You might think that shipping costs are simple: surely you just add up the price of your items postage and the price of packing materials, and charge that - right? Well, you could do that, but there are better ways to make your shipping costs work for you.
Find Cheaper Materials.
The key to making profit on shipping is to make use of
the cheapest materials you may get for packing, without compromising on quality. The successful
thing for you is that many eBay PowerSellers have made a business out of making available
sellers with quality packing material in bulk at really low prices.
To get an idea of whats out there, take a look at this category: Business & Industrial > Office, Printing & Shipping > Shipping & Packing Supplies. You might also try paying a visit to a big-box office supplies store.
Buy in Bulk.
Always buy hundreds of the identical
sized packing boxes at the same measure
. Since you should be selling the same items over and over again, you will
positive need
the same sized boxes each time. You will always be able to get discounts for bulk - if the place where youre shopping wont give you any, go somewhere else.
Streamline Your Packing.
Try to pack every time using the same amounts of the identical
materials in the identical
way, so that you do not
absolutely need to ruminate on
it too much. Have all the labels for the packages printed up in advance, and do the items in that order. The less instant you spend on the packing, the more profit it is for you.
Round to the Next Dollar.
Lets say youre buying items for $2, and selling them for $4 + $1.50 shipping. Rounding the shipping to $2 would build you an excess 40 cents on each sale - considering youre currently only making $2 profit, thats a percentage profit increase of 25%!
You see, this excess funds
will be far more important to you than it is to the buyer, because its on the margin. For you, its excess profit for nothing, and for the buyer, its too small an amount to bother caring about. Everybody wins in this scenario.
The Ideal Price Point.
Find out what your rivals are charging for shipping, and try to just undercut them while still generating a profit. If you managed to buy some cheaper materials, this shouldnt be too hard for you - most of the sellers on eBay are buying envelopes and boxes one-by-one, which is a very expensive way to do things. If you work things out correctly, you should be able to offer shipping at a price point which makes your rivals look silly, and still be creating a sizeably efficient profit on it!
If youre running the kind of operation where shipping is a big concern, then the chances are that youre listing a significant proportion of your items using Buy it Now, instead of going through all the trouble and uncertainty of using real auctions every instant. But wait! Using Buy it Now isnt always the right thing to do. Our next e-mail will give you a few tips on when to do it and when not to.
