Clay Necessities on thu 8 oct 98
I've been selling wholesale pottery for the past 4 years, and have just
realized I'm probably not charging enough for shipping. Is there a
standard rate? Is there a general rule to go by? Thanks.....barb.
--
Clay Necessities
Hand-Crafted Pottery By Barb Howe
mailto:clayn@telusplanet.net
Berry Silverman on fri 9 oct 98
Barb, you need to calculate what your time and materials cost you and
charge appropriately. My experience, though, is that shipping charges
are one of the items that really rankle wholesale buyers, probably
because they cannot budget in advance what whose charges will be. And
pottery is heavy and requires good packing, and that gets expensive
too. I have built packing and handling charges into my price
structure, so then the only add-on is the actual freight charge --
usually UPS. When a buyer asks what the shipping charges are, I can
then honestly tell them we just charge the actual UPS rate, and when
they receive the shipment they can check against their own UPS rate
book and see that we have not overcharged them.
I read in a trade publication recently somewhere that buyers are so
skeptical of shipping charges, that when offered a show special of
free shipping or a 10 percent discount, the majority preferred the
free shipping, even though the 10 percent discount in most cases
offered the better savings.
==
Berry Silverman,
Berryware, Tucson, Arizona
berrysilverman@yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Bonnie Pollack-Hotz on sat 7 apr 01
This is how I handle my shipping charges. I have a UPS book, which =
they give you for free, which lists residential and commercial shipping =
rates and explains any extraneous things that go along with it; for =
instance how much extra to charge per $100.00 worth of merchandise. I =
charge my client exactly what ups charges me, (to get the figure that =
ups will charge, you will need a scale) but I add an additional =
packaging cost of anywhere between 5-20% of total cost of order. If I'm =
sending out a lone mug, I have to charge like 20% just to cover the box =
and packaging materials, but if I'm shipping out a large wholesale order =
I can charge a small percentage to cover the costs. I don't think I =
ever really cover the time I expend, but I don't want to stop shipping =
because I have many clients who depend on it. Hope this helps.
Ceramic Design Group on sun 8 apr 01
UPS has made shipping with them quite an easy experience with their "Online
World Ship" computer application. All shippers who have an account with UPS
can no longer use the paper manifest book that in years previous we have all
grown to both love and hate.
Their system is quite seamless even if it only runs on a PC platform. It
calculates everything you can possibly need to include with your parcel and
then some. It provides all the details you will need to know, but of course
you can still use their book to get rates, but need to include the fuel
surcharge as well as the additional charges for some zip codes, COD fees,
etc. etc. We have trained our staff to use it and it is very easy to learn.
We also use common carrier for LTL shipments which we skid and shrink wrap.
Most freight companies can provide accurate quotes based on zip codes,
weight,and class of freight. UPS also has a "HundredWeight" system for
shipping over 200 pounds to one address per day. It is cheaper than normal
UPS and is very competitive with common carrier LTL rates.
Fed Ex also has a computer application for using their system. THe interface
is good, but no as easy as UPS IMHO.
Jonathan
--
Jonathan Kaplan
CERAMIC DESIGN GROUP
PO Box 775112
Steamboat Springs, CO 80577
(970) 879-9139
Leland G. Hall on wed 17 dec 03
we are shipping a few pots every day now for the Christmas buyers. six per
cent? really? I had not heard of that. we are still pretty new at
selling pots, so we hadn't even heard of using a percentage at all, but six
sure wouldn't do it.
we ship everything priorty mail, usps. boxes are free, delivered right to
our door, and to make that deal sweeter, you can order them online. tape
too. they are a little limited on box sizes, you can't get any bigger than
8x8x12, so for taller pots, we tape two or three of them together.
remember, the tape is free too! this has been working out great so far.
judy does weight the pots, estimates weight of packing materials, (she's
good too, it's always right on the money!) then tacks on two bucks for
handleing. so thats what the customer pays. actual priority mail, plus
two bucks for handling, which really is only offsetting price of bubble
wrap and peanuts. this system is working for us.
now all we need is to find a source for free bubble wrap and peanuts.
anybody out there got any ideas?
Leland Hall
Before The Wheel Enterprises
Raku Pottery and Sculpture
in snowy snowy, cold and beatiful La Pine Oregon
Susan Fox-Hirschmann on wed 17 dec 03
In a message dated 12/17/2003 9:02:15 AM Eastern Standard Time,
b4thewheel@BENDNET.COM writes:
<< now all we need is to find a source for free bubble wrap and peanuts.
anybody out there got any ideas >>
Your NEIGHBORS!!! Let everyone in your neighborhood know you will recycle
their stuff and to just leave it at your door.....they will be thankful to get
rid of it, cause it is AMAZING how many people are buying from catalogs these
days and getting all that packaging material. I am thrilled to get it, and
every xmas they get a small gift from me, to thank them. This makes them even
more eager to bring me their recyclable packaging supplies.
