Shipping USPS Priority vs. Ground - Advantages and Disadvantages
I currently ship mostly via USPS Ground, but have tried Priority Mail because of the lower material expense, but stopped because many of my shipments were taking more than a week and looping around my area for 5 to 7 days before going to their destination. With that said, my biggest concern is the cost of buying boxes, both in money and space, as I often have to purchase 25 of a size. I want to go back to Priority because the overall cost is lower, but I don't want to deal with that looping problem. Any thoughts? Thank you so much.
5 comments
fm2000
·4 months agoPriority Mail (and all other mail classes) are not supposed to loop around like that. Might be problems at your regional sort hub, that is definitely not normal for PM. GA is much cheaper than Priority and not much slower than Priority. Unless you are selling expensive items or urgent necessities, GA is fine, price is paramount for most people.
kibble-net
·4 months agoIf you're scrappy enough, you can probably survive mostly on free boxes, unless you sell a lot oddly shaped or oversize items. But it's still good to keep a small inventory of your most commonly used box sizes.
I buy boxes from Grainger and they run about .50-1.50 each depending on size. No delivery fee as I go pick them up from their warehouse nearby. Way worth it in my opinion, since Priority Mail costs at least a few bucks more and generally isn't much faster.
If there is no Grainger near you, Zoro is similarly priced when you use one of their 20% off deals, and buy enough to qualify for free shipping.
Free priority boxes save you money up front, but cost you a lot more on the back end.
bonanza125
·4 months agoBoxes you can get for cheap either online or from locally through random shipments to your house which can reused or folks around town. So the cost is very little depending on size. The cost for priority mail is actually significantly higher than Ground Advantage. Most buyers don't care about priority mail cause they want to spend as little as possible. If you go strictly say priority mail you will lose sales. That's a disadvantage. Buyers shop price. If price of shipping is say $11.95 and another seller is selling the exact same item for the exact same price but shipping cost is say $6.80 they will purchase from the other seller not you. Just so you know the USPS is behind in many cases so yes it could take 5 to 7 days to get to a location. So you will never resolve this looping problem.
onefootflipper
·4 months agoAlmost no sellers use priority anymore. The difference in cost is multiples of the cost of a box. And free boxes are easy to find. Pull up by the dollar tree dumpster almost any day of the week and load up.
crand.kathe
OP4 months agoThank you so much for your reply and advice😀.