BusinessWeek, March 19, 2010

The Obama Administration wants to double U.S. exports in five years by enlisting small business.  Online marketing and e-commerce have … enabled more small businesses to expand globally. Shipwire, a Palo Alto (Calif.)-based company that provides outsourced warehousing and shipping for online merchants, opened warehouses in Canada in 2007 and in the United Kingdom in 2008, in addition to three warehouses in the U.S. Shipments to non-U.S. addresses have gone from close to zero in 2007 to 20% of Shipwire’s business in 2009, says CEO Damon Schechter. “The merchants are pulling us to where we should be,” he says. Read More

You want to make every penny spent on shipping worthwhile right? Of course you do… because knowing the costs of shipping your products can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars when you choose the best carrier along with the appropriate shipping options. There are many carriers to choose from today as well as a plethora of shipping options, deciding which is best for your business is the first step in saving lots of money. But calculating shipping costs can be confusing.  What are the rules that carriers apply when they calculate the cost they pass on to you?

Carriers charge based on the “dimensional weight” of a package. Dimensional weight calculations reflect what it costs a carrier to ship an oversize, lighter-weight package and ensures that the carrier is getting paid appropriately for the space the packages take up on its planes or trucks. Dim weight calculations more precisely reflect what it costs a carrier to ship an oversize, lighter-weight package. To calculate the dimensional weight of a package, multiply (length in inches) x (width in inches) x (height in inches) to determine the cubic size of your package. For UPS and FedEx Ground shipments to the US, if the cubic inches exceed 5,184 inches or 3 cubic feet, dimensional weight rates will apply. If the total cubic inches measure less than 5,184 inches, then you typically use the actual rates for the weight of the package.

After you’ve calculated the cubic size of your package and determined that it’s 5,184 cubic inches or greater, you can calculate the dimensional weight by dividing the cubic size of your package by 194 for ground shipments within the U.S., rounding up to the nearest full pound. Keep in mind that dimensional weights are rounded up by the carriers.

Your billable weight will either be the actual weight or the dimensional weight of package–whichever is greater. That means if you ship lighter packages that are more than 3 cubic feet, you’ll pay more under the dimensional weight rate system.

For example say you have a box measuring 24” x 18” x 18” that weighs 50 lbs. and is to be shipped via UPS. The actual weight is 50 lbs.; dimensional weight = (24 x 18 x 18) /194 = 40.08 = 41 lbs. The dimensional factor = 194.  The actual weight exceeds the dimensional weight. So the actual weight (50 lbs.) will be used as the chargeable weight for the shipment.

Now let’s say you have a box measuring 24” x 18” x 12” box that weighs 10 lbs. and will be shipped by FedEx. The actual weight is 10 lbs., the dimensional weight = (24 x 18 x 12)/194 = 26.7 = 27 lbs., the dimensional factor = 194.  The dimensional weight exceeds the actual weight. So the dimensional weight (27 lbs.) will be used as the chargeable weight for the shipment.

For UPS and FedEx air-express shipments, the same dim calculation applies, but without the 3-cubic-ft. (5,184 inches) minimum.

What’s more, UPS and FedEx also add a $45 oversize charge for packages that measure more than 130 inches in length and circumference. (You can calculate this by adding the length of the package plus twice the height plus twice the width.)

If you can believe it, the dim rules for the Postal Service’s Priority Mail zones are a bit more complicated. For USPS zones 1 through 4, the minimum dim weight is 20 lbs. if the length plus the girth equals more than 84 inches, but less than 108 inches.

But there’s a different rule for Priority Mail zones 5 through 8. For those zones, if package volume is more than one cubic foot (1,728 cubic inches), divide the cubic inches (length x weight x height) by 194 to get the dim weight.  It’s important to note, however, that all the Priority Mail and Flat Rate cartons provided by the USPS are excluded from the dim rules. That can be key for volume shippers.

USPS’s Parcel Post packages have different rules as well. There’s a 20-lb. minimum for these packages if the length plus girth is more than 84 inches but less than 108 inches. If the length plus girth is more than 108 inches but less than 130 inches, you have to use the USPS oversized rates, which vary by zone.

One last thing about dim weight: For the USPS, UPS and FedEx international packages, including UPS and FedEx ground shipments to Canada, the dim factor is 166 rather than 194.

You can go to each individual carriers website to get their specific costs or you can get a Shipwire Free Trial that will tell you in real time exactly what your shipping costs will be. Take advantage of Shipwire’s  global network of warehouses – where you can move inventory closer to your buyers resulting in faster delivery times for your customers and LESS shipping cost to you and your business.  Shipwire will even give you real-time shipping API’s to install all our shipping rates in your shopping cart.

Shipwire has always made it easy to ship goods back and forth between the US and Canada, but it just got even easier.  For those merchants in the US or Canada that need to ship freight quantities across the border we made it much easier by upgrading our Shipwire Merchant Freight options.

Just key in any large freight order using our Ship from Warehouse tool and you will see “Merchant Freight” quoted.  When satisfied with the quote, select the option and your inventory will be prepped and shipped.   Shipwire will do the rest from booking with the carrier, to preparing your Bill of Lading.   And as an added bonus this even works via our API so your shopping cart can feature freight shipping quotes.

Couple limitations you know know about.  The freight quotes are for the transportation and not the customs and duties brokerages that you may be subject to.  It is recommended that you confirm your Canadian and/or US business registrations and Tax ID’s before using cross-border merchant freight to limit any delays.

Marketwire, March 16

New Microsite Helps SMBs Learn How to Cut International Shipping Costs by 75 Percent with Overseas Warehouse and Fulfillment

Palo Alto, CA– March 16, 2010 Shipwire™, a leading provider of outsourced product fulfillment, announced today an initiative to help small and midsize online merchants grow overseas sales. Shipwire launched new tools and guides, available at http://www.shipwire.com/GlobalGrowth, to help merchants learn how grow exports while cutting shipping costs by utilizing outsourced order fulfillment as an alternative to expensive international shipping. http://www.shipwire.com/GlobalGrowth.

