Online Shipping Costs

Recently eBay has started a new system to track the efficiency ofsellers called Detailed Seller Rating (DSR). DSR's are made up of four categories: Item as Described, Communication, Shipping Time,and Shipping Costs. eBay sellers generally receive their lowest rating in the shipping costs category, including our own MSU Surplus Store eBay store.While paying for shipping has always been one of the downsides of shopping online, recent developments have put greater stress on both buyers and sellers and caused shipping costs to elevate significantly.

Major online retailer Amazon reported a 47 percent increase in its' shipping costs in the last quarter alone. Much of this increase can be traced to the rising cost of energy. The cost of diesel fuel, the major energy source for all shipping services, has more than doubled in the last year. As the price of fuel has increased, the cost of shipping has followed.

As gas prices have skyrocketed over the past few years, the American dollar has seen a steady decline. This fall of the dollar has brought some unexpected benefits for American online vendors. International customers have flocked to American online stores where their currencies have increased buying power. Unfortunately, this dramatic increase in international sales coincided with the elimination of some of the most economical forms of international shipping. Therefore, while international consumers are enjoying increased purchasing power, they are also facing the new, more expensive reality of international shipping.

We currently have two main market places, eBay and Prostores, both of these services offer a shipping calculator to determine shipping costs. The shipping quotes that are shown at checkout are taken directly from major retailers such as USPS, UPS and Fed Ex. They are calculated based on the weight & size of the item and the distance the item has to travel. The quotes that are shown on the site are the actual shipping costs that will be charged for the shipment of the item.

Unfortunately, many buyers are understandably not closely following the steady increases that shipping companies have faced and are unaware of the rising costs of shipping. Additionally, in the past many sellers have inflated shipping costs to increase profit margins on their items. Therefore, many buyers see these increased shipping costs as a tactic on our part to increase profits by overcharging them for shipping. This is generally why eBay sellers receive lower DSRs for Shipping Costs.

While estimating shipping costs can be an imprecise art until items are actually packaged, we usually come very close to charging what it costs us to ship the item. We also offer a wide variety of shipping services in an attempt to meet our buyer's needs based on the speed and costs of different shipping services. We have also moved to using USPS postal services online shipping solutions where the rates for shipment are lower then shipping from a postal retailer. Our goal as a seller is to charge buyers exactly what it costs us to ship the item.