Oh the Shipping Woes - How to reduce shipping costs?

[Former_Member]

Hello fellow Etsians,

I am a Canadian Etsian, and I'm wondering if other Canadians here are having trouble with high shipping costs. Perhaps our American brothers n' sister are having similar problems?

I make beeswax candles. As it is, my single items range from 7$ (cnd) to 12$ (cnd). Because of the size of the candles, although they do not weigh very much, I have no choice but to ship them in bubble mailers. And the absolute cheapest I can mail a bubble mailer for, even to say someone in my same city, is 11.83$ (cnd).

This is terrible, because who wants to buy a 7$, 10$ or 12$ pair of candles and pay the same if not more in shipping costs??

I'm no expert on online selling. Perhaps ridiculously high shipping costs are just part of shopping online and I shouldn't worry about this hurting my sales?
But my gut feeling is that a large part of my '0 sales' record (sniff) is my intimidating shipping prices.

My temporary solution has been to offer 'half-price shipping' but this sale has been on almost a month, and no takers yet. So I definitely feel that this is not a permanent solution to the problem.

Now, I could eat half the shipping costs myself, and thereby get only half the amount for my items. Or (I'm hoping!) am I missing out on some great way to reduce overall shipping costs and past these savings on to my customers?

Do Etsians in the States face similarly high shipping costs? Or this a challenge unique to us canucks?

Thanks for any and all feedback!!

[FalconandFinch]

Wow, that does seem unreasonably high.. is the high rate due to the weight of your candles?

[VeraidaGifts]

Can you mail your candles in recycled envelopes, I do it sometimes.

[Former_Member]

No! I don't think so. Because a pair of candles weighs roughly 0.2 to 0.3 lbs and it costs pretty much the same for me to ship a single pair, or up to 10 pairs! I think this is some kind of 'cut-off' price for pakages, eg. the starting price for all mail that qualifies as 'small package'.

As a 'letter' it would no doubt be cheaper, but I need the damage protection of the bubble mailer, and besides, the candles are at least 4/5 of an inch thick which I don't think fits through their little letter measuring slot thingy (do you know the one? :)

[Former_Member]

re: Veraida

Yes, this is something I will try. I have a feeling, as I mentioned to FalconandFinch, that the price reflects the fact that it is considered a 'small package', one step up from a 'letter'.

But I think the dimensions may prevent me from sending it as a 'letter'....

[Former_Member]

I would love for a Leader to have a think about this one since I think shipping costs are crucial and unique to an online market approach to business.

I am stumped. How do others deal with this?

[LaPellaPottery]

I think shoppers are used to high shipping, but I'd make some listings with larger sets.

Also, part of your problem might be just being seen. You only have 10 listings and there are over 30,000 listings in the Candles category.

you might consider a different style of photography, too. Maybe get some vintage candle holders, turn down the lights, and light your candles for photos. Setting the mood might pull more people into your listings.

[TheSnapDragonsLair]

Shipping is almost always more than my items cost. It kills me! But, given the postal service's rates (and UPS is higher still), we have no choice but to just hope buyers are understanding.

One thing I'm going to try to do in a month so so is hook up with others in my geographic area to share shipping supply costs. Serious bulk split among 4 or 5 people will be a savings, not to mention not having to store 100 boxes!

[Former_Member]

I am a Canadian seller who has the same problem! And you are right, Canada Post considers anything over 2cm high to be a "parcel" regardless of the weight, with a minimum cost around $12. (On the other hand you can send the same parcel to the U.S. or Internationally for often half that cost.) I also agree that this high shipping cost probably hurts sales within our own country. I think LaPellaPottery might be on to something with the suggestion to sell your candles in larger bundles, since the shipping cost will probably be the same. You could also encourage buying in multiples for the same reason, advertising a "flat rate" shipping fee up to a certain number of candles. I have also been at a loss on how to handle the high shipping costs (I don't think the items I sell lend themselves well to buying in multiples) and will look forward to others' responses.

[honeystreasures]

Help! ;) We're running out of storage room for all the shipping supplies! Boxes, foam, peanuts, etc.. We need to seriously organize our storage room, maybe knock down a wall. Just kidding, but we do need to have a better system for organizing. Any tips out there?