The Internet has become the great equalizer in global sales, and has allowed SMBs to compete with larger competitors. Generally speaking, only established merchants get big discounts on international shipping from carriers – sometimes in excess of 50 percent.[1] Therefore, despite the incredible opportunity for sales abroad, SMBs are instead put at a competitive disadvantage, and international shipping costs ultimately become a barrier to international growth for the small seller. A November 2009 article in Inc. indicates that in the United States, for example, SMBs account for a mere 29 percent of all U.S. exporting volume — a number lower today than it was 10 years ago.[2] This data – presumably echoed in other markets around the world – is surprising given that the Internet and web-delivered software allow small exporters to reach lucrative international markets, assuming they know how to efficiently reach overseas markets.

Shipwire is integrated with most leading e-commerce store software, marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay and payment services like PayPal’s global payment service, which allows international purchases to be made from 190 countries and 24 currencies. For merchants who store a portion of their inventory with Shipwire in any of the company’s warehouses around the world, each time an order closes, Shipwire will automatically pick, pack and ship to the buyer. Shipwire can help merchants reduce shipping costs and ensure international buyers get product faster and with lower shipping costs when compared with international shipping.

“Today’s online buyer wants to receive products quickly and at a reasonable shipping cost. Merchants that leverage Shipwire can cut international shipping costs by as much as 75 percent and ensure that overseas buyers get orders quickly,” said Damon Schechter, CEO of Shipwire.com and best-selling author of Delivering the Goods. “Today’s entrepreneurial manufacturer or niche retailer can attract a global following by focusing their sales efforts and providing great customer support, which requires automated product delivery at low cost with fast product delivery.”

SMBs are now provided the same global opportunities as their bigger competitors due to the SMB e-commerce landscape. Globalization is upon them and the number one SMB trend in 2010 is a global integrated future where small business will take advantage of cheap access to tools anywhere, anytime, to get the job done.[3]

Like numerous small business owners, Andrew Simmons, Founder of Thoughtfish Media noted that Shipwire enabled him to grow his 2-person business to deliver product worldwide. As the , No. 1 seller of artisan beadwork and tile design software, Simmons stated that before using Shipwire, 50% of his international shipments were unsuccessful, and never reached their destination. “Now, Shipwire automates the shipping process for me,” Simmons said, “and has allowed me to grow sales in Canada and Western Europe as well as other countries.” Visit http://www.shipwire.com/GlobalGrowth for more examples of small businesses expanding overseas.

Today, there are examples of SMB online market growth in the US and the expectation is for it to only continue due to globalization and the adoption of technology platforms. Some examples include:

US

• By 2014 the size of the U.S. e-commerce market is estimated to hit almost $250 billion, up from $155 billion in 2009. E-commerce will keep growing at a 10 percent CAGR and sales will represent 8 percent of all retail in the U.S., up from 6 percent in 2009. [Forrester Report, US Online Retail Forecast, 2009 To 2014]
• US retail e-commerce spending (excluding travel) for November – December holiday season was up 4% versus a year ago to $29.1 billion [January 6, 2010, comScore]
• Three product categories (computers, apparel, and consumer electronics) represented more than 44 percent of online sales($67.6 billion) in 2009

In the UK, there are examples of SMB online market growth and the expectation is for it to only continue due to globalization and the adoption of technology platforms. Some examples include:

• With more than one in two UK consumers shopping online — that is about 28 million consumers — online shopping and travel booking are mainstream. By 2014, 37 million UK online buyers will spend £56 billion. [UK Online Retail and Travel Forecast, 2008 to 2014, March 2009, Forrester Group]
• 2009 holiday spending represented a 24% upward growth over the previous year or 8.9
• Office of National Statistics data demonstrates that UK Merchants export trading is increasing year over year with non-EU countries.[4]

For more information, please visit http://www.shipwire.com/GlobalGrowth. To begin a free trial, please visit www.shipwire.com/trial.

[1] “Special Delivery: Bringing SMBs Into the Global Shipping Network,” January 4, 2008, Ecommerce Times

[2] “How to Start Selling Internationally,” November 1, 2009, Inc.

[3] “10 Predictions, Forecasts and Trends That Will Shape Our Global Small Business World in 2010,” January 12, 2010, Small Business Trends

[4] http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1119 For November of 2009. Non-EU exports rose by £1.4 billion (5.7 per cent) to £26.6 billion. Total exports were broadly unchanged at £38.8 billion

About Shipwire (http://www.shipwire.com)
Shipwire, the leader in e-commerce order fulfillment services, effectively eliminates the hassle of storage and shipping for growing merchants with a global warehouse network and its innovative Store-Sell-Ship™ platform. Shipwire’s warehouses — in Los Angeles, Reno, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and London – are conveniently located close to buyers, drastically reducing merchants’ shipping costs. Shipwire is the only warehouse logistics service that instantly integrates with shopping carts and inventory management systems. Shipwire is developer- and partner-friendly; learn more about our shipping affiliate partner program or get our how to outsource order fulfillment guide at http://www.shipwire.com/partner. Stay up to date with our shipping fulfillment distribution blog. Print online USPS postage. For a free trial or more information, contact 1-888-SHIPWIRE or visit http://www.shipwire.com/trial.

Shopplugin.net  is a new e-commerce extension for Wordpress.  Great website, looks very feature rich…and has an integration to 4 (yes all 4) of Shipwire’s API’s.  Live Shipwire shipping rates in your Shopp checkout pages.  Orders are automatically sent from your Shopp store to your Shipwire account.  Inventory is synchronized between the entire Shipwire warehouse network and your store.  Tracking numbers are also synchronized for completed orders.  Sweet!

Couple things.  This is in beta.  We are looking for people who want to test the connection.  Here is the announcement.  Shopp Plugin Shipwire shipping order fulfillment.

Forrester Research just posted a couple updated research reports that give the size of the e-commerce market for the U.S.A. and for Western Europe.  TechCrunch actually posted more data and a couple graphs about it that you can’t find at Forrester .

Some of the more interesting thoughts by Forrester for the U.S. Market (Estimates exclude online sales of autos, travel, and prescription drugs):

• E-commerce will keep growing at a 10 percent CAGR through 2014.
• U.S. E-commerce will hit almost $250 billion in 2014 (up from $155 billion in 2009)
• The best news is that in 2009 Forrester estimates that online retail sales were up 11 percent, compared to 2.5 percent for all retail sales.

