By BloggerKhan

My profession is Management and Marketing and it revolves around outsourcing, ecommerce and marketing on the internet. Wise men say identify what you are passionate about and then see if ...

If you are a small merchant with an e-commerce website and have started shipping or selling on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Rakuten etc. you probably have realized that your shipping cost impacts your sales. Customers look at total cost, that is, purchase price + shipping. If you don’t use the right shipping carrier, you may out price yourself from the market.

Till about three-four years ago, UPS and FedEx were the dominant carriers for boxed goods because merchant didn’t have much of a choice. USPS finally woke up and started offering merchants user-friendly resources so they can use USPS as an alternate carrier. Merchants can now integrate the USPS API to their shopping cart and get real time freight quotes, just like UPS and FedEx.

USPS is now also integrated into the Ebay shopping cart and actually offers discounted rates for Ebay merchants.

USPS also started offering better rates especially on small packages. On small items weighing less than a pound, FedEx and UPS cannot compete at all with the $3 to $4 that USPS charges. In addition, USPS does not charge extra for home deliveries or Saturday delivery.

UPS continues to charge extra for home delivery. I don’t know what UPS is thinking.

USPS is also providing free boxes for priority mail shipments in several sizes. That can save you on buying boxes. It all adds up.

On small packages, from 1 or 2 ounces to about 4 to 5 pounds, USPS may be a better choice for you. On heavier packages, UPS And FedEx still have the advantage. Also if you want guaranteed overnight shipments, both FedEx and UPS still have an advantage.

For normal ground shipments and even air shipments that are not too heavy, consider USPS. You will save money. You can pass some of the savings to your customers  and will make you more competitive.

Good luck!

Addendum:

If you are not selling on eBay or Amazon, the following may help you.

You know you can buy postage for packages online at USPS.com and get them shipped Priority Mail or Express Mail. If you ship small packages, less than one pound in weight, you can still buy postage online via USPS.com but they only allow Priority Mail and Express Mail and that in most cases is $6 and above. Now you know if you have small packages, you can post them First Class mail for a lot less but you can’t use the USPS website for that. You have to lug them to the post office, stand in line and only then get your 4 oz package shipped for $2.67 or so. If you don’t value your time and the gas expense or need an excuse to get out of the house / office, then that’s good. Keep doing it. You may burn a few calories as a bonus. But if you are lazy like me, go to an unpublicized page offered by PayPal where you can login and ship your smaller packages via First Class mail. In fact you will pay a little less than at the post office.

Why is that so? Many sages have tried to explain USPS and it’s wisdom but have realized the wisdom of USPS is higher than our puny minds can comprehend. So why ask why?

Here is the link: https://www.paypal.com/ShipNow

Happy Shipping!