What Is A Good System To Use For Shipping?

**Iharris7** · 11-11-2009 12:45 PM

I was wondering if anyone had a good shipping system or plan. I am starting a clothing line and I am in the process of obtaining a website once the site is up and I have all of my products ready. What ways can I ship the items to the clients?

**myfayt** · 11-11-2009 12:59 PM

I believe the best way is to setup a shipping account with a company like FedEx.
The more packages you ship, the lower the price I believe. They have 2 day service. I would avoid DHL lots of problems with them, also UPS is cheap, but slow.

**Iharris7** · 11-11-2009 01:04 PM

Ok so if for example I am getting lots of orders per day would I just send FedEx or Ups the items and shipping information everytime I get an order?

**myfayt** · 11-11-2009 03:13 PM

You can do the labels online, print them out and put them on your packages, or you can request extra labels (pay in advance). Also Fed Ex will come to your business and pick up the packages for you to be shipped.

**Desert_Star_Systems** · 11-11-2009 03:36 PM

You could also use USPS. Although I never really like them for shipping "goods" they are cheap. You can buy those pre-priced boxes and all you would have to do is seal them up and ship.

You can't send your items to UPS/FEDEX and expect them to package and ship the order for you. Their might be a shipping company that does that, but I don't know for sure...probably expensive.

**myfayt** · 11-11-2009 05:11 PM

I am talking about the packages already packed. A tshirt can be shipped in an envelope.

**shielalou** · 11-11-2009 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by Iharris7

I was wondering if anyone had a good shipping system or plan. I am starting a clothing line and I am in the process of obtaining a website once the site is up and I have all of my products ready. What ways can I ship the items to the clients?

How about FedEx or LBC? These are two of the popular shipping system nowadays.

**Iharris7** · 11-11-2009 10:55 PM

What if I had boxes ready and also had shipping labels ready and when the orders came in then i packed the items and filled in the shipping information. Would I just send out the packages like at a specific time everyday? Or should I ship once a week like on Wednesday being that Wednesday is the midpoint in a week?

**peteVA** · 11-11-2009 10:59 PM

Where are you?

"A clothing line" could be tee shirts and spaghetti straps or formal wear. Different methods for each.

Are you shipping "pieces" to consumers? Dozens to small retailers? Grosses to major chains or distributors?

A dozen tee shirts would go out differently than a dozen slacks or dresses.

Going to individuals there is no choice. USPS Priority for about $5 anywhere. Anything else is at least $7 or 8, if it's just a box of air.

USPS, no zones. $5 including Hawaii, Alaska, PR and Guam. All others are zoned and not TOO bad if you are in Kansas, but high to New England if you are in LA.

Larger orders, dozens and grosses - UPS ground, unless your customer wants something else. They will tell you if they will pay a premium, but general rule is UPS Ground is the base.

Go into a busy mall or shopping area. There will be a UPS truck in that one spot with a large hand truck all day. FedEx will be in and out in less than an hour, carrying stuff by hand. Nor knocking FedEx, but for day in and day out small packages UPS is by far the leader.

And you can see who is lying on their side and who is left standing - Priceless Photo - fedexvsups

**Desert_Star_Systems** · 11-12-2009 09:30 AM

To mimic what Pete said, UPS (from my experience) has much better customer service then Fedex does. They stop by every day, we don't have to call and schedule an appointment. With FEDEX, we used to have to call any time we wanted to ship something...it's a hassle.

We've been using UPS for 10 years now, I think.

IHarris, what you are asking you can actually make that decision yourself. On your online store have a few sentences telling your customer that you ship on x, x, and x days of the week or something similar. You could simply say "We ship all packages on Monday and Wednesdays." Take them to USPS and be done with it...not the fastest method but still works most of the time.

**Fortunately USPS has "flat rate shipping" so it would be easy for you to tell your customers the shipping and handling rate up front. You could also have UPS ground as an option under shipping. However, you would have to do then find out the shipping cost AFTER your customer placed the order...kind of a hassle. You could build the UPS shipping into your website, but I heard it is not the easiest thing...**

**FlysTheLimit** · 11-12-2009 02:19 PM

I use USPS Priority (2-3 day) Mail and haven't had a problem with them yet. It costs about $5.65 to ship a shirt, including the tracking number. They can also pick up you packages from your house or place of business. You can go to their website to order free boxes, shipping labels, etc.

**Iharris7** · 11-12-2009 02:19 PM

Well yea I can set certain shipping dates on the online store. Also does UPS ship worldwide? because if customers purchase in area outside of the U.S. I need to be able to get them their products. Lets also say that I set my shipping days to Monday and Thursday and I get like 50 orders on Monday. Would I call Ups and have them pickup my boxes for that day or would I have to drop them off at a Ups store?

**Desert_Star_Systems** · 11-12-2009 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by Iharris7

Well yea I can set certain shipping dates on the online store. Also does UPS ship worldwide? because if customers purchase in area outside of the U.S. I need to be able to get them their products. Lets also say that I set my shipping days to Monday and Thursday and I get like 50 orders on Monday. Would I call Ups and have them pickup my boxes for that day or would I have to drop them off at a Ups store?

Of course UPS ships pretty much ANYWHERE. However, they are expensive. USPS also ships internationally and sometimes is 1/2 the cost.

In my opinion, someone probably is not going to buy a $20 shirt and spend $50 on shipping...unless it's for wholesale.

UPS will pick up any number of boxes...
USPS might have different rules (due to size of mail truck); it would be best to check with them

**Iharris7** · 11-12-2009 04:42 PM

Yea I need to find the cheapest shipping possible. So I can sell shirts for like 20 and only charge like $4 for shipping.

**peteVA** · 11-12-2009 05:20 PM

Instead of asking questions here, at this point you should spend some time getting specifics from the USPS and UPS people.

You will lose money at $4. You should have a shopping cart website that will offer your customers a choice of shipping. This is true specifically if you are selling direct to users. Give them the choice.

The shirt is $20.
I can ship by Priority Mail in the US for $5
I can ship by UPS Ground in the US for $8 or tie into their rate site and get the specific cost by zip code.
I can ship by UPS Second Day for $15
I can ship USPS International Priority for $12
Etc.

If this is too much for you, pay someone to set up your website and take care of other things. Shipping is basic, there are a limited number of methods and most shopping cart scripts will only accommodate a couple. So, you are also going to be either limited by your shopping cart, or you need to get a shopping cart that handles they methods you choose.

We've given you some general ideas, but now you need to get specifics from the carriers.