The Art of Shipping Well
With the recent delivery challenges brought about by high parcel demand and the largest uptick in online sales ever seen, the subject of shipping has been on people’s minds more than ever before, especially here at Edgington Studio where we regularly ship our American-made sewn goods across the country. Despite this renewed focus on a core element of how businesses connect with consumers, most individuals remain unaware of the intricacies of how the various services work or which shipping options work best with the particular items needing transport. To help address that, today we will be talking about some of the most important things to understand when it comes to shipping. Whether you are a business owner seeking better profit margins or a customer who likes to be in the know, it never hurts to be more aware of the processes that affect our daily lives!
Let’s start with the most important element of shipping, one that affects both customers and businesses to the greatest extent: cost. While there is of course a great deal of fluctuation in prices when it comes to shipping (indeed, most services have just announced price increases as I write this), one thing that is consistently true is that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is by far the cheapest way to ship most packages. Knowing this simplifies the shipping process to some extent, though there are still many decisions to be made: which of the many USPS services is best? Is my package too large or heavy to qualify for the service I want? The USPS knows how complex their own systems are, so they offer a few options to simplify things: for packages under 13 ounces, you can send items First Class Mail, which is not only incredibly affordable but also eligible for delivery confirmation or insurance for a small fee. If it’s above 13 ounces, the options open up significantly, though the USPS tends to push customers toward small, medium, or large flat rate boxes due to their pricing simplicity. These boxes each have one rate no matter the weight (within reason) or destination, so they tend to be quite popular with customers. However, while they are simple, they are by no means the cheapest way to get your packages safely to their destination.
What many people don’t know is that there are several “hidden” services that aren’t advertised by the postal service. You might wonder what the point of “hidden” services are. After all, don’t people need to know about a service before they can even use it? You would be correct, though they are hidden specifically because the USPS makes more money if you use their flat rate shipping services and not these other more complex shipping options. The three most important of the hidden services are media mail, regional rate shipping, and priority cubic shipping. While all three have many intricacies to them, here are the basics: media mail is a discounted way of shipping things classified as media, to include books, CDs, DVDs, films, and educational materials, and you can use any type of packaging you like to ship it. Prices are quite low, and tracking is included for free, though a notable downside is the somewhat slow delivery speed (tends to be anywhere from 2-8 days, with no guarantees). Regional rate shipping is a service that allows you to send anything and prices your package entirely based on “zones” according to its origin and destination, offering a flat fee with free tracking no matter what it is so long as it fits in the box and isn’t over a certain weight for the specific box type (15 lbs for the smaller Regional Rate Box A or 20 lbs for the larger Regional Rate Box B as of the time of writing). Regional rate boxes are an incredibly convenient way to mail things quickly and cheaply over long-distances, though because of their “secret” status, you can only order the boxes for them through USPS.com and purchase the postage for them online. Finally, priority cubic shipping is the most secret of all, and with good reason: it is not only delivered at the high speeds of priority mail (1-3 days) with free tracking and insurance, but is also incredibly affordable compared to all other shipping alternatives. While you can use your own packaging if you wish, there are several free boxes that qualify with priority cubic you can order from USPS.com to keep your costs even lower. Just as there are many benefits to using this method, there are complicating factors too: no package dimensions can exceed 18 inches, the package must be under 20 lbs, and you have to determine which cubic shipping tier your item falls into based on its length, width, and height (though calculators exist to help with this). To top it off, this service is only usually available to large-scale shippers, though this can be circumvented by buying postage through subscription shipping services like Stamps.com, or with fee-free shipping services like PirateShip.com.
Despite all that we have discussed, we have to this point only talked about what you can do with USPS. The nice thing is that knowing the best USPS services is most of the battle, and there are a few very simple ways to know if you should use either UPS or FedEx instead:
If you have a very heavy package (over 20 lbs), you should strongly consider using UPS, as it has the best rates for big, bulky packages and is usually a far better deal than USPS Ground.
If you have a package that absolutely must reach its destination by a guaranteed date, your only choice is to use a FedEx service like OneRate, as it is the only shipping company that guarantees delivery by specific times. However, FedEx is almost always the most expensive way to ship, so using them on a regular basis will certainly take money out of your pocket.
If your package is under 20 lbs and doesn’t necessarily need guaranteed delivery within a day or two, it is always best to use one of the “secret” USPS services outlined previously.
Feeling intimidated by such a complex system is entirely natural, and the best way to combat that sensation of being lost is by learning! While this blog post covers the high points of shipping, you may have more questions before you feel comfortable doing this yourself. To aid in this, please feel free to check out the links below to get a better feel for how you too can master the art of shipping well. We here at the Studio learned all of this the hard way, so we hope this article and the links make your journey a faster and easier one. We wish you the best of luck in your efforts, and don’t forget to double-tape your box corners!
Additional Learning:
Everything You Need to Know About USPS First Class Shipping: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-are-the-Types-of-First-Class-Mail#Basic_pricing
All Prices for USPS Shipping Services: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/notice123.htm#_c031
Free Shipping Boxes and Supplies from USPS: https://store.usps.com/store/results/free-shipping-supplies/shipping-supplies/_/N-alnx4jZ7d0v8v
Media Mail Rates: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/notice123.htm#_c059
Figuring out Zones for Regional Rate Boxes: https://postcalc.usps.com/DomesticZoneChart
More Information about Priority Cubic Shipping: https://www.pirateship.com/usps/priority-mail-cubic
A List of the Free USPS Boxes You Can Use with Priority Cubic Shipping: https://support.pirateship.com/en/articles/1831755-free-usps-mailing-boxes-for-priority-mail-cubic
A Comparison of UPS and USPS: https://www.easyship.com/blog/ups-vs-usps-prices
FedEx Rates, particularly their OneRate program: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/one-rate.html#prices-and-packing
