If you are going to run a profitable and professional eBay and/or web site business, you will need to package and ship your goods professionally. No one likes to receive their "eBay treasure" in an old cereal box or shoe box stuffed with your last week's newspaper. This does not mean that you have to always use "new" supplies. Recycled boxes and packaging materials are fine as long as they are in good condition.
There are three costs involved in shipping:
* Shipping supplies
* Shipper charges
* Your time
Let's look at each one.
Shipping suppliesShipping supplies consist of boxes, newsprint or tissue, Styrofoam peanuts, bubble pak and tape.
Local shops can be a treasure trove of free shipping and packing materials. Other stores that receive large amounts of shipping and packaging materials include drug stores, electronics stores (such as Radio Shack) and small neighborhood hardware stores.
Boxes are rates for different uses, leave shipping to a professional so your parcel can arrive safe.
Shipping Charges:Don't fall victim to Carrier's rate, they are miss leading and have a lot of hidden charges! See blog below for more info.
At Neighborhood Parcel, we help you lower the shipping cost to minimum by using light packing materials, proper size boxes that have the right rating, consolidate multiple shipments into one, negotiate rates with carriers that give us a great advantage because of our shipping volume.
We have a wide network of carriers that can ship anything anywhere, we have them compete over your business and you win at the end!
Your Time:Time is valuable. Time you spend wrapping packages could be better spent launching auctions, searching for new products, answering emails and so on. The best way to save time is to have a permanent area for shipping. Invest in tape guns, paper rolls and so on. If you have to clear off the dining room table every time you want to wrap a package, this is a waste of time.
We use our teenagers to help with the business. It is a much better use of my time to pay my son a few bucks and hour to wrap packages. Besides anything you pay them is a business expenses for tax purposes.
It goes without saying (then why do I say it?) that you should package your merchandise carefully to avoid damage. Why do I say this if it's so obvious? Just last week I received a package from a power seller containing a flow blue plate I had purchased from his eBay Store. The plate was loose in the box. He had wrapped it with bubble pak, but hadn't taped the bubble pak together. During shipping it had worked loose in the box. Fortunately, it wasn't broken. Even people who know better often take short cuts that can result in an unhappy buyer and in some cases, negative feedback.
For more info:
http://www.neighborhoodparcel.com
