The 2020 pandemic and 2020 Christmas holiday shipping season revealed "unprecedented" inabilities for the Post Office and FedEx* to get the job done. We DO know UPS is way more reliable than USPS when it's crunch time for getting packages delivered on time but they are EXPENSIVE!! Or are they?
8. Label pops up! We print on Dymo so we're set for 4x6 labels.
During the pandemic related snafus with the Post Office from May 2020 into 2021 we started looking for ways to incorporate more UPS shipping for our Etsy orders. I actually work(ed) for UPS; I'm retired now :) and the prices the sales rep spit out were enough to make me choke.
Below are 3 free (non-paid subscription) options we've used so far for shipping out goods purchased at our Etsy shop at www.yarnshop4u.com (or www.yarnshop4u.etsy.com if 4% cash back isn't appealing). You don't need a paid subscription like with Stamps.com or Shipstation.com to send UPS at a very reasonable, competitive and often cheaper rate than USPS. It's possible the below mentioned will charge a subscription fee, but at the time of writing this they are free!
- PAYPAL - www.paypal.com/shipnow this is a tedious task, but it got the job done. All addresses had to manually entered and we manually entered the address in the UPS address verification to make sure it was legit. Time consuming, but sometimes worth the effort.
- SHIPPO - I may have seen an ad on TV. Tried it out and it worked great! It can pull order and shipping data from many online selling platforms including Etsy. We were already using Pirate Ship for all of our USPS First Class and Priority shipping so this filled in the need for speedier shipping processing. Also FREE to use.
- PIRATE SHIP - I saved the best for last! Importing order info is a breeze. Easy to use, excellent support, over and above ways to download your purchased label data. In the fall of 2021 Pirate Ship announced the peak holiday rate increase for the Post Office as well as announcing there would be a new delivery option coming soon. We were EXCITED to say the least and our crossed fingers and wishful thinking that it would be UPS came true!! Pirate Ship added the ability to purchase UPS shipping labels on their site!!! FYI, all the delivery companies have a peak surcharge for the Christmas holiday but one of the bonuses that also came with the superior service was NO holiday surcharge!!
What's the process? First get the 3rd party app (No pic of that but obviously you would need it!)
1. Hover over the SHIP
2. Import Etsy Orders (you can see the expanded SHIP icon gives you 3 choices.
3. Hit "Get Rates"
4. The shipping info window opens. Enter info! You can set up preset
package sizes and flats (flats are very good for getting the cubic
rate!!) This was a big box so I manually entered my box size and weight.
5. Click Get rates and watch the magic happen!
6. PS will make a suggestion. Click on that to expand all your choices! Select a choice.
7. Click Buy!
Anyway, if you need yarn or yarn notions or maybe a few sewing items, stop on by our shop for 4% off the listed price shown at www.yarnshop4u.com
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This information regarding shipping is based on our personal opinion about delivery companies and shipping label purchasing platforms. This is not a paid endorsement for any of the mentioned companies.
* FedEx may be more reliable when it comes to on time deliveries, but we don't use them for outgoing so our opinion is based on incoming packages that are often delayed without reason.