Amazon Shipping Settings..

I'm experimenting with listing a few items on Amazon (we're a pretty small company) and i'm trying to get my head around how to set the shipping costs. Normally I don't have trouble with this, but even after getting a reply from someone via email - it feels as clear as mud!

All I want to do is set something similar to the following;

Order one item - £1 delivery
Order two items - £1.5 delivery
3 - £2
4 - Free

I know there's special rules for media items, but we won't be selling anything in that category. Any quick links or tips anyone has would be useful!

 

Amazon shipping settings are notoriously hard work and inflexible. They seem to favour the concept of overcharging customers with 'free' postage on everything. This is fine for people who order single items one at a time, but for anyone wanting to place an order for more than one item from the same seller gets ripped off by paying postage on each item.

The alternative to this is to charge postage through the rates table and just have a very blanket style pricing structure on everything based on weight. This of course relies on the correct weight of the item being in Amazon!

Are you using seller central?

 

Thanks for the reply Sam, weight will be easy - everything we sell is approximately the same weight (give or take 1 or 2 grammes). Yes, using seller central. Is there is a quick way I can do this?

 

If everything you're selling is roughly the same weight you should have it pretty easy. Just go to Settings > Shipping Settings. I can't really help much from here though unfortunately as we don't use it ourselves.

 

Try and keep shipping simple for your customers because everybody hates it when it's difficult to instantly see what the total price of an item is with shipping added. I don't think you will be able to set the shipping up on Amazon the way you want, to be honest. You will either need a flat rate, or an inclusive price with shipping already there. Regardless of whether Amazon will allow you to do it, if you make complicated shipping scales then it will cost you customers. I charged a shipping fee on items when I first started selling on Amazon. The day I scrapped it and integrated shipping into the asking price, sales shot up. Free shipping rules for customers, believe me. They want to see one price, and to know that is what they will pay. Buying is impulsive and if you make it so customers have to to work out the total price, many simply won't bother.

 

Hi Jayser, couldn't agree more -everything you've said is spot on, but we have our reasons for what we are charging (initially) for shipping on Amazon. As it happens we've set it up now just as we wanted to in the OP.

Thanks for the replies!

 

For some years now, Amazon have been displaying the shipping cost below the item cost (on the 'from these sellers' page). The overall list is ordered for total cost (cheapest first), so it isn't hard for buyers to see the differences.

In my sector, the 'free shipping' sellers invariably have a higher product price to cover the delivery cost, and this is made plainly obvious by the Amazon layout.

To the OP: I don't think you can implement your proposed scheme with the Amazon shipping settings.