Hack 68 Cheap, Fast Shipping Without Waiting in Line
  Generate prepaid shipping labels online to save
money and time."Three things in life are certain: death,
taxes, and long lines at the post
office."
You know the drill. Take your package
down to the post office. Stand in line. Stand in line some more.
Then, watch while your package is weighed, listen to your shipping
options, and pick whichever one is cheapest. Go home, and do it all
again next week. But the worst part is that it's
completely unnecessary.Most major couriers and nearly all couriers in
the United States offer online shipping services.
Here's how it typically works:- Go to your courier's web site and sign up for an
account; at this time, you'll enter your mailing
address and, optionally, payment information. You'll
need to do this only once. See the next section for courier-specific
tips. |
Before you're ready to ship, you can get a shipping
cost quote from any courier web site. Do this before sending a total
to the high bidder (see [Hack #66]),
and you'll never underestimate shipping costs again. |
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- Enter your recipient's address into a form, as well
as the weight and dimensions of the package. (To avoid typos, make
sure to use copy-and-paste rather than typing your
customer's address by hand.) The return address is
filled in automatically. Figure 6-3 shows the FedEx
Ship Manager; note that the return address, which
isn't shown, is filled in automatically.
 - Print out a prepaid shipping label and affix the label on your
package. - Drop off your package at a local customer counter or, for an extra
charge, schedule a pickup. You can find the closest drop-off location
on the courier's web site. - Track the package using the tracking number generated with your
label. Make sure to keep permanent records of all your tracking
numbers; if your customer claims the package never arrived,
you'll need to be able to track it.
The entire process takes about a minute, and requires no waiting in
line and no guesswork. See [Hack #69]
for any additional forms you might need when shipping to other
countries.This procedure can also be used if you're the
customer; see [Hack #31] for a way to
quickly send a prepaid label to the seller.
6.5.1 Courier Notes
Here are some tips and considerations for the "big
three" shippers:- United States
Postal Service (USPS). Not only can you print prepaid labels from the U.S. Postal Service
web site (sss-web.usps.com), you
actually get a better deal if you do so. The Delivery Confirmation
option, which adds a tracking number to most types of postal mail for
an extra charge, is free if you print your mailing labels online.
Another perk of USPS is that you can print a label without postage
and use ordinary stamps instead; this is useful for those who
can't or don't want to pay with a
credit card.Due to postal regulations, any package weighing one pound or more
must be handed to a postal employee inside the branch (albeit usually
without having to wait in line). Only packages weighing less than one
pound can be dropped in mailboxes.You can get special labels designed especially for
USPS Click-N-Ship
by going to www.labeluniverse.com/USPSl. But if you
want to save money, you can simply use ordinary paper and a lot of
tape (just make sure not to tape over the barcode). |
If you have a choice, never use USPS third class (standard) shipping.
Although it may be slightly cheaper than Priority Mail, it often
takes up to a month to deliver, even within the same state (despite
what the USPS web site says). If you're shipping
something heavy, use FedEx Ground or UPS Ground instead. The only
time when third-class postal mail should be used is when you have no
other choice, such as when shipping certain types of chemicals. |
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Probably the biggest drawback to USPS Click-N-Ship is that, at least
at the time of this writing, ordinary international shipments are not
supported (unless you want to pay extra for Global Express Mail).
This means that if you're shipping to another
country, you'll have to use FedEx or UPS if you
don't want to wait in line at the post office. - Federal Express (FedEx). Shipping with a FedEx account number is one of the slickest systems
around. Even when you're not using FedEx Ship
Manager (www.fedex.com), you can
simply hand-write your account number on a FedEx Express airbill or
FedEx Ground form.The FedEx Ship Manager, shown back in Figure 6-3,
allows you to send any package to just about any destination around
the world. When you've filled out the required
fields, click Get Courtesy Rate to see the estimated shipping cost on
the fly. - United Parcel Service
(UPS). UPS has gone to great lengths to integrate its services with eBay and
PayPal. For instance, eBay's calculated shipping
feature (see [Hack #45]) is provided by
a UPS subsidiary.Although you can ship from the UPS web site (www.ups.com), it is probably more convenient
(and no more expensive) to ship directly from PayPal. Start by
logging in to PayPal and going to My Account  Profile
Shipping Preferences to choose the types of transactions
for which the "Ship" button will
appear in your transaction list. Then, click the History tab and
you'll see the Ship button next to applicable
transactions; click Ship to generate a UPS label for that customer.
Figure 6-4 shows the PayPal shipping form, which
conveniently enters the customer's address for you.
(Note that this is available only for buyers in the United States.)
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You'll be covered under PayPal's
Buyer Protection policy only if you ship to a
customer's
"confirmed" address, as described
in [Hack #67]. |
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When you're done, PayPal will even email the
tracking numbers to your customers so they can track their packages
themselves.
6.5.2 Shipping on the Cheap
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If buyers pay for shipping (and they usually do), then why should
sellers care how much it costs to ship a package? If you charge a
fixed shipping amount, then every penny saved is a penny earned. And
if you charge the exact amount to ship, then you'll
get more bids for being able to ship for less. |
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The other major shipping expense comes from packing materials, both
in the cost of the materials themselves and the impact they have on
the total shipping cost.Here are some tips for saving money with
packing materials:- The number-one rule is to never throw out packaging materials;
recycle and reuse them as much as possible. Not only will you save
money, but you'll help reduce the increased strain
on landfills caused by the growing popularity of eBay and mail-order
shipping in general. - Air is the best packing material on earthit's
lightweight, an excellent heat insulator, and extremely cheap. Bubble
wrap and foam peanuts are terrific examples, and can be reused again
and again. Tip: use clear trash bags to collect foam peanuts from
packages you receive. - Don't throw out form-fitted styrofoam. Instead,
break it apart and use the fragments to fill space in your own
packages. - Most couriers will not only provide free cardboard boxes of all
sizes, but they will even send them to you free of charge if you ask. - Buy packing tape in bulk to save money. (Avoid independent
packing/shipping stores, which usually grossly overcharge for packing
materials.) Better yet, use a courier that provides free tape; if
you're shipping with USPS Priority Mail, for
example, you can use all the "Priority
Mail" tape you want for free. - Don't use newspaper or shredded paper to wrap or
cushion your items. It's much heavier than foam
peanuts, the ink can rub off, and it won't protect
your items nearly as well as bubble wrap. - Finally, when using prepaid shipping labels, you can place them in
clear, self-adhesive "airbill"
sleeves, freely available from couriers like FedEx and UPS, thus
saving the time and expense otherwise spent on wads of packing
tape.
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