Monique and others- I could really use some advice on Website and Shipping

[axe_n_gear_music]

Monique (and others!!!)

First I want to say that your posts are excellent. Great info, and always worth reading. I've learned a ton from you and many others on this board.
I had a couple of questions, if you or others could offer some advice.
#1- I started my own website a few months ago(God it took forever to do, and it's still not even close to being done- very gratifying, though!!!!) At the moment I only have a few things loaded into it that are available to purchase via the shopping cart, but it is growing every day. It is hosted by HostPapa, and was a great deal, with very user friendly website building tools for the do-it-your-selfer. Everything on the site is my own words, and pics, etc, and like I said, it does have a ways to go. I don't know any HTML, so it is not very fancy. Could you or others recommend anything that I could do to improve it, and drive more traffic to it?
It is www.axengearmusic.com

#2- At the moment, I use Canada Post for all of my shipments (don't kill me yet!!!). (I never use the eBay-Paypal- CanadaPost print your shipping label tool thing- EVER, because I get better prices than they offer there, at my Post Office (read on). With the new feedback system and delivery times becoming much more critical, I am going to have to change, but I get great service + an additional 8.5% off, over and above the Venture One rate. The guy at my post office (which is right up the street from me) is excellent. Most Post Offices, I understand make 17% on most of the shipments that they process, so this guy has recognized me as one of his better, more frequent customers, and as a result gives me this additional 8.5% off. If he is busy, and there is a lineup, I can just drop off all of my packages, and pay him a day or two later on my next visit.
So what I'd like to do is continue to use Can. Post for all of my Canadian shipments, and switch to UPS for all of my U.S. and International shipments. My prices would likely have to go up a little, but for the average size of my larger sized shipments (@ 46" x 20" x 7"), for the average desination in the U.S., I already pay around 70-80 bucks for "Xpresspost USA" (although most of my customers want to choose "Expedited Parcel USA", which is usually around 40 bucks, and then they bitch at me later because of it taking 2- 3 weeks to get there!!). Do you guys think this would be a good move (to use two different companies?)- CP for Can. shipments & UPS for everywhere else? Sorry for the long winded post, I should have split this one up!!!! Thanks all in advance.

Axe

[whoscloset]

Hi Axe,

Nice Site. Have you had a look at this thread for some ideas?

http://forums.ebay.ca/thread.jspa?threadID=500027740&tstart=0&mod=1201891859579

I'm wondering if HostPapa uploads your items to Google Base? As I said in the above post...you can get a lot of free traffic from there. I would really recommend you have a look at the points above and enquire as to whether your HostPapa cart can accommodate some of them.

In particular, you should have an individual page for each product...for indexing purposes...and if there is any compatible software it would be really great if you could get all of your URLs to have SEO friendly content.

I hope you don't have to pay back-end fees to HostPapa, because it REALLY isn't necessary.


With regard to shipping, I highly recommend you get in touch with UPS and request a visit from a personal business representative. I put your 46" x 20" x 7" measurements into my UPS account and found that with my 45% discount, I could ship to California for $37.90 with tracking, siggy and a 6 day delivery guarantee.

Have all of you paperwork in order showing your shipping volume for the past few months so they have something to work from when figuring out which discount level to offer you.

Canada Post will remain more cost-effective within Canada as UPS is not allowed to compete with them pricewise for basic ground service.

[futuretech_liquidations]

The only problem with using UPS for US shipments is if the declare value of the item you are shipping is over US$199.99 then brokerage fees will apply. Same goes for FEDEX.

Both USP and FEDEX will require that the brokerage costs be paid in advance before your shipment is released for entry into the USA. Even if you stipulate on the waybill that they are to bill the RECEIVER/CONSIGNEE (aka Your customer) if the buyer refuses to pay then you are responsible for the charges.

Most US buyers hate to pay brokerage costs and both UPS and FEDEX charge a minimum of $30 for their brokerage fees.

Just wanted to point this out so you are not surprised/caught of guard.

TIM @ FTL

[dipmicro]

Even if you stipulate on the waybill that they are to bill the RECEIVER/CONSIGNEE (aka Your customer) if the buyer refuses to pay then you are responsible for the charges.

How nice of them! It does not seem to be the case the other way.

[recped]

How nice of them! It does not seem to be the case the other way.

