November 2012 - The Last Drop of Ink

Updating Kit Product Costs in eSellerPro Automatically

November 22, 2012/by Matthew Ogborne

One of the most powerful features in eSellerPro is its ability to manage Kits. Kits are made up of multiples of a single SKU or multiple SKU’s but taken together produce a new product and one which can be unique.

In ecommerce unique products are like gold

Kits in eSellerPro are very cool and John knows first hand how powerful the use of these kits are, but there is one part of the kits that is not ideal, updating the kit prices. John shows us how to tackle this challenge using a little excel magic.

Before we dive into how to tackle updating kit prices in eSellerPro, John is absolutely right, In ecommerce unique products are like gold and we cover over free or inexpensive ways of leveraging kits aptly named Podcast sell more with the same products and this can work for anyone whether they’re using eSellerPro or not.

eSellerPro & Versatile Inventory

We were able to create an inventory system in eSellerPro that enabled users to deal with the complexities of inventory management, multiple sales channels and the requirements needed for larger businesses.

The outcome of this is what you see in eSellerPro today and while we’re focusing on kits, they make up just one part of the inventory system, there are several inventory types in eSellerPro, such as Master SKU’s, Listing SKU’s, Stocked Sub SKU’s, Variation SKU’s, a rare type called Holding SKUs and Kits which we’ll focusing on in this article.

eSellerPro Kit Products

One of the benefits of using eSellerPro for kit products is its ability to manage the stock which makes up the kit. In short kits are amazing.

It’s possible to sell individual SKU’s [say a camera case], as well as Kits of SKU’s [a camera and a case] and eSellerPro will keep the stock accurate. Thus it’s possible to hold say just 10 SKU’s yet make up 100’s of unique products (or close to a million in one case).

The Downside of Kit Products in eSellerPro

While eSellerPro does an excellent job in keeping the stock levels correct, so you don’t oversell every 2 minutes with complex inventory, but it does not count the individual SKU costs in the kit. This is where the guide that follow steps in and makes it easy for you to do so.

So if your selling price is based on the item costs there will be manual work to do in calculating the cost price of the kits. For many of you, your suppliers regularly change pricing then this addition work can seriously negate the benefits of kits. This is especially true if you use formulas to calculate selling prices in your Channel Profiles. Additionally if you post accounts to accounting software your cost of goods lines may be incorrect.

Thanks to John, Help is at Hand

If you are familiar with importing and exporting in eSellerPro then there is a simple way in which your kit costs can be updated.

Here’s one way how to do it and if you know a better way let us know!

Step 1 – Backup!
Before you start export your kits and save the export somewhere safe.
(You can do this using the process explained in step 4)

Step 2 – Create the Layout
Now create an Import/Export Layout with the following columns:

StockNumber
CostEach

An example of such a layout is below, with the key areas highlighted.

Step 3- Search, Filter & Export
Sort your inventory by ‘Kit Parts’ and export these with this layout. Save the export spreadsheet. Lets call it “StockNumberCostEach.xls”.

A screen shot on how to filter for just the kit parts is show in the screen shot below.

Step 4 – Export the Kits Using the Standard Kits Layout
Using the search filter in Inventory, search for the Product Type: “Kits” and along top press the Excel icon. Now export these using the layout shown below:

The resulting spreadsheet will have columns with Stock Number and Quantity for all the kit parts in your kits.

Step 5 – Crack Open Excel

We are going to use Excels VLOOKUP function to find the individual parts prices and add them up.

Once you have your Kit Export Spreadsheet you will need to copy the StockNumberCostEach.xls spreadsheet to a new worksheet in the Kit Export Spreadsheet.

You can then use the VLookup formulas in the following download to calculate the kit pricing. A typical cell formula is similar to this:

=(VLOOKUP(B3,’Parts Pricing’!$A$1:$B$671,2,FALSE))*C3

If we just lost you, don’t worry, John’s provided us with an excel spreadsheet ready for use. You can download this spreadsheet, with the formula’s included here:

http://lastdropofink.co.uk/kits-Formula.zip

This spreadsheet assumes your kit part pricing export has been copied to a worksheet called “Part Pricing” and it has formulas for kits with up to 17 parts. (scroll to the right if you can’t see them).

Add the data from the two exported sheets for the kits and the kit parts and enter them into the sheet above.

Note: If you have kits with more just follow the formulas given and don’t forget to copy the results and use “Paste As Values”. You can then delete all the columns except the StockNumber and final Prices.

