Monday 28 December 2009

Understanding shipping

You will also need to tell buyers how much shipping will cost. Find a cheap kitchen scale, weigh everything you are planning to sell, and go on the Israelpost website and figure out your costs. This is part of your spreadsheet math. You might even find that you can make a little profit on your shipping.

Ebay encourages sellers to have 'free shipping' which really means you include the shipping costs in your price. (Ebay makes higher commissions that way) Or you can set a separate price for shipping and offer a discount if someone buys several of your items. Either way, buyers want CHEAP, so they won't buy from you if your shipping is higher than the competition. Also, there are some items that are super-hard to sell on ebay because they are difficult and expensive to ship. For example, used books. The shipping costs are prohibitively large in relation to the price you will get for the book. You can sell a hardcover book for $5 and end up charging the buyer $8 to ship it. This might be the real price the post office charges, but the buyer will not like it.

The Israeli postal system is cheaper, faster and more efficient than you would think. Before you list anything, weigh it and find out how much shipping will cost you. It's all on the Israelpost website. Small parcels (under 2 kilos) can ship relatively cheaply and get to the US in a week and a half or so. Tracking costs an extra 4nis. Parcels over 2 kilos require more expensive EMS shipping. EMS is fast and has tracking, but it is pricey. Regular airmail shipping is actually quite fast and reliable and your buyers will probably be amazed that something came all the way from Israel so quickly.

http://www.israelpost.co.il/npostcalc.nsf/calculator2?OpenForm&L=EN&menu=1&hidec=1&mo=1

When you give buyers a shipping quote, it's OK to add a little for supplies (envelopes, tape) as well as for your time, just as long as your shipping price is comparable to other people selling the same item. Also, since we're in Israel, the postage label is in sheckels, so buyers don't know what you really paid for shipping. Most sellers make some profit on shipping. As long as you are charging the same as everyone else, your buyers won't notice that you've made some money. And yes, you will have to shlep everything to the post office yourself and stand in line behind all the savtas paying their gas bill and buying 3 stamps.