eBay is a fantastic platform where many goods are rapidly exchanged. However, as every eBay seller has experienced, we know that eBay loves keeping aside some significant chunk of your revenue. However, there is a god-send feature that every seller loves about eBay, i.e., how to combine orders on eBay.
eBay allows sellers to combine multiple orders of the same customer to save shipping costs and time. This allows sellers to ship the goods only once instead of doing the same process multiple times. However, there are certain conditions for you to be able to combine multiple shipments into one package.
In this guide, we will take you through the whole process of how to offer combined shipping on eBay. There are many ways to combine shipping, each with its specific conditions. You, as a seller, can combine multiple shipments manually, automatically, and post-payment.
However, even the buyers themselves can choose a combined shipping package. You can opt for this option to take some load off your back.
Also Read: What Sells Best on eBay? Top Selling Items in 2024
How to Combine Orders on eBay Manually?
You can learn how to combine orders on eBay manually multiple times on the dashboard available on your eBay account. You can first go to your account and enable checkout on eBay. This allows customers to get the time to choose to pay for multiple shipments at once.
This feature is enabled for most users automatically. But if it is not, you would need to enable that feature, and it is not hard at all. After a customer has made an order on eBay, he/she makes the payment.
If this feature is enabled, the customer will get a short window between the order placement and payment, where they will get a combined invoice. While this seems easy theoretically, there have been many times in real life when buyers made the payment before they received the combined invoice.
This means that they combine shipping multiple times and have already made the payment for it. This can result in bad customer reviews or complaints, reducing trust in your brand. However, there are some ways through which you can fight this disadvantage.
You can offer the customer a partial refund. But as you all know, PayPal does have a fixed fee policy which is non-negotiable. You can be trapped in the web of offering returns and refunds while trying to ensure that your customer satisfaction stays intact.
You can choose to offer free shipping for all your items or give discounted rates for shipping. Your buyers need to feel that they are not getting scammed and that your brand is one to be valued and trusted.
How to Combine Orders on eBay Automatically?
The best way to offer combined shipping on a platform like eBay is by making it automatic. If this feature is enabled, you can show the postage rates on the page for product descriptions directly. This feature means you won’t have to manually update the shipping and postage rates for every order you receive.
However, your buyers will have to be smart and inquisitive to see the combined shipping offers on the listing pages because it is positioned in such a way that it is not noticeable. Follow the steps above to learn how to offer combined shipping on eBay.
To streamline the combined shipping process and make it easier for customers, you can create some basic rules for everyone to follow. Follow this process: my eBay> Account > Site Preferences. When you reach Site Preferences, go to the Shipping preferences tab.
You will see multiple options from which you have to choose the “Offer combined payments and shipping” option. Then, you have to edit it by clicking the yes button.
How to combine orders for shipping on eBay?
Has any purchaser bought more than one product from your store on eBay? It does not matter if the purchaser has already paid; the orders can be easily combined for shipping to cut off packaging and costs. Let us see the ways to combine multiple orders into a single easy shipment:
Step 1
You will need to navigate to eBay on a web browser. For combining orders, you may use any website browser for the eBay Bulk shipping feature. However, you may need to log in before proceeding.
Step 2
You will need to tap on “Sell”. The vertical menu is located on the page’s left side. In case you see “Selling Manager Pro”, tap on it instead. And a menu will expand.
Step 3
You must tap on “Sold” or “Awaiting Shipping”. Based on the version of eBay you are using, you may need to tap on the “Sold” menu to reveal “Awaiting Shipping”, and you may click on it if needed. If not, you may continue with the “Sold” option.
Step 4
Then, you must select all the items you want to combine and ship. Check the boxes you need, and click on the box again to uncheck an item.
If your eBay has already grouped all the items the user purchased separately, click on the “Print Shipping Label” on the screen’s right side. Next, you must click on “Purchase and print label”. You may also change every default setting of the page by scrolling down a bit.
Step 5
Tap on “Shipping Action” and choose “Print shipping labels or invoices”, and a new page will load. The drop-down is in the horizontal menu above the sold item list.
Step 6
Tap on “Continue,” located at the bottom-left of the page, and it will direct you to the bulk shipping page.
Step 7
You will need to tap all the boxes next to one another to select them. You are confirming that you are shipping both of the items together.