Step 6 – Import Into eSellerPro
Then simply import the spreadsheet using your StockNumberCostEach.xls layout as the “Import Kits” option on the same tab as shown in Step 4.

Step 7 – Create a Support Ticket
Finally – Send eSellerPro a request to add automatic updating of kit costs to their development schedule.
(this was John’s suggestion and I’m leaving this in, I laughed very loudly when I first read his guide, I hope you do too!)

Updating Kits in eSellerPro Summary

Kits whether in eSellerPro or not can give your business the edge and also help customers by combining products into new products so the purchasing process is a lot simpler for them.

The base of this article was provided by John Hewitt from Bamford Trading, an eSellerPro user since 2006. I’d like to express my thanks to John for sharing this with us and if you have any questions, just pop them in the comments box below.

What Music Do You Listen To While Working?

November 17, 2012/by Matthew Ogborne

Music is such a powerful medium and I’ve always found that the right tune can help me get through the early hours when completing a project or to just help the day fly by.

I’ve included three of my personal favourites below and they sum up the wildly different tastes in music I have and a little background to why I use them and when I use them too.

These are my tastes but I’d really like to know which tracks give you the chill’s and help you get through your working day. You can let me know them in the comments section at the bottom.

Motivational

The first is a motivational track taken from Madagascar 3 (mint film by the way, have you seen it yet?) which I use for when I’m working on a tough project and needs me break from the self-doubt I struggle with badly.

Dig Deep and Make the Hours Fly By

The second is actually a collection of classical tracks that I loop through when I need break those small hours and dig in deep and push through. The playlist is here.

Change My State of Mind in 1 Minute

And if I get really stuck, then this tune always liven’s me up.

But it comes with a warning… You might want to turn the sound down before playing as the intro is ‘loud’, hence why I use to change my state of mind and that dude in the orange shirt at 1:00, that’s me, well mentally anyway.

What Gives You Chills?

That’s enough about my tastes, what do you use to:

Spur you on?
To relax with?
Change your state of mind entirely?

Let me know by leaving a link or track name in the comments box below.

Looking For Beta Testers – Amazon Review & Feedback Manager

November 16, 2012/by Matthew Ogborne

Did you know you’re really lucky if just 10% of Amazon buyers leave feedback? And I’d personally be really impressed if 1% of customers were leaving reviews on your products.

I was sat sipping a coffee in my favourite cafe, pondering about the lack of feedback comments and reviews that we get on Amazon and they’re really low, hardly anyone leaves feedback on Amazon and when they do, it’s normally not the best, it’s why Amazon feedback is always so hard to improve.

When it comes to reviews on products for Amazon, they are golden tickets. A review can make or break a listing.

I was talking to a footwear seller earlier this week, they had a specific range that flies on eBay, but on Amazon, nothing. The answer was immediately apparent when they checked.

The reason why for such disparity? One bad review of the product and that had sealed its fate on Amazon forever. But on the flip side, did you know that on average, the top 100 selling items on Amazon have over 100 reviews on them, averaging one review per day?

Reviews are extremely powerful and when it comes to reviews, you can never have enough of them.

At the bottom of this article I have an invitation for just 3 people to come “Beta test” a product that can make a serious dent in the low number of product reviews and feedback received.

Amazon Feedback Manager

I’ve been working on a tool to help improve the pick-up on Amazon feedback comments that are left and also reviews being left for products. This is for business owners just like you and it’s now ready for beta testing.

Let’s be frank here, I’m not suggesting spamming customers with crappy feedback requests, what I am suggesting is that a well structured, personal approach will work and playing the “we care” card with customers can and does work especially if we’re doing it the right way.

Digging around the T & C’s on Amazon, sending an email to an Amazon buyer with shipping information isn’t allowed, but nudging customers along to leave a product review or feedback on Amazon, actually isn’t against any of their policies.

This system is already up and working with a user right now and I’ve included a screenshot of the dashboard below.

As you can see I’ve been busy and there is some basic reporting included on the dashboard (which need more work) and you’re able to keep track of yours orders, their status and communication history.

The way the system works is that it’s not randomly sending out emails willy-nilly, they are highly personalised with a message that would make me leave a comment and also I’m working on timing them so that they are sent in the same time window for when they were purchased and a few days later, after we know that the items will have arrived with them.

