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Posts Tagged ‘shipping’

  1. Nobody Likes To Pay For Shipping

    October 4, 2011 by Webster

    So don’t charge for it.

    That’s right, I’m telling you if at all possible you should never charge your customers for shipping (the only exception being international orders). There are several reasons why I’m advocating this.

    First – It’s pretty easy to build some or all of your shipping costs into the price of the item anyway. If your item costs $4.95 to ship, just tack that amount on to the cost of the item. OR just go a bit lower and undercut your competition. Most buyers out there can do the math in their head (I hope) and will easily see your price TOTALS are identical (or preferably less) than comparable products. Might give you a slight advantage.

    *I realize that this principle only really applies to Fixed Price listings, but in my experience auction participants will usually add a little cushion to their bids BECAUSE of the free shipping. There’s probably some kind of fancy psychology term that applies to this kind of buying behavior, but basically they’ll help you out without even knowing it. Bidders are strongly committed to winning that item…and won’t let an extra $5-10 stand in their way–especially since so many other sellers are charging for it anyway.

    Second – Buyers are more attracted to it. Your item will get more attention and you’ll be perceived as the preferable (and more professional) choice next to the guy who’s charging for the exact same thing. If I’m buying an item on eBay and the seller charges some random number for shipping, the first thought through my head is…How much is this guy skimming off the top of this shipping cost?. With free shipping, you eliminate any of those questions for the buyer. The total price is as cut and dry as it can possibly be, and I like to think that buyers appreciate that.

    *This is especially helpful for auction-style listings. You want to get as many eyeballs and early bids on your products as possible…and early bids ultimately mean more traffic, more bids, and a higher sale price.

    Third – When your buyer comes back to give you positive feedback, eBay AUTOMATICALLY gives you 5 stars in the Shipping and Handling Charges category. The buyer can’t even make a selection–it’s grayed out at 5 stars. Pretty sweet, right? Yes, definitely, because high feedback in ALL categories is CRITICAL as a seller, which I plan to write about in a later post.

    *Here’s another fun fact–you also receive 5 stars in the Shipping Time category if your item arrives before the expected delivery date. So if your tracking info shows that the item is delivered earlier than eBay estimates (handling time + shipping service/method average), you get another automatic 5 stars. As long as you’re a solid communicator, that only leaves the Item As Described category to worry about.

    To be honest, I was a little reluctant to offer Free Shipping at first (as I’m sure you are), but now it’s a no-brainer. At the end of the day it only translates to more traffic, higher feedback, and in some instances even more money than if you charged for it.

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  2. Going Global?

    September 23, 2011 by Webster

    Every once in a while, someone out there asks:

    “Hello. Do you ship to [__extremely obscure Asian country__]? If so how much it cost?”

    My general response is an internal *sigh*…dammit. I REALLY want to be the best and most flexible seller possible. But truth be told, shipping internationally is generally more trouble than it’s worth. Here’s why:

    Super High Shipping Costs — This should not be a surprise. Your package needs to go a looooong way, through customs bureaus and possibly different shipping services. Those additional costs add up FAST, so you’ll probably just end up wasting 10 minutes to tell the guy it will cost $50 just to ship the box (which is clearly a deal-killer). **Go ahead, try out this International Shipping Calculator if you want, but it almost always spits out arm+leg caliber figures.

    However, USPS does offer international flat-rate boxes & envelopes that can be relatively reasonable. Like the commercial says, if it fits–it ships, so definitely make use of that. Also note that it costs a little less to ship to Mexico or Canada.

    If you do decide to move forward, you just need to notify the buyer of the increased shipping cost and be sure to include it in a new invoice to complete the transaction. It’s really not a big deal, except for the…

    Extra Work Involved — First, you’ll be prompted to fill out a US Customs Form. You can walk through this process online and just print it out, or fill it out by hand. Also not a huge deal, but some of the criteria may have you scratching your head regarding the description/value/nature of the shipment.

    Then you have to deal with the lines at the post office. I know, wah wah wahh…but depending on your luck, this could take between 5 minutes and what feels like an entire afternoon. Usually with a crying baby behind you and several people ahead of you who take ten minutes longer than normal. It’s miserable, and you know it.

