Dispelling Common Myths About Discogs Shipping Policies

Shipping Policies bring a great deal more transparency to shopping on Discogs. Many buyers report that they don’t even look at listings without a shipping cost included.

These days, it’s uncommon to place an order online without knowing the full cost of the order (including shipping and packaging material costs). While having shipping rates entered in Seller Terms informed buyers about shipping costs, often-times it required the buyer to go hunting in those Seller Terms, performing mental gymnastics to apply those costs to their order, or resulted in a nasty surprise when they found out that those rates were no longer correct.

Since implementing Shipping Policies, we’ve heard from sellers who were initially skeptical report that they’re pleasantly surprised with the outcomes, seeing an increase of orders, more multi-item orders, and less time and effort put into negotiating shipping costs.

This focus on Shipping Policies also concerns the longevity of Discogs. In order to keep bringing new buyers to your Discogs stores; support the biggest Database of music releases, artist, and labels on the planet; and stay competitive with other e-commerce options, we’ve got to keep up with the times and deliver an experience closer to what online buyers in 2020 have come to expect.

We know that setting up Shipping Policies will require some sellers changing how they sell on Discogs, however this has prompted some myths that we’d like to address and assure you are not true.

Myth 1

Discogs wants to push out smaller sellers, hobby sellers, and collectors

One of the greatest things about Discogs is the diversity of sellers — the interactions between music fans, collectors, store owners, and hobbyists. That can only continue by supporting sellers of all sizes and stripes. While we understand the amount of work that goes into setting up Shipping policies may seem disproportionate to sellers with a lower volume of items for sale, as stated above, it helps bring a needed degree of transparency and trustworthiness to the Discogs Marketplace and all those who sell on the platform.

Myth 2

No more communication between the buyer and seller

Buyers and sellers can still interact more or less like you do today, you just don’t have to hash out shipping costs. We encourage you, whether you’re a buyer or seller, to continue to reach out and swap messages, niceties, and comments over the course of a transaction.

Myth 3

There’s no way to give discounts or edit the shipping rate before the buyer pays

With Shipping Policies, the buyer can place their order and pay immediately if they choose to, but they can also choose not to. As long as the buyer has placed their order but not finalized it with a payment, you can edit the shipping costs. For example, if you strike up a rapport with a buyer who’s messaged you before ordering and you’d like to give them a discount on shipping, you can simply edit the shipping cost when the order is placed but not yet paid.

Myth 4

I’ll get negative feedback if something goes wrong with my Shipping Policies or a buyer pays before I talk to them first

We understand that working with Shipping Policies will be new for a lot of sellers and that there will be an adjustment period. We’ll be notifying buyers of these changes to the Marketplace and asking them to be a bit more compassionate given the circumstances. We’re also offering some amnesty on negative feedback related to shipping or Shipping Policies. If this happens to you, please contact Discogs’ community support team explaining the situation and outcomes, and we’ll review it.