Regarding this post, yes, shipping is high. I always go online to compare prices between Fed Ex and USPS for smaller items and try to go with the cheapest and quickest method. Not always possible to have both though.

We do have to use Fed Ex for our furniture shipments though. We've learned through trial and error how to pack correctly. It's not a talent we're born with, that's for sure. It's a new learning experience and a growing process. ;)

[Former_Member]

wow that is high! weirdly enough, in the US, it costs the same for me to ship first class to canada as it does to someone in the us. I charge $4 for US and Canadian buyers- I have no idea why this is.

As for organizing- you can always break boxes down to flat- or are they already?
My items aren't breakable- so my worries are small- I wrap them in a sheet of tissue and include some packing material as needed to keep them from jostling around too much.

Good luck- but you really can't eat the shipping--that's no way to stay in business.

[Former_Member]

Re:LaPellaPottery

Thank you! I really appreciate the suggestions. Yes, many of my friends and family have suggested more 'atmospheric' photographs, in various settings, so people can visualise how to display my candles in their home/garden/etc.

Another thread I read recently suggested using one of your photos to display the packaged items ready to ship, eg. what the customer can expect to receive - for example your item partially wrapped, inside an open shipping box/envelope to (tastefully) show the appearance of packaged & shipped items.

I'm going to take lots of new photos soon!! I am just figuring out my new camera. Anyway I won't get into that which is a huge topic in itself!

I do already have listings for multiple pairs, however I can see that this isn't obvious! The problem for me has been striking a balance between the SEO stuff, eg. using only keywords for your the 1st dozen words or so, and clarity of what the listing is for so that people visiting my page can easily identify single vs multiple pair listings.......

Maybe I could create shop categories based on the number of pairs + flat-rate shipping? Hmm. Something to think about.

RE: visibility, I am still considering whether it is really worth it for me to renew my listings every couple of days as many Etsians suggest. At the moment I have had 0 sales online, even after a few weeks of consistantly relisting, whereas by word of mouth and wholesale to local shops I am doing quite well. So I am inclined to "go with the flow" and spend time and money on what is working, that is, off-line sales.
It's a bit of a catch 22 situation, I realise I will have to invest time and money to get it to work online, but with a very small budget and little extra time to devote to my small business, I feel like I shouldn't be trying to push rocks uphill, if you know what I mean........

[Former_Member]

RE:MillieFern

I know, I realise I can't make the decision to cover the shipping myself. That would mean one pair at a time, but at wholesale prices. Which defeats the purpose! One of my reasons for opening my Etsy shop was to increase retail price sales! So far, the strategie has not been working....

I hate to be a doubting thomas, but I see so many "I'm not making any sales!!" posts on various forums, there are tens of thousands of us sellers on here, and how many buyers? I'm starting to wonder if Etsy is as great for business as it proclaims. I wouldn't leave Etsy, even if it didn't generate revenue, since it is such a great link (aka social network) to other artists and crafters.(So glad to be in contact with you all! Your talent blows me away and inspires me everyday :) But as far as a business strategy... I have yet to be convinced that all the effort and time it takes to be visible and successful on Etsy can really compare to the financial rewards... if you are paying yourself by the hour, think of all that time it takes you to renew, take new photos, package and mail individual items, figure out how to use all the new technology, understand a completely new and emerging market, SEO, tweet, blog, facebook, etc etc etc... it's scary when through it all you never have another person face-to-face, to touch and smell and see your product! Basically, it's not an enviroment where your pieces can speak for themselves, as in stores, craftfairs, markets etc... I guess that is the trade off for having such minimal overhead.

Anyway, sorry I am totally having a conversation with myself here lol but maybe at least some will appreciate the rambling train of thought ;)

[Former_Member]

Shipping is always a trail and error thing for every online seller. I ship first class mail and use recycled materials as much as i can. If an item is to heavy usps which is postal service her in the states has a flat rate shipping boxes. Do they have anything similar in canada. If all else fails i would suggest making larger sets to keep the cost down. good luck

[Zehland]

I think the idea of larger sets is a good one and also the suggestion to ramp up the photos to create a unique experience.

