Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am way behind in this sublect and could use some direction / eductaion.

I make outdoor furnishings, sturdy, stable and by default heavy. my peices sell from a few hundred dollars. I`d like to expand my use of craigslist and even consider ebay to sell products, however how do I ship a product thats only a couple hundred bucks any distance, the shipping cost could be in the hundreds!

Along the same lines I`d like to consider getting a "reseller" program off the ground but again how to economically ship product.

I can`t be the only person facing this, but in all my years in manufacturing I never even considered "Traffic".

Any help would be great.

Oh and Have a productive labor day weekend, I`m sure most of you, like me, will be working as if it was just another weekend.

Stan

 

 

Can you give a little more information about what you need to ship?  For example, how much does each piece weigh and what are the dimensions?  Do you reside in the US?  Do you plan to ship to other countries?  Also how many items will be shipped at one time to a single location?  Finally how many items do you plan to ship per day?

 

I will be happy to give you my two cents if I can learn a little more about what you are shipping…

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Bert at Harvey Software, Inc.
Multi-Carrier Shipping Software and Supply Chain Solutions for Internet Retailers

Also a provider of free shipping information and resources at Harvey Software`s Parcel Shipping Blog along with free tracking solutions at TrackingPage.com...

well as I said I make outdoor furnishings, my product line is expanding but at present the largest sellers are picnic tables 2 basic designs, the standard is 6 ft wide and can be 6,8, or 10 ft long, the 6ft weighs about 150 lb`s, the 10 ft weighs about 450 lbs. I have re-designed them so they can be palletized making the height about 20" plus a pallet. the octagon tables are basiclly 3 pieces 2 are 8` long 20" high and 48" wide 1 is 62" round (basiclly). again I`ve redesigned it so it can be palletized. the octagon weighs at least 500 lb`s.

I also make garden swings, 60 long, 40 wide, 40 high. weigh about 150 lb`s.I have`nt redesigned for shipment.

adarondak chairs, tete`a`tete`s etc.

just introduced a line of outhouse based bars, and barbque buddies, which weigh around 200 lb`s., can be palletized 3` wide, 7` long, and 10" high.

I would expect ebay and craigslist sales to all be "one at a time", the reseller program hopefully would be more, but the idea is just a kernel at the moment so details are sketchy.

As far as qty, I really have no idea how to gauge that, considering the whole country, 24 hr exposure. then there is the brand following that is basiclly local word of mouth presently but hopefully would grow.

I don`t know if any of this info helps, but any help you can offer puts me miles ahead of where I am now.

 

Stan

Are you located in the US and do you feel most of your customers will also be located there?

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Bert at Harvey Software, Inc.
Multi-Carrier Shipping Software and Supply Chain Solutions for Internet Retailers

Also a provider of free shipping information and resources at Harvey Software`s Parcel Shipping Blog along with free tracking solutions at TrackingPage.com...

Yes, I am located in southern New Jersey, and exect sales to be limited to the US.

From what you have told me you appear to need an LTL type service.  If you do not recognize the term, LTL means Less Than Truckload (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less_than_truckload).  Even though my main expertise lies mainly in parcel shipping (UPS, FedEx and USPS), many of the companies we do business with use LTL services.  In fact, many times our products are used where both parcels and low volumes of LTL services are processed.  Regardless of the fact that LTL is not our main area of expertise, I think I can get you started down the right path knowing what many of our customers do with LTL shipments.

 

Since all your parcels appear to need LTL services, I would consider contacting some of the following carriers and talk to them about pricing.  They will all deal with you depending on the level of volume you are willing to commit to.  Just remember you are better off to be conservative in volume estimates when entering into contracts with these vendors.  You can always negotiate a sliding scale that gets better in price as your volume increases.  Some good vendors to start with include:

 

http://www.roadway.com/

http://www.myyellow.com/

http://www.fedex.com/us/freightportal/

http://ltl.upsfreight.com/

 

If your volumes are not there yet to get a good deal you might also consider using an Internet service like http://www.uship.com.  These are new services but they look like they might have merit for small start up companies and lower volume shippers.  You might want to consider starting with them and as you grow move to contracts with the LTL carriers if you do not have ample volume at first to get a good deal.  Other services like this can be found by searching Google using the keyword “LTL shipping”.

 

One other point is that I would let them know you are shopping around as you negotiate the best deal.

 

Good luck and I hope this helps.

 

A final note: You might want to update your profile on SuN to include your web site and look into the Marketplace.  There are a lot of people that all need furniture that frequent SuN.

 

Regards,

Bert

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Bert at Harvey Software, Inc.
Multi-Carrier Shipping Software and Supply Chain Solutions for Internet Retailers

Also a provider of free shipping information and resources at Harvey Software`s Parcel Shipping Blog along with free tracking solutions at TrackingPage.com...

Thank you so much, You have actually helped more than you can know.

Stan

Yea great feed back , helped me out too