Note: I do feel important to note that although the order data and line items are being pulled from Amazon (and I looked at the other parts of the Amazon interface and thought “that’s easy”), there is absolutely no intention to expand this out to full-blown order management software, remember I’ve been there and done that before, twice!

Update: All places for the beta have gone! If you’re interested in this application, then it will be live soon and you can register your interest here.

There are only 3 places available because each setup will be personally guided through by myself, so that we both work together to ensure that this works for your business.

So my question is:

Would it help your business if customers were leaving more product reviews and you saw an increase in feedback left on Amazon?

If the answer’s yes and you’re processing over 100 orders per month, then I’m looking for just 3 beta testers to trial this for a month and I’d like you to be one of them.

If this is something you’d like to be involved in, then contact me via the contact form here, including a link to your Amazon store/feedback page and a little more about you & your business.

Podcast 007 – Becoming THE Expert

November 2, 2012/by Administrator

A few Podcasts ago we were joined by John Hayes to discuss if Social Marketing Is a Waste of Time (For Product Based Businesses). In that Podcast we touched upon John’s book “Becoming The Expert” and myself and Matt have both read the book and we knew that it was worthy of a Podcast in its own right.

In this Podcast we ask the questions that you may have about Becoming THE Expert and this supporting article will detail the Q & A session that we had with the author John Hayes and will hopefully answer some of the questions about how YOU can become THE expert.

In this Podcast there is myself Dave Furness, Andy Hamilton the best-selling author of Booze For Free, Our special guest for the second time the author of Becoming the Expert John Hayes, and of course the man who needs no introduction LastDropofInk’s very own Matt Ogborne.

[powerpress]

Because this is may be new to you, above is a green play button. Press play and you’re listening!

If you’d like to download the Podcast for listening to on your iPhone, Droid or iPad you can do or you can press the “Play in new window” button to be able to listen to the Podcast while browsing. If you use iTunes you can subscribe here for free.

Matt’s Comment: There are a few of these comments and for the first one a special “thank you” to Dave for putting this article together for us.

Q1: What is Thought Leadership Marketing?

To fully appreciate what Thought Leadership Marketing is we must first define the term as a thought leader. As John says in the Podcast a Thought Leader is someone who positions themselves as an expert in their own particular industry and becomes known amongst their peers for being an expert.

The concept of Thought Leadership Marketing is using this expertise to help build a brand and generate leads within their chosen industry and ultimately drive sales.

A “Thought Leader” is someone who positions themselves as an expert in their own particular industry and becomes known amongst their peers for being an expert

The key to this concept comes in two parts. The first part is securing yourself or your brand as a Thought Leader, ensuring that people know that you are at the forefront of your industry and a reliable source of knowledge in your area. Once you have that secure you can then move into the second part which introduces the marketing concept.

Distributing their thought leadership through a number of marketing channels so that their voice is heard and people look to them for information further securing them as Thought Leaders.

Channels

As John mentions, there are a number of channels that are open to thought leadership marketers. Some of they key ones are:

Blogs
White Papers
E-Books
Podcasts
YouTube

These are just a few of the most common forms of channels available for Thought Leaders to use, and John recommends that the first port of call should be a blog.

So if you are trying to secure yourself as a thought leader in your own right, or as part of a brand, you really should ensure that you have a Blog which is kept up to date as this is the first step in getting your information seen and growing an audience. From there you can then expand into other channels.

Q2: What does it mean to be a thought leader and do you have any examples of thought leaders the listeners or readers could relate to?

There are a number of thought leaders out there who are all prominent in their own niches. In the Podcast I mention one of mine and Matt’s favourites that is Pat Flynn who runs the SmartPassiveIncome.com from the USA.

Pat has even commented on a few of the posts here on Lastdropofink. The key here is that every niche will have their own thought leaders and the aim here is to secure yourself as the thought leader in your chosen area.

John also mentions Scot Wingo the CEO of ChannelAdvisor as one of the first Thought Leaders he came across during his time at Channel Advisor. Scot had wrote a book, which in itself for anyone who has blogged before knows is no small feat called “Ebay Strategies: 10 Proven Methods to Maximize Your Ebay Business“.

The book that Scot wrote was incredibly easy to read was bang up to date for it’s time and it was written in Plain English that anyone could read and understand. This point in itself is what differentiates someone who knows their industry from a Thought Leader.

