I’m planning on having bit of a revamp of my shop next year and I’m considering offering free UK postage on all items, and increasing the item cost to cover this, so the price they see on the thumbnail listing is the total price they pay. Has anybody made this change (or started out doing this in the first place), and what do you think your customers feel about it? Obviously if people order more than one thing they will end up paying more than they would if I charged separate postage, as I always combine postage and refund any excess, but I have to charge £3.20 for a £5 or £8 item and wonder if this is off putting to some people.
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Jane
I wouldn’t take out the shipping cost and add it to the product’s price. Small items can be sent for about £1 first class and less for 2nd class. Maybe consider your packaging to meet the requirements. Or send items 2nd class and offer a small discount there. You could also have offers for free shipping on certain days, or give a coupon for next purchase. I think it would be better to do things like that.
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I do. I originally had listed my items with p&p starting from £8 for UK (First class recorded). As I price my items on here at a retail price (so 2 x wholesale), and most are over £70, I decided to include the postage as part of that price structure.
I also sell in a local gallery at the same price as here hence the retail pricing.
Does that make sense?!? It does to me but may not to anyone else LOL.
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I did do a couple of items free postage at the beginning…but then my items looked more expensive compared to other similar items on a search page as the free postage didn’t show until they viewed my individual item…you would have to put free postage in your main description so people knew…also you are paying commission on your postage then too so need to factor that in when adding in to the price.
I now charge separate P&P for everything, with a smaller cost for any additional items. If someone buys many items and the postage is excessive, I refund some.
Kim x
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How about adding a small amount for postage, like £3 for example, and absorb the rest into the item price? That way people know that they are paying for the postage and yet they might think they are getting a good deal 
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Then its not really free postage the customer still pays for it it’s just hidden in the item price. So really I always see it as false advertising.
I will only ever offer free postage when the post office doesn’t charge me postage only then will I truly be able to say Free postage as I will not have to charge for it.
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I have offered free postage on all my items for roughly a year and it has worked well. The reason I did this was at the time, any wallets that I was selling were on the cusp when it came to large letter or small parcel and as the difference in postage between the two is significant, it made sense to alter the price of the item and have free postage. I then felt I’d change everything to be free postage just to be uniform. I know many don’t like it, but when I’m purchasing online I always forget about the additional postage cost so to have something as an inclusive price encourages me to buy. That’s just how I tick (as I’m usually purchasing on a budget) and I know many will feel differently. With costs going up each year there’s a chance I may have to revert back to charging postage though - haven’t completely made the decision yet.
You could give it a go Jane and see how you get on. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think you get charged fees on the postage costs on here (you do on Paypal), so if you remove these and add the cost to your item price you’ll get selling fees on the whole inclusive price.
Elaine
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I wouldn’t add your postage costs to your item as you end up paying more in fees to Folksy than you otherwise would as they take a percentage of the selling price - not the postage costs. Have I made sense there? It makes sense in my head.
So if your item is worth £8 and has a £2 charge for postage, then Folksy will take their cut of £8, but if you combine your item price with your postage costs, making £10, then Folksy will take their cut of £10 as opposed to £8. This increases your costs quite a bit over a number of sales.
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Oops, cross posted there with Liz (about the selling fees)
I only offer free postage for my original paintings which are prices £35 and above. As they are different in sizes and weight, I find hard to estimate the postage cost for each one, so I include the postage into the cost of the painting. For smaller items however, I charge postage as it is much easier to estimate how much they cost to send (sometimes they only require a large letter stamp).
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Thank you so much everybody for your advice. I hadn’t considered the fees increasing, or the fact that my items will look more expensive compared to similar items in a search (I knew it would be a good idea to come on here and ask you lovely folk 
).
I think I will stick to separate postage. I have just received my new large letter mailing boxes (it’s taken me forever to find some suitably sized, good quality ones that are also recycled, as I don’t like to buy non recycled paper and card products) and some of my miniatures will fit into those comfortably, meaning postage won’t be too much. In the future I shall make my larger miniatures a bit more mini so that they fit too 
I don’t expect that large letter postage will be too surprising or off putting for many people.
Thanks again,
Jane 
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