eBay Sellers Prepare for Shipping

eBay Sellers Prepare For Shipping

This was an original post I wrote at Practical eCommerce

Status: Published
Publish Date: May 10, 2008
Blog: By Merchants, For Merchants
Tags: shipping & fulfillment, eBay

May 12th is the official day the shipping rates change with the United States Postal Service.

The USPS website states: ”Priority Mail will have an average 3.5 percent savings for customers who use electronic postage or meet other requirements.”

I’m assuming this will be reflected into those of us using PayPal for our shipping labels.

PayPal has made life so much easier by supplying us with the convenience of printing our own shipping labels directly.

If you’re not using this service yet, I highly recommend it!

It works like this:

* The customer pays for the item with PayPal.
* I view the item as “Paid” directly from my “My eBay” dashboard.
* I click “Print Label” and I am taken directly to PayPal.
* My customers name and shipping information is already pre-filled into the shipping label. I simply add the weight of the item and the type of shipping I prefer. If I am shipping a book, I may use “Media” or if the person asked for Priority, I will select Priority Flat Rate Envelope.
* Once approved, the label will print out directly from my printer onto a standard 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.
* Trim the label and save the receipt for my records.
* Tape the label to the package and we’re good to go!
* Ready for Pick-up!

I love the way the Post Office will pick-up my items! It’s very easy to schedule a pick-up direct from the Post Office. PayPal has made it easy for us to “request” a pick-up after our label has printed.

The USPS does require at least one of the items be priority or Global in order to schedule a pick-up.

If you have a relationship with your mail carrier you may want to discuss a pick-up arrangement with them direct.

I once left a note on my mailbox saying “Please Beep Your horn. I have a big box for you!”

Another added bonus the Post Office does is providing a few priority boxes for us with the eBay logo on them. Anyone can order these boxes. I provide a direct link to this service from the “Selling Tools” page of my website. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see the banner I created for this service! (Thanks in advance for visiting my website)

eBay has assured us that the rate changes will be a smooth change over as the PayPal/eBay system is prepared to automatically adjust the rates as needed. Many may remember the last time there was a Postal increase the rates took awhile to enter into the eBay system. My understanding is those using calculated shipping, the rates will be adjusted for all our store items and “core” items automatically.

The Postal service has a friendly presence at eBay Live usually. I hope to see them this year in Chicago as well. Any one attending, I encourage you to find their booth and pick-up shipping tape with the eBay Logo on it! This is the only place we can get tape like this! eBay Live, Chicago: June 19th -21st. Hope to see you there!

HAPPY SHIPPING!

NOTE:

Happy Mother’s Day from the eBay Community Cookbook Group. Click the cover and download a copy of our PDF e-Cookbook.

Enjoy!