Shipping Question- How to determine price for when shipping with another item?

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

I know this is probably a horribly silly question, but how do you determine what to charge for your shipping when it comes to the "with another item" part of shipping?

Most of my items are fairly light weight, and I know how to charge when they ship on their own. But I get hung up when it comes to the "with another item" part. It seems like there's so many variables. Or am I over thinking things?

I haven't had to ship multiple items yet, and I want to make sure I'm charging the right amount now.

[Former_Member]

I feel the same way. Really light small items I have been listing as nothing with another item because they really do not change the shipping but if someone buys a whole bunch of them (wouldn't that be fantastic!) it might need a larger shipping option! Good question.

With my mugs I tried to calculate how many I could fit in the regional rate boxes I used. Then, I took the price of a larger box and divided it by the amount of items that pushed the order over into a larger container.

Try weighing an "as if" order and see what you have to use to ship it. That way you will have an idea of how to spread the cost. I need to rethink this one too with my new stock. Thanks for posting.

[JMSjewelryandgifts]

I try to pick an average number so that everything evens out in the end. Some order I might lose a few cents on and then some orders I might make a few.

Regarding multiple items per order, if you have enough orders and sales, just do a quick statistical estimate of the number of items per order on average with some fudge factor for anything above and below. There should come a point at which it is not statistically likely to have anything above x number of items in a single order - and just account for this and nothing more.

[Former_Member]

Good question, it has always confused me as well.

[Former_Member]

I put just a dollar or two less, because very few people will buy more than one quilt at a time. With the packaging and items I have now, I'd end up sending one item per box anyway, so while it would save me a duplicate drive to the Post Office, I don't save anything on packaging.