Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Minimum Shipping and Handling for small items, explanation

* Our minimum $ 6.00 shipping and handling is to help cover the many costs of processing even the smallest order as items under $ 20.00 include very little "profit".
We have many expenses that add up.
This includes postage for "package" ( not envelope rate ) with delivery confirmation ( or UPS ground which is even more ), the bubbled envelope ( or box we use ), the thermal label, the payment processing fees ( Credit cards run about $ 1.00 minimum ) including shopping "cart" fees ( combined average 5% ), and last but not least is labor ( averaging $ 2.00 per order shipped ).
Even the smallest of items cost us at least $ 4.00 to process and ship.

Without the minimum, it would not be profitable to sell small parts or fill low cost single item orders.
We would need to have a minimum order size ( as most of our suppliers have ) such as $ 30, $ 50, or $ 100.
Or "inflate" the cost of smaller items ( as some of our competitors have done who offer "free shipping" - Note shipping is not really free for anyone ), which would not be fair to our customers who purchase larger quantities of these small items.

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