Category Archives: Shipping Packages

My New Webstore for BubbaCanDance and Stitchery X-Press

Scott Henshaw told me about a new feature for eBay sellers you can subscribe to.  Webstore by 3D. I looked it up tonight and decided to give it a try.  We will see how it goes.  At $5.00 I will try it for six months and see what happens.  Thanks Scott.   

My New Webstore

Webstore by 3D for eBay stores
Webstore by 3D for eBay stores

eBay Inc Blog Cindy Sorley Story

EBAY: STITCHING THE FAMILY TOGETHER  Taken for eBay Blog at eBay Inc … So excited to be a part of this.

AUGUST 3, 2011 / EBAY MARKETPLACES

When I am teaching eBay classes to stay at home moms, I always seem to get asked the same question, “Why eBay?” I tell them that after years of having a brick and mortar specialty needlework store where customers would come in and work on their projects, socialize and bring their lunch, I wanted a place where there was a sense of a community and I found it on eBay.

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My husband and I were shocked to find out around our 19th Anniversary that we would be blessed with another child. My husband Jim, an airline pilot, and I decided our son Thomas would go to work with me at the store. At 4 days old, he made his debut at Stitchery X-Press and became the store mascot for over three years. As he grew older, it became more unmanageable as he pulled linens off shelves and tried to run our hemstitching machine. Some big decisions needed to be made when every time a customer opened the door little Thomas would run for the parking lot and street.

We received notice that our already high rent would be going up, so I needed to make a quick decision if we were going to stay open or close. I wanted to give eBay a try by selling my existing inventory before having a clearance sale. I had been a buyer on eBay for a number of years so I took the selling plunge and jumped right in. It was surprising how fast bids came in right after listing them.

Within a month my eBay sales were more than my physical store. eBay became a logical choice to sell my inventory. It gave me an opportunity to be at home and have my own work hours instead of being tied to the shop 24/7, six days a week. I had already had the username BubbaCanDance as a buyer from the country music group Shenandoah’s hit song (whom I worked for). When it came time to open an eBay store I decided on Stitchery X-Press, our established name since 1982. After a few months I was going to change my eBay ID to the store name but my customers said no. Seven years later, Stitchery X-Press is one of the largest needlework stores on eBay with customers from all over the world.

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I knew I needed more space and looked into renting. One of the reasons I closed the store was to stay at home so we decided to build a warehouse and office in the back yard. We now walk a few feet to work each day.

eBay is part of our family and I feel at home. eBay has allowed me to home school Thomas who has become part of the business team. He is the shipping manager and makes sure all packages get the labels on them. Our other son Steven delivers all packages daily to the post office. Steven is headed to join the Marines to be a pilot next year (we hope) and Thomas is trying to figure out how to get his driver’s license by age 11 to take over that job. Jim will move into a job here when he retires from the airlines soon.

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My journey with eBay continues to grow as do the personal relationships that cultivate along the way. One of my favorite sayings is “like what you do, do what you like!” This is who I am and it has shaped the fabric of our family business! I am eBay!


Russia Postal Delays April 2013

http://postandparcel.info/54989/news/companies/delays-and-disruption-as-russian-post-struggles-with-e-commerce/

Delays and disruption as Russian Post struggles with e-commerce

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

Russian Post is contending with tons of backlogged international mail – mostly e-commerce parcels – in Moscow after problems with staffing levels in the Russian customs service.

An embargo on inbound international mail has been declared from 9th to the 14th April at Sheremetyevo International Airport with reports of 500 tons of mail sitting waiting to get through customs.

Growth in the volume of mail sent to Russia from abroad has doubled in the last three years, while at the same time domestic mail volumes have grown only 15%. Internet shopping accounts for about 70% of Russian Post’s parcel volumes.

Russian Post itself has been struggling with its own infrastructure, and last year urged major foreign posts to consider sending inbound Russian mail to specific regional airports, rather than via Moscow, to avoid swamping the Russian capital’s processing facilities.

However, the latest problem has seen the Post suggesting that customs officials are as much to blame as the problems in the postal network, particularly with a 20% cut to civil service staffing levels in 2013 as ordered by the previous Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev.

Russian Post director general Alexander Kiselev has now written to the Federal Customs Service calling for improvements.

Foreign postal operators have been warning their customer of likely delays, while looking for alternative routes for particularly urgent items.

bpost international, the cross-border mail division of Belgium’s bpost, said that with Domodedovo International Airport also closed to international mail it was routing some mail and express items through Turkish Airlines, with some letter mail going through bpost UK.

Russian Post is facing considerable domestic network problems as well, and as of today more than 11,000 people have signed an online petition at Change.org calling on President Vladimir Putin to deal with the mail network.

