Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Shipping: I am Confused and Need Advice

It is probably not a surprise to most of you that generally, I live in the dark ages.  I watch very little TV, I know very few new songs, my clothes are less than hip (expecting my Mad Men dresses), and I do not have a smart phone.  Also, the number of times I have searched on e-bay can be counted on my left hand and I have never looked at Craig's list.  All my old stuff gets loaded up into the trunk of my clown car and off to the Salvation Army we go.  Also, and since I see my brother, sister-in-law, and niece on a regular basis, there is never a need to ship gifts out of state.  Anyone see where this is going?  I need shipping help and I need it soon!

Here is a list of my issues (some may be somewhat solved)

  1. Pillows are not heavy, but they are bulky.  So, if I send four pillows or one pillow makes little difference because they weigh practically nothing.  That is part of the reason why about 90% of my pillow products in the future are going to be covers!  Put them in a large envelope and mail.  
  2. Packaging!  What to do?  For my first order, I took the little owl pillow over to UPS and asked for advice.  They packed it up and it cost a lot of money.  Yeah, that is not the way to go.  Second order, I packaged the pillows, all five of them in a large box and shipped them from the UPS store.  The cost was right around $11.  Then, I had two orders this week.  The post office cost me $11.65 for "If it fits, it ships."  Fed Ex charged $13.33 for an envelope and shipping. 
So, for those of you who sell thing on e-bay, Craig's List, ship lots of gift to friends and family; how do you do it?  Seriously!!!  I need some best practices because the trial and error method is not really the best way to go about this.

So, if you know how to ship and have some pointers, please share with me.  You can leave comments on this page, or my Facebook page, or e-mail me at 715Pillows@gmail.com.  You don't even have to be a follower on this page to leave a comment.  Seriously, I need help.  Please help me though this confusing maze of the shipping world.
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3 comments:

  1. lena schaferDecember 7, 2011 at 9:15 PM

    Can you vacuum out the air in a plastic bag so they are smaller too?

    ReplyDelete
  2. VarinaDecember 7, 2011 at 11:18 PM

    We do a lot of shipping (since we do run an online store), but wood is heavy, and you don't get into dimensional weight, which you might have problems with since pillows are light but bulky (as you put it).

    We typically ship UPS ground, we have an account, and we print our own labels online. It is cheaper than going to the UPS Store, where they charge extra fees for helping you. If you are able to package and weigh your box yourself, print the labels from UPS.com and it will be cheaper, then you just have to drop them at the UPS Store without having to do anything there. Just walk in and drop them off.

    But, if your packages are less than 3 lbs we found that USPS is usually a bit cheaper. The flat rate boxes are great if you are at about 3 lbs otherwise paying by weight might be a bit less expensive.

    Flat rate boxes are free and you can order them from usps.com.

    If you print online from USPS it is also cheaper than going into the Post Office itself.

    If you email me some info on your typical package sizes and weights, I can give you some more helpful info.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownDecember 8, 2011 at 1:39 PM

    Varina,

    I did not know that you run an online store!!! What kind of stuff do you sell? I am going to send you a message with the sizes I use. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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