I wonder how many really appreciate how costly shipping is? Speaking for my business, my shipping expenses exceed the profit from my business. The post office gets more of my gross receipts than goes to profit... I wonder if that's the case for other small vendors. (Working on taxes is what brought this to mind)
Shipping....
- Thread starter Smitty37
- Start date
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Donovan
Member
I import all my pen supplies from oversea and shipping and the duty is normally 1.5 times what the order cost is. That makes the end product expensive
Donovan
Donovan
wood-of-1kind
Member
Smitty, I fully agree with your predicament. The crazy thing is that costs for shipping are climbing higher and higher. So much so that I may actually stop doing business, both on the selling and buying pen related things. As an example, our postage stamp is rising from .63 cents to a full $1.00 dollar. That's a big increase.
PenMan1
Member
I FULLY UNDERSTAND!
Shipping usually accounts for more than half the cost of any tangible product that is not delivered electronically. Software delivered via the internet is the only exception I can think of that does not prove my "shipping" theory.
Raw materials must be SHIPPED to the refinery. Refinery must SHIP processed good to a manufacturing facitlity. Manufacturer must SHIP to a distributor. Distributor SHIPS to the retailer, who then must SHIP to the end user. AND THIS example is for simple products that require only one manufacturer and assembly plant.
GUESS WHAT? As fuel prices increase, SO DOES SHIPPING COSTS! EVEN IF, all processors can contain all other processing costs, they are at the mercy of fuel costs.
Milk is a prime example. Dairy farmers are making less money than ever, yet the price of milk had doubled because of increased transportation costs. Yeah, I get it.
Shipping usually accounts for more than half the cost of any tangible product that is not delivered electronically. Software delivered via the internet is the only exception I can think of that does not prove my "shipping" theory.
Raw materials must be SHIPPED to the refinery. Refinery must SHIP processed good to a manufacturing facitlity. Manufacturer must SHIP to a distributor. Distributor SHIPS to the retailer, who then must SHIP to the end user. AND THIS example is for simple products that require only one manufacturer and assembly plant.
GUESS WHAT? As fuel prices increase, SO DOES SHIPPING COSTS! EVEN IF, all processors can contain all other processing costs, they are at the mercy of fuel costs.
Milk is a prime example. Dairy farmers are making less money than ever, yet the price of milk had doubled because of increased transportation costs. Yeah, I get it.
PenMan1
Member
Even in the few times that fuel costs actually go down, transportation costs stay at the same level.
Ever seen the Post Office reduce the rate for stamps? UPS or FEDex roll back shipping costs? I haven't.
Ever seen the Post Office reduce the rate for stamps? UPS or FEDex roll back shipping costs? I haven't.
Dan Masshardt
Member
And in our case there's even one more layer. That gets the pen kit to us then we have to ship a completed pen to the customer.
Yes, and we purchase in perhaps 2000 MOQs and with 99% accuracy there will still be 20 of those kits that have a part missing or broken and that will be 20 packages sent with no income at all.
Then there will be the customer who breaks a part, loses a spring or something and wants a replacement, as part of our service we won't charge but we still absorb the shipping. This happens at least a couple of times a month.
Wood Butcher
Local Chapter Leader
Seems to me the next thing to look at is.....why? Fuel costs are relatively stable, labor is about the same. The economic reports say we don't have much inflation but do the figures include transportation? Just makes one say, hmmmmm.
WB
WB