Why I Use Shipping Management Software For My Business

Recently in Katherine Terrill's Facebook group eBay Stores Nothing But Stores, a group member asked what the advantages were to using Stamps.com over just using eBay's built in shipping flow.

I explained that I have been using Stamps.com for a few years now. I usually use it in conjunction with ship-management software. I was using Auctane Ship Manager, which is an app in eBay. It is fee based and it’s a scaled down version of ShipStation. Both are web based and can be accessed from anywhere and not just on computers loaded with the software

I loved the program and the interface is very easy to use. While attending an ecommerce event in June, I was talking to Eric Nash, who is the senior director of online marketing for Stamps.com. At his suggestion, I tried out ShipStation and fell in love with the program and have now replaced Auctane with Shipstation.

It’s much more powerful than Auctane. However, it does have a little steeper learning curve.

Why you ask do I use a fee based shipping program when it cost me nothing to use eBay?….. For me it's very simple..... It saves me money in the long run since I sell multi-channel.

Both Shipstation and Auctane come with a free Express 1 postage account attached. They are also a postage provider and with them, you buy your Priority and Express mail postage and you buy it at commercial plus pricing. That is the same postage rate as TRS (Top Rated Seller) on eBay. Then you use the included Stamps.com account for the rest of the mail classes (1st class Parcel Select and Media Mail).

Well, I’m TRS and so I get the commercial plus pricing thru eBay….. However, I also sell on Facebook, Amazon, Etsy, Bonanza, Addoway, Square and direct sales thru Paypal. You don't get the commercial plus pricing discounts from these other sites.

The amount I save printing shipments for my other sites, more than pays for my extra expense as well as the time savings having it all in one place. Shipstation also imports my sales from a whole list of ecom sites

With those other sites, I would have to pay commercial base pricing (same as non TRS). I would also have to be shipping from Paypal or via the rest of the sites I sell on.

I regularly forward many packages to a freight forwarder at the Mexican border for my brothers business and I do it all at the better rates.

Also, with ShipStation, I have both my negotiated rate UPS and Fedex accounts linked. So I now ship everything in one spot. I pay for all my postage using my miles reward credit card as well and can print out just one report showing all my shipping cost.

I get to do comparison pricing with any of the carriers I have linked in just one window and they have full integration with most of the popular providers.

When I bring up my shipped orders on Shipstation, I can see in one look what has been delivered and what is still in transit. 

I get customized packing slips from Shipstation that prints out on my thermal printer as well as my logo and custom writing at the bottom of my shipping label

Every label I print with this software gets auto saved into a folder on my computer and I can go back and reprint anytime I need to.

It's never buggy, it never seems to go down and as we read everyday in the groups, sellers are always having trouble printing from eBay for one or more reasons. I can’t imagine not using this program anymore.

In closing, I did not touch on all the great features from Shipstation and this may not be for everyone depending on your the size of your business. But, if you sell on multiple channels and when it does make sense, it really is shipping nirvana! 

Shipstation Intro

Should I Be Using Social Media?

If you are selling online the short answer is yes! If the rest of this posting was left empty, that answer would be enough.

But, lets go into more detail. If you are selling last years iPhone 5s at a competitive price on eBay, then you could probably just list it, do nothing else and it should sell in less than a week. However, if you are selling a used Nolan Miller Women’s cuff bracelet, then you need to get it out in front of your buyers eyes.

Items that are more desired and searched for don’t need as much promoting or advertising as items that I classify as more of an impulse item.

For instance, I listed a 10 year old used Furano marine radar display on eBay. Within a couple of hours it had 38 views and 4 watchers without me doing a bit of Social Media. 24 hours later, I had 3 offers on it. New marine electronics are very expensive and so many weekend boaters are looking for used equipment due to the cost difference.

By comparison, I listed an Ohio State Buckeyes Jacket in the dead of summer. In that same couple of hours without doing anything, I had zero views. I started to use social media and after 4 days, I finally got one offer on it.

So, what is social media to us…. It’s our way of advertising our wares at little to no expense except for our time and effort. The more you can get your stuff in front of potential buyer, the better the chance of it selling. It used to be that you could put it up on eBay and it would just sell. Those days are long gone.

We NEED to drive traffic to our items and not rely on any one marketplace doing it for us. The competition is just to stiff. Too many sellers and too many marketplaces to be complacent.

We all know how important advertising is. In 1984 Apple Computer ran their iconic 60 second ad in the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIX to launch the first Macintosh Computer. The spot cost Apple about $650,000 and resulted in $150 million in sales the first month.

