It’s funny how conditioned people have become to getting free shipping. They will spend $50 or $60 on a few things but then balk at checking out because they have to pay $6 in shipping.
And of course, by “people” I mean “me.”
But probably you, too.
OP’s friend was selling at a certain shipping price that allowed a small profit.
A few friends of mine have businesses where they sell on this place, Lets call it the river. Rules of the river are controlled by a bunch of poorly programmed bots and the support staff is trained that the bots are always right.
My friend charged $3.75 for shipping for items under 8 oz. when they started it was a reasonable price for shipping that gave them a small profit.
Fast forward 10 years and postage is now $3.90 plus the cost of labels and boxes etc. Clearly friend is taking a loss on shipping.
When he was told by the retailer than he had to lower shipping, he made it free – but still got his way.
The Bots come along and decide that charging $3.75 for shipping is too much and deactivate all the listings that charge this much for shipping. The river much prefers items to have free shipping.
Explanations that he is actually losing money on shipping fall on deaf ears. Ok MC time.
He changed all of them to free shipping and raised the price of the items $7-$15. The bots on the river had no problem with this.
It’s funny but I know Reddit will understand.
The top comment says this is business as usual.
Brains are funny things.
This is true.
Six one, half-dozen the other.
The majority of people just aren’t going to budge, though.
Stuff like this is so interesting to me.
And good to know for anyone looking to go into business.
If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.
Source: https://twistedsifter.com/2024/02/amazon-told-him-business-they-couldnt-raise-shipping-so-they-raised-the-price-of-the-product-instead-and-won/