Being able to communicate a subject that you are passionate about which has a lot of depth but in a manner which isn’t confusing

You can still be an expert but if you are unable to communicate effectively to your audience, you will never be a Thought Leader. By being able to communicate a subject that you are passionate about which has a lot of depths but in a manner which isn’t confusing, doesn’t use a lot of industry buzz words and doesn’t aim to alienate those who may not understand the terminology. Scot does this incredibly well still to this day in his blog for Channel Advisor still very up to date but in plain English.

Thought Leaders are not restricted to the technology sector we hasten to add, our very own Andy Hamilton is the perfect example of this, Andy is regarded as a thought leader in Home Brewing and Foraging, and because he is a very good communicator people turn to him as the expert in his field which has led him into numerous television and radio appearances to discuss his industry in detail. (Matt’s comment: Andy was recently on the Alan Titchmarsh show)

The message here is, every niche or industry needs Thought Leaders almost as village elders who others turn to for advice. John calls himself a Storyteller and this is a perfect fit for a Thought Leader.

If you think of childhood stories, most of them have a meaning or a message and that is wrapped up in a story to give it a deeper meaning. This is a very clever tactic which is used by many Thought leaders to get a message across to their audience.

A top tip that Matt shares in the Podcast is to write your content as if it was for a 6 year old

A top tip that Matt shares in the Podcast is to write your content as if it was for a 6 year old. If you keep your content interesting enough and simple enough for a 6 year old to be able to read and understand. By doing this, you don’t over-complicate the subject and keep it in Plain English.

A good example of this is the Financial Times newspaper which covers incredibly in-depth topics, but at a level that anyone could pick up and understand. John finishes off the topic nicely by explaining how due to the Internet it is very easy for people to at first ‘seem’ like they are Thought Leaders or to come across as such in their writing, as it is incredibly easy for anyone to put content out there these days.

A true Thought Leader has made the experience in what they write about, it isn’t just an opinion it is based on real life, they have made the mistakes, learnt from them and are passing these onto others, and that is where the true value of a Thought Leader comes from.

Q3: Is it a case of being across as many channels as possible…or, doing a few channels REALLY well when it comes to though leadership, basically is it quantity or quality?

The key point to take away on this question is to make sure the channels that you are working on are at a good standard before moving on to a new channel. The first port of call for a potential Thought Leader is to have a blog.

Once the blog has good content it is natural to link this into social media and likewise video content is great for Blogs too as well as standing alone on the YouTube platform. Don’t make the mistake of trying to run before you can walk.

Matt’s Comment: As we cover in the Podcast, the Blog, just like your eBay Store, becomes the hub for your business, get the hub in place and you can start adding to it, however you see fit.

Make sure that your blog is kept up to date and is at a sustainable place before you branch out into other areas. John states in the Podcast:

Don’t overstretch yourself, you are better off with 2 or 3 well managed channels than 10 poor channels.

The blog is they key stone of your marketing efforts. Blog posts can be mentioned in YouTube video’s they can be shared on Social Media sites, they can be linked to in forum posts, they are great for promoting products such as books etc. Which is why the Blog should be the first port of call, and then look for how the other channels can create a web of content which all link in to each other to set up this personal information network.

This can either be for your personal industry or to further the content creation and network of your brand. Quality is the key when it comes to becoming a Thought Leader and it is something that will largely revolve around your experience. You cannot pretend to have experience and if you try it the chances are you will get found out very quickly.

If you are the thought leader and you create quality content, then the audience will read what you have to say. Matt makes a crucial point in the Podcast which is that it is critical to interact with people who get involved with your marketing. When you start writing blog posts in the beginning no one will read them, but over time they will start to attract visitors and you will grow your audience.

People may start asking questions or commenting on your content. To be a good Thought Leader it is brought back to communication, you must reply to these questions or comments to further solidify your position as the leader. By talking about your experience and testimony then you are helping to create even more of an impression that you have been there done it and you are the expert.

Q4: What actionable steps can our listeners use right now in their businesses to leverage this to their advantage?

The first thing is BLOG! Get good quality unique content on there and start building your brand. If you don’t know where to start with this, or you’re struggling for blog post ideas, let us know in the forums here and the community will do their best to help you.

No-one will read your blog in the early days but as it grows and the audience grows…

Andy again states here that the key is to have patience when it comes to blogging, but to stick at it. To repeat no-one will read your blog in the early days but as it grows and the audience grows it is key to keep the content coming.

A blog which hasn’t been updated in 12 months can give the impression that the business has failed and this can have the total opposite effect in positioning you as a Thought Leader. Never blog about something that isn’t quality content, don’t feel that you have to stick to a timetable, but if you are struggling to find something to write about, then as John says, it may be time to get a new job.

