Business Requirements and Helpful Hints
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By using AuthorSales.Com, you'll sidestep a lot
of the hassles and expense of setting up a full-blown Webstore for
yourself. But there are still supplies you'll need to have, tools
you'll almost certainly need, and several issues you'll need to
think over. Let's take a look.
What You'll Need to Run Your Mail-Order Business.
First and foremost, of course, you'll need products
(books and/or CDs, DVDs, toys, kitchen gadgets, etc.) to sell. And you'll need them in
stock. AuthorSales.Com is not designed to manage back-ordered
items. We'll do our best to track your reported inventory, but as
you might sell through other means, and as we have no way of confirming
your count, keeping tabs on your inventory is your responsibility.
Second, you'll need to be set up to ship your stock.
You'll need to maintain a supply of packing envelopes or boxes, shipping tape,
etc. Remember that your package and its contents are likely to be
all your customers ever see of you. Don't use scruffy, beat-up,
used boxes that might not protect the contents. Spend the extra few cents per
package to use quality shipping materials and a neat, professional-looking shipping label. Most of the large office-supply catalog
companies will print shipping labels with your return address for
very reasonable rates.
Even if you charge for shipping based on the number
of items ordered, ultimately you are almost certain to have to pay
for some or all of your shipping based on
weight. You'll need a postal scale that can
weigh the sizes of packages you'll normally send. You'll also need
scissors, tape dispensors, padding material, and so on. Have all
your shipping materials on hand before you need them. Don't
rush out the day an order comes in to buy them.
You'll need a private email address we can use to
contact you, and a public email address that will be posted on your
website. While you can use one address for both, it's probably a
good idea if you don't. While we'll take some basic steps to discourage
spammers, your public email address will be posted on a public website,
and therefore available to a spammer.
You'll also need a postal return address for shipping you'll be willing
to let your customers know about. We won't divulge the address information
you provided to us -- but you're going to have to put a return
address on your own packages. You might not want your customers to know
your home address, or you might not have a way to keep arriving
packages secure, or you might have some other reason for not using
your home address. You might well want to arrange for a P.O. box
address or a box number from one of the private companies that offer
this service.
Be sensible and professional about what address
you use and how you ship. If you have a day job, don't just slap
your work address on your packages unless you've cleared it ahead of
time. You don't want returned packages refused, and you don't want
your boss wondering if you're pretending that his company has opened
a new mail-order division. (And don't base your shipping business
on filching shipping supplies and postage from your employer!)
You'll need to keep business records, for lots of
reasons. Keep track
of who orders what, and when orders were shipped. If you have any
sort of database program, it probably came with a bunch of sample
and demo files, which likely include one suitable for tracking orders.
Or maybe you can just set up a routine of always printing
out your orders as they come in, and always filing the paper
copies. However, bear in mind that each order is giving you the
name and contact information of someone interested enough in your
items that they bought something. That's about the best sales prospect
list there is. You should gather that information in a form that
will let you use it later -- but use it in a way that conforms to
your privacy policy, and won't infuriate your paying customers.
Nice to Have
Use a word processing program to work up some sort of blank form into which you can
cut-and-paste the order information you'll receive via email. Print
up a clear, good-looking packing slip and include that inside the
order. If you stock other items that might be of interest to your
customer, run off some flyers promoting them, and include one with
each shipment.
If you ship via Parcel Post or Priority Mail, you'll
find life a lot easier with a Postal Zone Rate Chart. Click
on this link,
enter the first three digits of your zip code, and you'll get a
chart keyed to shipping from your location.
At present, our shipping-cost calculation system
is set up to handle shipment via U.S. Mail, which is typically the
most convenient and cost-effective choice for shipping smaller shipments
of books and similar-sized objects. Obviously enough, you'll therefore
need postage, either in the form of stamps in the right denominations,
or a postage meter, or perhaps an account with an online postage
provider.
Here are a few of the less-obvious issues involved
with shipping via U.S. Mail. Knowing these points ahead of time
will save you a lot of headaches.
- FoxAcre Press, the parent of AuthorSales.Com, has posted
a handy postal rate sheet in Acrobat PDF format that you
can get by clicking here.
Get it, print it out, and keep it where you can find it.
This USPS
Page will guide you to lots more rate pages.
- Be aware that you're only supposed to use metered postage
on the date it was printed. If you put metered postage on
a package on Tuesday, but don't ship it until Thursday,
you could wind up with problems if you run into a persnickity
clerk.
