eCommercize Strategies for Your Online Success

I went to the Post Office today to drop off the packages of merchandise I sold and ran into another online seller who I see from time to time. I asked her how it was going and she proceeded to tell me that she is losing money on shipping and doesn’t think she is going to keep selling. I asked her what she meant and she told me that no matter how much she shipping she puts in her ad, it is always more when she gets to the Post Office. She said she is keeping her shipping costs low to compete with other sellers who sell the same thing that she does. Where did she go wrong?

She goes to the Post Office, stands in line and pays for her postage at the counter. This is the most expensive way to pay for shipping through the United States Postal Service. The Post Office counter price can be 3-9% higher than if you use a service such as Endicia to print your labels at home.

Here’s an example: Go to the Post Office with a box weighing one pound and you will pay $5.55. Now, add Delivery Confirmation to your package, the retail counter price is .70 and now your one pound package costs $6.25. Why spend $6.25 when I can ship the exact same package for only $5.44 or 13% less. How is this possible?

Just by printing your postage online through eBay, Click-n-Ship or Endicia you can save a lot of money.

Did you know that Delivery Confirmation is free with Priority Mail packages paid for online? It is. That is .70 you get to keep.

eBay’s and Click-n-Ship postage printing service doesn’t have a monthly fee while Endicia does. The monthly fee for Endicia is worth it and the savings more than pay for their service. Endicia offers reports and easy tracking so you can see all of your transactions in one place.

I always recommend that you get boxes to ship your items in before you list your merchandise. After some trial and error, you should get a good feel for which merchandise will fit in which box. Many sellers use used boxes to ship in and that is fine (except if you ship something you sell on Amazon as they require you in the terms and conditions that sellers are to ship in new boxes). By having a selection of new boxes you can save yourself time by knowing what size boxes you have. You will also save yourself money by having boxes under the dimensional weight limits or knowing ahead of time that the boxes are under the 36″ dimensional limit. Packages bigger than 36″ in length + width + height are rated differently and the cost to ship them is generally much higher.

Do research before you ship and know what it will cost. If you offer free shipping for your items make sure you add enough to the base price of the item to make a profit after you pay for shipping. There is no reason whatsoever to lose money if that is not your goal.

Related posts:

1. Does Size Really Matter?
2. Two Ways To Ensure The Items You Mail Are Delivered
3. Shipping Prices to Increase in January 2010
4. Packaging and Shipping China & Glassware
5. Choose Your Packing Materials Wisely

Tags: amazon shipping, boxes, click-n-ship, ebay shipping, endicia, online shipping, postage online

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Resources, Shipping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.