When it comes to postage charges from Annie’s Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps I try to be as fair as possible. I want the value of the product that you receive from me to maximize the dollars that you have spent. Not only do I expect the product to be what I claim it to be, but I also want the shipping and packaging to be equitably priced.
My online shopping cart calculates shipping based on the dollar amount of the order (from calculations that I have determined based on weight/pricing). Fine tuning of the system is not an option at this point.
With many customer orders, the dollar amount charged to the customer for shipping and handling closely matches the actual postage charged by the US Postal Service. Occasionally, I fork out a bit of my own money to cover the shipping. Generally, the difference rests on the customer.
I carefully consider all costs when I price a product, but I do not include the time that I spend packaging and shipping a product. This falls into the shipping costs category.
Have your eyes glazed over yet? Are you still with me? Sounds and looks like dry reading to me.
So, here is my proposal. To help your pocketbook and to ease my mind until I can afford a shopping cart that works miracle postal calculations, beginning with orders shipped today, I am going to refund any postage that amounts to a difference of $1.00 or more on any single given order.
Example: The shopping cart charged $5.00, the actual postage is $3.99, I will automatically refund the $1.01 to the customer.
Keep in mind, I do include samples, and have even included an extra bar of soap from time to time because I do not believe in stiffing a customer when it comes to their pockets. Let me throw out a sad scenario, have you ever seen soap for sale for $2.00 a bar on some auction site/entity, but the seller charges an enormous shipping fee? They are making money, believe me, and if they are not, so sad for those of us trying to make good for our industry!
So, back to business at hand…bottom line, if the shipping for your order is $1.00 or greater, your credit card will be refunded the difference.
As I wrap this up, for those of you that do not ship packages out on a regular basis, you may not know, USPS priority mail shipping is often cheaper than parcel post. I calculated shipping for a customer yesterday. Her instructions were, “Ship the cheapest rate. I do not care if it takes a week to deliver.” When I calculated her postage I found that priority mail was .03 cheaper than parcel post (and it was not a flat rate box). So, to ship her order with a received date in 2-3 days, was much cheaper than regular parcel post with a 5-7 day shipment date.
Also, the “zones” that USPS uses to calculate their postage are based on miles. The USPS paperwork that I have is not sitting right in front of me so, I am going to draft up an example. Before Ms. Smith was educated on the USPS postage rates, she thought zone 5 was the west coast, California. Incorrect, zone 5 is a destination at least 900 miles away. And shipping is considerably higher for zone 5, than it would be for zone 2 (200 miles away).
If you have any question, concerns, or anything else of added value, I would love to hear! This is a discussion blog in my opinion, not something that I write and hope you read. I love the interaction, it is a matter of me hearing what works best for everyone!
Annies Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps 
The whole postage thing has got me stymied as far as selling my wares. I have consistently shipped at a loss. Everything I have sold cost more to send than I charged for shipping and I have decided to just continue to do that because I still make a profit on what I have sold. That being said, I am going to need to streamline my packaging because that is time consuming.
I like shipping nice packages people love to receive because I know how much joy wonderful packaging brings to me, and that matters too. I was thinking the other day that I should just devote half a day to preparing packages and labels so when I get an order I can just pop in the merchandise and finish the packaging in minutes.
This does matter when the business a person is trying to build up strives to please people, you know, the CUSTOMER. I once ordered some items from an artist way back east, the pewter work she and her husband do is impressive, but the small item came in a badly packaged box that was shoddy ( obviously not the post office fault ) and some crumpled newspaper wrapped around with not so much as a “thank-you ma’am”. It looked like the whole thing was a hasty afterthought and actually made me wonder if they wanted to sell their stuff. Maybe they don’t need to sell their stuff.That being said, I was happy with what I bought and in the end, that is really what people are paying for…so there-in lies the dilemma….and I will still ship at a loss. For now.
Hey Mary,
In what little experience I have….shipping is a royal pain, so I’m sure we all appreciate your efforts of being an honest shipper. But you also have to cover your costs. 🙂
As for packaging… your soaps are natural. I still say less is more, in this case. It’s the soap that’s the prize, not the packaging. If you’re going all out, I’d spend for natural looking packaging — something that reflects the product. The way I figure it, so long as it’s not dripping in hog fat (insert humor here, folks!), who cares what the packaging looks like! 🙂 If a product is in frilly packaging, one might consider the product can’t sell itself, and they need all the help they can get to help move it off the shelves.
The best seller is word of mouth — that’s the true reflection of product and service.
My packaging reflects my business. My products are natural (if not nearly-natural). I currently use a once discarded shredder to make my own packing materials. I shred newspaper for a cushion, as a nest to place the products in. I place the products in a cellophane bag tied with a ribbon or raffia. The cellephane is 100% biodegradable. The cellophane bag keeps the newspaper out of the product package. The soaps are boxed in a Kraft chipboard type of box, also a part of keeping things acclimated to nature and keeping the landfills a bit less full. The boxes are hand-stamped, individually, with my company logo (a pen and ink of one of my nubian goats, drawn by an artist that I hired). I am working on a special Kraft paper print insert for each order (details not to be announced, ha), and I have some gift set ideas that are also on the horizon, with some unique packaging. I also should mention the gift crates, simple wooden crates that my husband designed. All of the crates are crafted in his shop from reclaimed wood. Some came from the interior of a barn that was dismantled in our area. I need to explain my packaging a bit more often! And I can see a blog post topic.
Kathy, that is a shame about the tattered box and crumpled newspaper. I think simplicity got carried away in that example, far, far away. I more than appreciate your input, the discussions are worth a mint!
Thanks, Lynnanne, for your insightful comments. And I also thank you for finding a huge typo. You spoke up, asked questions, and saved me many dollars!
The way your packaging is, with what I received, is wonderful. I liked it. 🙂
Glad I could help. 🙂
Mary, I think this discussion is interesting. I agree with Lynnanne too. Usually the product alone is enough. You package yours wonderfully and they arrive in perfect shape, tastefully done. Plus, as soon as I open my P.O. box the fragrance tells me my soap has arrived!
As far as bazaars and shops, simple, elegant packaging with a touch of embellishment draws people in, attracts them. The quality of the product should keep them coming back. I peruse bazaars and boutiques, magazines and catalogs looking for display ideas and I observe what draws me in. Either way, the goal is to present a desirable product people will pay for…and come back for. Your soap is worth coming back for! Thanks.
I agree, interesting discussion. Packaging is another form of creativity, always lying in the hands of the one that has the image of what their products portray. And always something that is very important. Discussions like these are good!
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