hey everyone welcome back to my channel
if you're new here
my name is erica and i make videos all
about making and selling candles
if you're interested in checking out
what my etsy shop looks like or if you
want to see any of my merch designs go
ahead and check out the first links in
the description box below
today's video is really exciting it is
going to be a
shipping 101 video so anybody that is
getting started
with their handmade business i am going
to be taking you guys through
exactly what you need to know when it
comes to shipping
my last video that i did back in
february of this year
was a good video to learn how to ship
candles
but i didn't really go into depth as
much as i really
should have so in today's video i have a
bunch of notes written down
and i know exactly what i want to talk
about with you guys so let's go ahead
and get right into the video
also stay tuned to the end of this video
i will be answering some frequently
asked questions that i received on my
last shipping video
so if you guys watch through this
portion of the video and you still have
some questions stay tuned to the end
because i might answer your question at
the end of the video
so there are a few different shipping
services that you can purchase labels
from and ship your items through
such as usps fedex and ups
i personally like usps i feel like they
handle the packages
the best and also they have the cheapest
shipping rates for us
available and that's just my personal
opinion so all throughout this video i
will be talking about usps labels
so there are two main ways that you can
ship out your packages
through usps the first one is first
class mail
the second one is priority mail you are
only able to use
first class mail if your package weighs
under a pound
so anything that weighs under a pound
you can ship first class
i personally choose to ship any of my
first class items through something like
this so this
is just a poly mailer or a poly bag you
can find these on amazon or
ebay or you can even get some custom
ones made
this is just a 9 by 12 inch poly mailer
and it works really well
for shipping out my wax melts as well as
one of my little
6 ounce 10 candles first class is
definitely the way to go i would never
recommend
for somebody who has a package that
weighs maybe
six or seven ounces to ship through
priority mail
you are wasting your money you're
throwing it away definitely always ship
first class if it weighs under a pound
when you go to purchase a first class
shipping label
you have to enter the dimensions of the
package as well as
the weight of the package for them to
give you an accurate price
based on where it's going to so first
class is
zone based meaning that in proximity
from where you are
to where the recipient is matters so the
farther away they are
the more it's gonna cost the closer they
are to you the cheaper it's gonna cost
also never try to cheat the system if
it's like a tiny bit over a pound
and you think you can get away with
shipping first class the
post office will catch you and they will
either charge
you or they will charge your customer
when they go to pick up the package
so it's a lose-lose for everybody always
make sure that you are weighing out your
packages before you purchase the label
all right so now we are going to be
talking about priority mail priority
has a few different layers to it more
than just first class mail
first class is pretty simple priority is
where it gets a little bit complicated
but i really hope that i can try to make
this as simple for you guys as possible
so something i forgot to mention about
first class shipping is that it is
two to three days to be delivered to
your customer with priority mail
it is one to three days to be delivered
to your customer
so within priority mail you can ship
either through just
regular priority mail priority mail
express
priority mail flat rate priority mail
regional rate boxes or priority mail
cubic i know that sounds like a lot but
we'll break down
everything and exactly how the shipping
works on all of them
so for regular priority mail if you're
shipping just
regular priority mail you will be
measuring out the dimensions of your
package as well as the weight of your
package
it is also zone based just like first
class shipping
the regular priority mail will also be
zone based shipping so
the further away it is it will be more
expensive the closer it is to you
it will be less expensive now i get a
lot of questions on
what boxes can you use to ship out
priority mail packages in
pretty much anything with a few
exceptions
so i have some examples right here for
you guys
you can ship it out in just a regular
brown box that you purchase off of uline
or ebay or
anything like that you can also use
white boxes as well i always get that
question
can you is it just a brown box you could
use or could you use a white box too
you could use a purple box or a rainbow
box it doesn't matter you can use
you know basically any kind of box that
will have dimensions that you can put in
that is how you will be inputting your
package dimensions
something else to note is if you guys go
on usps.com
you guys can order free boxes the catch
is that it has to be priority so if you
have seen these boxes before that have
this little
priority mail logo on there that means
that you have to put a priority mail
shipping label on top of this package
you cannot ship first class
so that is definitely something to note
there but also another thing to note
about
this box right here is that it is not
labeled specifically for any type of
priority mail service
there's no express label there's no
regional label there's no flat rate
label
it's just a regular priority box
obviously it's flat and i haven't opened
it yet
but this basically just tells you that
you can ship regular priority with this
box
um and all you have to do is just put in
