Kid Tip: Shipping Large Orders

You made a sale! Congratulations. What comes next? Shipping!

It can be one of the most stressful parts about selling in any marketplace. Luckily, I have a few tips I’ve learned over the years to share with you, to help make packing and shipping easier so you can deliver your packages in the fastest, cheapest way possible.

First and foremost, save your boxes! They always come in handy for large orders.

You have a few options when shipping large or non-standard orders (like shoes). Here are a few of my suggestions to help you out:

  1. Use the Kidizen label if the package is 10 pounds or less. It’s a priority label and any packaging can be used for it, except flat rate boxes/envelopes or Priority Express.
  2. If you don’t have your own box, I suggest Priority boxes which can be ordered online or picked up at your local post office. You can use Priority boxes with any Kidizen label for packages of two pounds or more. Just make sure they’re Priority and not Flat Rate, Express, or Regional ones. (These require a special label you can purchase at the post office.)
  3. Split the items into multiple packages using one of the above options.

The next question is usually, “How do you determine which option to use?” and I must admit, it takes a little bit of playing around in order to get an estimate from each of your choices. Here’s how I usually do it:

  1. Package your items and try to fit them all in one box, then weigh it. For reference, the pieces in this box weigh 3 pounds, 7 ounces.
  2. The first place I check is Kidizen, by inputting the price into my shipping screen (you can access it after tapping Purchase Shipping Label) and for these pieces, it gives me the price of a 4 pound package. (It’s $13)
  3. Then I check out PayPal (or another online option) which bases price on weight and timezone, so the cost may change based on where you are shipping it from. To do this, check your own address here and it will give you an estimate.
  4. Next, I check the cost for splitting up the items. In this example, I would place two pairs of shoes in a poly mailer and then weight it. If it’s over 16 ounces, I would try to put them in a padded Flat Rate, which is $6.10 through Kidizen.
  5. So, you could split this order into two padded Flat Rates for $12.20. In this case, I would choose the original $13 option from Kidizen because I prefer to ship everything together (there’s less to track that way and Kidizen has you covered if it gets lost in transit!) and to me, the extra 0.80 is worth it.

I hope this helps!

Randi

Randi Pivec a.k.a. Violet’s Closet, is a kids clothes shopaholic and Wonder Woman-obsessed mama of two who is just trying to figure this parenting thing out. She loves to answer any and all questions about Kidizen in the app and the Hello Kidizen Facebook group. When she isn’t helping other moms navigate buying and selling, she’s curating collections and brainstorming new style features.

About The Author

Randi Pivec

Randi Pivec a.k.a. Violet’s Closet, is a kids clothes shopaholic and photo-obsessed mama of two who is just trying to figure this parenting thing out. She loves to answer any and all questions about Kidizen in the app and the Hello Kidizen Facebook group. When she isn’t helping other moms navigate buying and selling, she’s curating collections and brainstorming new style features.