• e-commerce sales will represent 8 percent of all retail sales in the U.S. by 2014, up from 6 percent in 2009
• In 2009, 154 million people in the U.S. bought something online, or 67 percent of the online population (4 percent more than in 2008)
• Three product categories (computers, apparel, and consumer electronics) represented more than 44 percent of online sales($67.6 billion)  in 2009

When it comes to Western  Europe, Forrester is thinking that it will grow a bit faster (11%) and go from $93 billion (68 billion Euros) in 2009 to $156 billion (114.5 billion Euros) in 2014.

Forrester had some HUGE numbers in another part of their forecast for “web-influenced” sales.  Forrester thinks that $917B of retail sales last year were Web-influenced and that will grow to $1.4T worth of in-store sales by 2014.  That is 42% of total retail sales going to 52%.  I’m not particularly sure what the actual definition by Forrester is for “Web-influenced” or how they measured that particular number.  I’m betting that Forrester is basically saying that “web influenced” buyers looked online before they bought the item from a physical location.   Personally, I would have rather seen a number for a growing trend and something that Walmart has been particularly pushing “Buy Online and Pickup InStore”.  I think that would have been a nice middle ground between E-commerce and the impossible to measure “Web-influenced”

Other thoughts on these Forrester numbers:

• It would have been nice to see Q4 broken out from the rest.  Not sure if that is in their report, which Shipwire has not yet bought.
• International shipping is a large percentage of shipping.  What that actually means is that the local purchasing behavior of say Western Europe is actually in the U.S. numbers.  International shipping means the product likely wasn’t available in the local market so the buyer had to go overseas and deal with the hassles of international shipping.  As services like Shipwire make it easy for small sellers to eliminate international shipping costs you can bet that international shipping will actually decrease as a Western European sale from a U.S. seller will actually be shipped from Western Europe.
• It would be nice to see what % of e-commerce sales was impacted by shipping discounts like “Fast and Free Shipping”.

Here are all the links:

TechCrunch

Forrester USA E-commerce Forecast

Forrester Western Europe E-commerce Forecast

Shipwire is a proud member of The Small Business Web, a consortium of like minded companies with software and solutions that are easy to use, small business focused and help businesses grow and “bloom”.

We also like to have a good time.  If you are going to South-By-South-West (SBSW) come to our happy hour celebration/networking event cleverly named…”SXSBW” (“South-By-Small-Business-Web”). In is on Saturday March 13th from 4-7pm in Austin at PureVolume House, go here from the invite and RSVP.

It’s going to be a great event, with special music guest and it will be an amazing opportunity to network, learn and grow your business…or at least have a few beers with some fun people.

See you in Austin!!!

More info about the Small Business Web and how it can help your business:

What is The Small Business Web?

The Small Business Web is an open collective of businesses who have come together under one idea: To connect Web applications to help small businesses bloom and grow. The Web applications the SBWeb offers all have open APIs, which allow them to integrate with each other to form a customizable network of solutions for the small business customer.

What is the benefit of working with The Small Business Web vendors?

The Small Business Web can save small business owners both time and money. Working with multiple apps from the SBWeb allows for a more efficient workflow, with data being shared between one or more Web applications. And, by joining the SBWeb, companies have demonstrated that they are committed to providing excellent service to their customers.

What are the costs of being a Small Business Web customer?

Through The Small Business Web you can find, choose, and pay for only the applications that suit your business needs while keeping costs low. Each solution retains its own pay structure, which usually ranges from under $100 a month to even free.

What are the types of solutions offered by The Small Business Web?

Solutions include CRM, ORDER FULFILLEMENT, email marketing, project workflow management, ecommerce, invoicing, and more. The SBWeb vendors provide dozens of solutions that meet the needs of any business in today’s business world.

Who should become a customer?

Those seeking affordable, approachable solutions to meet the needs of their small business.

Multi-Channel Merchant, March 3, 2010

When it comes to calculating shipping and handling fees, merchants make a number of mistakes that can cost money. A big one is neglecting to pay attention to the rules parcel carriers have instituted for shipping large, lightweight packages… FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service and other major small parcel carriers have adopted what’s called the dimensional weight pricing rule—or box size—to calculate shipping costs on ground shipments. That means retailers that ship lighter, larger-than-average-size packages that take up extra space on an airplane or a truck will pay higher shipping costs than they did under the old definitions for oversize packages. Read more about calculating shipping costs here

Shipwire would like to welcome CoreCommerce into our integrated product family.  CoreCommerce is a robust e-commerce shopping cart with lots of bells and whistles and a very easy to navigate look and feel that is built by SumEffect, Inc.  Practicalecommerce.com listed them as a “cart-of-the-week” a few months ago and you can see that very favorable write-up here.

Please check out our new partner and if you are a CoreCommerce user we recommend testing this integration.  With Shipwire you can get access to a global warehouse network that is completely integrated with your CoreCommerce software.

For complete instructions on corecommerce shipping product order fulfillment

Marketing in Canada can sometimes be a challenge.  You are likely already usingmarketplaces like Amazon and eBay or product and search locations like Google Adwords, Yahoo, Bing and Business.com.  What are some other options?  Here are a few thoughts, please comment with your own.

1) 411.ca http://www.411.ca

According to their marketing “411.ca, Canada’s local search engine, is an online directory service that combines rich content gathered from numerous sources (including directly from companies themselves) with ultra-targeted search tools to help companies tell customers what makes them stand out from their competitors… Every month 411.ca helps more than 2 million unique visitors quickly and easily find listings for businesses across town, across the province or across Canada.”  Think “giant phone book”.

2) CanadaOne: http://www.canadaone.com

CanadaOne is a destination/portal website targeting Canadian SMEs. The site states it gets a healthy 60,000 unique visitors monthly, the majority of which are Canadian small business owners and operators.  The site offers:

• A directory of online resources
• A business directory of over 5,000 validated Canadian businesses
• Hundreds of business articles
• Free online workshops
• A monthly newsletter, and
• Small business news

3) The Niagara Directory http://www.theniagaradirectory.com

The Niagara Business Directory, provides local businesses with the opportunity to profile their businesses (contact information and description).  This is a regional business directory attempting like a local white/yellow pages directory for the Niagara region.

4) Canada Listings Online http://canadalistingsonline.com

Canada Listings Online, is an industry/provincial specific business directory and e-commerce service to help you market your company. It leverages S.E.O (search engine optimization) technology, to put your business in front of people searching on keywords.  This listing provides you a forum to communicate the merits of your products and services to your target audience so you can increase your client base.  With Canada Listings Online, you can advertise locally or in neighboring towns, cities, provincially or nationally. 

