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How to Cut Postage and Packing Costs in Your eBay Business

Many eBay sellers consider it wrong to make money by overcharging on delivery fees. The rule is, you must either give or offer to give exact information to potential bidders about postage and packing fees before they place their bid. It's best to charge the exact cost of materials and postage or slightly more to cover time, staff assistance, travel to the post office. Buyers expect that.

But fail to provide delivery costs in your listing and, if the buyer also fails to ask costs in advance, then someone's going to get very cross indeed if you slap £6 for delivery on an item that arrives next day with a first class stamp.

Like many PowerSellers I don’t believe in making money on postage costs. But based on the theory that 'A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned' there’s nothing wrong in seeking ways to cut your delivery costs and add more money to your bank account.

THESE TIPS WILL HELP

* Cut costs on packing materials. Buy on the local high street and you won't get discounts on multi-buys plus in the EU you'll pay VAT on top. Buy at large office supplier outlets and the more you buy, the more you'll save. Cut the VAT element by buying from non-registered sellers on eBay, for example, or buy second hand or liquidated stock at boot sales and flea markets. Buy as much as you can afford, as often as you can, of items you know you'll quickly consume. But don't tie all your money up in packaging so there's no money left to buy stock or pay your eBay fees. Be sensible.

* Learn to pack properly using as little material as possible. But don't cut corners; skimp too much and your package will fall apart or be damaged in the post. Not good for your customer, not good for you, highly damaging for your business, and costly in terms of having to replace product and tackling disgruntled buyers. Oh yes and managing poor feedback scores!

* Do not forget to change delivery costs in line with increases in postage and packing and other fulfillment costs. Changes in postage can be a nightmare, especially if you list hundreds of items from templates you've use for some time. When postage costs increased recently, my PowerSeller daughter decided to wait, just a while - which in her book means 'never' - until she had time to spare to upgrade all 1,000 of her regular listings. She waited and waited and over several months she charged 60p per item when even the basic cost was 80p each. Work that 20p out over 400 items a month, over six months. Yes, exactly right, £480, almost £1000 over the year.

* Save time - yes, time is money, too - by packing 'like' items together with all essential materials, including stamps, close by. Just a minute or so spent chopping and changing materials for different products adds up to a lot of wasted time.