Fixed shipping price, How does It work?

[onlinetogo]

Hi,

I never used fixed shipping price before , so how does it work?

Let's say I put shipping pricing as $5 and the actual cost is $3. Do I get the remaining $2 as credit? If so, is it a credit that goes toward Paypal, or only can be used as shipping? 

Thanks in advance. 

[chapeau-noir]

If you use flat rate shipping, any cost over (or under) the actual shipping cost is your own gain or loss. 

[mtgraves7984]

If you put your shipping price at $5, and the actual cost is $3... you've made a profit. Money goes into your account and is not only for shipping costs. You can spend it, move it to your bank, leave it in PayPal, etc.

Remember that eBay charges 10% fee for shipping costs on your next invoice. (Fifty cents in your $5 example.)

[femmefan1946]

If you are shipping all your sales at (for example) $5 Flat Rate, some will cost you $5, some will cost you $7, and some will cost you $3.

Flat Shipping assumes you will have many shipments and the cost of shipping will be covered on average.

The idea is to keep a record of all your charges and all your costs, including fees and packaging and probably self insurance if you are not tracking. Then at year end if you made a profit  over all your shipments, you can consider charging less.

[lightlily_arts]

If you charged $5 for shipping eBay gets 10% fee and PayPal gets 2.9% fee.  So you get $1.35 towards the shipping and handling.  Where do you include the cost of your shipping materials?

[cynthealee2]

I agree with the rest just wanted to add... remember to keep up with it and USPS rate changes...

Every time USPS does a rate increase you have to go in and raise yours as well...

Flat rate worked well for me for years till this last increase; lately it bites me every now and again.

3.50 for the cards the rest ship free works 90% of the time as the cards usually ship in the 2.74-3.26 range, till Cali kicks in and it's 3.52 -3.67 which means I eat the difference and pay for the packaging... but since my Cali buyers tend to buy 15-40 cards at a time it doesn't hurt that much ;).

Flat rate was the only way to go cause the cards don't weigh 1/8th an oz and if I did calculated it goes up by the oz for every card making 50 cards look like it'll be 50 oz and the shipping look silly.  (50 cards weigh about 4 oz maybe 5)

[inhawaii]

Yes, the extra is yours to keep.

When you figure out what to charge for shipping (and handling) make sure there will some extra leftover to help cover ebay fees, paypal fees, shipping supplies, etc. 

Good luck selling!

[nobody*s_perfect]

The buyer's entire payment, including whatever you charge for shipping and handling, all goes as one lump sum into your Paypal account to youse however you choose.  As others have noted, you will pay eBay and PayPal fees on this amount, but whatever's left of the extra $2 stays in your pocket.

[corvettestainless]

Well, in reality if you charge $5 and it cost $3 for the label, Ebay Fees will cost you .50c of that $5, and paypal fees will cost you .15c of that $5, so your net profit would be $1.35 and not $2.

But, things don't usually jump in the box and tape up by themselves- there is labor in this (which was always known as the 'handling' portion of 'shipping and handling') so the $1.35 is payment for your labor. But wait! we're not done yet!

Take away 15% for Self Employment Tax (Social Security- not deductible until you reach paying on $139000 gross annual with regular job and side gig) and not counting any Fed/State income tax that you may owe- figure at least .20c for SE Tax, so now you're down to $1.15, could be as low as .75c as you may be holding .70c of that $1.35 for all taxes combined. 

But, we'll take the $1.15 for now.

Now you have to figure- did the box cost you anything, cost of tape, cost of paper, cost of ink for label (how many labels do you get out of a $30 Black Ink purchase?), cost of packing materials if you used? and subtract that from the $1.15. 

[onlinetogo]

thanks for the detail.

[onlinetogo]

if i put fixed shipping, will that necessarily be the same for the international shipping?

[onlinetogo]

is changing free shipping to fixed pricing, or changing price in general, hurt dashboard seller score?

[onlinetogo]

i always sacrificed handling cost and made a free shipping on top of that so i never had one of those "maximal, or ideal" profit. I think it is time to change.. thanks for the reply.

[7606dennis]

If you use flat rate shipping you set the amount the buyer is going to be charged for shipping & handling.  If that amount is more than the actual cost you pay to the carrier you keep the difference.  If the cost is more than you set, you pay the difference not the buyer.  They are only required to pay the amount you set.

Caution, setting the rate too high will likely mean that smart shoppers won't buy and setting them too low means that you are losing money on shipping.  Remember that postage rates are not the only factor to consider when setting the S&H prices but it is easy to price yourself out of the market with high S&H prices.

[femmefan1946]

if i put fixed shipping, will that necessarily be the same for the international shipping?

No.

You can have several prices for International Shipping.

I use Free Shipping* for Canada (domestic for me) and Free Shipping ($0.00) for USA**. These costs are folded into the price of my product.

But I charge $9.99 for shipping to Europe, Australia or Japan and have Will Ship Worldwide for the rest of the world.

I don't do it, but it would be possible to set $9.99 for shipping to Europe and $10.00 for shipping to Australia. Just keep clicking on the Custom Locations link.

If I get an enquiry from RSA or Singapore or Russia, I can check the Canada Post website and let the customer know how much I will charge based on both the cost and the risk.

Never ship Internationally with Free Shipping. Never. Even if you don't use tracking.

* DON'T PANIC! Which is the Best Price?  $6.99 + $3 Shipping or $9.99 with Free Shipping?

** Although it costs more to ship to the USA than domestically, about 85% of my sales are to the USA. What I lose on the swings I make up on the roundabouts.