Ebay strongly encourages Sellers to offer free shipping. I understand why. Free shipping is important to buyers and generally results in increased sales. I get it.
But the mechanics have me pretty befuddled. In my experience as a Buyer, the issue isn't free shipping so much as it is combined shipping. I have had endless frustrations with Sellers who don't set up their accounts to offer combined shipping because I can't request invoices, and in general just over a lack of transparency as to what shipping on multiple items will be. Many sellers don't bother changing their account settings, yet offer free shipping in the form of post-sale credits once actual shipping costs are known. On the other hand, in my experience as a Seller, it is impossible to create combined shipping rules/policies that cover every scenario.
Offering free shipping certainly eliminates these problems: if there are no shipping costs, there is nothing to combine. However, there are two problems with this:
1. As a Seller, I may occasionally (or frequently) lose money because not all items can be easily combined. Aside from weight considerations, not all items are similarly sized, and changing packaging often changes shipping methods, which normally changes the rates. And of course, distances vary and I don't know, for example, whether I'll be shipping to Region 1 or 7 when I list the item with free shipping.
2. As a Buyer, I don't like paying duplicate (or triplicate or quadruplicate) shipping costs. For example:
I sell two comic books for $10 each, both with free shipping. Any half-conscious human knows the $5 shipping cost is built into the item costs, which means the Buyer is really paying for shipping twice when they pay $20 for both items (disregarding tax). Buyers will be naturally disinclined to buy more than one item on this strategy.
And yet, this is exactly what Ebay seems to want Sellers to do. If I understand, I can get a significant boost in Best Match impressions, discounts on selling fees, and other stuff if only I will start offering free shipping.
So, back to my original question: Does offering free shipping actually work for anyone?