    Other aspects to keep in mind:

    • You might end up paying extra excise taxes for your “exports”
    • Tracking ID Numbers only go so far as the USPS services go…so there really isn’t any delivery confirmation
    • You run a higher risk of the package getting damaged or lost along the way

    So really, in the end it’s up to you. If someone in Hong Kong is willing to pay the shipping costs and happens to want some of your less-wanted items you’ve been dying to get rid of…then yeah, go for it. But if this person is asking you for a discount or any kind of favor…I say avoid it.

    My stance on this may change in the future, but for now my listings state that I DO NOT provide international shipping of any kind. The thing is…a lot of people ask all the time anyway. And sometimes I say yes. It really just comes down to whether or not you think it’s worth it.

    Category Logistics | Tags: ,, | No Comments

  3. Multi-Order Shipping Is #WINNING

    September 21, 2011 by Webster

    To quote Shooter McGavin, here’s a free lesson:

    If you’re selling a lot of items at once, use PayPal’s MultiOrder Shipping Tool.

    PayPal MultiOrder Shipping Options

    It’s super easy and a HUGE time-saver, but there are a few things you need to know to know to make the process as care-free and seamless as possible.

    MultiOrder Shipping Link

    First you need to know how to get there. To do so, just log in to your PayPal account and look on the right side of your screen (adjacent to your recent transactions on the main My Account page). It’s right there under My Account Tools. This might seem extremely obvious, but I always seemed to rush through the process without noticing it until a friend pointed it out to me. If you know me personally, this would not be a huge surprise to you (as I wander through life obliviously ignorant of many common-sense practicalities). Hopefully you don’t share this affliction, but sometimes we all need a little hand-holding.

    After you click on the link, a new full-screen window will open with a list of all your “ready to ship” items. If this the first time using this tool, you might need to import your items from eBay…but usually they just show up automagically. Also, if at any time there are items there that you’ve already shipped (which can happen), just delete them from the list. Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine–and if you accidentally delete something that DOES need to be shipped, you can just look up your deleted items and quickly re-trace your steps. No sweat.

    A couple other things to keep in mind…

    If you’re using a label printer (which you should), be sure to select it from the drop-down menu at the top before finalizing the process. Otherwise you’ll waste a bunch of labels when it tries to print as though it were on a 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper. I struggled with this at first, and if you accidentally DO choose the wrong printer, you CANNOT go back and correct it. Just switch to a regular printer, deal with the cutting and taping BS for those labels, and move on. You won’t repeat your mistake again after that, I promise.

    Also, if a lot of your items end up going out with similar weight/dimensions/shipping-methods, you can create and apply presets to help speed up the process in the future. For example, right now I’m selling A LOT of items via USPS First Class Shipping, and they’re all 3 ounces (size dimensions don’t matter with First Class Mail). To print them all at once, I just highlight all of the similar items (hold the Command/Control button and click each one), and then choose the “Apply Preset” drop down option that coordinates with those items. You only need to create the preset once and give it a memorable name. It will stay there forever until you decide to delete it.

    Now, instead of taking 2-3 minutes to print out each label individually, it only takes 2-3 minutes to print BOATLOADS of shipping labels. It’s one of the most convenient tools I’ve found throughout my experience as an eBay seller, and I highly recommend using it.

    **One last note. The MultiOrder Shipping Tool also automatically generates packing lists, receipts, and what-goes-where address lists. You don’t have to print any of them out, but it’s another cool and useful feature of the tool (and keeps me from creating another nightmarish label-swapping scenario).

    Category Logistics, Time-Savers | Tags: ,, | No Comments

  4. Get A Label Printer, Now

    September 14, 2011 by Webster

    Buying a specialized label printer is easily the best decision I’ve made so far as an eBay seller.

    Let me explain why.

    When I first started selling items on eBay, I knew I wouldn’t want to waste time standing in line at the post office to send my packages. So I printed out each of my labels on standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper, cut off the bottom half of the sheet (which serves as a receipt of sorts), and taped them to each package.

    This process works fine, and you actually save a few cents on each shipment made online (it seems to be about 5 cents per item for me). Plus everything just seems to work best when you go through eBay anyway–the buyer is notified right away, it includes tracking info automatically, and the item stays accounted for in the system.

