Shopping cart - combined shipping

Hi Mike. This is a mistake that many buyers make. You can't buy different items from different sellers and only pay one seller for the shipping. Obvious why when you think about it. But I've had to explain this to multiple buyers over the years. So could Trade Me explain it better? Probably. It would be like me adding something you are selling to my cart, then buying something from someone else and not paying your shipping costs because I paid it on the other persons auction. Doesn't work like that does it?

For the second part of your post, when you see inflated shipping costs for small items the obvious answer there is not to buy it. Move on to another seller. But yes it is annoying that they can manipulate the "Lowest price" filter using this method.

Thats the point. If its a restriction (or 'mistake many buyers make' which you've 'had to explain many times') then the interface for doing this is .... deficient . The cart verification logic should disallow you from completing the entire transaction if shipping isnt filled correctly for each individual vendor ( which it does for purchase fm a single vendor ) - so thanks seems its a TM site bug/deficiency the rather than vendor config or other....

And its not 'obvious when you think about it' as

a) the site allows it without restriction or comment and notifies that the multi vendor transaction was (valid and) accepted  (and)

b) other web sales sites (amazon) allow exactly this - aggregate cart purchase from multiple vendors with aggregated shipping costs (and).

c) its presented as a shopping cart - aggregated purchase - so the expectation would be that shipping can be combined from multiple vendors which the TM cart validation supports ( giving a stereotypical UI workflow presentation error)

If what you say is the case, It doesnt 'need explaiing', it needs constraining so an explanation (and/or a path to error) is not necessary (or possible)

Re the postage: - you are assuming that another seller exists or doesnt have the same bloviated shipping costs.

I'd call it borderline fraudulent advertising to do this in that the total price to be paid (item + shipping) is much greater and different than the 'advertised pricing  (item only).

AND avoiding this is the  additional buyer friction/wastage in actually examining each listing for the level of 'postage gouging'; to determine the *real* price to work out if a purchase is worthwhile or not.

(all of which was part of the driver for the original part of the post)

A buyer has asked for cost of combined shipping for 5 items in her cart.  How do I see what is in her cart?  Spent hours looking for this.  I can't tell size of items so how can I quote?  She asked on small item (fits in A4 envelope) but there could be large items in the cart.  Also, could this be from multiple sellers?  Always happy to combine shipping but surely there is somewhere that I can see what items she wants to buy? When I try to search 'selling via cart', etc Help comes up with 'car'.  So frustrating as I don't like to delay sales and asking buyer what is in her cart makes me feel very amateurish.  I think I am likely to lose these 5 sales.  I am a private seller clearing out clutter so I can downsize my house now that I am a widow.

Hi Beryl. Short answer. You can't. A buyer can place items from many different sellers in their cart, so that info is private to the buyer.

Unfortunately the best you can do is ask the buyer which items they want to purchase and go from there.

Kia Ora Beryl,

Callum's given you the perfect response to use when replying to your Buyer so there's no sense of amateur there. - Cheers.

Kia Ora Beryl

My Comment for you has gone into Pending Status awaiting a TradeMe staff member to clear - Meantime this is how it reads for you.