5) About.com Small Business: Canada http://sbinfocanada.about.com

You can advertise on About.com if you have the budget.  About.com builds relevant content and then targets advertising to visitors who long into the site to access the info.  Not ideal; but, an option.

6) Canada Post (Direct Mail) http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/business/productsservices/marketing/default.jsf

Whether you’re trying to reach consumers or other businesses, Direct Mail is sometimes a good way for marketers who want to reach specific audiences with in person collateral. It can be highly targeted, and used correctly it goes directly into the hands of those you most want to reach and it arrives in a friendly, familiar way—the daily mail.   If it doesn’t hit the circular file, then your brand can sit in front of people multiple times while they sort through it.  Make sure you have an offer on the mail that doesn’t get it tossed in the trash.  If you survive the first sort, you have a great chance for a good marketing impact.

According to the Consumer Attitudes Towards Direct Marketing, 2008 survey Canadians welcome direct mail compared to other methods of direct marketing and pay the most attention to it. And customers’ opinions about companies that use Direct Mail are more positive than their opinions about companies that use other types of direct marketing, according to the survey. http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/business/productsservices/marketing/keyresearchfacts.jsf

If you currently use any of these already and want to put in your two cents or you have others to suggest please comment to this blog.

Shipwire has always prided ourselves on transparent warehouse and shipping pricing.  From our first day of operation we have always offered pricing on our website that anybody can see, this has actually prompted other providers to do the same thing.  We have also allowed a free trial where anybody can check our shipping rates for any type of shipment, we are still the only ones in the industry offering that.

In an effort to continue to offer transparency on our services and to help our customers with end-of-month or end-of-quarter accounting we now provide detailed monthly billing invoices for all our merchants that you can get for any month that you used Shipwire.  This was something that was asked for by a couple of our merchants so please continue to keep the great ideas coming in…we are listening.

To download monthly statements from within your Shipwire account go to “My Account – Billing” link from your Dashboard and then navigate to the Billing Summary details page

The Billing Details page gives you a current snap-shot of your current monthly activity. To download a monthly statement simply select the time period you are interested in and press “Download PDF”.  We will instantly create a PDF document of that months activity that you can save, or print, or send to your accountant – easy!  Please note that the monthly statement is based on your monthly billing cycle, not the calendar cycle.

The monthly statement will summarize your entire month activity according and provide your opening and closing balances.  In addition every transaction you had during the course of the month is also detailed for your auditing needs.

Shipwire is proud to be an integral part of one of America’s Most Promising Startups, Keetsa. Profitable in just 3 months, Keetsa uses Shipwire for all their fulfillment and warehousing needs, which helps to not only keep their costs low but also reduce their shipping carbon footprint.

With just one Shipwire account you can eliminate the need to have your own delivery trucks or warehouses. I think I just heard a big sigh of relief somewhere. If that sounds too good to be true, then read Keetsa Uses Shipwire – Keeps Both Prices and Carbon Footprint Low.   Keetsa calls Shipwire “a perfect fit.” “We chose the Shipwire warehouse and order fulfillment service for its flexibility. It gave us storage and delivery features that we needed at a price we appreciated.”

Being green and making a profit doesn’t have to be hard either. We’ve blogged about how Shipwire and Keetsa make such a fantastic pair in a previous blog – read Keetsa grows green with Shipwire, where we show you how we helped Keetsa grow by a whopping 200%… in a recession no less.   Was that a victory cry I just heard?

You can start a free trial immediately and see if your company will be the next we blog about making a 200% profit – simply begin your free trial here.

Some of you may be asking, exactly what are the benefits of drop shipping and/or outsourced order fulfillment? And which one is better to use? The answer to that question has a lot to do with whether you prefer or need to hold merchandise in stock or if you prefer not to sit on inventory.

If you prefer to hold inventory then “Order Fulfillment” would work well for you. “Order fulfillment is the process by which a retailer or manufacturer picks, packs and ships an order to an end buyer.” So this means that your order fulfillment can be done directly by you via your garage or warehouse or better yet through a third party by leveraging outsourced order fulfillment (like Shipwire) that can perform all your storage and fulfillment needs with just one simple and easy to use account. Shipwire offers a Free Trial if you want to test outsourced order fulfillment.

If you do not want to invest up front in holding inventory in your garage or warehouse then “drop shipping” could be your better option. “Drop Shipping is a type of fulfillment, whereby the retailer does not hold any merchandise in stock.” Merchants using “drop =shipping” typically send orders directly to their manufacturers/suppliers who then ship to the buyer. “In other words, the supplier/manufacture is trying to make it easier on the retailer by allowing the retailer to sell the product without investing in inventory.”

If you are interested in knowing more about Drop Shipping versus Order Fulfillment read this article by Skip McGrath.

If you are a product manufacturer or supplier who wants to know how to offer your retailers drop shipping please check out this article by Nate Gilmore on Practicalecommerce.com called “Manufacturer and Supplier Drop Ship Demystified”.

Los Angeles Times, February 22, 2010

A reader at the Los Angeles Times asks “I always hear about globalization, but isn’t the impact mostly on big companies?” Karen K. Klein’s answer is… “For decades, large corporations have been buying supplies and moving manufacturing overseas to cut costs”… “The tools are now in place to allow businesses of all sizes to have a global supply chain,” said Damon Schechter, chief executive of Shipwire, an order fulfillment firm. “If a company has a fast-selling product they can sell in another country, the only thing that stops them from entering that market is the degree of their desire… Buying supplies and selling products overseas no longer require a vast product line or budget,” Schechter said… Online tools for managing advertising, shipping and other aspects of a business have created a “border-less” marketplace that is wide open to smaller, e-commerce firms… Read more

Skip McGrath, February 19, 2010

Over the past few months, I have written several blog posts about Third-Party order fulfillment services. One of the leading companies in this field is Shipwire; a company that will warehouse and drop ship your products for you. This has several advantages. Essentially you can hire a company like Shipwire to act as your own private drop shipper. I got so many questions from readers, that I decided to reach out to the experts at Shipwire to write a comprehensive article on the subject.  So here is the result. This is an excellent article that explores the pros and cons of drop shipping versus using a third-party company like Shipwire to fulfill your orders. Read More.

