Is Free Shipping a liability for sellers now because of dimensional USPS pricing?

[fishzlot]

I notice many sellers offer free returns.  I sell books in my book store but everything else in the other store I run.   It's a bad idea to offer free returns for books.   So I never signed on to that.   Recently I shipped a 6lb box from Pennsylvania to Colorado from my other store.  It was 18" x 14" by 8."  The cost for Priority was over $40.  Parcel was slightly more expensive. 

To me that is both ridiculous and unreasonable.  I actually apologized to the buyer for having to spend so much money just to ship 3 picture frames.  If I had included free shipping I would have taken a loss.  The postage was over twice the value of the frames. 

The cost of shipping is becoming an unreasonable burden to everyone.  It's become totally crazy.   And despite the insanely expensive cost to ship, the USPS says they're still losing money.  

Should I abandon free shipping except for books?  I'm seeing painful shipping prices even for First Class.    Because that's now regionally calculated like Priority.    I'm experiencing sticker shock from seeing some of these labels.   And I notice the sales in my other store dropped like a stone after the postage increases.   Because many of my boxes that go out from that store are larger dimensions over 12 inches.    People don't want to pay the shipping on my items that are not free shipping.  The larger packages are just sitting unsold in storage.

 What is most insidious about this is that larger sellers benefit as usual.  They get breaks on volume shipping.  I'm trying to compete with discount book sellers who sell their books free shipping for $3.73.   I was told by an large Amazon bookseller that these outfits are profiting about 27 cents per book.   Even with their volume discount.  Without those discounts from the USPS they would already be out of business.  The USPS is helping these discount book sellers drive the smaller sellers out.  They're propping them up.   And the taxpayers are also helping to subsidize that because the USPS is always in the red.    The system is not fair.  There is NOT a level playing field.

Are the recent USPS fee hikes making free shipping a liability for the bottom line?  Is it killing business? Thoughts?

[vikingsandpintos]

Yes, it is killing many sellers. 

I sell mostly car taillights and headlights, light but bulky packages. My sales have dropped huge since the new rates. There are more and more items that are just not a good fit for online sales now...

[earlyant-77]

Try going to the PO with those dimensions and weight(or look it up at usps online) and see what it costs for Retail Ground)NOT parcel select).

Supposedly retail ground does not dim out the package.

[nobody*s_perfect]

But if you're shipping to Zones 1 - 4, then Retail Ground is available only for items that must travel by ground shipping, such as hazmat and live animals.

[earlyant-77]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

But if you're shipping to Zones 1 - 4, then Retail Ground is available only for items that must travel by ground shipping, such as hazmat and live animals.

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Yes - you would have to mark it hazardous - throw in an alcohol wipe in a small packet or something.

However, I did Denver, CO to me in PA and came up on usps as 38.55 priority, but 18.75 retail ground.

[orangehound]

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@earlyant-77 wrote:

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

But if you're shipping to Zones 1 - 4, then Retail Ground is available only for items that must travel by ground shipping, such as hazmat and live animals.

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Yes - you would have to mark it hazardous - throw in an alcohol wipe in a small packet or something.

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I don't have many large shipments, but that's what we're doing.   It is marked "ORM-D Consumer Commodity".