The petition complains that some people are having to wait up to six months for a parcel to be delivered.

Forum

The Post organized an open forum last week to discuss the problems it is having keeping up with the distance selling market, discussing the issues with politicians, experts and representatives of public organisations.

Russian Post has been calling for state assistance for months to help modernise its aging processing infrastructure.

The company said its forum had come to the conclusion that a concerted effort is needed from both government and business to address the logistics problems in Russian e-commerce and distance selling.

But without government support, Russian Post said strategic development of the business was “impossible”.

Alexander Timofeev, director of production processes, said the company was in need of “serious investment” to provide the desired level of service quality and tap the potential for Russia’s distance-selling market.

He said: “60% of our existing infrastructure is in need of replacement and cannot provide quality service for the avalanche flow of parcels. And it will inevitably become a brake on the further development of distance selling in Russia if we do not solve this problem.”

Alexei Mitrofanov, the chairman of the State Duma committee on information policy, information technology and communications, said the outdated infrastructure and technology and high reliance on manual labour at Russian Post was constraining the distance-selling industry.

“This concerns a huge industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people and we as a legislator take this legislation very seriously,” he insisted.

OZON Holdings, the ecommerce firm dubbed the “Amazon of Russia”, spoke at the forum to state that dealing with Russia’s distance-selling logistics problem cannot be solved by simply upgrading Russian Post’s creaking network.

Nina Mogilev, the director of service delivery at OZON Holdings, said: “We are interested in the development of mail in Russia, as we see this as important in the future development and expansion of our business throughout the country.

“But to build an affordable, effective and efficient system for the delivery of goods to the population of such a great country it is not enough to just update the fleet of Russian Post or add an automated sorting system in order to work effectively. You need a strategic interation between all the participants in this process – the rapidly growing e-commerce sector and also government, transportation and logistics companies,” said the OZON director, whose company has 11m registered users and makes $500m (USD) a year in sales.


Return Shipping Label to Customer Through PayPal

Do you have a customer who wants to return an item and you need to pay for the return shipping?  

Tonight my partner in all things eBay really helped me out when I had a customer who needed to return an item.  I am not part of the return process at eBay by choice (since I sell patterns I do not want a lot of returns due to copyright).  It was nearly impossible to figure out how to send the customer a label to return the item to me.  I asked for help on Facebook and Scott came right through.  

If you need to send a return label by PDF form and email to a customer you can log into PayPal and go to this page

Pre Paid Return Label to customer by email 

Change the mailing address for SHIP FROM:  the buyers address for the main reason that this will change the cost of shipping if they are in another zone and you are shipping priority.  

in the SHIP TO: Column on the right fill in your address Preview Changes

Calculate what you know the weight to be since you mailed this to the customer. You can find the amount in eBay shipping or your third party.  Mine was with Stamps.com

You will put in weight, etc 

Hit Continue 

You will see the cost you are being charged.  Press the Pay and Continue button. 

You will then see the button to print label.   Hit Print and there will be a PDF button.  If you are on a Mac it is really easy as it says to mail a PDF to email recipient

If you are on a PC, it is a bit different but make sure you use the PDF. I think it is a link.   

 


FOMO Coffee Mug Shipping USPS In Flat Rate Padded Envelope

FOMO SHIPPING Coffee Mugs 101 – As many of you know eBay has encouraged sellers to offer free shipping. Well…. if you sell Coffee mugs or cups and they are over 13 ounces it can get quite costly to go from coast to coast.  A package can cost up to $12.79 to mail to New York from Utah.  

I came up with a way to ship for $5.35 Priority if you are an eBay eTRS (Top Rated Seller) and $5.70 for non eTrs. I ran it by my friend Jason Smith of Thrifting with the Boys and asked what he thought… He said… “my Favorite FOMO is a genius”. Now understand FOMO means former Mormon and it is Jason’s favorite term for me … so he started naming the coffee packaging this term.. The name stuck but we felt we needed a new definition to not offend anyone. Jason and his wife Staci came up with “Freely Overcoming Mug Obstacles” (FOMO) … it works and it is a hit. We will include videos on how we use this method.  We would love to hear your reaction on this method of shipping.   Send all your friends to www.fomoshipping.com to learn how we do this. 

Fomo Shipping Saves You money shipping Coffee Mugs cross country
FOMO Shipping saves you money shipping coffee mugs cross country.

1. Flat rate Padded Priority Envelopes that are free from the post office website. (you cannot get at the counter)  You have to order from the USPS website or the 1.800.610.8734.  You will need to set up a free account.  You can call and order 200 envelopes a day.  

2. If you use online shipping, such as eBay, PayPal, Stamps.com or the USPS website, this will be between $5.05 and $5.15 depending on the site you use.