Shipwire is returning to Toy Fair 2010. We hope to see you there too.

If you went last year, you would have not only seen some really good toys; you would have seen a few themes.  We blogged about them here on the Shipwire Blog and as a guest blogger on Practical E-commerce.  See “Learnings from Toy Fair“.

We’ll see what the attendees are talking about this year.  Logistically, last year suppliers were wondering how to become drop shippers for their retailers and figure out how to deal with retailers demands for smaller shipments of goods on a more frequent basis rather than big inventory resupplies.

We will be there this year to once again consult small businesses on their shipping, supply chain and blog about our learnings. Hopefully see you there.

Entrepreneur Magazine, February 10, 2010

Among all of the president’s plans to boost jobs, some economists say his goal to double exports in five years could do the trick… “oftentimes the most prudent first country for a small business to consider exporting to is Canada, thanks in part to the extensive bilateral trade between Canada and the U.S., and to the cultural and legal similarities”… Companies can ship products internationally from the U.S. via freight forwarders and fulfillment companies such as … Shipwire.  [Shipwire] ships to Canada and the U.K., where it has warehouses that will transport goods internationally to any country covered by FedEx, UPS or the local parcel carrier…. See the six steps to grow your exports… Read more

If you will either be shipping merchandise from 1) one of our U.S. warehouses to a non-U.S. address, or 2) one of our non-U.S. warehouses to a U.S. address, U.S. Customs Border Protection (CBP) requirements require import/export filings to include the shipper’s EIN number. In the case of imports, CBP does allow the Importer to list the consignee’s EIN or SSN number, but practically speaking, there is no easy way for most merchant’s to collect this information. As a result of these changes, we are requiring merchants with shipments in one of these two categories, to enter their EIN number. If you do not have an EIN number, please follow this link for instructions on how to obtain one.

Shipwire is happy to announce the release of two new connections to Magento E-commerce, one of the more popular open-source e-commerce packages available today.

These new connects were developed by Shipwire at the request of our merchants and seek to address support concerns with prior modules that provided connection between Magento stores and Shipwire.

Features now supported:

• Real-time order notification from your Magento store to Shipwire.
• Real-time inventory updates from your Shipwire warehouses to your Magento Store.
• Real-time synchronization of shipment tracking numbers from Shipwire to your Magento store.
• Shipwire shipping rates streamed into your Magento store checkout.

Detailed installation instructions for both new Magento connections are found at Magento Shipping Rates and Order Fulfillment Installation Instructions.

1.  Magento Order Fulfillment Sell Tool.  This connection is found within your Shipwire account.   It is tool that you add to your account (even free trials) in a couple clicks.  It includes a wizard that walks you through how to connect your Shipwire account directly to your Magento Store.   Through this API connection your Shipwire account will receiving orders directly from your Magento store to be pick, packed and shipped.  Once shipped your Magento store will get new inventory numbers and parcel carrier tracking numbers so you and your buyers can track the shipment.  Read on for instructions on this module.

2.  Magento Real-Time Shipping Rates.  Download this script module from Magento Connect exchange here.  Follow the instructions in the download and your Magento store checkout will be able to pull shipping rates for all Shipwire parcel and freight carriers for display to buyers in your shopping cart checkout.  Carrier rates include:  UPS, USPS, FedEx, Canada Post, Purolator, Royal Mail, Pharos, FedEx Freight, EuroTrux Freight and Shipwire Freight options.

If you follow this blog consistently it won’t be a surprise to you that Shipwire is a platform for entrepreneurial merchants to grow.  With multiple warehouses in the U.S., Canada and Europe Shipwire helps merchants grow their overseas sales, said another way “increase exports”.  As an outsourced platform for order management and order fulfillment Shipwire also helps merchants cut infrastructure costs (reduce infrastructure investment and focus capital on inventory and sales)  Keetsa saved 30% by outsourcng warehousing and shipping to Shipwire – rather than invest in their own warehouse (save warehouse costs).  Keetsa estimates that they save 80% of their time by having Shipwire handle their storage and shipping.

President Obama gave his 2010 State of the Union address this week and the economy was front and center.  Two points of the State of the Union were particularly compelling to the Shipwire team.  First, The President wants to grow U.S. export volume two fold in five years.  Second, The President identified small businesses as a catalyst for growth and wants TARP funds to be redirect to local banks and small business lending.

Here are the quotes that we found particularly invigorating because it puts Shipwire right in the cross hairs of two major Presidential initiatives.  If you missed our previous blog, we were one of the tools that President Obama used during his successful campaign (here is that blog post – promotional fulfillment).

“…we need to export more of our goods.  (Applause.)  Because the more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America.  (Applause.)  So tonight, we set a new goal:  We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support two million jobs in America.  (Applause.)  To help meet this goal, we’re launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security.  (Applause.)

“We should start where most new jobs do –- in small businesses, companies that begin when — (applause) — companies that begin when an entrepreneur — when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides it’s time she became her own boss.  Through sheer grit and determination, these companies have weathered the recession and they’re ready to grow.  But when you talk to small businessowners in places like Allentown, Pennsylvania, or Elyria, Ohio, you find out that even though banks on Wall Street are lending again, they’re mostly lending to bigger companies.  Financing remains difficult for small businessowners across the country, even those that are making a profit.

“So tonight, I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. (Applause.)  I’m also proposing a new small business tax credit — one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages.  (Applause.)  While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment, and provide a tax incentive for all large businesses and all small businesses to invest in new plants and equipment.  (Applause.)”

Shipwire is excited to help our country reach their export goals.  We believe we have created a platform for this growth.

By providing a success-based alternative to investing in a warehouse we are already helping merchants maximize their cash flow by not having to pay for warehouse leases and build-outs.  Eliminating an inefficient sunk cost (warehouse investment) and turning this into a variable cost of sales.

We’ll blog more on these exciting trends in the coming months.

