Setting a Packing/Shipping Schedule

The first thing you want to do is get yourself out of the "do everything right now" syndrome. Novice eBay sellers hover over their computer screens or mail boxes, waiting for payments to come in. As soon as that payment arrives, they rush to send out a confirmation email, print an invoice, and pack the merchandise. Then they hop in the car and drive as fast as possible to the post office, stand in line, and ship the thing out.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

You should not put yourself at the mercy of your customers. Instead, you should work your customer sales into your routine.

That means, of course, that you have to establish a routinea schedule that you follow for all your packing and shipping. If your sales volume is low and your time free, it's okay to pack and ship once a day. But do it at the same time each day, on an appropriate schedule. If your mail arrives around noon, for example, set 2:00 p.m. as your packing/shipping time; that gives you time to process all payments received in that day's mail. When 2:00 p.m. rolls around, gather all the orders that are ready to go and start packing. When you're donearound 3:00 p.m., let's sayyou head down to the post office with your daily delivery.

You don't have to ship every day, however. Many high-volume eBay sellers ship only a few days out of the week so that they're not wasting time traveling to the post office every day. You may choose to ship all your packages on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for exampleor maybe just Tuesday and Friday. Whatever days you choose, you let your paid orders build up until your scheduled shipping day and then get your shipping done all at once.

Creating a Packing Assembly Line

What you don't want is to have your routine interrupted. That means not running out of tape or peanuts or having to rush out and purchase a special box just for that one special item. (Which is yet another reason, of course, to standardize the items you sell.) The smoother the process (and the fewer interruptions), the faster you can get everything packed and ready to ship.

Getting It There

When it comes to shipping your items, be prepared. If you use the U.S. Postal Service for shipping, try to time your visits so that you don't have to stand in long lines. That means avoiding lunch hour and the last half hour or so before closing; avoiding Mondays and Saturdays; and avoiding peak shipping periods around major holidays, such as Christmas and Valentine's Day. Early morning and mid-afternoon are typically low-volume times at the post office window.

If you have a lot of packages to ship, don't go to the post office by yourselftake a helper. If large shipments are common, invest in a small hand truck to help you cart all those boxes to the counter.

And if you avail yourself of eBay's prepaid shipping label option, you don't have to stand in line at the post office at all. You can have your packages picked up by your local postal delivery person, orif you still have to make the trip to the post officedrop off your prepaid packages without having to wait in line. This is where the prepaid shipping option becomes a real time-saver.

Arranging Regular Pickups

The more items you sell, the more you ship. The larger and more successful your eBay business gets, the more burdensome the whole shipping process getsand all those trips to the post office become especially time-consuming.

As you become a heavy shipper, consider setting up an account with a single shipper and arranging daily pickups from your home. This is easy enough to do if you print your own prepaid postage labels because you can have your mail person pick up all your packages when he or she makes normal rounds.