Postage Systems

I just spent most of the day looking into the best way for me to handle the postage aspects of selling online. I did not enjoy it. I am not looking forward to spending tomorrow working on it some more.

Much as I hate it, I know that I can't afford to lick stamps and stand in line at the post office if I want to sell products in volume and make a profit. In fact I know the right system and shipping materials can actually become a profit center. That won't happen if I don't do the research.

Do you remember the old days when you would get an AOL.com disk in the mail about once a week. Coincidentally, I had just gotten a disk from Stamps.com offering their postage solution. All I needed to do was put the disk in my computer and I would solve my problems and be eligible for $100 of free benefits. About the third screen that came up when I did that offered me the "opportunity" to sign up for a $17.99 per month service. I don't know yet if that would be a great deal for me. I do know that accepting it would commit me to a certain minimum volume of sales to amortize the cost.

Endica.com actually seems more reasonable for my purposes and I will probably take them up on their free thirty day trial. I want to make sure I have everything possible in place before I start the clock on that offer.

Here are some of the decisions I will need to make/consider as part of the postage issue:

• Should I only use priority mail? Parcel post would save a little, but I think the hassle of having to provide my own boxes would more than eat that up. I may loose some sales to really price conscious buyers if I make that choice.
• I probably have to consider media mail for printed materials.
• Can I set up a system that uses flat rate shipping so it's easy for people to pay immediately, and I don't have to mess with shipping calculations.
• I will be selling lots of unique items with different sizes and weights. Can I figure out a system that will let me quickly estimate a slightly profitable shipping/handling charge without having to actually package them up and weigh them.
• Am I willing to deal with international sales. Some advisers suggest you miss a large part of your potential market if you don't. Some sellers complain of frequent customs issues, cultural misunderstandings, etc. I believe the postal systems in some countries are so corrupt it's best not to ship there. That means I need a list of acceptable countries.
• If I ship priority the boxes are free. However, peanuts and bubblewrap are not. What kinds and volumes of packing materials do I need to stock to ship my items?
• Can I build a table that will show at a glance the cheapest way to send an item; especially in relation to the flat rate boxes. Can I make this part of the Inkfrog draft and library system?
• Endica comes with six price tiers, each with their own set of features. What is the cheapest one that does what I need?