]]> http://www.shipwire.com/help/2010-state-of-the-union-and-shipwire/feed/ 0 http://www.shipwire.com/help/shipwire-entrepreneurs-build-their-business/ http://www.shipwire.com/help/shipwire-entrepreneurs-build-their-business/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:55:18 +0000 Silvie http://www.shipwire.com/help/?p=10201 Canadian Technology & Business, Winter 2010 “With one Shipwire account, merchants can now locate inventory in three countries, on two continents and up to six warehouses, extending their sales reach into three of the largest e-commerce markets…. Christy Cook, who runs her own business called Teach My Toddler, is realizing the cost saving benefits of using [...]]]>

Canadian Technology & Business, Winter 2010

“With one Shipwire account, merchants can now locate inventory in three countries, on two continents and up to six warehouses, extending their sales reach into three of the largest e-commerce markets…. Christy Cook, who runs her own business called Teach My Toddler, is realizing the cost saving benefits of using Shipwire. Cooks says, “When I was looking for distribution in Canada, on both the east and west coast, I found Shipwire to be an excellent solution; it was extremely easy to set up and use, and also delivered cost-savings. I’m now sending inventory to Shipwire warehouses in the U.S., and am looking forward to growing my business into the U.K. as well.  I like that I can do that all with one fulfillment provider, and one account.” Read More

AMEX OPEN, January 15, 2010

Reducing emissions – the pollutants, especially carbon dioxide, that are produced when fuel combusts – greens up your business and helps you save money…. Your carbon footprint is also affected by… shipping.  Looking at each of these in turn helps you develop plans to reduce energy waste.  “When you’re dealing with the movement of goods the trick to lessen emissions is to make the goods travel less distance.”  Making goods travel less distance also saves money: “There’s a tight correlation between shipping cost and shipping distance.” For greening your shipping, read more here.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games will soon be upon us, and Shipwire’s Vancouver Canada warehouse is seeing more activity as merchants ready for the games.   For information on Shipwire Canada and how you can use the warehouse see “Import to Canada” our Canada warehouse guide.

Canada Post is also working hard to ensure that they are ready for the games.  In a recent e-mail to Shipwire they assured us that they are doing everything possible to meet our daily business needs with minimal disruption during this once-in-a-lifetime experience for Vancouver Canada.  The bulk of this activity will be centered around their downtown Vancouver facilities; however, Canada Post is making efforts because of the general increase in parcel, mail and freight that is anticipated surrounding the games.

Shipwire recommends to our Canada Vancouver merchants that they expect increased mail volume during the period of the games (February 12-28th), as such there could be some delays with tracking numbers going live on inbound shipments.  Service levels in the warehouse should be normal.

The 2009 holiday season is over.  It’s a bit to early to start writing about next year’s; but, lets try not to by myopic.  The holiday season is only some people’s peak season.  Try telling the chocolate, flower and teddy bear market that the peak selling season is over; they will look at February 14th and Mother’s Day and hoping those “holidays” generate more sales.  Perhaps your writing the next great BBQ recipe book or you just re-invented the BBQ tong – don’t miss father’s day or the summer grill season.

As Shipwire adds more and more global warehouse locations, we’re constantly surprised by all the niche seasons that our sellers experience.  When are you expecting your peak shipping season in 2010? 

As you look forward to your peak season, one thing may stand out, you’d better make sure you can get the right products into your customers’ hands at the right time. Or you’ll have some mighty angry (ex)customers on your hands.

One of the ways to do that is to use an outsourced product fulfillment company for your best selling products—the products that bring in the most revenue. That way you can do what you do best—sell your products.  Consider letting an experienced outsourced fulfillment provider take care of getting those products to your customers when they want them. If fulfillment isn’t your core business, then why handle it yourself?

There are quite a few benefits to outsourcing some of your peak season shipping.  Some are obvious, while some may be new to you.

“Calling Backup”:  Consider that you can plug into order fulfillment services on-demand.  With no contracts or volume commitments you can leverage an outsourced company as backup to your primary in house fulfillment.  Get behind shipping your core products, just route the orders to your outsourced fulfillment provider and let them back you up.

Save a Hassle and some Cash:  Contracting with an experienced outsource provider will help you save money. You won’t have to pay for extra warehouse space or hire additional workers. Hiring staff for a short period of time is not only time consuming, it’s inefficient as well. And nobody needs to tell you how much extra warehouse space costs to lease and occupy for a short amount of time.

Save Money on Shipping:  Warehousing your goods closer to your buyers, is another way cut shipping costs. Your customers also get their goods faster and they pay less in shipping costs because the goods don’t have to be shipped across the country or internationally. So make sure your fulfillment provider has warehouses in multiple locations.  If you sell overseas, ask your fulfillment provider if they have a warehouse in your country of choice.

Invest in your Core Business:  Saving money on fulfillment means you’ll have more money to invest in inventory, sales and marketing during your peak season.

Delight you Buyers:  As an online retailer you know how important it is to satisfy your customers. Without them where would you be. And you also know how hectic your business can get around your peak selling season. However, some online retailers just don’t understand the importance of satisfactory order fulfillment. They aren’t realistic about the high level of service their customers expect when it comes to having their orders filled.  This is especially true if you acquire business though major marketplaces like eBay™ or Amazon™.  If you fail to ship products on time you will amass negative feedback and potentially get kicked off these marketplaces.   Having a fulfillment service as a primary shipper or a back-up shipper could protect your business.

Perhaps consider that your peak season is a perfect time to leverage a partner to handle some of your high volume shipping. Shipwire has invested in the latest technologies needed to help you quickly get connected and shipping through your existing website or favorite marketplaces.   ramp up for seasonal demand—technologies that would be much to expensive for you to invest in.

Shipwire has offered a Zen-Cart shipping fulfillment module for quite some time.  It is one of our more used shopping cart shipping warehouse modules.  Shipwire is very proud to release an upgrade to the Shipwire Zen-Cart module that will stream real-time shipping rates from a Shipwire account into Zen-Cart checkout.  Now, rather than fussing with rate tables, Shipwire powered merchants can get accurate domestic and international shipping rates from 12 global parcel and freight carriers instantly integrated into their Zen-Cart shopping cart checkout.  We hope our Zen-Cart powered customers enjoy this. You can access the module in your Shipwire account via the Zen-Cart “Sell Tool” wizard.

2010 has thus far been off to a rough start for the U.K. when it comes to weather. Heavy snow and wind have been causing mail delays. These rough weather days are particularly frustrating for Air shipment. Especially inbound freight and outbound parcel air deliveries. This will likely also cause some backups after the weather clears. Not only will shipments be backed up; but, the parcel delivery personal may also be getting delayed in daily tasks so tracking numbers may be slow to be issued and even ground shipments will face some delays as the mail systems back up. If you relay on a lot if inbound and outbound air shipments to sell into the UK, consider getting a local london warehouse.