the dimensions of the box
and the weight of the box and you are
good to go with my small candle business
i actually typically don't use
just regular priority mail to ship out
any of my packages
i just found that it gets really
expensive even if you are just shipping
something that weighs only one to two
pounds
can really get pretty pricey the further
away the customer is to you
so that is definitely something to take
into consideration priority mail express
is something that you will probably
not really use very often um unless you
have a customer that is looking to get
something
really really fast i did have a customer
one time
who contacted me they lived i believe
either in new jersey or new york i live
in california so it was all the way
across the country
and they messaged me on a wednesday at 3
30
asking if i would be able to ship out a
candle to them and if it could arrive by
friday
i really really wanted to help her out
it was for her birthday
so i ran out i packaged up the package
as
well as i could and i put it into a
padded flat rate express envelope
and that basically is just like
overnight shipping
essentially so it actually was able to
get to her
by friday from california so it was
really cool
it was about 25 or 26 dollars to ship
out in that envelope
so it is really expensive and all
obviously not something that you would
use
all the time but it is a good option in
those instances where you are trying to
get something shipped out
really quickly the next option through
priority mail shipping is something
called
flat rate shipping so essentially what
that is
is it takes away the zones and you are
just paying for one price to fit
anything inside of that box or envelope
and the saying is if it fits it ships
so for instance something like this this
is a
medium flat rate box this ships to
anywhere in the country
for 13.60 and it is
pretty large so depending on how big
your candles are
you could fit probably about six to
eight candles in here
and ship just that one order to one
person
for only thirteen dollars and sixty
cents which is a pretty good price
and obviously this could be either a
cheaper option or a more expensive
option
just depending on what you are selling
so for instance if you are only shipping
one candle
you wouldn't want to use a box this huge
to ship out just that one candle
so it is something to consider that
there are other alternatives that might
be better for you
um something that i would probably
recommend for you guys to check out
is a priority mail padded flat rate
envelope
i typically have so many on me but i
don't right now so i will pop up a
picture right here so you guys will be
able to see it
and this is really nice because you're
actually able
to fit a box inside of this padded flat
rate envelope
so for instance if you have tried to
ship something
like this size right here so this is a
four by four by six box
and if you try to use something like
priority mail to ship this
out in with a two pound candle it would
cost you probably maybe
14 15 16 depending on where it's
shipping to
but you could put this box inside of the
paddock flat right envelope
and only ship it for about eight dollars
and fifteen cents
and save you so much money so that's
just kind of a little trick
for you guys and something that i've
learned along the way there's a bunch of
little tricks that you guys can try to
do to get the cheapest price
possible when you are shipping something
out like a candle
which is typically a small heavy package
also something to note with the flat
rate boxes and envelope
you do have to specifically choose that
option when you
are printing out the shipping label so
you have to choose that as an option
and most of the time you don't have to
choose the
dimensions or the weight maybe you do
have to input the weight
but it typically won't affect it it
won't affect the price
as long as it's under 70 pounds so
priority mail can only go up to 70
pounds
but most of the time we won't be filling
up something like this
with something that weighs over 70
pounds the next option for priority mail
shipping is something called regional
rate shipping so
it's something that looks like this if
you guys have ever ordered from candle
signs before they ship a lot of their
fragrance oils
and supplies within this box and for
good reasons
this box can save you a lot of money
again depending on what you're shipping
and depending on where it's going to so
regional rate boxes there's a couple
different sizes that you can get from
usps.com
they are free boxes so you guys can go
on there and order them
but when you are shipping through the
regional rate box
it is zone based so they have their
specific
prices depending on where the zone is so
again
it's the same thing if they live further
away from you
it's going to be more expensive the
closer they live to you
the cheaper it's going to be so you guys
can kind of see the zones and the
pricing
for the boxes on both the regional rate
a boxes
and the regional rate b boxes for me
personally i actually have been using
this kind of box a lot more frequently
than i used to i used to never use this
box
because to be completely honest i didn't
know how it worked and i didn't know
that it would actually save me any money
and it definitely does i'm able to ship
this box with i could probably fit two
candles
wax melts whatever it is in here i can
fit a lot of stuff in here
and it can ship for a pretty good price
i've been able to ship a lot of stuff to
my sister in nevada before
and it was only about eight to nine
dollars so it was a really good price to
ship it
um not that far of a distance away from
me but still a good amount
and i was able to save a lot more money
using these boxes
also just like with the flat rate boxes
you want to make sure that when you are
printing out the label
that you are specifically choosing the
regional rate
