For those of you who ship products

Do you do your own packaging and shipping? I'm trying to decide if I want to hire a part time position for this and other small tasks or if I want to take it on myself. I've never liked packaging and shipping in anything and I am selling a perishable item so its even more critical, just wondering what you guys think.

 

I pack and ship everything I sell right now. I can do about 150 boxes in 3 hours or so. Until I can keep someone busy for at least 4-5 hours then I don't see the point. On mondays, I don't get a lot of work done, but other days its no problem at all.

 

Lorien, I really appreciate the reply. This is my first try at an eCommerce business venture, any tips on streamlining the whole shipping process? Do you print off your own labels for shipping? Lately this has come as a concern to me (I'm still about a month away from going live) and I want to get that whole process down to science before opening for business.

 

Invest in a speedy printer, waiting around for ages for labels to come off a 2 page per minute old inkjet printer is a total pain in the neck, especially if you're doing a lot of items in a short space. Even better, get one that can handle printing direct onto sticky labels so it's even easier and speedier for you, just stick the address labels on, sorted!

I tend to use bags for stuff that I send but this may not be appropriate for you. When I put my mind to it, I can package up an item ready for shipping in about 2 minutes which isn't that long at all. Keep all your packing materials in an organised fashion so that you can easily find everything, nothing worse than nearly finishing and losing the packing tape or something!

 

If you use a major carrier, UPS, Fedex, USPS (endicia or stamps.com), they will provide you with an adequate printer. An eltron of some form or another. UPS supplies free labels (and certain box sizes as well).

How you ship? No real secret or help to offer here. If you are just starting out, you'll suffer growing pains. I'd just suggest you pay attention to your sales. The general rule of e-comm is that 20% of your products will account for 80% of your sales (same rule with customers, 20% will account for 80% of your problems LOL) - put the higher volume ones closer to you or at least in a good spot, so you can ship them out faster.

I go thru a routine in the morning, where I organize labels based upon weight and size of the box it ships in, so they are at the bottom of the pile, so I can shuffle them over to the door on my trolley easier.

Starting out, you will not do much business, most likely, so that's the time to try and get things working. Don't buy too much inventory and don't be scared to buy boxes from a box company and try out different sizes.

There's a huge list of things - when I make my ebook, I'll put it all in there LOL