To our UK warehouse team, please stay warm!  Here are some YouTube links to the weather link 1 and link 2.

The U.K. VAT (Value Added Tax) changed on January 1, 2010 back to 17.5%.  The UK VAT rate had been set at 15% for 2009.  Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have a page showing the change. This was a temporary reduction made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alastair Darling, after the global recession set in to help spur economic growth.  For more information check out Bloomberg. Many UK retailers used the last few weeks of 15% VAT rate to help add extra savings to promotions and discounts.

For more information on VAT and importing into the UK, see our guide -  import into the UK.

Time to dust off the crystal ball and make some guesses as to what 2010 will bring for the global e-commerce market, SMB sellers and Shipwire.  In no particular order:

Cash Remains KING

At the beginning of the recession, The Economist wrote a bunch of articles about how those businesses that had cash in the bank wouldn’t just survive the recession, they would thrive.  Expansion cash is still hard to get your hands on – as evidenced by the Obama administration putting pressure on banks in Dec ‘09 to lend to SMB’s.  We have written many articles on this blog about gearing your business expenses to be  “success-based”, so that your business can expand and contract without fixed cost overruns.  An example will be helpful here.  If you lease a warehouse, you will need to spend money on a lease, security, build-out and  infrastructure.  These are fixed costs of your warehouse, you will have them regardless of whether you sell a product or not.  If you sell less than you expected, you probably leased too much space.  If your business expands, you may have leased too little space.  Either way, you took cash out of your pocket and committed it to infrastructure and not inventory, sales and marketing.  The Alternative is to use outsourced order fulfillment and pay only for the warehouse space that you use, when you use it.  So if in January-March you don’t have a lot of inventory, you are paying less than in Oct-December when you are well stocked and shipping a lot.   This is success-based e-commerce.  Cash is king and will be king in 2010 so make as many costs success-based variable costs.

Direct Commerce..Bye Bye Middleman

In early 2009 we blogged about some trends we saw at Toy Fair 2009 – specifically, overseas manufacturers coming into the U.S. to sell their products direct to consumers.  This trend accelerated through 2009 and it will continue in 2010.  Heck, Google just launched a cell phone store because it wanted to sell phones directly to consumers and not let Verizon, AT&T or other carriers dictate what applications the consumer would want.  In 2010 we’re going to see a greater acceleration of manufacturers and suppliers gearing up to sell direct to consumers in multiple markets.

SMB E-commerce Goes Global

Globalization is very much alive and kicking and e-commerce is a main driver.   Forrester just posted a blog about some larger retailers going overseas in 2009.  Look for this trend to accelerate and look for smaller e-commerce merchants to also look overseas for growth.  The tools are now in place for this to happen quickly – PayPal, Adwords, Shipwire, international shopping carts like Shopify, and marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.

Rise of the Third-Party Seller

We have talked about this on past Shipwire blog posts.  Amazon proved that marketplaces need to embrace third-party sellers to expand the product offering beyond what is in Amazon warehouses.  There is a direct relation to Amazon’s embrace of third party merchants selling on their platform and their great leap forward in revenue.  The later would not have been as dramatic without the former.  Look for more marketplaces (Walmart) to open up to third-party sellers.

eBay Gets A Clue…Too Late.

The market was not really surprised last year when Amazon traffic exceeded eBay traffic.  Merchants have been complaining for the past couple years that eBay fees, feedback ratings and focus on fixed-price sales make them feel abandoned.  In 2010, eBay will likely start focusing on the seller again; but, it will likely be too late.  Many merchants have already abandoned eBay and the pace may be accelerating.  Perhaps their overseas marketplaces will attract sellers interested in marketing and selling overseas.  If you are new to selling on eBay, check out Skip McGrath’s eBay seller tips.

E-commerce Continues To Grow

Last year we notes that e-commerce in the UK would grow by 13%.  This year, we are expecting e-commerce to jump forward globally.  First China is buying…a lot.  UK buyers got really comfortable buying online in 2009.  More and more countries have increased broadband and more and more people shopping online.  Hopefully, this recession will ease and accelerate consumer spending across the board.  As these trends fall in line expect overall e-commerce to grow in the U.S. and abroad.

Repeat Commerce

2009 saw social networks take off.  Everything from Twitter, to buying groups, to Facebook fan pages.  But, did it really impact e-commerce?  Our guess is “probably”, but not for the reasons you expect.  Many of these social tools allowed interesting products and services to “go viral”, they also added legitimacy to sellers and gave buyers an outlet to control their post-purchase product happiness (unhappy buyers could not tweet or post to a fan page).  Social probably helped accelerate some sales.  In 2010, the same will continue and businesses will seek to engage Social Media more and more to turn a 1-time buyer into a repeat customer.  The rationale is that it cost more to acquire that customer the first time, the more times you can sell to that buyer the lower the acquisition costs go.  For example, look at the growth of discount hubs like Gilt.com, savings.com and other discount buyer hubs that have mastered repeat selling.  Another example is Woot.com with its daily SKU sale.  2010 is all about repeat buyers.

Costs Go UP…Shipwire Helps You Drive Them Back Down.

Sorry buyers and sellers; but, it’s true.  We just posted about the increase in shipping rates from UPS and Fedex.  The weak dollar will make it harder for US merchants to get a deal sourcing overseas (manufacturing is going up in the U.S. as a result).  It’s likely that credit will get more expensive in 2010.  So we know that inventory, carrying costs and shipping costs will likely rise.  Smart sellers that want to maintain margin or increase sellers are going to look for novel ways to offset these rising costs.  Shipwire built a global warehouse network for exactly this purpose.  Check out our shipping cost calculator if you want to see how it works.

Automated Business Becomes A Must Have

If you got this far, you’ll see that costs are going to increase, you need to grow overseas and an independent seller will have more outlets to sell into in 2010 than ever before.  If you want to stay sane, take a vacation in 2010 or live like Tim Ferris (4 Hour Work Week fame), you will need to automate your e-commerce business.  If you have to look at each order before it can be completed, you owe it to yourself to re-think your infrastucture.  Shipwire can help.  If you are new to e-commerce we recommend you check out Shopify’s new $100,000 “Build a Business“contest may be a nice kick in the butt for you to start your business early in 2010.

