Multi variation listings and postage (after Simple Delivery Introduced)

[overexposure-2009]

Hi all.

I'm slightly baffled by the new Simple Delivery thing, which seems to get more and more problematic.

Originally I set my own custom postage options and rates.  Once Simple Delivery was introduced, it did seem possible to opt out of it when relisting items, although the addition 3-4 clicks for every single item did trebled the amount of time that relisting took me. Which added up substantially when I had a lot of individual expired listings.

I then moved to doing some Multi-variate lists.  This worked, but I initially somehow I only got one postage payment regardless of the volume of items ordered. That was painful. So then I changed the postage policy to include a small amount per additional item. This is a clear previous custom postage option and very useful. That worked fine and mean that postage was covered even if the buyer bought multiple items.

However, tonight when trying to create a new multi-variate listing, firstly ONLY simple delivery appears to be selectable. No other postage policies seem possible, with no option to turn off simple delivery.

Even worse, this seems to be applied retrospectively to past variate listings - which I will probably now have to delete (or cancel orders for more than one item) since it will lead to losses. 

I therefore can't seem to find a way to ensure that postage charges RISE to match costs when buyers buy multiple variants.  I can't believe that this is correct. I must be missing something somewhere in how Simple Delivery works for variant/multi listings?   How can/should the platform adjust for the weight incurred by additional items?  Multi-listing now only seems to along one package size and weight to be selected, which is of course unknown if you don't know what quantity will be bought.  

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

From other posts iv'e read recently Ebay seem to be getting away from allowing private sellers to have multi variation listings.

Also,very recently,there seems to be more posts regarding SD and it appears that the "mandatory" stance is becoming the rule.

[suelel1968]

There has been confusion about multi quantity and multi variation listings. My understanding was "yes", to multi quantity, "No" to variations. If I do a "sell one like this" on one of your listings it gives me the variation listing and I can't get custom postage either even if i set it to 95p. I can still get custom postage on anything under £10 today.

I suppose the same problem occurs with multi quantity too, so it will have to be sorted, but whether you will still be able to use it is another matter.

Personally, I don't understand why private sellers can't use it for used items. I have a drawer full of dad's imperial drill bits which could have gone on one variation listing. I get why it can't be for new listings though.

Not much help am I really!

[xyz307xyz]

Maybe I misunderstand, but if it's simple delivery and a buyer pays for multiple quantity or different variations in a single payment and you get one label.

Then as long as all the items are packed up in one box and within the maximum weight 20kg, size and value £750 RM/Evri will take - just use that one label to send the box.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575#se...

?

[overexposure-2009]

This is definitely NOT how it is working at present.

I created a test sale, which contains variants of a product (different editions of a magazine.  I have set the quantity to one available per edition/variant, and all prices the same.  I have set the unit prices artificially high just so that no one buys from the test listing.

In the test listing;

 - All items prices at £14.50 by me.

 - Simple delivery Large letter 1kg max applied (which will anyhow generate a problem if in excess of three items are ordered because RM48 large letter (at £2.70) is limited to 750g.

Then, logging in as incognito, I tried to buy via basket.  These are the results:

Single item order:

 - Price to customer £14.50 plus £1.30 ebay fees = £15.80

 - Postage: £2.72 (so marginally above RM48 large letter and no margin for packaging).

 - Total order value in basket = £18.52

Two item order

 - Price to customer 2*£14.50 plus 2*£1.30 ebay fees = £31.60

 - Postage: First item £1.69 (!!!), second item free.

 - Total order value in basket = £33.29

Three item order

 - Price to customer 3*£14.50 plus 3*£1.30 ebay fees = £47.39 (wierdly loses 1p)

 - Postage: First item £2.21 (!!!), second and third item free.

 - Total order value in basket = £49.60

Of the basis of this test I am completely lost. Why would the postage cost go DOWN overall when two items are ordered?  Why when three items are ordered is the price some other random amount (and also not even enough to cover the postage method of RM48 Tracked Large Letter).

For a laugh I tried selecting six items. In the basket this pushes the price of postage on the first item down to £1.12, and all the other items free. I wonder whether it will drop to pennies to even higher volumes.  And just to stress, it isn't saying 6*£1.12. Literally just £1.12 in postage?

[overexposure-2009]

Screenshot of the test referred to above.

[xyz307xyz]

Yes, similar has been reported - although that was two or three different items, not quantity/variations.

The buyer/seller just needs to proceed with the amount shown and label provided. It doesn't even matter if the 3 (6 or whatever) magazines are too big for large letter. They just have to be under the maximum weight (20kg) and size.

[overexposure-2009]

Thanks for replying.  I don't follow how that works, perhaps because I am not understanding how Simple Delivery works in later steps in the process.

At this stage, with the example above, the buyer appears to be paying a Grand Total of £1.10 of postage charges for over 6 magazines, over 2kg of goods, excluding packaging.  

Are you saying that if the the order was processed like this, the label was printed, and the goods sent, RM would carry them for just £1.10, tracked?  That does not seem possible, unless eBay suddenly has a way to get negative pricing out of Royal Mail?

[overexposure-2009]

I also 'chatted' with eBay customer support (at length), which yielded somewhat unexpected results:

Firstly, they didn't/couldn't explain why postage price total was dropping, when the volume, quantity and weight of all goods was rising.

Secondly, they said that incremental increasing postage could only be applied by changing the *global* postage preferences for the account, opting into flat postage, and then applying a profile with postage increment per item.

I don't think that makes sense. Firstly, it would (they confirmed) apply to all listings on the account (regardless of type, weight, etc), and secondly would only allow one increment value to be set for the incremental items.  Which would be fine if everything (in the account overall) weighed the same, but when has items ranging from <100g to over 5KG, adding for example 30p per item for the second or subsequent item would only cover the additional costs for some item types. It would yield postage charges of £2.70 + (say) 30p for 2 magazines, but any buyer purchasing 2 *heavy* items from the same seller would pay £4-5 for the first heavy item, but only 30p more for the second, even if the weight of the combined items was 10+ kilos.

I don't actually believe that that would be a sensible course of action, and would lead to even more listings being exposed to the risk of insufficient postal charges being applied.

[xyz307xyz]

It's "explained" by the postage is set by ebay's AI (or just normal coding). If I was in charge of designing it, the postage amount would go up the more you bought. And if I was in charge of coding it or testing it, then it would match the design.

"Are you saying that if the the order was processed like this, the label was printed, and the goods sent, RM would carry them for just £1.10, tracked? "

Yes to most of that. in terms of the £1.10 - I expect ebay and RM have agreed prices based on average weight (and possibly size); and for X million packets, so RM wouldn't literally receive £1.10 (or £1.10 - ebay's cut)  If you print the label yourself, none of the price, weight or sizing will be visible on the label.