If your small business involves a considerable amount of mailing and shipping, then chances are you are throwing money down the drain. By making a few simple changes, you can reap significant savings.
Avoiding the Mail Money Pit: How to Save Big on Postage in Your Small Business
Posted by
Adam_Gottlieb under Management
From http://frugalentrepreneur.com 4827 days ago
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Comments
4827 days ago
I worked in shipping & receiving.
For UPS, it's weight-over-distance (divided into large zones), and sometimes bulk or insurance costs extra (you only have to insure it for your cost, not what you charged the customer). That's why it bugs me when high-end catalogs charge shipping based on price - a small, light expensive item costs more to ship than a large, heavy, cheap item - like a $200.00 paring knife shipping at less than 1 pound for $25.00, versus a $20.00 cast iron pot weighing 10 pounds when packaged for $7.00. (Sorry, "insurance" is no excuse - it's cheap.)
The postage meter is great - it weighs the mail, And prints the correct postage for you.
Also, it's far cheaper to load one box really full - as compared to shipping 2 lighter boxes. (Priority Mail, as said in the article, can be a very good choice in many instances.)
It's really important to keep a shipping log for reference, and to track what can be tracked. The Post Office's "Delivery Confirmation" is really a minimum value effort from the point of view of the recipient - all D.C. proves is that the bar code was scanned, not that the right person got it - that's why a signature on delivery is so much better. (Don't be fooled into thinking that because a giant like eBay uses Delivery Confirmation as their "standard", that it's good for the customers - especially if they've had stolen mail. eBay can either absorb the cost - unlike a small start-up, or just blow off the customer - the latter being what I got from them.)
Duncan