SMB’s Propel The World Out Of This Recession

While we may not totally recover from this recession, SMB’s are the economic drivers of this country, and small business will be the work horse that begins the recovery.  SMB merchants are the reason why Shipwire is in business and it’s who we will help expand in 2010.  We don’t think we are being overly optimistic when we look to the entrepreneurs in small businesses around the world to recharge this economy.  Some SMB’s, like our customer Keetsa, will accelerate in this economic climate by putting customer satisfaction first, driving costs from their business, having a success-based supply chain and expanding overseas.

Over the next week or so we will likely update this with a few more thoughts.  In the meantime, if you are looking for more predictions for 2010, check out our friends over at Volusion blog who also made some e-commerce predictions for 2010.

Chain Store Age, December 28, 2009

If you want to keep your customers happy and knocking on your virtual door, a hassle-free returns policy is the way to go… online retailer’s returns policies are a more important part of a consumer’s decision to buy online than most companies realize. In fact, 81% of consumers polled say they’re more likely to buy from a retailer that makes it easier to return a product. Clearly, online retailers that make it easier and less costly for customers to return their products have a distinct advantage over their competitors — specifically, advantages in customer loyalty, higher sales and increased revenue… Online retailers should note that working with a product fulfillment company often means a nice distribution of work, which is especially welcome if a retailer is a small company trying to focus on growing its business rather than dealing with returns (or shipping, for that matter).
Read entire article.

On January 4th, 2010 UPS and FedEx do their annual rate increase dance.  The market calls this dance the GRI or the General Rate Increase.  The Dance is usually performed as a “Two-Step” – Increase rates and surcharges and tell the market that it is being offset by a reduction in the fuel surcharge.  Happens every year, here is our blog on January 2009 UPS & FedEx GRI.

We’ll see if mid-year 2010 the third step of the dance is performed again?  The pulling back of the fuel surcharge reduction.  That’s right, that two-step dance, is actually a complex tap dance  that extends over a few months, and repeats year after year.  So obvious, it’s easily missed.

If you are a volume shipper; what do you do in the face of these increases?   First, understand the dance, then checkout out the increases and then decide how you want to grow your business.  If you are a numbers and charts person, our Carrier Shipping Rates Calculator can be eyeopening. 

Understand the Dance

We’ll look at the increases in a minute and what a few experts are saying about ways to combat it.  In late 2007-early 2008, Shipwire published a bit of a manifesto opinion on this annual dance and why Shipwire powered merchants are better positioned to level off the “margin hit” from annual shipping increases.  It’s a slightly long blog post about winning against the General Rate Increases.  In it:

• Discounts verse retail and how surcharges are a game played by the carriers
• The rules of order fulfillment, shipping and how true economies of scale work (aka How Top Online Retailers and manufacturers run their supply chains)
• Move products closer to buyers and cut the last mile costs (UPS, USPS, Fedex) forever.  Especially for Overseas/International shipments
  • This is how top sellers do it!
  • This is why Shipwire has warehouses all over the U.S.A., Canada and the U.K, Europe
• Spend two minutes with our  Shipping Calculator Rates.  See how many thousands of dollars Shipwire can save you.  Will your business save 75% off international?
  

Check out our manifesto on beating back the General Rate Increase and send us comments.

Jan. 2010 UPS and FedEx Increases

Thanks to Dan in Shipwire warehouse ops for helping us cut to the chase here.

UPS Rate Increase:  It looks like the Average Rate Increase is going to be about 4.9%  (UPS Air and International Services will increase a net 4.9% through a combination of a 6.9% increase in the base rates and a 2% reduction in the fuel surcharge.)  This doesn’t mean that all shippers will see that number.   Shippers of light weight packages will see a 5.9% increase.  Average increase is calculated on base rates only.  Surcharges are also going up.

The big hit for 2009 is the Address Correction surcharges.  Address Correction Air goes from $10 to $11, Ground increases from $8 to $10.  That’s 25%!!!

Here are some of the other UPS surcharge hikes:

• Extended Area Surcharge Export & Import increases $2.00 to $24.00, or $0.24 per pound whichever is greate
• Residential Surcharges increase $0.10 for Air to $2.50 and $0.15 for Ground to $2.20.
• Large Package Surcharge is up $5.00 (now it’s $50.00).
• Delivery Area Surcharges:
  • Commercial $1.60 will now be $1.70
  • Residential $2.40 will now be $2.50
  • Extended Commercial $1.60 will now be $1.70
  • Extended Residential $2.65 will now be $2.75

Fedex Rate Increase:  Here is the Fedex post on their 2010 increases and Parcel Industry’s PDF of 2009 verse 2010 Fedex rate comparison (nice!)  FedEx Express package and freight rates will increase 5.9%.  They will again be partially offsetting the increase by adjusting the fuel surcharge calculation.  FedEx will also change the following rate categories:

• FedEx Express US Import Rates
• FedEx Express US Rates to Puerto Rico
• FedEx International Premium Rates
• FedEx International Priority and International Economy Rates

Caveat, you need to look at how you ship, what you ship and what carriers you tend to use to really understand the impact to your business.  As always these rate increases will require a comprehensive analysis by each shipper to ascertain the impact to the individual shipper.

Freight Rates are also going up:   UPS Freight and FedEx Freight, will also increase their rates in January, 2010.

What are some Tips and Recommendations from Other Bloggers?

Shipwire is a big fan of the Shipping Coach.  Straight talk from somebody knowledgeable. Mark has a few tips to offset the UPS increases. If you ship yourself his tip to use an Address Verification system will help you fight that 25% surcharge for getting an address wrong.  Definately give Mark’s blog a read.  Ship USPS (and soon UPS) you can get free shipping tools from Shipwire to  print USPS postage rates and get usps international rates right.

Eric Joiner over at Freight Dawg hasn’t posted tips yet this year; but, he usually does, so perhaps check him out in a few weeks for freight tips.  Eric has had some good tips in the past.

The rest of the bloggers are just noting the changes and giving examples of what to watch out for.  Logistics Management calls it the largest rate increase ever with a break down.

Shipwire also blogged more 3-4 more tips for the general rate increase at Practical E-commerce.  Check them out.

Feel free to comment with more tips and guidance to help SMB’s deal with rate increase.