Shipping from homebased business/do I need to buy a scale?

[annawalton59]

I have a home based business and thinking from shipping from here since my business is homebased. Otherwise I'd have to go to the post office get a box and wrap the items there. I do gift baskets, some which are light some which are heavy. I'm bad at math and measuring. Do most boxes say the size? Also would I just by a shipping scale and enter that as the weight after everything is sealed. If I print shipping labels at home can they be printed on regular size paper? I assume it would have to be regular printable sticker paper. I don't have a business printer just one that fits reg 8.5 x 11 paper. It seems I need more things for shipping and it requires me to update my subscription or have something else. Also I'm trying to set different shipping rates based on basket sizes. A flat rate shipping profile for large, medium and small baskets so 3 profiles. How come it won't let me use  United states (50 states and District of Columbia) for all profiles? The other profile I did United states and 6 territories . For my third rate it told me I already choose the United states and pick another one.....that seems odd I cant use some other random country if I don't ship there.  For shipping labels its makes you do Shippo which apparently has a free plan, but I can proceed w/o it asking for my card information first, if they offer a free plan why do they want card info upfront before you can even see anything. Is there a way to ship w/o using square at all like using  UPS and Fedex directly from their site, if so how do I charge for that w/in square as far as the pricing goes and letting them know when their delivery will be there. 

[maxpete]

@annawalton59 I wanted to tag in a few of our Champions to potentially help with some insights for this! @Candlestore, @rtfulk, and @DinaLRosenberg 

[Candlestore]

@annawalton59 ;

Mort boxes do show a Size but that is like goinf to a Lumber yard and ordering a 2 inch by 4" stud which is actually only 1.5" x 3.5".

The actual size of the box when filled is best way to measure.  The boxes I get might be 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch larger or smaller than what is on the box because of the machine folding them.  The shipping companies use lazers and other means to meansure boxes and if you put the Box size that is printed on the box you may keep getting letters saying you owe because your box measured something different.  Sometimes after packing a Box with the Item and bubblewrap or peanuts the box has a little bulge which gets measured too.  As for a Scale we have one that has been tested and stickered by the Pa Weights and measures department of Food and Agriculture.  We use to sell fudge by the pound so while they were here checking accuracy of the Fudge scale they also tested or shipping scale.  Now do you need a Professional Shipping Scale for shipping, no.  Can you use any accurate scale, and round up to nearest pound for example.  You can and just pay a little extra.  I have found that is better to be a little over than under.  As for a Printer for shipping labels we just use a Xprinter from Amazon and got free shipping labels from UPS, Fedex or USPS that work in the printer.  Problem you may have with your home printer is the Barcode may bleed in the paper and shipping companies may charge you if too many fail in a year or whatever they feel is too many fails.  Somehome printers might be fine depending on darkness and print speeds on regular 8x10 paper.  

When we do labels here, we copy the customers address as one block and paste it to our shipping software, other software has you paste in Name First and then paste in Last name, then Street address..... etc.   Square also has shiping built right in and may be worth it depending how much you ship.  Now if you want to ship outside of Square you can setup an account with Shippo, Pirate Ship, Unishippers, USPS, UPS or Fedex.  I believe they all want a credit card on file too, this is for when you by your Postage that they can charge the card on file.  Most of these companies will give you a Tracking number that you can paste into your customers order so they can also track the item(s).

[annawalton59]

Thanks for this, Keith! 🥰 I did sign up with FedEx. However, let's say I use FedEx outside of Square. If a customer orders a basket from my website and I don't go through Square for the transaction, how do I determine the shipping cost? I could set it back to local delivery and then have a note or email the customer that  I let them now the tracking information once I have it? 🤔🤔

If I don’t know the shipping cost until afterward, how can I incorporate that into the price? For example, if a basket costs $45, I could estimate the shipping cost and include it in the total, but that might result in the price being either over or under what it should be. 

Would it be a case where the customer pays for the basket as usual, without an additional shipping fee, and then I take it to FedEx to ship? The problem with that is that I can't charge them for shipping after the fact. What do you suggest? I've very new at this a single mom and a caregiver and literally doing this by myself and no much disposable income. What little income I've made has gone back into other aspects such as inventory etc. This shipping part scares me but I have to figure this out b/c a few people have asked about it and b/c its me by myself I haven't found an easy way to navigate this, especially since I don't have a storefront. Thanks for your kindness. I'm a bit Adhd and slow to learn so sorry if I don't catch on right away. I will I just need some examples and this broken down a bit.

[Candlestore]

@annawalton59 ;

Do a few tests.

