Courtney Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 For the past year I have only been selling locally but now I'm wanting to start selling online, because I have lots of potential customers who live too far away for me to deliver. I'm thinking of going with Etsy, it seems like the best option starting out. My only problem I've run into so far is shipping. What is the best way to ship soap/aroma beads? How do you calculate what shipping will be? Is it cheaper to use the packaging from USPS or your own? I need to know this before hand because when listing in Etsy you have to put in the weight and dimensions of the package. I want to keep shipping as cheap as possible for my customers because I know when I'm buying online, the shipping price is what decided whether I'm buying or not. And any other tips for starting up would be great. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 (edited) On 7/19/2019 at 1:28 PM, Courtney said: For the past year I have only been selling locally but now I'm wanting to start selling online, because I have lots of potential customers who live too far away for me to deliver. I'm thinking of going with Etsy, it seems like the best option starting out. My only problem I've run into so far is shipping. What is the best way to ship soap/aroma beads? How do you calculate what shipping will be? Is it cheaper to use the packaging from USPS or your own? I need to know this before hand because when listing in Etsy you have to put in the weight and dimensions of the package. I want to keep shipping as cheap as possible for my customers because I know when I'm buying online, the shipping price is what decided whether I'm buying or not. And any other tips for starting up would be great. I would start by reading the information at Pirate Ship. Start with this page https://www.pirateship.com/usps/priority-mail-cubic and work your way through the many articles on their site. They are also integrated with Etsy, which means that with the touch of a button on the Pirate Ship page, your Etsy orders are immediately imported to Pirate ship. You will get instant rates and if you have questions as you go, they are really fast in responding to chat. They're friendly too. Edited July 20, 2019 by Quentin wrong contraction 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilosCandles Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 On 7/19/2019 at 2:28 PM, Courtney said: For the past year I have only been selling locally but now I'm wanting to start selling online, because I have lots of potential customers who live too far away for me to deliver. I'm thinking of going with Etsy, it seems like the best option starting out. My only problem I've run into so far is shipping. What is the best way to ship soap/aroma beads? How do you calculate what shipping will be? Is it cheaper to use the packaging from USPS or your own? I need to know this before hand because when listing in Etsy you have to put in the weight and dimensions of the package. I want to keep shipping as cheap as possible for my customers because I know when I'm buying online, the shipping price is what decided whether I'm buying or not. And any other tips for starting up would be great. @Courtney You do NOT have to but info like that into ETSY. It only helps if you are really charging by the size and weight. With USPS there are so many options for either Flat Rate OR Flat Weight (I use this loosely, but about 99% true). USPS has many FREE shipping supplies from their site - https://store.usps.com/store/home PirateShip is GREAT and FREE. If you items are under 1 Pound, 16oz, you can ship USPS First Class mail. No more the ~$5.50 (No Insurance, with Tracking) Need to use your own box. I ship many candles this way. Look into the Priority Mail Flat Rate Bubble Envelope. Anything you put in there cost $7.55 to ship anywhere in the USA (including HI AK). If the candles weigh more than 1 pound this is my option. I usually use my own box and then put the box in the bubble envelope. Bubble Envelope is free from USPS, and PirtateShip gives you $100 of insurance. Regional Rate A and Rate B boxes are my next choice. The Rate A start at about $7.85 and co up from there. This is more of a flat weight box. So the "A" box you basically pay the 2 pound weight and the "B" box you pay the 4 pound weight to ship. The further is has to go the more you pay. This tend to be cheaper than the Flat Weight boxes. Though I just ran into a situation where is was cheaper to ship the Large Flat Rate box to Alaska than it was a Rate B box. Boxes are free from USPS and PirtateShip gives you $100 of insurance. Anything that I ship that doesn't fit in those boxes usually weighs more and needs bigger boxes I find Fedex or UPS are cheaper. Pirate ship you can just print shipping labels on plain paper and tape them to the boxes. I use a Dymo 4XL to pint shipping labels which works AWESOME. Just depends on how much you are shipping. I charge $8 flat rate shipping for my candles. I need to get over that $5-6 shipping cost PLUS time and Materials (Boxes, tape, labels, bubble wrap) hump when someone orders 1. After that there is enough profit in each candle to cover any extra costs for larger orders. Generally I get my boxes on ebay from theerb (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=threerb) I get 6x4x4 boxes which ship USPS First Class mail, fit in the Flat rate Bubble Envelope and I can fit 2 in a RATE A , and with a little squeeze I can for 4 in a RATE B box. Hopefully this gives you some direction. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura C Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 Wow, @MilosCandles thanks for taking the time to post all this information, it is very helpful. Shipping can get confusing. 😄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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