elizabeth438•15d agoProlific Poster

Stuck between flat rate shipping and real-time carriers for my store

I sell handmade candles out of my garage in Austin and I had to pick between a flat $7 shipping fee or using UPS rates that vary. I went with flat rate for simplicity but lost about $90 last month on heavy orders going to California. What did you pick for your shipping setup and did it work out better than mine?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_joel15d ago

Honestly man, that flat rate thing is a trap for anyone shipping anything dense or heavy. I sell some handmade furniture waxes out of my shop here in Dallas, and I tried a flat $8 rate for about two months. I lost nearly $130 on a batch going to Seattle alone. Ended up switching to real time carrier rates through my shipping software, and it leveled out way better because the lighter local orders basically pay for themselves now. It's a bit more work upfront to set up the zones and weight breaks, but it stopped those surprise losses on long distance heavy orders. I feel your pain on that $90 hit though, that stings when you're just trying to keep things simple.

barbarab5615d ago

Hold on @the_joel, are you sure that $130 loss was really that big of a deal? I mean, you were trying a flat rate for two months so a few bad shipments probably just evened out over time. Maybe you just got unlucky with that one Seattle batch but the rest of the month might have been fine if you averaged it all out. Real time carrier rates sound like a hassle with all those zones and weight breaks, seems like more work than its worth for a small shop. Plus, you probably spent extra time setting that up that could have been spent on something else like making more wax or talking to customers. Seems like people blow these small losses way out of proportion sometimes.

leo_carr1315d ago

Buddy of mine tried flat rate for his hot sauce and got wrecked on a Texas to Maine order.