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If you sell any tangible products you know that shipping rates can really add up. Whether you absorb the cost of shipping into your product and offer shipping included to your customers, or if you charge your customers shipping separately, it is still a major expense! And finding the lowest shipping rate is extremely important.
Have you ever been shopping on a website, super excited about the cute products that they carry, spending time meticulously picking out your favorites and then heading to the checkout page only to find that shipping is almost as much as the contents of your cart? Yeah, I’ve been there too. Especially when shopping on Etsy. I love supporting small business owners (since I am one too!) but it can be frustrating as a consumer to see sky-high shipping rates and often times it leads to cart abandonment. No Bueno.
On the flip side, as a business owner, if you offer your customers super low shipping rates, or even bundle it into the cost of your products, it can really cut into your margins. Because we all know shipping ain’t free!
So, what’s a biz owner to do?
The best solution to leverage low shipping costs is by using a third party shipping software tool that will pass along USPS commercial plus shipping rates to you. Mmm-hmmm, that’s really a thing. My personal favorite is PirateShip. (By the way: PirateShip is not paying me in any way to share this info, I genuinely use and love their service!) PirateShip is completely free to use (yes, really!) and integrates with most platforms for easy label creation and fulfillment. If you’re selling on Etsy, Cratejoy, Shopify, WooCommerce or eBay then you absolutely must be using PirateShip. The savings by using commercial plus shipping rates means more money in your pocket.
However, if that’s not enough then here’s another little secret weapon: using a third party shipping tool allows you to unlock secret shipping rates like USPS Priority Mail Cubic. Never heard of it? That’s ok, we’ll talk about that later on!
But first, let’s go over your options. It can be totally overwhelming trying to figure out what the best way to ship your products is. Here are some quick and easy rules of thumb to follow along – and a fun little infographic to make it easier!
- If you are shipping something that is under 15.9 ounces (including packaging) then the cheapest way to ship is first class.
- If you are shipping something that is 1 pound or over, but it fits in a small, flat rate box from the post office then that will be the cheapest way to ship.
- If you are shipping something that is 1 pound or over but does not fit in a small flat rate box, then you need to go Priority Mail. And that’s where the secret Priority Mail Cubic shipping rate comes into play!
Priority Mail Cubic is not available at the post office, it’s only available through third-party shipping software tools. It’s important to take advantage of though because you can save up to 89% using that service! That’s a huge deal!
So how does it work? If you know the size of your box, you can use this handy little calculator to determine what cubic tier you fall into. Or, if you like doing math yourself, you would take the length x width x height of your box and divide it by 1728. There are 5 tiers, so you’ll likely end up with a decimal ranging from .1 – .5. You’ll want to round up to the nearest tenth. .1 is the first tier, .2 the second and so on. As long as your box is not over 18” in any area (length, width or height) and is under 20 pounds, you can take advantage of Cubic shipping. And you should! Your customers will appreciate the savings and you’ll likely get more conversions (aka: cash money!) with a lower shipping rate!
Once you’ve determined your shipping rate, it’s on to printing the actual labels. I personally use and love my Dymo 4XL thermal label printer. I like it because it’s fast, reliable, and doesn’t use ink (and we all know how expensive ink cartridges can be!). The labels are easy to peel and stick and it saves me a LOT of time. I have 4 Dymo 4XL printers (what can I say, I do a lot of shipping!) and I haven’t had one break down on me yet! Another perk? They are SO.EASY to use. I’m not particularly tech savvy and I can’t stand fooling around with new devices. With my Dymo, I literally just had to plug it into my computer and follow the prompts for installation that took all of 1 minute – and bam, I was in business!
I hope this info helps you find ways you can save on shipping for your customers! Do you have other shipping related questions? Post them below and I’ll see how I can help!
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