eBays Abandonment Issues

eBayInkBlog had a post last week about a survey commissioned by PayPal conducted by comScore from March 25 to April 18, 2008. This survey has been previously offered (not by eBayInkBlog) as supporting VP, Seller Experience Dinesh Lathi's statement at the PeSA Summit on April 24th 2008 "The fact of the matter is that free shipping is the standard for eCommerce now. Sellers who want to meet buyer expectations need to aspire to that."

Uh Huh. eBay have no desire to increase Final Value Fee revenue from shipping and handling costs factored into pricing on 'FREE' shipping. Nope. We sellers all believe in Santa Claus too. Click the image to buy this unusual free standing Christmas card.

Reading the press release it quickly becomes apparent that the survey has nothing to do with eBay, per se. eBay sellers do not have shopping carts on the site. It surveyed online shoppers in the U.S. who recently abandoned the checkout flow on either a large or small merchant Web site.

The survey should be of interest to all eBay sellers who have moved inventory from eBay to stand alone websites as part of their exit strategy. We all know that buyers often have unrealistic expectations of shipping costs. On our own websites the burden of educating buyers falls squarely upon us. I chose to add shipping weight information to each item description together with a separate shipping and return information page.

If all else fails you could try this solution. (Thanks colderICE)

Y'all come back