option either box a or box b depending
on what you are using
so that the label matches what the
priority mail box is intended for
and the last priority mail option that
i'm going to be talking about with you
guys is something that i discussed
a lot in my last shipping video and that
is priority
mail cubic shipping so this was pretty
new to me when i first found out about
it however if you typically
ship out small heavy packages this might
be
the best option for you when it comes to
shipping out your candles
so the unique thing about priority mail
cubic is that the weight doesn't matter
as much as the size of the box so that's
where cubit comes in
it's just based on how much cubic volume
that the box is and that is how it is
being shipped so the bigger the box
the more expensive it's going to be the
smaller the box the cheaper it's going
to be
priority mode cubic is also zone-based
shipping as well
so you do have to take that into
consideration and that's why a lot of
times when you're trying to figure out
what is going to be the cheapest option
for you it can depend on so many
different variables
how close the customer is to you that
would depend on
whether or not a flat rate option would
be cheaper a regional rate option would
be cheaper
or priority mail cubic option would be
cheaper so when you are wanting
to ship through priority mail cubic it's
all based on the dimensions of the box
so
once you enter in the dimensions it will
give you
your tier so your cubic tier which
basically just gives you
um on whether or not your package is
going to be cheaper or more expensive so
the bigger the box the more expensive
the smaller the box the cheaper it's
going to be
depending on where it is shipping to in
the country so in my last shipping video
i talked a lot about pirate ship because
it kind of amazed me that you were able
to use something called priority mail
cubic
and if you guys don't know what pirate
ship is it's basically just a
web-based shipping software where you
can print out shipping labels
it it has integrations with etsy and
shopify
and probably a bunch of different type
of ecommerce websites if you have that
and you're able to import data from your
customers and use pirate ship to get the
discounts that they have
i had so many people on my last video
tell me that you aren't able to use
priority mail cubic
unless you are shipping out multiple
orders
in huge quantities and that
you aren't able to use it as an option
because they called usps to get that
option or they went in to use that
and you aren't able to walk into a usps
or um go online to usps.com and use
the priority mail cubic option and i
think that's what confuses a lot of
people
so the way that i use priority mail
cubic is through
pirate ships so pirate ship is just a
web-based
shipping software and they just allow
you to get
the best discounts on usps labels
they don't up charge you they don't add
in extra fees or cost there's no monthly
charge it's fantastic and that is how
i'm able to
get that priority mail cubic option now
the one downfall to using pirate ship
for
some reason if you guys are using four
by four by four
boxes they don't allow you to put in
that
as a dimension it says that it's too
small so
i don't necessarily know what that's all
about but just so you guys know
um that if you are using a four by four
by four
inch box that it won't allow you to
purchase a
label for that again i don't know why um
but in that circumstance if you guys
are using that size box just put it
inside
of a padded flat rate envelope you're
probably going to save more money
because it's just a flat rate no matter
where it's going and
it will be able to fit inside there and
ship to anywhere and the last thing to
note with priority mail cubic
is that you are able to use any
brown box white box just like with
regular priority mail
you can use any of these boxes for a
priority mail cubic
you can also just use the uh
plain priority mail boxes that you can
get for free on usps
so like this box right here that i said
that it doesn't have
any other type of flat rate or regional
rate or express or anything on here it's
just
regular priority mail the only thing
about this one though is i believe that
it measures over 18 inches long
and priority mail cubic you cannot have
one of the length of dimensions to be
over 18 inches so as long as none of the
dimensions
are over 18 inches you can use priority
mail cubic so if you guys are wondering
if your package would be beneficial to
using priority mail cubic you can use
the calculator on pirateship.com
so i will leave a link in the
description box below so you guys can go
over there and check out the calculator
you just enter your dimensions and it
tells you what cubic tier you would be
under
and then you can go down to the list to
see kind of the range
maybe eight to thirteen dollars or
whatever it would cost you
for that cubic tier depending on where
you are shipping it in the country
it's really helpful to know um if you
guys are shipping out the same
type of size of packages to know kind of
the range that you're shipping would be
using that type of priority mail okay so
now it's time for the frequently asked
questions
portion of today's video so to be all
about shipping and i'm just going to be
answering
some questions that i get a lot when it
comes to shipping when you guys are
going into the post office with your
packages with the labels already on them
they are already pre-paid for you don't
typically have to wait in line unless
you prefer to get a receipt
i typically don't but if you want to you
can
when you go inside of post offices
typically they either have a really
large bin
that you can toss your packages into or
they have this huge like
metal pull down thing where you pull it
down you put in your packages
and you pull it up it's kind of a pain
sometimes it gets jammed but it's a nice
