happy holidays - tree pattern, set of 8, by in-vita paper studio

Welcome to Arts and crafts Venture "" business and marketing tips for indie online business owners. Similar me! Im Brenda, owner of Phydeaux Designs on Etsy and 1000 Markets, and Phydelle Designs on Etsy. This week, nosotros continue our focus on the busiest retail season:  the holidays. In item, this week is about aircraft around the world "" cardinal to a strong retail season!

I'll  never forget the intermingled joy and terror I experienced when I saw my first order from outside the United states of america. Joy and glee, because WOW, people on the other side of the globe would be wearing my scarves! Absolute terror, considering I had no inkling what to do next. What I did was to immerse myself in an international shipping crash course. That lasted until the point that I finally broke down and signed up for Endicia so that I could more than easily ship first course, and thereby changed my entire life as a small business concern owner.

Gauge what? Aircraft, even around the earth, isn't that hard! I am going to share a few key tips and tricks for you, along with resources that you lot may continue to refer to. If I tin exercise this, trust me, you can do this!

I should offset by apologizing to our international readers, because I don't know about your postal and shipping systems. I tin only talk nearly the USPS (United States Postal Service). I would dearest it if y'all would talk nearly your country's system in the comments!

Unless your business concern is entirely digital or service based (eastward.g., digital downloads, online consulting, graphic design), chances are, you will need to ship products to customers. Step back i moment and think from a heir-apparent's perspective. How do you want your package(s) to make it? Unbroken? Secure? Do you want a pretty and unique package? Do you want your jewelry in a well padded box? How do you want your glass items to go far? Do you desire your prints and photos to arrive unbent? Do you desire cheap shipping or are you more interested in fast/express shipping? Is signing for a delivery a nightmare for you, with workday obligations?

vintage black postal scale by hindsvik

Now back to your seller's perspective. Did thinking through the previous questions change your current thinking about shipping at all? I call up about aircraft as a goal: where do yous want your item to go, and how practise you get at that place? If you know how you lot, every bit a buyer, would want your particular to make it and know, equally a seller, where you need to ship to, then it's simply a matter of doing a petty research about your shipping options so you know how to go from signal A (sitting in forepart of your figurer, looking at an order that just came in) to bespeak B (a condom arrival of your particular plus a happy customer).

What do y'all need to know in lodge to ship outside the US? The weight of each detail (for the customs grade) and the overall final weight of your package. If you lot use priority or express shipping, yous don't necessarily need the final weight of your package, as long as information technology doesn't exceed the weight limit of the priority package/envelope you're using. Here are ii cardinal things related to your item weights:

Weigh your detail before yous list/upload y'all r detail! In response to my call for shipping tips and tricks via Twitter, Kate from girlsavage said, " Get a digital calibration then y'all tin weigh packages & look up postage on USPS.com before listing." Postal scales, whether digital or non-digital, are essential. Unless you ship priority only, your detail's and packet'south weights make up one's mind the price of your postage stamp! You can find an cheap calibration at any office supply store or on good old eBay. You don't demand a huge or expensive scale, just one that weighs at to the lowest degree as much as your packaged particular(s).

Regularly test your scale's accuracy. Find an object with a known, unchanging weight. Weigh information technology using your scale – if your scale is off a piffling, adjust it so that the weight matches that object. And round up if your package looks similar it'south a little over the ounce mark. Ameliorate to be safe than sorry!

So you lot accept your weight. What now? Become to the USPS website, which yous should bookmark and refer to oft. Then wait for "calculate postage stamp" on the top toolbar. Now y'all can check domestic and international shipping rates, and even compare rates based on service used. Below are the rates for an 8 oz. envelope shipped to Australia.

USPS shipping options for Australia

Oh, look! Each service has a dissimilar price, depending on which column you lot're looking at. Why's that? If you lot purchase your postage online, you lot pay less. I'll say it again. You pay less. I don't know virtually you, but being able to do all my shipping, including paying postage stamp, from the comfort of my home, is invaluable! Add together in discounted shipping for doing so? I'm at that place! Plus, I relieve money on gas, reduce wasted time waiting in lines, and have more fourth dimension to create and market!

You will relieve the aforementioned corporeality of coin past service using the USPS' Click-Northward-Ship, Stamps.com, Endicia or Paypal. Well, that'south non really true, considering just Endicia includes international start class shipping! You lot may use the others for international priority or express shipping, but not kickoff class.

When you summate postage for your item's shipping expense, base your aircraft on several zones:  Us (domestic), Puerto Rico (too domestic), Canada, Mexico, and for many items, the balance of the world tin be based on Australia'due south shipping rates. Check the rates for your item items, based on blazon of service and weight. In my Etsy shop, I've fix my shipping based on weight:  2 oz, 3 oz, 4 oz, all the mode upwards to eight oz, and so 12 oz (the next level in Endicia). Since doing this, I've non yet concluded upward losing money on shipping. I sometimes refund a customer a dollar or so, but I'one thousand on the mark xc% of the time!

Using Endicia saved my life as a pocket-size business possessor. With a fulltime day job, I don't have the luxury of existence able to go to my postal service office in lodge to ship. I was shipping priority in order to ship internationally, which is expensive for my customers! I now weigh my final package using my trusty not-digital scale, open up Endicia, fill up in the details, including my customs paperwork, triple check that I've non made a mistake, impress, slap it on my package, and and then do i of several things:

. Schedule a pickup via the USPS (they'll pick it right upwards from my front pace)

. Drop it off in the blue USPS mailbox that's on the way to work (yous can practice that for international orders nether xiii oz and with purchased postage – if you put a bunch of stamps on at that place, it volition get returned – I've learned this before the hard mode)

. Drop it off at the APC that's on the manner habitation from work if it'south too big to fit in the drop off box or heavier than xiii oz.

. Drop it off at my local post office on my way to other errands.

Withal on the debate?

Also in response my call for shipping advice, Lisa Souza, said, " Endicia for Mac makes it super piece of cake for the USPS. They volition handle the insurance at a better rate." Proficient to know you tin can utilize Endicia for both Macs and PCs.

Lisa Salamida, from Savor Soap, graciously gave me permission to permit yous all know about some swell tutorials she created for using Endicia (you'll find these helpful even if yous sell on a venue other than Etsy). Click on the screen shot or link below to become picket!

international first class shipping video by savor soap

Oh, in that location's so much more I want to tell you about aircraft internationally! Please be certain to read the customs regulations to new countries that y'all're shipping to! And please delight fill out your customs forms accurately "" don't mark your wares as gifts or at less than what a client paid, in order to relieve your client duties and taxes. If yous intermission postal regulations, you're breaking federal law ""yikes!

Let me know what other questions you lot have about international shipping in the comments! We may need to do a office two next week! Too, please share with the states your ain tips and tricks. Do you lot impress your postage from home? Is it worth doing so? And let u.s.a. know if you ship internationally at present – or if yous don't! If yep, has doing and so increased business for you? If not, what's holding you back?

Paradigm credits:  1. Happy holidays – tree blueprint, set up of viii, by in-vita paper studio; 2. Vintage black postal scale, by hindsvik; 3. Video tutorial for using Endicia for first class shipping, past bask soap