- If you do choose the
world-wide option shipping option, remember that you will be responsible for handling
all customs declaration forms and whatever other paperwork might
be required.
- Even if you are doing domestic-only shipping, bear in mind
that customs declarations forms are also normally
required to
U.S. Mail APO and FPO addresses.
- Security concerns will likely mean you can't just drop
a package with a book in it into your corner mailbox. You'll
have to hand your packages in at your post office,
hand them directly to your letter carrier, or (if your home
mail box is suitable) leave the packages in your home mail
box for collection. (Check with your letter carrier first!)
Make sure it's okay to do so before dropping your
outgoing packages off in the company mail room. Most
business won't mind, but some might take a dim view, even
if you're providing your own postage.
- The Media Mail rate (it used to be called the Book Rate) and
Bound Printed Matter rate are terrific bargains --
for packages that conform to the rules governing them. View
this USPS
Page to see the rules. If you're shipping items that
don't conform to the rules, you should add the more
expensive and complicated Parcel Post rate to your
site. If you're
only shipping items that conform to Media Mail/BPM rules, there's
not much point in offering Parcel Post. Note that you need
to check a box on the title submission form to indicate
whether or not a given item can be shipping via Media Mail
and/or BPM.
- Our rate calculations for Priority Mail are complicated
because the Priority Mail rates are complicated. For
shipments under a pound and shipments that will fit
in a flat-rate envelope, Priorty Mail postage is based strictly
on weight. However, heavier and larger packages have their
rates set on weight and on how far the item is
going.
- Here's how our system will (or at least should!) calculate
Priority Mail shipping rates. If the total order weighs
half a pound or less, it sets the shipping charge at $2.50.
If there is only one item in the your order, and the total
order weighs more than half a pound, and the item is
not marked as oversized, shipping charges are set to $4.00
-- and you should use a Priority Mail Flat-Rate Envelope
to ship the item. If there is more than one item, and the order weighs more
than half a pound, and/or the order includes at least one
oversized item, the system goes to a formula based on the
weight-and-distance rules. We've done our best to set up
a system that covers postage, plus just
a bit more to cover packing materials. In 99% of cases,
you should just about break even on your Priority Mail
shipping charges and maybe come out just a little bit ahead.
Once in a while, you might lose a few cents on shipping.
- Priority Mail is more or less an extension of the first-class
postage rate used to mail regular letters domestically. First-class
is for mail that weighs 13 ounces or less. Over 13 ounces, use
the Priorty Mail rate. Be sure to label each clearly. DON'T
label First Class as Priority, or vice versa, or your package
could be delayed or even refused.
- Priority Mail flat-rate envelopes are available for
free from your local Post Office. (That means you save the cost
of buying your own shipping envelopes when you ship using these envelopes.)
Postage for a Priority Mail flat-rate envelope costs $3.85. Basically,
you
can ship up to four pounds of whatever will fit into one
of these envelopes to anywhere in the U.S. for $3.85. However, for most books, the
size of the object and not the weight will be the limiting
factor. A single very thick hardcover or
trade paperback will fit into one of these envelopes,
and you might be able to fit two average-sized books -- but
not three. The envelopes
can hold several paperbacks, videotapes, DVDs, CDs, etc.
- In order to make sure our calculator handles your order
properly, be sure to mark any items that won't
fit in a flat-rate envelope as "oversized"
on the title setup form. If an order includes any item marked
"oversized" our system
will automatically compute the shipping charges based on
weight and zone.
- Global
Priority Mail Flat-Rate Envelopes, which are available in two sizes,
6x10 inch, cost $5.00; and 9.5 by 12.5 inch, cost $9.00. You
can ship whatever will fit in one of these envelopes, up to four
pounds in weight, to most of the countries from which you are likely
to get orders. Probably the cheapest way to send mulitple books
overseas via airmail will be to break up your shipment into several
GPM envelopes. Similar envelopes are available for
certain cities in Mexico and all of Canada, costing $4.00 and $7.00. Note that GPM
is not available to all destinations. Visit this
page on the US Postal Service web site for more information.
- The rate tables for overseas shipping are very complicated,
and it can be hard to compare all the possible rates for
a given package to a given country. Here's a much easy way
to pick out the best rate to use: Go to this USPS Website
Country
List and click on the country in question. All the rules,
regs, and rates for that country will be listed in one place.
If you expect to do most of your overseas shipping to certain
countries, go to the page for each country, print it out,
and save it for easy future reference.
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