Step 8
You will need to tap on the “Action” drop-box and choose “Combine Shipments”. A pop-up will appear on the screen, asking you to confirm your action.
Step 9
You will need to select “Combine these shipments”, and then tap on “Close”. The page will refresh to indicate that all your items are combined in one shipment.
Step 10
You must tap on the “Shipping service” drop-down and choose a shipping service. You can use different services, and the fees related to every service will update with the cost of shipping when you choose it.
Step 11
Then, finally, hit the “Review and Pay” option after the shipping info is updated successfully. You will see a pop-up for payment on your eBay account. After you have paid successfully, the window will close, and the shipping label will get printed.
How To Combine Shipping On eBay After Payment?
Once the payment gets finalized, it becomes tough combining shipping on eBay. However, it is not impossible. You, as a seller, can go to the list of sold items on the eBay website.
You click the print shipping button after proceeding to the bottom of the sold items list. The website will ask you for confirmation on whether you want to opt for combined shipping or not.
When confirmed, you and the buyer(s) will receive a tracking number for the order. But this process is not free from error or bad reviews since the time lost could be a major turn-off for many customers.
Can the Buyer Combine Orders on eBay?
While all the previous three options we highlighted above may seem too troublesome and time-consuming (which it is) for sellers, eBay has another feature that will give you fewer worries. So, on eBay, the buyers can request the total invoice from the sellers.
They have to click “request total from seller” written on the top right-hand corner of the site. By simply doing so, they will get the whole shipment package instead of multiple ones.
This feature saves you time from worrying about how to offer combined shipping on eBay. Moreover, the buyers feel a certain sense of control and agency in their purchase. The chances of getting bad reviews lessen to a large extent.
How to Refund Partially to Your Buyers on eBay?
Now that we have highlighted how you can enable combined shipping on a platform like eBay, it is reasonably necessary for you to understand how to do some small but equally important things. We understand that the entire journey of learning how to combine orders on eBay does not end here, unfortunately.
For example, we mentioned that you could give partial refunds to your buyers after a mistake in the system, and they pay multiple times for different packages. We will walk you through transferring these refunds to your buyers’ accounts.
You begin the process by going to the returns dashboard. Then, you view the return details, which are there right on the side of every product listed.
Then, you can offer a partial refund to the buyer who needs it and do not forget to add the refund amount. Adding a short note to every buyer apologizing about the inconvenience they faced always goes a long way in calming people’s dissatisfaction.
However, it would help if you remembered that this partial refund offer is applicable only once. Moreover, buyers can refuse to accept the offer and instead ask for a full refund depending on the situation.
Also Read: Best eBay Alternative to look out for in 2024
Other Ways To Save Money On eBay
Since many sellers trying to learn how to combine orders on eBay may be doing so to save the hassle of shipping costs and time, we found it quite necessary to inform people about multiple ways to save money selling on eBay.
1. High-Volume Discounts
Sellers often use carrier services like FedEx or USPS for shipping products. These carriers have generously discounted shipping products with the eBay tag.
According to reliable sources, sellers can expect up to a 37% discount on products shipped and sold on eBay. These discounts are automated, meaning you will not need to enroll.
Another similar service is the UPS Savings Program, where the sellers on eBay can avail themselves of a maximum of 34% savings on domestic services. The program is free, and the signing-up process takes no time.
2. Get Cheap Shipping Supplies
FedEx allows sellers to avail of their shipping boxes at entirely no cost. This does not cover only boxes but expands to include Express airbills, pouches, packaging, and labels too.
Even carriers like USPS, UPS and Paper Mart offer free stuff like cushioning, padded envelopes, boxes, plastic wraps, etc., to their sellers, provided they are registered. Now, that is a fantastic deal for sellers to reduce costs.
Conclusion
Every seller invests their time and resources in their online business to make some profit. However, it is easier said than done. For that, many sellers opt for combined shipping packages because it helps bring down costs as well.
More importantly, it helps buyers because they will not need to worry about getting multiple packages from delivery agents many times. However, if you are debating and trying to understand why and how to combine orders on eBay, you would not need to fret, for the process is easy to understand.
It may be a little confusing initially, but it doesn’t take much time. If and when multiple features get enabled, your online business can have lesser things to worry about. Then you will have time to focus on your company’s growth.
