I tried to warn you guys about the shipping 'changes' on 5/14....

I tried to warn you guys….

You know I had a very strange dream last night…I woke up in my dream – looked out my window – and saw utter & mass destruction…burning buildings, destroyed houses, crashing airplanes – everyone was running around acting insane.  When I really woke up this morning I remembered about the upcoming shipping changes from the USPS and figured I had better send out a guide to help you survive the mass destruction that is about to happen….

From the USPS’s website:

“On May 14, 2007, the U.S. Postal Service is introducing new pricing that reflects changes in our operations and the marketplace, offers you more choices, and creates a more efficient mail system that keeps overall costs as low as possible.”

Ok, you guys know I am usually a very ‘glass is overflowing’ type of chick…but c’mon.  This intricate price increase is going to frustrate the eBay sellers more than almost anything the post office could have possibly done.  If they had just raised their fees, it would have been (gasp) much better than what is about to occur in a couple of days.  But the new fees partly have to do with what SIZE your boxes are…Egads!  As much as I am an optimistic, this will be a disaster.  Many people don’t know this huge change is coming, other know but haven’t adjusted their businesses yet for it, and probably the worst part is going to be the poor buyers stuck in the middle as the frustrated sellers come to grips and adjust their selling experience on eBay.  I am just finishing up ‘measuring’ my standard shipping boxes for my items…yet in complete honesty – even after writing this – I am still not completely sure I understand all of these changes.

I hope all of you make a beeline to the USPS booth #613 at eBay Live and tell them exactly how these changes effect eBay sellers…make sure your voices are heard.  We are a HUGE part of their revenue and hopefully that will carry some weight.  AND, whoever the Post Office has doing their copywriting for this new fee change deserves a raise – lol.  It actually sounds like the USPS is doing us a fabulous service of confusing the heck out of the mailing system!

Ok, so we can’t fuss anymore…we just need to ‘pull up our big girl panties’ (thanks Danna) and beat out our competition with our amazing customer service so that OUR customers don’t suffer.

Some things to think about:

• You are probably going to want to move your products into pre-determined box sizes – meaning…ordering standard Priority boxes from USPS or getting plain ones from another business that are specific sizes (instead of using any size box you can get your hands on).  This way you will always know the size of the box, and won’t have to whip out the tape measure for every single shipment.  Here are some companies to order these from:

                  USPS - http://shop.usps.com/

                  EZ Shipping Supplies

                  Manhattan Mailroom01

                  MegaBox Warehouse

                  AAA Box Company

• You might want to think about moving your shipping into using the Flat-rate envelopes and boxes from the USPS as much as possible.  They ship for a flat fee no matter how much the boxes weigh…whatever you can stuff in them goes for that price.

                        $8.95 for either 11" x 8.5" x 5.5" or 13.625" x 11.875" x 3.375" flat-                          weight boxes OR

                        $4.60 for a 12 1/2" X 9 1/2" envelope

• You might consider staying away from large items that don’t weigh much – they will be charged based on their size, not the weight now. 

• Endicia, my favoritest postage printing site, took the time to put together a great newsletter about the changes, what is happening, how to deal with it, as well as tips on making sure you goes smoothly for you and your customer.  You can read their latest newsletter here: http://www.endicia.com/newsletter/EndiciaNews2007-04.htm

• Read eBay’s information about the changes here: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200704.shtml#2007-04-19094009 – this includes information on what eBay is trying to do to help with this transition

• eBay’s FAQ page about this: http://pages.ebay.com/shippingfaq/

·        Read the two great workshops that eBay put on about this transition:

            http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000341780&ssPageName=CMDV:AB

            http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000341784&ssPageName=CMDV:AB

• For International Sellers – here is a breakdown chart for you: http://www.usps.com/ratecase/_pdf/immtables43.pdf

• Go back and listen to the great podcast PowerSeller Carol did about this very topic: http://onlinesuccessinstitute.com/?p=9 – she has also included an easy guide for reference about the upcoming changes.  Buy her great shipping guideb0ok at: www.janelleelms.com/shippingbook

eBay has offered this to help edit your listings as quickly as possible –

Bulk editing for current listings – “To save you time, we're enhancing the Mass Listing Editor so you can edit shipping details on listings that are eligible to be revised with new rates and services in bulk. If you use Turbo Lister, you can also edit your shipping details in bulk. This new functionality will be available in both tools in early May.

Also if you enter your own shipping amount (Flat Rate Shipping):
You can research the new shipping rates on USPS.com. Starting in early May, the Research Rates tool on eBay will be updated to include both old and new rates.

If you use the eBay Shipping Calculator in your listings:
The new rates will be charged during checkout starting May 10 as in most cases these items will be shipped after the rate change. Your potential buyers will also see the new calculated rates in listings for items likely to end on or after May 10. Keep in mind that:
• 7- and 10-day listings created after May 2 will show the new rates
• 3-day listings created after May 6 will show the new rates”

Ok, so here is my silver lining to this – the Forever Stamp…buy it now for .41 cents and use it ‘forever’, no matter how much the price of a first class letter goes up.  Wish they had something like this for gas.

Finally, I pray for the poor USPS workers at the counter who will receive the brunt of these changes.  Please remember to be nice to them – they didn’t make the changes.

Blessings,

Janelle

www.JanelleElms.com

PS – feel free to forward this to your other eBay Seller friends to help prepare them for what is about to happen