How do I outsource my shipping???

[Deleted17784]

Greetings Fastlane Forum, I am looking for some ideas here. I have a small ebay business and I ship about 10 packages a week. I want to travel for a few months and keep the shop open. Has anyone here outsourced their shipping? I was thinking of hiring someone I know to keep my inventory and ship packages for an agreed upon rate. How much should I pay them? Also, I wouldn't want to give these people access to my account. Should I just email them a list of all sold items daily? My next option would be find a fulfillment house. Is there any company that will work with my low volume at a decent price? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I need to figure this out quick!

 

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[brycer9]

What about asking your suppliers to dropship?

 

[Deleted17784]

What about asking your suppliers to dropship?

Good suggestion. The issue with that is I import my products from overseas. They only sell in bulk. I do all my business in the USA so I would need to keep inventory here so I can ship fast.

 

[Amail]

I'd be happy to help you out. PM me and we can discuss it.

 

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[1step]

Amazon could be an option. I dont know the exact cost but you could easily find it out. It would likely be around 5 dollars per item to ship which in my experience is pretty consistent but a lot depends on the weight of your items.

 

[GreenBricks]

I would search online for a fulfillment center. Then just have your stock shipped to them and have them fulfill the orders for you.

 

[Eskil]

You might want to check out www.moldingbox.com

 

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[biophase]

If you are shipping out 10 items a week, just have a buddy do it. It's not worth the hassle for a company to hold all of your stuff and ship out 40 items a month. Train a friend to come over and do it one day a week.

 

[FastLearner]

Find an independent drop shipping company and arrange something that works best for both of you?
Have your product sent to the drop shipping location from your wholesaler. I know it sounds like a headache but it worked for me..

 

[Deleted17784]

Thanks everyone I am looking into some of these links here.

If you are shipping out 10 items a week, just have a buddy do it. It's not worth the hassle for a company to hold all of your stuff and ship out 40 items a month. Train a friend to come over and do it one day a week.

This was my initial idea. I have a few people willing to help out. However, I don't want them to have access to my ebay account... Maybe I'll just give it to them. Should I care? Or should I send them an email with all sold items daily? That's a bit of a pain.

Also, I am not sure what I should pay them. I will look into some other fulfillment houses to check prices.

If anyone else has outsourced their shipping let me know how it's going. Thanks!

 

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[rkmalo1]

This was my initial idea. I have a few people willing to help out. However, I don't want them to have access to my ebay account... Maybe I'll just give it to them. Should I care? Or should I send them an email with all sold items daily? That's a bit of a pain.

Do they have to ship everyday? I'd say with 10 orders a week they wouldn't have to go out everyday. I think it'd be easier to just send an email once or twice a week to them if you really didn't want to give this person your ebay info rather than set everything up with a fulfillment house imo.

When my friends ecom biz was much smaller and we both were away that's what he did (just let another friend handle things). It worked out great for him.

 

[biophase]

This was my initial idea. I have a few people willing to help out. However, I don't want them to have access to my ebay account... Maybe I'll just give it to them. Should I care? Or should I send them an email with all sold items daily? That's a bit of a pain.

If you don't want them to have that access, then it's the wrong person for you. How can you have a company where you don't trust someone that you hire? Train him to login and look at the orders and ship them out. He will need access to manage feedback, shipping questions, etc...

Pay them what you think it's worth for your time. Fulfillment houses will be alot more expensive.