    However, taping down all of those paper labels suuuuuuuuuuuucks. If you’re in a rush to get out of the door, be prepared to spend at least an extra few minutes per package to get the labels attached (which can turn into a half-hour+). Plus you just get sick of taping and taping and taping and taping!

    It became clear to me fairly quickly that I’d be a lot happier if I could just print out sticky labels, peel them off, and slap them on each package. 1-2-3 and you’re done. No cutting, no awkward placement, no tape whatsoever.

    So I went to my favorite online resource for other shipping and logistics materials–eBay itself. I actually buy all of my shipping supplies through other eBay suppliers (bubble mailers, sticky labels, a weight scale, and the printer). It’s nice to support other sellers out there in the community, and they usually have the best prices anyway.

    The clear choice in label printers is the Zebra LP2844 Thermal Printer (or LP2844-Z). It uses rolls of 4″ x 6″ labels (which you can also buy online or get free from UPS if you have a special account–more on that in a later post), and prints them out instantly.

    I found one online (seller refurbished, with labels) for about $70 total. It was fairly easy to set up, but I did have a few issues with it…which I’ll outline now.

    First, it’s for Windows users only. This stung a little bit when I finally made this realization (AFTER buying it). I use a Macbook Pro for all of my day-to-day work and internet activity, and I love it. Unfortunately, there are no existing Mac drivers for Zebra printers, but I happened to have an old desktop PC that rarely gets used. I’ve since converted it into a dedicated print station.

    YOU CAN still use the Zebra printer through a Mac, but you need to run and print through Windows. One way to do this is through Bootcamp (which comes ready in most newer Macs and loads Windows as a partition of your hard drive). It’s like having two computers in one. Another option is to download a software package called Parallels Desktop. This allows you to install any version of Windows onto your Mac and run it SIMULTANEOUSLY, as either its own “Windows window” or full-screen to switch back and forth from. You can also share files, copy/paste between the two, etc. It’s pretty amazing, but you still need to own and install a copy of Windows to use it.

    Second, the set up process is a little convoluted. You need to set this printer as your default printer in the Windows Control Panel, and you also need to change your PayPal Print Settings so it will react appropriately when you finally click “Print Label”. You need to download the latest version of Java to your web browser, and I’ve noticed that it’s not super friendly with Google Chrome.

    Once you smooth all of that out, it’ll be your best friend for your eBay business. No longer will printing labels feel like a burden…it actually gives me the sudden urge to start giving out hi-fives. Long story short, it’s a huge time saver and WELL WORTH the dolla dolla bills required to put up for it.

    Category Logistics, Time-Savers | Tags: ,, | No Comments

  5. Sending the Wrong Item

    September 7, 2011 by Webster

    I did this last week, and it sucks. Here’s how it went down.

    One buyer (Buyer A) notified me that their item was “not as described”.  When I saw the email I made a irritated pshh sound and went to investigate. Then I realized I actually sent the completely wrong item and was like OOOOOOH F*******K!!!  Because that meant that another buyer out there (Buyer B) was about to receive the wrong item as well. A terrible case of label swapping.  How could I let that happen?

    Well I did, and it’s only inevitable that I’ll do it again. Here’s what I’m doing about it.

    It turns out that Buyer B hadn’t yet paid for his item by the time I realized the swap took place, which meant that I could still send Buyer A his “exactly as described” item along with a return envelope. As soon as Buyer B made payment (which was way late but whatever) I immediately notified him that I had sent his item to the wrong buyer. I gave them the option for a full refund (in case they really needed it before the expected time), and a small discount for the inconvenience if they still wanted the item.  I got an immediate response thanking me for the update in a nice no worries kind of tone. I’m guessing Buyer B will definitely hit me with some positive feedback.

    I also made sure to notify Buyer A that if they went ahead and paid the postage to return Buyer B’s item, I’d have the amount credited to their PayPal account as soon as I received it. He also responded with minimal hostility.

    BOOM.  Total flip from the dumbass label swapper to the smart and considerate (yet still human) PowerSeller.

    Category Logistics | Tags: , | No Comments