HELP! Shipping Woes...

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SimpleSoaps

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HELP! My aunt recently called me to say that she thought my soap shipping prices were too high. Someone on here told me that she thought my shipping prices were too high. I gather my shipping prices are too high...

I currently charge $6.00 for a box which can hold up to 6 bars. I use USPS flat rate small boxes; the extra dollar is the ink and paper for the label, the paper to stuff the box, and the time to wrap it all up, with 20 cents profit.

How do you ship? What do you charge? If you have a paypal button, how do you customize your HTML? I'd like to get this sorted out before I open up my business in the near-ish future.
Thanks!
 
People do not like to see a fee in addition to the cost of shipping. I understand shipping takes time and energy but when you tack it on boldly to the shipping cost it looks like you are charging more than it's worth, at least it does to people who do not ship.

I would charge $4.95 for a small flat rate box & raise the price of my soap by .15-20cents a bar.

What are you charging for a bar & what size is it?
 
Right now I charge $4.00/4 oz bar. The flat rate boxes cost $5.00 to ship from home, and $5.20 at the post office (I don't know if that's just MA or if it's like that everywhere).
 
USPS offers a flat rate padded envelope for $4.95 from here in Kentucky that I use. I haven't used Etsy for this very problem. How much to charge for shipping? As for the price of the soap I have already included packaging and labeling costs in my pricing so maybe recoup some of it there where the customer doesn't see it.

The only other way to combat high shipping prices that customers don't like to see is use the first class shipping rates. You can use your soap scale for measuring weight of the package. Get first class padded envelopes for multi-bar purchases (free through the USPS website I believe) and smaller 5x8 padded envelopes for the one or two bar purchase. Yes it means spending more money on envelopes but you won't have to eat so much in shipping costs in the long run while making customers happy and getting them to return.

Myself I think what's going to happen is that I'm going to charge around $2 for the first item for shipping USPS first class and eat the rest of the cost, as long as it doesn't mean putting me in the red, until customers recognize the quality and start buying more then one item in a sitting and I have more to offer for sale like bath salts, bath bombs etc.

Just my two cents worth :D
 
For one bar of soap I charge actual 1st Class Mail shipping. For 2 bars I add $1 more. I don't charge extra for paper or ink. That's already calculated into my bar cost.
 

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