Question about Offering Free Shipping

[FaithBeads]

Last time I had a Free Shipping sale, I changed all my item titles to reflect this by adding "Free Shipping" at the end. Now, I know I had read somewhere that Google Search will not show items with this in the title. So, is it a good idea or bad idea? I had a relatively good turnout last time (It was the Easter season, though, so that's my busiest time of year, anyway.); I'm just wondering if that is the best way to go. Any opinions/suggestions? Thanks.

[Zehland]

I heard that too about Google. And now that our shops are syndicated for Google Product Search, any listings that have Free Shipping in them will be rejected. So I would say just put it in your policies page.

[Former_Member]

oh really?
I have just started offering items with free shipping hoping it would boost my sales. So I should not put that in the title or else it will not show up on Google search?

[Former_Member]

Interesting.. I just added my pumpkin die cuts to include free shipping too.

[Former_Member]

thanks for the thread. i free ship all my knitted collars and some jewelry, i put it into my description and i also use it as a tag if i've got one available.
Am i doing wrong? i've only been here 2 weeks so still learning
Ann x

[GoTo]

Only Google Shopping ( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&tbm=shop&q=handmade+hat ) has a problem with it, not regular Google ( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=handmade%20hat ) .

[Former_Member]

I would say, don't offer free shipping. Call me crazy but whenever a seller offers free shipping I just wonder how much of the price is really just shipping costs.

Specially those who ship to many locations! (If I shipped only within Netherlands I could probably just go and drop the items off)

Besides, etsy fees apply only to the item price, so you may be losing a few pennies here and there.

Cheers!
Carla
CarlaGrifo.com/Shop

[Former_Member]

Yeah, shame that shipping only within the Netherlands will most likely not be enough to sustain your Etsy shop ;-)
Since most of my customers aren't Dutch I have to make sure I can compete with US sellers
I think we're at a disadvantage here on Etsy since our Euro is strong compared to the Dollar and our postal charges are a lot higher than UPS too. So I believe offering free shipping can help boost sales. Nobody likes shipping fees, especially not international shipping fees!
But it's an experiment I will have to wait and see if it works.

[MythOfTheWild]

Well if it turned out well, forget about google! The fact that it went well is what counts. But perhaps consider mentioning "free shipping" in -half- your titles? Then some of them still have the potential to pop up on google, and state at the top of the description that shipping is free.

Did you pay the shipping out of your own pocket then? I've been considering this over the Christmas season but I'm concerned I may end up having to pay for the express £8 shipping myself. I'll have made nothing that way! :P

[Former_Member]

Leila,
I'm exaggerating a bit.. No way I'd drive to Groningen to drop off an order, but you get the idea.. haha

The thing is, if you price your items based on materials+your time and you "absorb" the costs of shipping then you lose, no?

If you price the item higher say materials+your time+shipping cost (which I guess you'd take the highest expected) then if someone near you buys it he's paying more for the item than the person with the would-be-most expensive shipping.

Anyway, probably it's an attractive deal to some buyers.

[Former_Member]

I've done free shipping deals on items that are relatively inexpensive to ship,the shipping discrepancy between shipping domestic and everywhere else is €1 at most so I think that's quite minimal. And of course I've set up my listings so that I am not actually loosing money on the sale, that would be bad business!
It's just one of the ways I'm trying to compete with US sellers and their low dollar and inexpensive shipping options.

Royal Mail is cheaper than PostNL too, I usually take my bee blocks and swap packages with me when I go to the UK to post them there lol!
Do you know what express shipping to the US for instance costs here? €77,35 !! No way I can compete with £8 express shipping.