Matt’s Comment: Completely ignore SEO, you can never go wrong with this simple rule, “Quality, Unique Content”. It never fails and you can worry about the other parts later.

The natural progression from blogging is to build a social network audience. Don’t use it as a sales channel, but use it to build interaction with potential customers so they get to know you as a business or person. This again solidifies your brand and shows that their is a human behind the facade of a business an this is important as people like to deal with people.

The key point that Andy mentions is listen to what your audience are asking for, or commenting on, and write blog posts on these topics to almost encourage interaction and the likelihood of it being read. Two Top Tips to take away from this Podcast

Once your business is up and running start a blog, and make sure you turn up regularly with fresh unique content, set yourself a manageable goal to ensure the content gets created, and make it a habit.
Use the blog and therefore it’s audience to feed the e-commerce site and vice versa, create this web of intelligent content based around yourself. Using social media and other channels to link the content together and pull the audiences in from the different available spaces.

*Bonus Content*
To help you get started I’ve compiled a list of 10 potential starter blog posts for your business blog. 10 Starter Blog Posts:

Introduction of You/Your Business
Product/Service Review
Your favourite book review which relates to your industry
Latest news within your industry
Christmas (Everyone has something to say about Christmas)
A problem you had and how you overcame it
A competition blog post
A picture gallery post of either your business, processes, staff or key products
An opinion piece on a certain technology or news piece in your domain
A post looking to future trends within your industry

Matt’s Comment: A really good example of #7 is from Pete Moran, who joined us for Podcast #2. Pete has just started a competition today on his site called “Guess That Thing”, take a look at it here, I have no idea what it is, do you?

Q5: Where can people find out more about you John and Thought Leadership Marketing?

John really is the Though Leader in marketing and we would like to thank him again for being our guest on this Podcast.

The truth is however that we have barely scraped the surface on what his book “Becoming the Expert” covers. So if you found this podcast useful and want to take it to the next level we would strongly recommend buying John’s book.

It’s available on all digital e-reader devices and can be found in all the main digital e-bookstores. See below for the Becoming the Expert website and the link to his publisher where you can get all the information on where to get hold of his book. Likewise if you want to get in touch with John on twitter we have included his Twitter name below too.

John Hayes

John’s Hayes | Blog | @john_w_hayes | LinkedIn John’s Book “Becoming THE Expert: Enhancing Your Business Reputation through Thought Leadership Marketing” is now live and you can purchase via his publishers site here.

Your Feedback

If you have any questions about what we covered with John in the Podcast, let us know by leaving a comment below.

Q&A Free Delivery Versus Reasonable Delivery Costs On Amazon

November 1, 2012/by Matthew Ogborne

This is the third of a series of articles where I’m answering several questions that have come in via email in the past few days, that I feel that you’d gain value from hearing the answer too.

Free Delivery Versus Reasonable Delivery Costs

Today’s question is from Christine and is in relation to the having free shipping v’s reasonable shipping costs on Amazon.

The reason why it’s curious is because Amazon is quite different to eBay in the way it organises listing & prices and I’d like to delve into the Amazon Buy Box a little deeper and their prime subscriptions too.

Here’s the question:

Hi There Matthew,

I was just wondering what your thoughts were on Free Delivery versus reasonable delivery costs.

I started selling on Amazon about 1 year ago and have always gone for the reasonable delivery costs option so the actual product price appears a little lower than those who offer Free Delivery.

Even though Amazon calculates the cheapest offer based on a total of product and delivery charges my thoughts are that if a buyer sees a cheaper product cost plus reasonable delivery cost then the perception is that the product is more reasonably priced overall.

However I am considering changing to Free UK delivery for ease of calculating delivery costs etc

Kind Regards
Christine

Price Perception

I feel Christine is right, the perception that a customer would have that the price is good and the shipping is sensible then it would appear as a better proposition overall.

However, we must account for that we would assume this to be logical, but as buyers we’re not logical at all, we’re emotional, plus we are considering the Amazon marketplace here and while this may be true for other marketplaces or on our own websites, for Amazon I don’t think this is true and I’ll explain why.

By the way, if you think I’m wrong, you can let me know in the comments box at the bottom.

The Amazon Buy Boxes

To see where I’m going with this reply, we need to take a look at the buy boxes on Amazon and how the change.