way without having to go and wait in
line and talk to people and pay for
things right there
so much easier to just have everything
paid for drop it off and you're good to
go
when you guys are entering the weight
and the dimensions of a package
make sure that it is the complete weight
and package of everything together
so if you guys are shipping something
out put everything
in here so your candle your samples your
whatever else you're putting in there
your tissue paper your bubble wrap
whatever it is
and put it on a scale so take this box
with everything on it
put it on a scale and that is going to
be the number that you guys are entering
into the shipping label option before
you purchase it
the same thing is true for poly mailers
for first class shipping as well i
always get this question
and rightfully so so a lot of people are
asking me when you enter the dimensions
for a poly mailer
is it when it's laying flat or after
you've
closed it and it looks more like this
depending on what you're shipping a lot
of times mine look like this
so it's when it looks like this so this
is a nine by um
a nine by 12 or a 12 by nine or whatever
and i typically put
a 12 by nine by two i don't know why
this isn't two inches
this is like tiny tiny amount but most
of the time they have you put
length times width times height so i
typically do 12 by nine by two
and i'm able to ship it just fine and
when you guys are shipping first class
make sure that you guys are rounding up
so if i'm weighing out a package and
it's 12.3 ounces
i'm not gonna round down to 12 ounces
i'm gonna round up to 13 ounces now when
it comes to actually
printing out your shipping label this is
probably one of the most highly asked
questions that i get
how exactly do you do that do you need a
certain kind of printer do you need a
certain kind of paper
and absolutely not for the longest time
i was just using a
regular printer regular white paper and
it would print out and i would just
cut it out and then just tape it to the
outside of my box
so you don't have to worry about getting
any kind of special paper or printers
or ink or anything like that if you guys
have been in business for a while
and you do get quite a few orders i
would recommend for you guys to upgrade
to something
like a thermal label printer which
requires
no ink it's amazing and it has basically
it's a sticker
and you pull it off and it's a perfect
four by six
inch sticker label and all you do is
just
paste it onto your package and there's
no tape or cutting or anything it's
amazing
and it prints out super fast and you
don't have to worry about ink you just
have to worry about buying
the rolls for the label printer so i
highly recommend that i use something
called a dymo label printer
and it has worked pretty well for me
i have had a few issues with it but
lately it's actually been working
really really good i used to have a lot
more issues but it's been working really
good for me lately
so um i really like having that and um
that is absolutely not necessary for the
beginning but definitely
something later on in the future for you
guys to look into doing
i would highly recommend it a lot of
people have asked me when you go on
pirate ship
how do you choose a priority male cubic
label how do you
choose that as an option so what happens
on pirate ship is they're essentially
trying to give you the cheapest possible
option
with what you are giving them so with
the dimensions and the weight of the box
that you are using
they will calculate the cheapest option
for you so if the cheapest option
is priority mail cubic then you can go
ahead and print out that label
um unless you want to compare it to
other rates
so for instance i had found out that
when i was shipping out my candles in
this box which is a four by four by six
box
i was typically spending about maybe
eight to nine dollars on this box on
itself when i would put the label on the
box and ship it just like this
and telly found out that this box can
fit inside of a priority mail
padded flat rate envelope which as of
right now it's about eight dollars and
fifteen cents to ship out
which is cheaper than how much it was
costing me through priority mail cubic
so
that's just something else for you guys
to think about i know it can get
confusing
on i just want to be told you know
what's the cheapest way to ship it
you kind of have to do some
investigating because at certain points
priority mail cubic might be the
cheapest option and
at another time a regional rate a box
might be a cheaper option than priority
mail cubic so it really just depends and
that's just kind of how shipping is
there is no one size fits all there is
no
use this option all the time it's kind
of just playing around to
your personal items what you're shipping
and knowing these options and just kind
of going through and testing it out
you guys can create fake labels i do it
all the time on pirate ship
and just go through and try to choose
different options and see
what is going to be the cheapest option
for you i could talk honestly forever
about shipping
and boxes and different types of
services i really hope i didn't make
this confusing for you guys i really
tried to break it down
and then in this faq section i tried to
go a little bit more in depth with
questions that i
get um on kind of more of a regular
basis
so i really hope that this video helped
you guys out and it's a little bit
better than my last shipping video where
i barely talked about anything else
besides priority mail cubic
so if you guys like this video please
give this video a thumbs up
as well as subscribe to the channel if
you haven't already and don't forget to
follow me over on
instagram at memory box candleco and i
will see
you guys in the next video bye guys or
you can do a priority mail
priority mail cubic
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