# Need help with shipping and handling



## Celestine (Jun 22, 2012)

My bad for not thinking about this earlier. Now for the dumb questions:

I finally have all the images I need to begin building my online T-shirt store and I have begun that process. I'll need to give the shirts a price which I already have but I'm at square one when it comes to shipping and handling. Who do many people use, The Post Office, UPS, FEDEX or something else? How does everyone describe it in their websites (such as '$xx price + shipping and handling')? Does everyone have a scale at home where they can determine the weight so as to calculate the s/h charge? I know often businesses offer free shipping for bulk orders, with T-shirts what the minimum number of shirts the customer can buy to get free shipping? Do es anyone do drop shipping and how has that worked out?

I didn't think about this earlier because I thought it would be an easier thing to deal with but looking online I'm just overwhelmed with all the different considerations and I'm trying to sift out the important information so I can get the online store up and running as fast as possible.


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## INKFREAK (Jul 24, 2008)

Go USPS, it will give your customers the cheapest rates. Set up a online account with them so you can print out labels etc. You can then expand to other shipping options later after your up and running. Just my 2 cents.


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## Celestine (Jun 22, 2012)

Thank you for that InkFreak! How does USPS's on-time delivery performance compare with FEDEX & UPS?


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Fedex and UPS are "premium services" compared to USPS.....You pay more but in exchange you get quicker service......As far as "on time" performance, they all have their "hiccups" from time to time....I have probably shipped/received several thousand packages with USP over the years and delivery delays have been minor....

If your clients want quicker service, give them the option to pay extra for that "premium service"...


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## INKFREAK (Jul 24, 2008)

Yes, I agree but I have found the most affordable to be USPS. Also, my room mate ships a lot of pottery and UPS always breaks it! USPS, good so far. Never had any hiccups with them that I can remember. I love Fed-ex but you do pay for the service. I guess between the broken pottery and UPS breaking a Macbook Pro I had shipped to me, I'm not a big fan of shipping my stuff through them. Fine for shirts that I receive everyday.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Most of the time it is not the fault of UPS or Fedex or USPS when something breaks in transit....It is typically poorly designed packaging....Over the years I have shipped/recieved 1,000s of packages of what could be considered to be "fragile" items with very few problems......


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## INKFREAK (Jul 24, 2008)

If you could see how we package things, you would be amazed UPS could have broken the pottery. When a weight limit of 150lbs is allowed , doesn't matter how you pack it, somethings going to not make it through. Let's just say this UPS has broken items, USPS and Fed-Ex has not. That, has been my experience.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

INKFREAK said:


> Let's just say this UPS has broken items, USPS and Fed-Ex has not. That, has been my experience.


They all break stuff.....But when you only have a small "sample" of shipments to consider, it can skew things.....


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## greyhorsewoman (Jul 19, 2007)

For shirts (generally unbreakable), USPS will be your most affordable, and generally reliable, shipping option. You can sign up for 'clicknship' for priority (free bags/boxes) and get discount on online postage rates and free tracking (delivery confirmation). For 1st class (up to 13 oz), you can use Paypal's multi-ship option, same deal, discount delivery confirmation. 

Get an inexpensive scale and print your labels at home and give to your mailman or drop off at post office.

For large orders, you can check UPS or FedX for comparable rates.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

greyhorsewoman said:


> For shirts (generally unbreakable), USPS will be your most affordable, and generally reliable, shipping option.


But very infrequently they do shred them in their sorting system.....lol....


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## Celestine (Jun 22, 2012)

Thanks everyone for the great advice! Looks like I'll go with USPS to start and then add more shipping options. Fortunately I have a post office and FEDEX office within blocks (the post office is just 2 blocks away). UPS is farther away. My other question is at what point does everyone start offering free shipping, 10, 100, 1000 shirts or what?

The other thing I was going to do with the images was print posters. It turns out the FEDEX/Kinko's office can do 500 11 x 17 posters for under $100 so I could sell those really cheaply. Kids could put them up in their rooms, school districts could buy them for science teachers to display or pass out. 11 x 17 is smaller than I would really like but larger posters will start costing substantially more, FEDEX told me. I would also need some kind of stiff container or box for those so the posters don't bend of tear in transit. And I was concerned the shipping cost might be more than the cost of the poster. This isn't strictly T-shirts but with everyone's shipping experience does anyone have any thoughts about shipping posters?


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## INKFREAK (Jul 24, 2008)

Like I said, in my experience and I have about 30 years of shipping pottery under my belt along with 30 years in screen printing? So, I'll emphasize again, in my experience.


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## Celestine (Jun 22, 2012)

I'm almost done with the website and am working on the shipping part thru Godaddy's website builder. When setting up the USPS parameters I have the option of charging or not charging a separate handling fee which I guess would be on top of the regular shipping fee. What does everyone do, charge this fee or not and if so how is it calculated? 

No one answered the question above about when to start offering free shipping and price discounts on large orders. I was thinking about offering free shipping if they buy 50 or more shirts or posters and then start offering price discounts on orders of 100 or more. Does that seem reasonable or not? If not what are most people doing?


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