Amazon Only / Amazon Prime

If we take a look at the normal Amazon buy box on for an item that is being sold by Amazon directly, then we can see it’s very clean.

As a buyer we’re presented with just the quantity option, add to basket as the primary action, the option to login or the secondary action of adding it to a wishlist.

All pretty clean.

3rd Party Seller + Free Delivery

However if we now look at Amazon buy box where there isn’t Amazon and just a 3rd party seller like us, then we can see that the buy box has the extra details at the top about the seller.

We can also see the item price and the shipping amount and the sellers name, noting that the delivery amount is emphasised as “FREE UK delivery”.

3rd Party Seller + Paid Delivery

In the buy box to the right, we have a product where the seller has a delivery price entered.

In comparison, the “FREE UK delivery” stands out more, but Amazon are not promoting the total price, just that there is extra postage to be paid.

And When We have Multiple Sellers

There can only be one winner and if you’re up against an Amazon stocked item or an FBA seller then the chances of you obtaining the buy box on equal total pricing, is remote.

If there are multiple sellers that are eligible for the buy box, will rotate at differing speeds through the buy box and any sellers that are not in the main buy box are shown below.

If we look at the example to the right, then we have a winner that is at £2.65 + free delivery and three others with the same product at various prices, however the last one from TLSS is the one I’d like to point out in more detail next.

Note: If you’d like to know a formula that will get you access to the Amazon Buy box for longer, then see this article which gives you this and it’s proven to work and if you’d like to know more about Amazon’s “Seller Ratings”, the new scoring system for Amazon Sellers you can here.

I’m just a mere customer, not a mathematician.

In the buy box example above we’re given numerous options, but as a buyer I only really care about the total price and also I’m just a mere customer, not a mathematician.

Making a buyer think is a bad thing

If I’m presented with prices that all have free options, then I see the prices as the total price. However if you ask me to compare four prices on one set of terms, they’re all total prices with free shipping and you lob me a price that I need to calculate in my head, then you are making me think.

Trying sum up the prices so that I can either rule in the £1.50 plus £1.99 option when all the others are just prices with free shipping makes me think and making a buyer think is a bad thing.

We need to make it as easy as possible for them to work out if the proposition is a good one or not and if the playing field are using free shipping, then that is what you should follow, free shipping, otherwise we’re making the buyers think.

Considering Amazon Prime Users

If we also account for Amazon Prime accounts, this is where an Amazon customer has paid £49 a year (or $79 in the USA) these are the power buyers on Amazon.

According to ChannelAdvisor’s Scot Wingo last year, there are approximately 10-12 million Amazon Prime users whom he also believes that these buyers account for a 3 to 4 times increase in buying volumes. As such they should not be ignored.

If we consider that it was you that paid £50 to have free next day delivery on items, then you’re not going to be that excited about paying extra for shipping when you’ve already stumped up £50 for an item on the Amazon marketplace where you’ve already made a decent outlay to get free shipping. In short as an Amazon Prime buyer you expect free shipping.

Note: You can gain access to these buyers by using FBA (Fulfilment By Amazon), this isn’t for everyone and doesn’t suit all products.

In Summary

Me me me me me me me me me me, that’s all the customer cares about. Using a quote from Seth Godin:

Customers want ME-MAIL not Email

So with me in mind (as a potential customer) I have a Amazon Prime subscription and trust me I hate paying postage on Amazon after paying £50 for free delivery and I know what the difference is between marketplace, FBA and Amazon stocked products are!!!!

I bet the vast majority of Amazon customers don’t and they just want simple pricing and the simplest it can be is price + free delivery.

While me and you may know that your postage prices are excellent, 99.9% of customers probably don’t know the latest price of a first class stamp (what is that now anyway?), let alone the different pricing bands from Royal Mail and whether your postage price is good value or not. They just want a total price.

If we consider the case for Christine, then if your competition are offering free delivery, then don’t make your buyers try and do maths, regardless of how simple it is. Customers are like babies, you need to keep it as simple as possible and spoon feed them just enough information so they get what they need to know at that moment in time.

Make it really easy for them and let them see that your total price is excellent.

Make it really easy for them and let them see that your total price is excellent. And if in doing so means you need to combine the shipping prices into the sell price and offer free shipping, then so be it.

In the original question from Christine, Christine was considering moving to a free shipping model on Amazon, the answer now with the explanation why, is yes you should move to a free shipping model on Amazon and I’ve hoped I’ve explained why.