Let's Talk about Shipping

[fcgamer | 4,866]

My business partner and I have been working hard the past several months to put together a product and launch it in an online store, and also to get it into some physical locations around the world. I'll share what we are doing, later, after we get everything launched, which should be in a few weeks (review copies have been going out this past week or two).

The one major hurdle we have run into is with shipping. The actual postage costs are much higher than the quoted prices on the post office's website; looking at some companies offering similar products, Ive noticed that their shipping ranges from free to reasonable, so I'm a little confused what they are doing, especially since a few of these companies are small / new with presumably limited capital.

Is anyone here familiar with business shipping rates that couriers offer, or have other thoughts on how these businesses might be reducing their shipping rates by so much?

As an example, I just mailed a sample of my product out and it cost about $30 shipping, whereas a competitor is only charging about $5 for shipping, using the same service...

[fox | 1,732]

I still ship Harmony.  I don’t care if Romione and Hinny are canon, they can get in the trash.

[a3quit4s | 4,219]

11 hours ago, fcgamer said:

My business partner and I have been working hard the past several months to put together a product and launch it in an online store, and also to get it into some physical locations around the world. I'll share what we are doing, later, after we get everything launched, which should be in a few weeks (review copies have been going out this past week or two).

The one major hurdle we have run into is with shipping. The actual postage costs are much higher than the quoted prices on the post office's website; looking at some companies offering similar products, Ive noticed that their shipping ranges from free to reasonable, so I'm a little confused what they are doing, especially since a few of these companies are small / new with presumably limited capital.

Is anyone here familiar with business shipping rates that couriers offer, or have other thoughts on how these businesses might be reducing their shipping rates by so much?

As an example, I just mailed a sample of my product out and it cost about $30 shipping, whereas a competitor is only charging about $5 for shipping, using the same service...

I've been noticing more and more of my games coming media mail via USPS which is blatantly against the use case for the service but it costs so much less people must be willing to risk it. 

The reason I bring it up is are you sure they aren't doing something shady to get that much of a discount? Does the competitor do substantially more business with the shipping company than you? Does the competitor upcharge on the item to cover the shipping - just because they list it costs $5 to ship doesn't mean it does. Can you buy the product from them and see the actual shipping cost when you get the item? 

Even if they had a contract $5 compared to $30 is a hell of a discount which to me says the shipping company is losing money by taking it

Edit: they could also have setup a few distribution spots to put product closer to customers to save on shipping but they'd need to be pretty big I assume for that

Edited March 8, 2021 by a3quit4s

[Code Monkey | 2,074]

a) If you see a quoted rate on the website, they're required to give you that rate. Just because they tell you it's different in store is irrelevant, just show them the website.

b) I just shipped a graded game out via FedEx and it was $75. The employee told me I could get a 60% - 90% discount if I signed up for an account. Do you have an account?

[a3quit4s | 4,219]

6 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

a) If you see a quoted rate on the website, they're required to give you that rate. Just because they tell you it's different in store is irrelevant, just show them the website.

b) I just shipped a graded game out via FedEx and it was $75. The employee told me I could get a 60% - 90% discount if I signed up for an account. Do you have an account?

I think on b the person overestimated and the 60% is freight which is shipping big ass stuff

http://www.fedex.com/us/oadr/en/discounts/

I don't work at FedEx of course so codemonkey could be absolutely right. This is just what I found quickly

Edited March 8, 2021 by a3quit4s

[fcgamer | 4,866]

12 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

a) If you see a quoted rate on the website, they're required to give you that rate. Just because they tell you it's different in store is irrelevant, just show them the website.

b) I just shipped a graded game out via FedEx and it was $75. The employee told me I could get a 60% - 90% discount if I signed up for an account. Do you have an account?

Regarding point A, sadly I don't think such luxuries exist over here, especially when the rates on the site haven't been updated since 2013! I'd reckon it's a situation where the rates on the Chinese site have been updated, but the English site hasn't been.

Point B, that's what I'm curious about. I'm trying to look into this, as it's something I know little about.

[fcgamer | 4,866]

My business partner inquired from the competitor, apparently he covers the bulk of the shipping himself, and I think his product is also lighter than ours, thus similarly reducing shipping costs.

I am still curious for anyone who has information / experience about reducing rates though, especially regarding obtaining business rates.

Thanks

[Tabonga | 2,432]

16 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

I think on b the person overestimated and the 60% is freight which is shipping big ass stuff

http://www.fedex.com/us/oadr/en/discounts/

I don't work at FedEx of course so codemonkey could be absolutely right. This is just what I found quickly

lbs.FedEx has a ground economy rate (that used to be known as smartpost) for packages up to 70 lbs for businesses.  I think UPS may have a similar deal.

I know I have gotten some good size deliveries (around 50 lbs) delivered via smartpost and the cost was indeed a bit less than 1/2 of similar packages sent non smartpost.

[MagusSmurf | 578]

Hedwig x Fawkes forever

[RH | 5,121]

Additional food for thought, there is some big international agreement that was instituted a long time ago. Basically, the poorer a country is, the cheaper it is for them to ship internationally to "first world" countries.  This is why the "Cheap China Junk" market has completely killed product quality for everything in the US, but I'll digress.  China is still considered a "third world country" for this agreement, so Chinese businesses can ship to the US for practically free.  In fact, I've heard that with certain Chinese government kick backs or tax breaks, some of the smaller items actually can be shipped to the US 100% for free.

Anyway, I have no clue where Thailand stands on that list.  I imagine it's not considered as "wealthy" as the US, so shipping to the US is likely cheaper than shipping from the US to Thailand.  However, there might be a chance that some of these companies that you see might have a distribution facility, maybe, in China.  Run the business in Thailand but ship out of an office in China?  That could save bookoos  in shipping.  This probably doesn't work for small businesses but if they are manufacturing products, they could be shipping straight from the manufacturing facility to the customer.  In fact, that sounds like a service I could see happening in China.  They'd make the items and ship them direct, to save you (the business) money on the costs.