eBay

greatlakesretailplus · ‎10-04-2021

How are you guys handling the shipping cost increases?

Are you just eating the extra cost or raising your shipping prices?

Yes I know eating costs are not the best business practices but since it is supposedly "temporary" figured I would ask.

My priority mail flat rate jumped from 7.76 to 8.50 which can add up pretty fast.

nowandthenfabrics · ‎10-05-2021

Don't forget the charge eBay charges for buying shipping labels through them. They give you a discount but then they charge you a fee for that on your monthly statement so really no discount. Definitely do some homework.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎10-05-2021

The "eBay discount" on postage is nothing more than the difference between USPS's retail rate and their published online rate. You'd pay the same online rate with any postage seller. And you'd pay the same final value fee regardless of where you purchase your postage.

tori_729 · ‎10-05-2021

@nowandthenfabrics wrote:
Don't forget the charge eBay charges for buying shipping labels through them. They give you a discount but then they charge you a fee for that on your monthly statement so really no discount. Definitely do some homework.

What fee? Ebay charges fees whether you use their shipping services or not, that doesn't change.

tori_729 · ‎10-05-2021

@paulhua3 wrote:
PirateShip just added UPS to their label options. I just shipped a 4 lb box for $12.95 that would have been over $20 via FEDEX or USPS.

That's true but I believe their prices are the exact same as Ebay's for UPS. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

gjs_16 · ‎10-05-2021

@greatlakesretailplus wrote:
How are you guys handling the shipping cost increases?
Are you just eating the extra cost or raising your shipping prices?
Yes I know eating costs are not the best business practices but since it is supposedly "temporary" figured I would ask.
My priority mail flat rate jumped from 7.76 to 8.50 which can add up pretty fast.

As for temporary, that's just how the USPS spins it off but it is in fact an increase with a "temporary" fallback around January after which they go back to where they are now. It's like, they're really "early raising" their spring of 2022 prices on us now. Dirty trick, calling it a "temporary" increase as if it's ever truly coming back down to pre-increase levels (other than for a few weeks or couple of months in the early part of 2022).

Heck, they ought to just bridge that over, raise the prices now, don't come back down and call it the "fall 2021" price increase and stop spoon feeding us little white lies.

How to handle it?
I raised my prices to compensate for increases in demand, packages getting lost, shipment delays, supply chain disruptions, shipping hub bottlenecks, material and supply shortages, and labor shortages.
So yeah, right now I'm just going to "eat" the cost but don't bet the bank on it.

greatlakesretailplus · ‎10-05-2021

I am not a fan of raising my prices if at all possible but it seems we may not have a choice..

We have dropped from 10-15 packages a day in our stores to maybe 5 already then with profit margins dropping and cost of goods going up we just can't keep our prices the same for to long which is going to destroy sales as a whole in my opinion...

We are paying roughly 15% more for supplies (bubble wrap etc)

Now with the shipping increase..

Q4 is looking to be worse than other months if it keeps up.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎10-05-2021

If you sell things that can be apples to apples compared to others selling here, you need to be the lowest; regardless what shipping costs are (out the door pricing). If competition raises price, so do you. If they don't, you don't. Simple.

If you sell 1 of a kind with little/no competition, raise the rates and keep them that price until next Oct when they go up again (since prices go up in Jan anyways)