A bit of a tangent, but Etsy lost me (and likely some amount of other sellers) when they pushed so hard on free shipping. Not all products are amenable to this, and we wound up losing money on every shipped item under the new plans. Ebay also did this at some point in the past, with the same results.
Those two, and this example has me wondering why these companies continue to side with the buyers?
Isn't it obvious though? The buyers are the ones transferring their money from their account into the coffers of Etsy. If they piss off one seller, 2 more will pop up in its place.
Consumers just work that way. I've had an ebay account since 2006 and I can't count the times I've posted something for 15$ + variable (3-8$) shipping that wouldn't sell that I just sold for 22$ with free shipping instead and it goes.
Funny thing, I totally filter by free shipping too when I buy on ebay. It's just easier.
To anyone reading the above and thinking "well, just move the shipping cost over to your product cost, duh" -- the problem is that shipping becomes dramatically more expensive the further the package is going. How do you pick one single price for an item when 50% of your customers are in the US and 50% are in the UK? Which half subsidizes the other?
But there's another sharp corner to avoid: online product ad services (Google Ads, Facebook ads etc), tend to penalize merchants who list different prices depending on where the customer is located[1]:
> Don’t change the price of your product on your landing page based on a user’s location. Ensure that users can purchase the product online for the price that you submit, regardless of their location.
Which means that (if you don't want your Google ads account deactivated) you can't bake in a variable shipping cost into the product cost; you can only select one amortized shipping cost.
So sellers who want to offer free shipping are really between a rock and a hard place a lot of the time in terms of not losing money on shipping vs not overcharging buyers.
Yes, that's true. That can help with international rate discrepancies for ecommerce sites that have those different TLD's. But I know for a fact that there are large ecommerce sites out there that are not doing per-TLD ad syndication, as they probably should.
Also, shipping rates within a single country can still vary pretty dramatically based on distance traveled, whether you're shipping to a remote area postal code, etc.
The problem with ebay is the scams where shipping is $50+ for something that isn't large or heavy. I always just sort by lowest price+shipping to push these off page.
> Those close to the defence secretary acknowledged that his remarks could be read as being aimed at the US. An insider argued that the British minister was emphasising the importance of political will as well as sheer military power.
It now doesn't matter as much how much of GDP you spend on military but also political power as well.
Ministers can redefine the word superpower, and you can downvote me, but with it being defined as, "A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale."[1] the US still is in that set of countries with extensive influence.
It seems to me that an introduction to philosophy that maintains both interest and graspability is in the philosophy of science.
All of the sciences began in philosophy. When the great big questions that invoke a great deal of discussion over meaning subside, that science has gone on to supersede its parent: This happened with physics in the 17th century, biology, and psychology. If you want to ask great big questions of a discipline that are often frowned upon within that discipline, philosophy is a place to engage in this type of discourse.
Further, the lines of _what a discipline is_ are typically drawn in philosophy, not within the discipline itself. This is a frequent discourse in the philosophy of science. As, the question of, "what is science" doesn't seem well suited to be answered by any science in particular.
Pedantry aside, the parent comment is clearly in the set of humanity alongside yourself, and they made a clear argument for wires. While you might disagree with wires, this dismissive comment was unnecessary.
Those two, and this example has me wondering why these companies continue to side with the buyers?