How to Save Money on International Shipping

Shipping to international customers could be considered shipping cheap if you do it right. The United States Postal service makes it easy and relatively affordable to ship packages Internationally.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Priority Mail Envelopes and boxes.
• Other kinds of mailers and boxes.

1. 
    
   Sample Saves for a 2lb Package to Spain

   Prepare your shipping and customs labels for Global Priority at the USPS web site (see links). Purchase your postage directly from them, and print it right from that site. By buying direct from the United States Postal Service you get a discount of at least 9%!

2. 
    
   Canada Mexico Parcel Rates

   Get off the USPS web site to ship a package to Canada or Mexico that weighs no more than 2 pounds 4 ounces. At the time of this writing the International shipping rates are sometimes cheaper than Global Priority when shipping to Canada and Mexico. They don't list these rates on the USPS site. A convenient way to print postage at the 'International Parcel' rate is to subscribe to a program like Endicia or Stamps.com. Look at my cheap shipping rates for a sample package to Canada in the image.

3. 
    
   Cheap Shipping to Italy

   Get off the USPS web site to ship all international packages that are under one pound. The cheapest international shipping rates from the USA are for Canada and Mexico, but you can still beat Global Priority flat rate prices to ship every where else in the world if you're package is 15 ounces or less. In this case you should use First Class Mail International Flat, or Parcel. My Italy example saves me $2.21 over Global Priority. Even when I add $.60 to my shipment price to pay for a padded envelope it's still a significant savings for my customer.

4. Get free flat rate Priority Mail envelopes and Boxes from the USPS. The same envelopes are good for shipping international and domestic. You can order shipping supplies right on their web site. Sending packages 'Flat Rate' is often the cheapest way to go for shipping international.

5. Split larger shipments into two or more packages. My company ships books. We can fit five digest-sized soft covers in a flat rate envelope. If someone orders ten books it's much cheaper for them if we ship two Global Priority flat rate envelopes. It costs around $25 to ship instead of around $40 for one big box.

6. Packaging for international package shipments are part of your shipping costs. Buy padded envelopes or boxes in bulk from companies like Uline for cheap shipping supplies. Don't buy padded envelopes from Office Supply stores! They charge a fortune.

Tips & Warnings

• Have different shipping rates for Canada and Mexico compared to the rest of the world. USA shippers pay less to ship there, so pass those savings on.
• Give accurate prices for shipping international. Don't charge $12.95 shipping per item when you know you can fit more than one in an envelope.
• You will have to provide your own packaging when you're not shipping Express or Priority. Don't forget to pass on the packaging costs to your customers.
• The most recent rate change from the United States Postage Service (at the time of this writing) was January 14th, 2009. Rates and policies will change again. My info may no longer be usable depending on what happens.

Resources

• United States Postal Service
• Endicia.com
• Stamps.com
• Uline Packaging Supplies

[myusshopnship]

on 10/9/2009 myusshopnship.com will handle all your international shipping needs at discounted prices!

[kberlin]

on 5/26/2009 Here is another FREE online tool to compare shipping rates: http://www.shipwizz.com. It is very fast and accurate. This website allows for a fast comparison of shipping rates by major courier companies. I found the user interface very intuitive and easy to use. Rates are broken down by an estimated delivery date and are sorted from cheapest to most expensive.

[our5kids]

on 4/17/2009 Thank for the tips on How to Save Money on International Shipping I do a lot of ebay stuff and this will help me out a lot thank you 5*!!

[lovesherboys]

on 4/15/2009 Great way to save on international shipping, just be careful when selling internationally-alot of scams! I know it happened to me :)

[peja]

on 4/15/2009 5 stars