Hi, I was wondering whether there was a tab that indicated that postage is included in the prices. Do many people sell items with postage included?
Hi lots of discussion about postage in other topics if you search. You donāt pay Folksy fees on postage if charged separately but do if included . I personally donāt feel that free postage is appropriate or necessary on handmade art.
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Thanks Joy, yes I agree, I was just wondering whether it was a thing, as etsy is now encouraging it.
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I think you will find that UK shops are leaving E*** in droves because of it.
Folksy is not E*** thank goodness 
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YES! They are seriously annoying too. I have a really big problem with them in that I keep getting messages from people thinking they are messaging a seller who is not ME! I have told the big E about this and they were not helpful at all. So that is another reason why I am moving over to Folksy.
Hopefully Folksy arenāt the sort of site who think they have to do something just because the other big sites are, especially when they see how unhappy it makes the sellers.
So far I havenāt seen any suggestion that they will.
(eye twitches)
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I include the postage in my prices because thatās what I felt like I was being pushed to do with etsy ages ago and I wanted to be consistent in both shops. My sales are always pathetic on both sites and trialling postage-included hasnāt helped at all. So, Iām gradually shifting my stuff off etsy on to Folksy and when I have the time, the mindset, the patience (Iāve already got the bloodymindedness), Iāll revert back to adding the postage separately - itās so much fairer - and sod etsy.
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Itās up to the individual what they would like to do with their shops. After reading this article https://blog.folksy.com/2015/08/25/should-you-offer-free-delivery
I now include shipping to get rid of that āpsychological barrierā. At the end of the day though, you know your customers and products best as to whether you think it is worth doing or not.
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Have your sales increased on Folksy since youāve including shipping in your prices?
I see that you sell some quite high value things. I can see that including the postage price would be a more obvious thing to do on those as it is a small percentage of the total price.
For me though, I sold two Ā£9 pieces today. If I had included postage they would have had to be Ā£12.55 each but then I would have had to refund Ā£3 55 as I posted them together. And I would have paid Folksy commission on the amount I refunded.
To be honest thatās a hard question to answer! My day job means that my social media engagement is sporadic, and my sales reflect that. Nothing is going to improve sales better than a consistent, interesting presence on social media. But I canāt do that due to limits on my time, so every little helps to breaking down any barriers, psychological or otherwise. I know when I order online, free shipping is attractive to me, so itās reasonable for me to assume itās attractive to others.
Itās not for everyone as @JOYSofGLASS illustrates in her post above. Thatās why itās very much up to the individual to decide for their customers, and their shop.
(Just came across this article which offers free shipping if you order over a certain amount, which can also work as an incentive. https://blog.rjmetrics.com/2014/07/14/the-psychology-of-free-shipping-why-it-works-as-a-marketing-tool/
I think itās worth spending time considering if it would work for you - read up on it online for more info.)
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Thanks for your reply. I do offer free delivery on another market place, which seems to work great for me, but I donāt offer it at the moment on Folksy, because there is no āfree deliveryā banner on our listings. Customers at the moment can only see if an item has free delivery if they click on the actual product, if you could see a whole page of products and there was a āfree deliveryā banner next to the product price (like on E) that would be so much better
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When Iām that bothered about price, I like ebayās version of search where you can select āprice + P&Pā. As a buyer Iād find that more useful than a free shipping filter, as just because something has free shipping it doesnāt mean itāll be the cheapest.
That way all items are still considered but youāre getting a quick view of the overall price, whether you charge for shipping or not, which is really what you want to know (obviously itās not going to take into account things like combined shipping, but itās a good starting point).
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Iām not sure if this has already been suggested but could you make a āFree Postageā logo on photoshop (or similar) and paste it on top of all of your photos (the main image) that will show on your Folksy shopfront?
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Yep, I know thatās possible, but itās not something which I want to do as I donāt want to make any extra work for myself. I just donāt have the time (and I donāt think the extra work would be worth it) to create different main images for the different platforms which I sell on
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I have to say that on a site like Folksy it would make no difference to my decision to buy or not if postage were or were not included. I know that I must be paying the postage anyway even if it is not shown separately so why bother.
If I were selling pieces costing Ā£100 then maybe but it is very hard to absorb a P&P price of Ā£3.55 (and that is at cost) in the price of a Ā£9 suncatcher without giving the piece an unrealistically inflated selling price. I Do only charge postage at cost, no extra allowance for packaging or driving to the post office and I Do return all extra postage where more than one piece is bought. I donāt offer free postage and it is very unlikely I could ever be persuuded to do so.
PS and do remember that Folksy donāt charge fees on p&p so do remember if you are including it to inflate your price to allow for that extra bit of fee !
Iām with Joy @JOYSofGLASS. āFreeā postage doesnāt entice me to make a purchase as i know it will be hidden in the item price anyway. I like the convenience of shopping online and fully expect to pay postage.
I personally have postage prices separate. If people buy multiple items, i refund excess postage. If postage was included in my prices, their wouldnāt be any refunds for multi purchases.
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I read that article a while back too @BigBirdLittleBird and decided I could incorporate postage on my items, the majority of which are over Ā£20 in value and are not bulky or overly expensive to post. No one held a gun to my head, unlike on E at the moment where sellers are being ruthlessly coerced into doing so for the USA market, meaning that UK customers will have to absorb the cost for something they will not be receiving themselves.
The result is that I have now decided to put more effort into marketing my Folksy shop. I would like to leave E altogether. A third of my business there has been to the USA but as Iāve decided not to have my arm twisted over free shipping to the USA, I doubt that my items will register in search after 30th July.
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hi there ali -
i have put this forward in the suggestions section a while ago if you wish to support it.
thanks & best wishes
sally
-x-
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