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Store back up... worse than before
ArchivedUser
Guest
So for a hat to be shipped from California to Nevada... a 2 hr drive.... its going to cost $20 shipping and handling? The hat with shipping and handling is $37.62? I buy game merchandise all the time, from small startups just like you, and I have never paid more than $25 for a hat or Tshirt and that is AFTER shipping. We upcharge lost and found shipping back to guests 20% and I could still ship it cheaper.
We are wearing your advertising, supporting your game and selling it to those that inquire. You should be excited to get this stuff in our hands. We pay to wear your marketing billboard. Its not Gucci.
Look, I don't need it. I would like it. I am just not a customer at these prices. This is my honest feedback.
We are wearing your advertising, supporting your game and selling it to those that inquire. You should be excited to get this stuff in our hands. We pay to wear your marketing billboard. Its not Gucci.
Look, I don't need it. I would like it. I am just not a customer at these prices. This is my honest feedback.
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After a 30 second web search
Setting your shipping and handling fees too high or too low can wreck your ecommerce business model. If you charge too much, your cart abandonment rate can skyrocket. If you charge too little, your profit margins can quickly disappear.
For most online merchants, cost of goods sold and operating costs are fairly easy to capture. But shipping and fulfillment costs are sometimes difficult to determine, by comparison. One way to handle this problem is to reduce the complexity of shipping and handling to a single spreadsheet that captures everything you need to know.
Determine Current Rates, Volume
First, gather the facts about your current shipping costs.
Per-Order Costs
Then, calculate your average, per-order shipping and handling costs.
The example spreadsheet, below, includes current USPS and UPS base rates and surcharges rates, all based on shipping weights. I have assumed $4.25 per order for warehouse and supplies expense and have entered a starting set of surcharge usage factors, such as 90 percent of all UPS parcels are subject to the residential delivery surcharge. When a rate calls for a zone designation, I have used Zone 5, which is about the average amount compared to the entire Zone 2 to Zone 8 cost range. You can easily change these assumptions to match the facts of your unique shipping and handling situation.
Download the “Shipping and Handling Cost Per Pound” Excel spreadsheet. >
Screen capture, Shipping and Handling spreadsheet, partial view.
With this simple model, you can project your actual shipping and handling cost for each package weight as well as rate-shop between carriers and delivery methods. For example, based on these assumptions, USPS Priority Mail is the lower-cost choice for a 2 pound parcel, but UPS is the lower-cost solution for a 5 pound package. But, changes in surcharge fees or your mix of surcharge usage rates can have a big impact on relative costs.
Compare Sales Amounts to Shipping, Handling Costs
Next, compare your individual sales totals to their corresponding shipping and handling costs. Since you now know your shipping and handling costs by package weight, simply compare a representative sample of your per-order sales totals to their individual package weights and associated real shipping and handling costs.
For example, if the sale was $93.00 (excluding shipping, handling and taxes) and the shipment was a 4 pound parcel sent via UPS Ground daily pick up rate, you can see from the example spreadsheet that the projected shipping and handling cost would be $13.75 or about 15 percent of net revenue. You can use this method to quickly create a summary of your typical sale totals and associated ship weights and costs.
From this, you can develop your unique shipping and handling fee strategy including the potential for free delivery and with confidence that your order fulfillment fee structure is based on facts. You can use the same system to compare your in-house order fulfillment costs with outsourced fulfillment quotations.
Summary
Setting your online shipping and handling fees too high or too low can be a serious mistake. But, it really isn’t that difficult to create a shipping-and-handling cost model based on package shipping weights, and to then link order sales totals to their corresponding shipping and handling costs. This is a simple way to ensure your shipping and handling fees are based on facts, and not just guesses.
Minimum shipping is $10.25