:

When you send an offer, the potential buyer sees three options: Review Offer, Buy It Now and Add To Basket. If they use Add To Basket then they get charged the full price, no offer. The same if they use Buy It Now. Selecting Review Offer is the only way to receive the discount - and when they do that they get a popup with two more options: Go To Checkout and Decline Offer. They CAN'T add it to their basket at the offer price so they can't continue shopping and add more items to the basket if you've sent them offers on multiple listings.

I believe that once you click Go To Checkout, all you can do is pay but I didn't click it in case it committed me to buy at that point. If you want me to try it for you, I can if you don't mind cancelling it. But I'm pretty sure that ebay enforce instant payment of the single item as the only way to get the offer price.

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The last 2 orders I have placed have been a combination of an offer received from the seller together with other items.  I don't recall seeing an 'Add to basket' option (this would have been on the mobile website at the time).  From memory, on each occasion, I selected 'Review Offer' and then 'Go to Checkout' but then exited out of checkout as it only showed the item with the offer on and I wanted to combine it with another item already in my basket to take advantage of PayPal 'Pay in 3'.  It then appeared in my basket with the offer price applied so I was able to checkout for both items together.

[rainbowtrax]

Thanks for that info @sml192 . It appears then that the only way to get the offer prices and combined postage is to select Review Offer then Go To Checkout then abandon checkout, go to the next item, select Review Offer then Go To Checkout again then abandon checkout again then view your basket and they should both be in the basket at the offer price. Then you can finally check out.

Longwinded, impossible to know about because ebay don't tell you (they probably don't even know themselves tbh) and, not surprisingly, virtually no buyers know how to do this. Imagine trying to do that for every item when you want to buy 5, 10 or more items from the same seller. I can count on the fingers of no hands the number of my buyers who've managed it in the last year.

[bojangled]

@rainbowtrax 

I might not be understanding this correctly, but is that even if you have instant payment required switched off?

Jo

[don.g.ovany]

Thanks for your message.

Yes I never use instant payment.

[rainbowtrax]

@bojangled yep, I've never required instant payment. I've always been pretty chilled about payment times and happy to give people a couple of weeks if they want to bag something on BIN then take some time to look through for other items or wait for payday or whatever - and it absolutely infuriates me that ebay interfere and force my customers to pay straight away, overriding my settings. If I want to give people time to pay then that's my decision, not theirs.