Apple's 1984 Commercial was a Watershed Event

Fast forward 31 years to 2015…. Apple is the most valuable company in the world, being first U.S. company with a market value above $700 billion. The iPhone is a household name and Apple will still spend about 1.2 billion in advertising this year.

Lets touch on impulse sales. When you go into a grocery store, a mall, a boutique or even the local bakery or candy shop, they will have displays in the aisles, on the end caps, at the cash register or in the window in front. They have clip strips of items hanging along the grocery aisles. The bakery and the candy store has all their goods in a glass front display case.

Everyday, millions of shoppers are buying things that they did not go shopping for on impulse because it was placed in front of them.  Nobody that goes into the grocery store with 10 items on their list comes out with just those 10 items.

Last years smartphone listed in the online market place is widely searched for by thousands of buyers everyday. If you list it competitively, use good pictures, keywords and item specifics, it should sell in no time at all because people are looking for them.

My bracelet, not quite so easy. This is an impulse item. Not too many buyers are doing a search for a Nolan Miller cuff bracelet. But if i use social media displaying great pictures of my bracelet, it can be seen by a potential buyer that was not even looking for a cuff bracelet.

Picture Tweet of my Bracelet using Promote Pictures for Twitter

How it looks in Pinterest

And in YouTube

This is why we use social media. We want someone that does not yet know they want something, to see it and now want it!

I was at the local thrift shop last year and I found this cool ladies jacket for $10. I figured it would be quick turn on eBay. I was in line to pay for it and this woman walked by me while I was holding it up showing my friend.  She fell in love with it and wanted to buy it from me. She knew that I paid $10 for it and when I left the store, she bought it from me out front for $50. That’s a 400% return and it was a complete impulse sale.

Now that we know why we need to use social media, you are going to ask me the how do we use it. At the top or my blog in that red box, I tell you up front that I’m not a guru. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I will however give you a few tips about social media.You will need to pick some platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and there are some others.  You will need to build a following on those platforms.

You should join some groups on Facebook that have exchanges. So your postings, get reposted to their followers and you of course repost their postings to your followers. This way you will be seen by more people.

There are hundreds of books on the subject and hundreds of people in the online selling community that are experts in how to use it. Some charge a bunch to teach you and others give up that information because they are nice like that.

I’m not here to tell you the how! There are a lot of thoughts on how to use social media properly. I’m just here to tell you that if you are spending all your time listing and are not happy with the results, then you need to start using social media now. A little bit of something is way more than a whole lot of nothing!

Some of my Pinterest Boards

If you’re spending three hours a day making new listings and editing old listings and not making sales, then you have to carve out some of that time to market your items even if it means that you will get less new listings up.

Last month I was at the eBay Radio conference in Las Vegas and Joel Meek, head of partner online sales and operations at Pinterest addressed us with some really good information.

Since then Shana Champion, who is a contributor to the eBay For Business Blog posted an interview with Joel. I think this is a really good place to start your research.

Check it out here: eBay for Business

I Am Not A Guru!

This blog post is the first in a series of my ramblings regarding online selling that I have decided to start.

I currently sell on multiple websites and by comparison to many I'm just the "small guy" who is retired and sells online to supplement my pension. However, I do believe that what I have learned over the last five years can be of benefit to all sellers at any level.

With that being said, let me say right off the bat...... I AM NOT A GURU!  There are many others out there who are, or proclaim to be, online selling experts or gurus.

While some of them have earned that status with their vast experience and knowledge of ecommerce, others will tell you that they are experts in the art of selling online, will offer to sign you up to one of their expensive classes and in the end be selling you information that is readily available to everyone, online and for free.

I have surrounded myself with many successful sellers and am member of many online selling groups on Facebook and also help to administer in some of these great informative groups.

In the future, I will share some great tips on shipping and how to save money with your shipping. We'll touch a bit about social media, listing practices, SEO, pluses and minuses about the different selling platforms and just about anything else I can come up with.

I need to warn you, I'm not a writer. This part does not come easy to me. It takes a lot for me to get inspired to sit down in front of the computer and just write.

While I would like to do theses on a consistent basis, I doubt that will happen.  There won't be any rhyme or reason to the order of my post.

You will get what I'm thinking about at the time I post. I may even drift from time to time and post about something that has nothing at all to do with selling online.

My post will be short and to the point (most of the time). I like to use visuals and sometimes do videos as well.

Thank you for reading my  inner babble and please follow me by clicking like on facebook and signing up for a notification when I have posted something on this blog.

I always look forward to your comments, good or bad and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!  You never know when my next topic will come from!!