Dealing with High-Cost Shipping on Low-Priced Products

by Clark Winegar, Doba's Director of Retention

You've probably noticed several items on Doba that cost more to ship than they cost to buy. Batteries are a perfect example. With an MSRP of $1.48, shipping cost of $7.49, and a drop ship fee of $2.00. Who in his right mind would try to sell a set of four AA batteries from a Doba supplier?

In this article, we explore the high cost of shipping low-priced items and reveal various ways you can include these items in your business model to improve sales and even make a profit selling them.

Why are the shipping costs so high?

Why is the shipping cost so astronomically high? The answer lies in how the product is shipped. At Doba, we require all our suppliers to provide us with tracking numbers for all shipments that can be tracked online. For drop shipping we feel this is essential. Since our members never see or touch the majority of the products they sell, we have to be able to provide them with the added visibility of online tracking. This means that all of our suppliers ship UPS, FedEx, or DHL (mostly UPS and FedEx). These are premium shipping services that not only allow you to track packages online, but also insure the packages and have certain minimum shipping fees regardless of size and weight.

You could ship the products for a lower cost yourself, but if you were to use the same premium shipping services, you would end up paying about the same (in many cases even more) than what our suppliers charge for shipping.

Getting creative

Do high shipping costs prohibit you from selling these low-priced products? Certainly not. You just have to sell them a little differently. The following list describes your options...