Weigh you product and put in a shipping box.  Make address up to 1 main street ME, FL, CA, etc.  Get a high and low shipping cost for your Items.  Create an average price for shipping and have Shipping included, Locals may pay higher shipping and people farther away may pay less, but if its in the Price of your items then.  Square has calculations that can figure out a shipping cost based on size and wights of boxes to ship but can also be off some.  Shipping rates are always changing like the USPS is now charge a Holiday Rate on top of their normal price.  My online site is out of Square and uses Real Time shipping Quates from USPS, UPS and Fedex but even with me weighing Items I ship and the size of their box with 75% fill rate, 25% is packing material, these rates can be off slightly too.  Then if someone orders multiple items this gets even more confusing and bigger discrepencies.   Now if your Too high on shipping you may want to lower it, and if your too low raise the shipping costs.  Problem is your not only paying to Ship said item, you also have your Time to pack, ship, and then the Boxes, Tape, Peanuts or Bubble wrap.... which should be factored into your Onlines Item price or your Shipping and Handleing fee.  Then depending on what and where your shipping you need to be able to calculate the Damages from shipping.  With shipping, USPS gives Retail rates, then a Business Rate and also a Commercial shipping account depending on shipping volumes.  This is why so many shipping companies popped up like Shippo, Unishippers, and Pirate ship.  They get a bunch of small homebased or small businesses to use them, and then all their shipping combined gets them lower rates to sell to you from the big shipping companies.  Shipping is the hardest part to calculate for online sellers.  

[annawalton59]

Can you also possibly send the link to that printer? I'm trying to find "x printer " on Amazon and only regular ones are coming up. Also how does it know what to put on the label, I don't see any keyboard on it (update I input shipping printers and some popped up lol)

[Candlestore]

@annawalton59 ;

The Xprinter I got, I do not see on Amazon.  I know it was not an easy setup and had bad reviews of setting it up and working.  I bought mine 6 or 7 years ago.  The shipping labels do not have to be Square compatible as you would be printing your Shipping label from a computer.  Just look for a Thermal 4x6 label printer.  You then need Thermal Label rolls or Fans to print on.  The thermal printers use heat to print and no ink is used at all. The Label printer would need to be installed on a computer just like your Desk printer that prints 8x10 sheets of paper.  You do not type on the Printer, but on a computer.

[DinaLRosenberg]

I've been packing and shipping a really long time and started in my house way back when ... when I sold LuLaRoe (embarassed.. ha ha).

I've been using stamps.com for a really long time. We have too many SKUs to go back and integrate everything into Square- so this is what we do and maybe it can help you.

First- Stamps.com has a couple of codes where you get a free scale. Secondly, there are two types of boxes you can get:

USPS has a bunch of FREE boxes you can get, but to use those you need to ship priority.

You can find those boxes here: https://store.usps.com/store/shipping-supplies?_gl=1*kwy3r4*_gcl_au*MTU4MDk0OTAwNC4xNzI2OTQ4NDM4*_ga...

To ship via usps ground (which is must less expensive) you can purchase brown boxes from a shipping supply company like Uline which has all the sizes marked on the bottom of the box. They also sell everything else like bubble, tape, etc. 

You can print out shipping labels on regular paper and just tape the paper down to the box- we've done that when we've run out of labels.

In the beginning we used DYMO printers but have found those printers to be incredibly fussy- so we switched out to a Rollo for shipping labels which we like WAY better. We order the Rollo thermal labels from amazon.

USPS has a shipping product that is a flat rate product as well- small, medium, large, flat and padded envelopes. You can put as much as you want in them and the price is one price. Sometimes we use those. Basically it's trial and error as to what shipping method is the best.

Stamps.com also has UPS rates loaded in- on the occasion when we have something super heavy we'll ship that way.

In terms of process it is sort of what you describe. We have opted for flat rate $9.50 shipping on our website but if you spend over $125 shipping is free. It was way easier for us then to set up dynamic shipping pricing.

we pack everything in the appropriate box, weigh it- and then we run the labels.

[annawalton59]

Thank you for your help! I have a few questions regarding shipping and pricing for my gift baskets. 

Does Stamps.com only provide supplies, or do they also handle shipping? From what I understand, I can get supplies from Stamps.com or online, but USPS is the best option for shipping. If I choose to use flat rate shipping, is that just a set price? Should I consider pricing my baskets a little higher than $9.50?

I want to know how to integrate shipping costs into my product pricing using Square. If I'm not using them for shipping, is there any way to set a shipping price? I know you can charge for local delivery. Also, do I need a business account with USPS? I already have a regular mail account with them, along with Informed Delivery.

Since I struggle with math, I could really use some help. How should I charge for materials like bubble wrap and boxes? For example, if I buy 5 boxes for $20, that makes each box $4. Should I charge the customer an extra $4 for the box into the basket price? 

Additionally, I typically wrap the baskets tightly with bubble wrap 2-4 times before taping them and placing them in the box. How should I account for the cost of the bubble wrap and tape? Thank you!

[DinaLRosenberg]

So what we decided to do was made a "line in the sand"..if they spent over $125 we would ship on us. If the spend under we usually "make money" on the shipping as if they spend say $50 chances are the shipping would be less than $9.50

Regarding your packaging supplies we don't order anything from stamps.com but the postage. You can get the flat rate boxes directly from USPS and they will ship them to you for free.

Keep in mind flat rate boxes are priority postage not ground.

You don't need a usps account if you use stamps.com and you will get commercial rates that are less than if you were ton buy at the post office.

[annawalton59]

I also was trying to do a tiered system with a rate based on number of items (baskets) 1 basket $15 , and so on but its not letting me do it that way. Because if they order more than one basket I was trying to figure out how to set the rate