Sisters Marie: USPS

Top 10 Packing & Shipping Tips

1. Make it look nice! I know that seems obvious, but if you want repeat business, treat it like you are running a store. I use tissue paper, add thank you cards, and business cards to all my orders.

2. Not only have USPS flat rate shipping boxes on hand, but go out and get envelopes. It's obviously easier to ship right from your door step (and have the supplies for free), but if want to save your buyers a few extra dollars, you can ship using packages and send from post office, UPS, or FedEx. This allows you to send smaller or lighter items for less.

2a. Ship for cheaper if you can! Flat rate boxes are easy, but costly for the buyer. If you go to the post office and ship USPS, I have it down to a science (or so I think). I ship using envelope packages (for the most part) and guess my shipping fees every order (If you have a scale at home, you can weigh the package and get accurate shipping fees):

Tops and light dresses: $4.70
Jeans and sweaters: $6.70
Shoes: (when not shipping in flat rate medium box) $8.70
Yes, sometimes I eat a few bucks if I miss guess, but most of the time I'm dead on and the others I refund a dollar or 2 to the buyer (the extra .70 is for tracking since I have to go to the post office to ship out packages).
**Again, these prices are not 100% accurate. I have been selling my clothes online for 12 months now and this is how I ship.

3. Dry clean or wash all items before you sell them! Duh ;)

4. Get bubble wrap. You will need it at some point.

5. If you plan to ship jewelry, buy cotton filled boxes or jewelry pouches to ship broken and tangle free jewelry.

6. If you choose to ship in packages instead of or in addition to, know you are going to lose a few bucks here and there. You know that saying, "you have to spend money to make money?" SO TRUE. You can also add $1-$2 to each product so you don't feel like you are eating the packaging costs. Up to you!

7. Buy shipping tape. You will use it for both boxes and package shipping.

8. Refund if you over-charge! Since everyone on the site has a PayPal account, refunding is super easy. Not to mention, shoppers remember when you were honest with their transaction. Meaning...repeat sales!!

9. Always get a tracking number. Always send the buyer said tracking number as soon as the package ships out.

10. How to get these tracking numbers? If you go to the post office pay the extra .70 for tracking!! Or if you print out your labels from home tracking is included in the flat rate shipping price.

These are some of the tricks I have learned from selling clothes on my blog, and hopefully they will make things so super smooth for you on BISTM!

Questions??

#Lisa

The easiest way to ship your items on BISTM is using USPS flat rate shipping. (To be clear, you can ship using ANY shipping company you want ie. UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc, but the simpliest way is USPS.) To create an account and have FREE flat rate shipping boxes sent directly to your home, follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Go to USPS.com and create an account. If you do not already have one, click on "sign up now"

Step 2: This brings you to the sign up area. Create a personal account and add your name, address, and choose a user name and password.

Step 3: This will bring you back to the homepage. Click on "get a free shipping kit" to have an array of flat rate boxes in different sizes sent to your home for FREE. You simply need to fill out your mailing info (shown in the next few photos) and the kit will be sent to you in 7-10 days.

Step 4: (OPTIONAL) You can also order additional flat rate shipping boxes for free. The start up kit from above comes with 1 small, 2 medium, 1 large, and 1 envelope so we suggest you order more from the get go!

Since I ship often, I know that the small and medium boxes are used most often so I had extra of those shipped to my house as well. There is no shipping charges... just FREE boxes sent to your house!