Hi Dave,
There is two types of things I sell with free shipping. This coaching, where nothing is shipped and domain names (where basically nothing is shipped).
I have seen a few make good with the free shipping, so I am not going to say it does not always work.
BUT, I have seen far more make it with low price high shipping. Far more..
I would say 80% of the time, the low price high shipping is the right way..
WITH YOUR AUCTIONS there was a reason I said you should have it longer..
The reason is, because if you auction is really short, people will see the shipping costs right away.
YOU WOULD RATHER have them read some of your auction and THEN see the shipping after you have them "hooked".
SO, for it to work good,
you should have longer ads..
A way around this would be to just put the shipping cost only in the description and "not specified" in the normal field.. This way, they don't see the shipping cost right away and read some before seeing it..
SO, THE IDEA IS EITHER:
1. Have a long ad so they read and don't see the shipping cost right away.
2. Or, have the ad short like you had and do not specify the shipping cost in the normal field and put it rather near the end of the description, so they have read before they see the shipping costs..
You want them hooked beforehand.. Convince them it is good and they don't care what the shipping cost is..
Sincerely
Tony
DAVE RICE <ospika@aaaa.net> wrote:
Tony;
Thanks for these thoughts and suggestions.
First, about the low price and large shipping. I initially offered my flies at
$3.99 start price, and $1.00 shipping. At that price I was selling a few dozen
and my average sell price was around $6.00. I can ship to you 4 doz flies for
$C.89. The fisherman all know this. These flies sell for $.99 to $1.89 in your
local store. They sell on line at $.59 to $1.99 depending on what store you go
to. When I went to a start price of $5.99 with free shipping, My sales tripled
and guys started buying more than one dozen at a time. My average price went
up to around $8.00. I buy the flies overseas for US$3.94 landed at my door
step.
The fishing lures are a totally different matter. I technically am the
manufacturer of these lures. When I bought out the company, I thought that the
seller just didn't know how to
sell them. So I got a bunch of them and went
fishing. I caught trout, walleye, and pike with them so I made a deal to buy
the company. Then I found out that the seller had been to all of the stores in
the area and nobody wanted these lures. I had them on a website for 3 years
and people would look at them but not buy. I have send out samples and people
email me and say they are great and they catch fish, but no additional orders.
I have sent out samples to 6 provinces and 15 states. I still have around
21,000 of these lures, and if they start selling, I would just make more. They
cost between $.55 and $.89 to make. There are 40 different configurations in 9
colors combinations. When I get set up I can make and package 100 in about 1
1/2 hours. I also have the packaging system.
I am going to put up some auctions this weekend for the lures at $.01 and
shipping at $4.99, $5.99, $6.99, $7.99, $8.99 and $9.99. It also seems to make
a
difference to sales if I take pictures of the lures in their packages. I
used to take the photos out of the package for clarity. My sales went up when
I take the photos of the lures in their packaging.
The drop ship stuff is just like you say tough to make money on. If I set my
pricing at cost times 1.25, I am sitting on the pricing of the big guys,
Cabelas and Bass Pro more or less. But I also have customers telling me I am a
little high. One of the problems of course is the shipping. If I could get the
supplier to ship outside the US other than to me I would drastically reduce
the shipping costs. Shipping things from the US is a lot cheaper than shipping
things from Canada. If the item sells in the US and I dropship it I make a
decent profit, if it sells anywhere else sometimes it costs me money.
I also tried starting my auctions on the drop ship stuff at $1.00 but most of
the time I ended up in the giving gifts
business.
I just recently found a supplier for Maglite and Gerber in Canada. My US
supplier won't ship Maglite out of the US and he doesn't seem to stock much
Gerber product. I am getting several sales outside the country. This week I
have been shipping Maglites and Gerber knives to the UK, Australia, Belgium,
Portugal, Brazil, Singapore, France, Spain, and Ireland. So I will pin down
the shipping costs and run some auctions in other countries. These sales also
starting to generate some backend sales. One of my Aussie customers bought 1
maglite and has now ordered 5 more for his mates. A girl in the UK bought 1
and a month later bought 3 more in different colors.
The biggest thing of course as I see it is to get away from the shipping costs
and increase the margins. I am intrigued about what you might come up with
regard to the lures. Like I say I have over 20,000 of them and would really
like to get my money out of them. Or
at this point stop paying storage fees to
store them. I am also very interested in getting into the ebook business, it
looks like I have to work for a living for at least few more years, and most
of the time that means out of town. It is very difficult to carry my stock
with me and get to a post office during working hours.
Have a Great Day