3. You will need 1. the envelope 2. Bubble Wrap 3. Cardboard to wrap the handle and mug after wrapping in Bubble wrap.   (I cut a lot of pieces from boxes and lay them in a pile for just this purpose)  http://cindysorley.com/fomo-shipping/

4. Watch to see how we pack mugs below.  

1.  David Rayor Of COST shipping Fomo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4lD6LoAWrE

2.  Jason Smith of Thrifting with the Boys shipping FOMO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4PHQ0s_U14

I received a package in the mail from a customer so I wanted to show you how she mailed a FOMO mug.. view here


USPS Parcel Select & Standard

So with all the questions of the January 27, 2013 change to Parcel Select and eBay not printing Parcel Select Labels until late March, I get asked about it all the time

My friend Eric Nash at Stamps.com answered many questions on this blog a few days ago. 

The Difference between Parcel Select and Parcel Standard   <———  The article is great.. 

Can I buy Parcel Select at the Post Office?
NO — Parcel Select  can only be purchased online via a PC Postage vendor (such as Stamps.com) or from an authorized USPS business partner.

Can I buy Standard Post (formerly known as Parcel Post) online using Stamps.com?
NO — Standard Post postage can only be purchased at the Post Office.

Screen Shot 2013-02-09 at 1.25.49 AM

 


Ask Cindy: Seller Protection International

Kim asked tonight if she is covered if she ships international with first class package by USPS.

Kim you have to have proof of delivery such as a delivery confirmation. Easy in the US if you ship online and get free delivery confirmation with First Class and Priority packages.

Much harder internationally.

Sellerprotection

You hear people say all the time that you can ONLY get delivery confirmation with Express.  I went to the USPS website tonight and this is what they have on their site.

internationalregistered

So as I ship a $300.00 order tomorrow to the customer in Russia (0 Feedback and brand new buyer on eBay)  I will not only be praying but I will be using the signature confirmation on the service that works for seller protection.

I will keep you posted.

I hope this helps Kim and thanks for stopping by my blog.

 

 


Bulk Edit New Shipping on eBay

I am worried that many of you have not edited your shipping charges if you offer flat rate international first class package or parcel shipping, (including me). I am right there with you. I figured I would do it tomorrow night.  

Bulk editing on eBay has become so wonderful.  If you have not tried it recently and you remember the old clunky format, you are in for a treat.  

Go to your active listings

I will cover flat rate priority envelopes first since they are going from $12.95 to $19.95 in Canada and from $16.95 to $23.95 worldwide.

Let’s say you have 25 coffee mugs that you ship FOMO method by putting in a flat rate padded envelope and ship.  If you have categories (store owners) go to that category if not in active listings type in coffee or mug

Highlight those listings and hit edit editalllistings

A new screen will pop up with columns

Hit this same Edit button on left of the listings and select all

Select Edit then  select shipping international editinternational

a new screen will pop up editbulk2013

For For Priority Flat Rate Envelopes you will change it all here.  Edit in Bulk   Flat (not calculated)  you can do your Canada and add another service for worldwide.  

Save and submit.  All have been saved. 

You can do the same technique if you offer a flat rate on items that are a flat fee per item that you ship first class… do the steps I suggested such as breaking into categories of if you know the weight of each highlight those.  Follow the steps for First Class International and you are done. 

 

 

 


Priority International USPS Increase

I talked about the Priority Flat Rate International rates going up quite a bit on the 27th of January last week in my blog.

The good news for other international Priority is it is a slight increase.

Make sure you have your Flat Rate International Envelopes and Boxes Fixed in your shipping on eBay!  If you have calculated shipping on eBay, it will automatically fix on January 27th.  If you have $16.95 for flat rate, fix by Sunday to $23.95

note that International Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes are MORE expensive than mailing by weight if 4-pounds or under so mail these items First Class if possible.

Priority International USPS January 27, 2013
Priority International USPS January 27, 2013

USPS First Class International Parcel + 60% Increase

I wrote last week about the changes to the USPS shipping service for International First Class Parcel that is coming on January 27th.  

I think the biggest shock is going to be mailing packages to Canada for most sellers.  

Most of the first class international packages are going to be going up at least 60%  Yep Sixty percent..  Remember you will get delivery confirmation on many first class to Canada for free (you pay for it, believe me). The post office has been secretive about what exactly will be “Select”.  I have made a form below to give you an idea of the difference.  Check back tomorrow for Priority Prices. 

Note:  this is online prices if you use Stamps.com, eBay Shipping, PayPal Shipping, etc.   If you go to the counter you will pay more.  

First Class International Price Changes 2013
First Class International Price Changes for Parcels (not Flat) 2013  Comparisons to Current 2013

 


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