shipping-packaging Shipping Questions

[Bandidas]

Hi y'all,

Business has been good and we want to start shipping soon. I have a bunch of questions about it:

-Boxes: Any suggestions on boxes if a person orders 1, 2, 3, or 4 bottles? I found these 5 bottle boxes already but the other sizes are too expensive for me at the moment
-Envelopes: Anybody have experience shipping in bubble envelopes? Should I disregard it entirely?
-Weight: When setting up my website for shipping, I ran into something asking for a weight of each bottle and box. Does this ned to be 100% accurate? every now and then my sauce varies in weigh by a small amount
-Process: I don't ship much stuff that often so I'm not sure how easy or complicated it is. Is it as simple as printing a label, putting it in a box, and then dropping it off at the post office? I sent a couple bottles to some people to see what shipping cost and it seems very expensive. I don't want charge people too much for shipping.
-Platforms: Right now I use square for my POS and website and plan on using Pirate Ship for my shipping needs. Does anybody have any other suggestions or good experiences with these platforms?

If there is anything else I should consider before starting please let me know.

Best,

April

 

[HellfireFarm]

I would get those weights as accurate as possible. If it's anything like Shopify, it's used to calculate the final shipping weight, and thus the shipping cost. You don't want that to be less than it should!

Although, with Shopify I can also modify the total shipping weight before printing the label - and I always double-check by weighing the packed box.

As for platforms, I like Shopify since it integrates POS, web sales, inventory management, and shipping all in one system. Cost is $30/month. Square is great for POS but I didn't like it's web store which is why I switched.

I'll send single items in a bubble mailer but my product is dry and in plastic jars. I don't think I would do that with glass. I got a selection of boxes for shipping anything more than one: 6x6x4, 6x6x6, 6x6x9, and 6x6x12 (which I probably won't need for a while!). Although you can get boxes cheap on Amazon, I get them from Uline mainly because I can count on a consistent product being available.

As for the 5-jar boxes, you can always pack it with more bubble wrap (or whatever filler) if the order is smaller, and you can always split the order if it's bigger. And maybe consider USPS flat-rate boxes too.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

-Boxes: Any suggestions on boxes if a person orders 1, 2, 3, or 4 bottles? I found these 5 bottle boxes already but the other sizes are too expensive for me at the moment

I like the Hot Sauce Pod boxes, but those might be the ones that are expensive? Check their website for bulk pricing.

-Envelopes: Anybody have experience shipping in bubble envelopes? Should I disregard it entirely?

It can be done but may look less professional if that is a concern. Make sure you have a professional looking label with your logo for the envelope to "up" the professionalism. Boxes look good too with logo stickers or stamps. A kraft brown box with a black stamp of your company can look really slick and it's super affordable, just buy a large logo stamp in black.

plan on using Pirate Ship for my shipping needs

Definitely! They are great.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Why don't you sign up to pirate ship and check rates? You get some steep discounts on FedEx and UPS that often are lower than USPS.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I don't want charge people too much for shipping.

Try to convert single bottle orders into multiple to help offset shipping. Run promos like buy 2 get 1 free, create twin packs and three packs, offer your full line of sauces at 10% off with a free can koozie. Your margins are larger with the product itself, shipping margins are slim, so when you can pad the order with your product you save on shipping and they save as well.