Have you thought of trying out a few sets with a higher price to cover shipping and listing with Free Shipping? I have found there are some buyers who just love free shipping and will pay more for the item just to have the shipping free even though the end price is the same.
You can test it out with just one or two listings to see if it makes a difference.

[Former_Member]

Organizing:
I haven't had that problem yet but where I use to work we had to use bubble wrap and popcorn and this is how we stored them.
Popcorn: we had the large square bag that hung from the ceiling and had a tube come out of it then a flap on the bottom to close it off after we filled the box. So you could take and extra large box or page hang it from the ceiling , box on an angle, attach a dryer vent tube to it with some kind of flapper or vent cover that you could slide back and forth.
Bubble wrap: We hung roles from the ceiling with a rope going through the tube, horizontial way. So then we would just pull off as much as we needed, Bingo out of the way until the next use.

Hope it helps.
pamela

[LaPellaPottery]

BrightFlame - I would not renew at this point, but instead create new listings, even if one one a day or every other day.

When you create a new listing, rewrite your descriptions for every couple of listings so you don't have duplicate text and this will help you in google searches.

Good luck!

[Former_Member]

thank you!

each great tips, and i will implement these ideas on my next etsy-day! <3

[GrowingUpWild]

I haven't found renewing items to be a helpful strategy. Instead I use my time and money to create and list new items. This lets me use different tags, create variety, etc. I think that this is a more likely way to pull people into your shop. Constantly renewing was causing me to actually lose money by selling on-line and I really couldn't keep up with the huge shops that relist every hour anyway. Instead I am putting my efforts into a more personal touch for customers. I'm still pretty new here so I don't know if this will work or not, however getting sucked into the black hole of relisting was just too frustrating. I think that your candles are wonderful but do feel that you could expand your shop to give people more choices. Best of luck to you!

[Former_Member]

growingupwild, yes, i am currently doing research into pillar candles, other molded candles, and soy and beewsax blends

going through all the catch 22s of starting a small business eg. do you try a new idea to find out if it works? or tyr to figuer out if it will work before you try a new idea? :)

all depends on how much cash you have to play around with i suppose - but i have now gotten enough requests for other styles of candles that i feel this is a move worth making

re: relisting - black hole indeed! i felt like it was an uphill battle too. at first i felt like it may be evry important to come up first in searches for 'beeswax candles' on etsy, and to do that i would need to frequently relist.. but i also have a feeling that people don't necessarily use etsy that way?? who knows! a lot of things i still feel totally in the dark about, as i'm sure many others do since this is all so new...

<3

[Former_Member]

anyway, getting a bit off track here.

originally we were talking about shipping! (i think :p)

many great ideas so far, thanks all.

i will try larger bundles, and a couple with "free shipping" incorporated into the price.

i guess there isn't any way around the canada post shipping cut-off prices for size/ weight. bummer - why does out post system have to be so bloody expensive?? grumble

[Former_Member]

I use Canpar shipping alot, because it is cheaper than Canada Post, you get a tracking # and is fairly quick. The only downfall with Canpar is that it will try to deliver twice and if no one is there to sign for it, it will get shipped back to you. So I always try to ask for a work address or just to check if someone is usuually home to sign for it. I also think it depends on the size of parcel. I
I can relate to your shipping frustration, I became soooo diecouraged at first when I found out the price of Canada Post shipping, CRAZY.....I had to take suck up some of the shipping charges on some of my items, which of course takes a bite out of your profit margin.

[Former_Member]

I am a Canadian seller, too. Shipping prices are my enemy!

My wreaths are light as a feather, but big, and an awkward size - shipping wise. What I have done is to raise the prices on my items by a few dollars, to lower the price of shipping a few dollars.

I have found that people are very willing to pay in the cost of the item, but start to shy away with high shipping prices (I'm the same way). I have found this to be a successful method of being able to offer lower shipping prices (they are still expensive, but it's pretty standard in the world of yarn wreaths) without shooting myself in the foot.

[Former_Member]

Hi, I agree with heartfelt I will add a couple of dollars to my item and lower the shipping charge. This seems to work better for me.