USPS Shipping How to Compete with epacket

[RustyShackelford]

Hello All,
My question is pretty straightforward, is there any other option besides USPS first class packages to ship low weight items.
I sell items that weigh between 2oz and 10oz at most. I get the items for a great price, buts its impossible to compete with sellers from China due to their epacket delivery.
The cheapest it costs me so far is 1.69 to ship an item, I know for the same item it costs a Chinese seller .80 or less to ship via epacket and its coming from China or HK and it includes shipping for them! So after I spend on shipping to me then to the customer, I am out. Not fair in my opinion, but its the way the cookie crumbles.
Has anyone had luck shipping items with stamps? Is it worth it? Do you get heat for not having tracking info? All items are low cost items.

[vogeltron]

You really can't compete on price. All you can do is advertise that your items ship from within the US and arrive in a few days while items for China can take several weeks.

The only other option is possibly to sell your items in lots. Someone else mentioned this on another thread. I am not sure I don't use first class all that often. Like the price between 1 and 6 or 8 oz is the same I believe. So selling in a lot could reduce the burden if it is a item with low weight.

But the Chinese government subsidies those ePacket deliveries not really much you can do. Other than advertise that your items will arrive sooner and you are a US seller. Also possible sell multiple qty to reduce the burden of shipping costs. It might have changed but the lots of the Chinese deliveries don't have tacking either. I bought a few mouses for computers cheap from them. The sellers seem to have lots of negatives for not receiving items etc.

If you do decide to send with stamps you are just on the honor system. I use to sell like $1 sports cards that way for feedback. Never really had much problem. But if someone complains you are basically forced to reship another.

My advice would be to just stick to it. Most the Chinese sellers of those kind of goods end up running into problems because of DSRs. Slow shipping, never received items, etc. Not mention there margins have to be like so low it is crazy. 3-4% max on lots of items.

[rsot]

No cheaper option than USPS first class for you in the US unless you can get a sweet corporate deal with Fedex or UPS and even there, you would need huge volumes to get those

[Gamefreak]

you can try fedex smartpost but man is that thing slow.

[MM78]

Pigeon Carrier...

[GreenBean]

Pigeons work for peanuts.

Actually they work for corn.

Good choice

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by Gamefreak

you can try fedex smartpost but man is that thing slow.

Their rates went up too.

I use them sometimes.

They are costly.

[TonyAlmeida]

Originally Posted by rsot

No cheaper option than USPS first class for you in the US unless you can get a sweet corporate deal with Fedex or UPS and even there, you would need huge volumes to get those

There is one.

https://www.usps.com/business/parcel...ightweight.htm