Susan
Annandale, VA
Lisa Skeen on wed 17 dec 03
Yes, really. If you go to www.wholesalecrafts.com and have a look at the artists' work there, you'll see most everyone charges anywhere from 5 - 10% handling on each order in addition to shipping cost, standard procedure. This covers your time going to the post office, packaging, the time it takes you to pack and ship, etc. I charge 8%, and that is stated up front on the wholesale price sheet. :)
L. P. Skeen http://www.living-tree.net
Living Tree Pottery
Summerfield, NC
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: shipping charges
> From: "Leland G. Hall"
> Date: Wed, December 17, 2003 6:26 am
> To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
>
> we are shipping a few pots every day now for the Christmas buyers. six
> per cent? really?
Barbara Kobler on wed 17 dec 03
Kathi, I sold online for 4 years and 6% would no way cover pottery.
Just weigh up your pots ahead of time, look up priority rate and then you can quote price to customer right at point of sale. You can order boxes and tape direct from us postal service. Go to their website. Click on links for business supplies (or whatever they call it, I've forgotten), you fill out an online form, then after you are approved. Doesn't take long. You have an account and online can order supplies to be shipped direct to you. They have an entire array of boxes that you can't usually find at the post office. But these boxes can only be used for priority shipments. I used to sell and ship 18th c. glass and American art pottery found this very convenient. If you are shipping a lot then arrange for UPS and also USPS pickups.
Barbara Kobler http://www.claywoman.net
Laurie Kneppel on wed 17 dec 03
>
>
> << now all we need is to find a source for free bubble wrap and
> peanuts.
> anybody out there got any ideas >>
If you know any office workers who work in the mailroom ask them. They
are usually only too happy to get rid of the stuff they can't recycle.
It takes up a lot of space. I work in an office as my day job and do a
lot of purchasing and receiving of computers and related equipment.
Software always seems to be packed tight with peanuts and either pillow
or bubble wrap. I have never had to buy bubble wrap or boxes yet. When
new monitors come in they are always in a huge box and are in very
large plastic interior bags which are wonderful for large sculpture.
Computers come packed in large bags, too, inside their boxes. Good
source!
Laurie
Sacramento, CA
wayneinkeywest on wed 17 dec 03
Leland:
Back in the day when I had to find a source for peanuts and such,
I went to all the knick-knack shops (peanuts), gift item shops (more
peanuts), and furniture stores (bubble wrap and corrugated
cardboard) in the area.
Told them that if they would save the packing materials from
items the receive into stock for me, not only would I pick them
up for FREE (the operable word managers love to hear) but it
would reduce their waste stream and SAVE THEM MONEY
(another phrase they love.)
We had so many stores take us up on our offer we were truly
inundated in no time. Ended up with enough packing for a
year in the first month.
Just a thought.
Wayne Seidl
> now all we need is to find a source for free bubble wrap and peanuts.
> anybody out there got any ideas?
>
> Leland Hall
Eleanora Eden on fri 26 dec 03
Hi Leland and all,
I get my packing peanuts at the recycling center. They collect them from
everybody and will give them to the first person who asks for them.
Eleanora
At 08:26 AM 12/17/03 -0500, you wrote:
>we are shipping a few pots every day now for the Christmas buyers. six per
>cent? really? I had not heard of that. we are still pretty new at
>selling pots, so we hadn't even heard of using a percentage at all, but six
>sure wouldn't do it.
>
>we ship everything priorty mail, usps. boxes are free, delivered right to
>our door, and to make that deal sweeter, you can order them online. tape
>too. they are a little limited on box sizes, you can't get any bigger than
>8x8x12, so for taller pots, we tape two or three of them together.
>remember, the tape is free too! this has been working out great so far.
>
>judy does weight the pots, estimates weight of packing materials, (she's
>good too, it's always right on the money!) then tacks on two bucks for
>handleing. so thats what the customer pays. actual priority mail, plus
>two bucks for handling, which really is only offsetting price of bubble
>wrap and peanuts. this system is working for us.
>
>now all we need is to find a source for free bubble wrap and peanuts.
>anybody out there got any ideas?
>
>Leland Hall
>Before The Wheel Enterprises
>Raku Pottery and Sculpture
>in snowy snowy, cold and beatiful La Pine Oregon
>
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Eleanora Eden 802 869-2003
Paradise Hill Road eeden@vermontel.net
Bellows Falls, VT 05101 www.eleanoraeden.com
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