Yes it is exactly the same for a shipper in the USA sending to Canada.

This is really only a problem with FedEx, UPS will collect the fees from the recipient before they hand over the package. Of course most Americans have never experienced any type of fee or tax when buy abroad so you run the risk they get upset or refuse to accept the package.
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

[recped]

If you are shipping high value items via UPS/FedEx it can be better to pay the brokerage fee yourself and add it to the shipping charge. Since very few items have any duty or taxes charged the brokerage rates are easy to determine in advance.
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

[axe_n_gear_music]

Thanks everyone for your ideas & insight.
Sounds to me like using Canada Post Xpresspost for items over 200 dollars value is the way to go to avoid unhappy customers who would otherwise have to pay brokerage on items over 200 with UPS.
Perhaps I should consider UPS only for shipments to the U.S. that are under 200 bucks value.

Axe

[canadabeltbuckles]

Hi Axe,

I checked out your website and it looks really nice.

If you are looking for a couple of suggestions as to 'enhancing your site' and 'making it more visible on the internet', I would offer the following...

1) I had a look at your source code while I was at your site, mainly to see the keywords and keyword phrases you use. Below is a copy of some of your main page source code...

********************************************************


"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">










*********************************************************

I know that the above probably doesn't make much sense to you since it is HTML coding, but as a website designer, it makes a lot of sense to me...

The one statement in particular which makes reference to your "keywords" is what you should concentrate on for better search engine results...



(ie)

A site named computer peripherals may get listed for a key phrase "low-cost computer peripherals" typed by user 'A' and the same may not be listed for the key phrase "Low priced computer peripherals" typed by user 'B' in the search results. Why? Well simply because the search engine searches for documents or pages containing the key phrase "low-cost" only, as the keyword and returns those documents or web pages that contain the keyword "low-cost".

Since the site used "low-cost" as the keyword and did not use "low priced" even once in any one of the pages, it gets listed for the former search query.

Finally, keywords or key phrases to some extent are useful in determining the relevance and the search engine rankings of a web site. So the question is, what should a person put in it's keywords? The keywords and key phrases used should primarily describe and represent the content and the relevance of the particular page in which they are placed.

Try and put yourself in a user's shoes, (so to speak), and come up with as many combination search phrases you could think of if you were looking for guitars or guitar accessories, etc... Whatever your site distributes. Then put them into your Keyword 'Meta Name' source code. This will certainly help...

2) Most default monitor resolution is 1024 X 768, so you may want to keep that in mind and reduce the width of your screen display. In order to see a couple of your header menu items, I had to scrool to the right, and most internet users would rather not do that, it is just annoying to them.

I am not sure how much control you have over your site, but those are a couple of things that I would look at to enhance your site. Other than that, it looks to be quite user friendly!! Congrats!

[axe_n_gear_music]

Thanks Monique for your info. To answer the question "Does Host Papa charge backend fees?", the answer is no. When an item sells from the site, there are zero fees.
That's a great discount you get with UPS. I doubt that I would get that much of a discount, though, as our volume of sales under that "200 dollar mark", are not as great as the sales to the U.S. 201- 800 dollars (which, I may just have to charge people higher $ for Xpress Post with CP to avoid my customers having to pay brokerage on their items when they arrive at their door).

B1rjtd68- thanks for the info,- I wonder if you could give me some insight as to how I would change the resolution on our site so that it fits the screen properly. I don't see anywhere in my tools with my website management tools, where I could adjust that. I agree that it does need to be done, though!!
Also, I have gone in and added a ton of Meta tags- is there a limit as to how many I can use, or are their strengths in some way increased by having them listed earlier in the list? Thanks again so much you guys, you have been very helpful!!!

Axe

[whoscloset]

I would still recommend you have a UPS Business Rep in. The truth is that you can custom's clear the items for your customers and, depending upon your volume, the cost to you may be a VERY low percentage of the item's value.

I have a supplier who ships large quantities, mainly to the States. He has free shipping AND free customs clearance. Given the sale prices for his items I'm pretty sure it isn't costing him much. I think he gave me a figure of less than 2% of value or something like that.

[axe_n_gear_music]

OK, thanks, Monique, I will call them tomorrow. It never hurts to look into it. Your supplier friend must ship out a ton of items to get so many freebies. I'm not sure that I would qualify, but again, I will make the call tomorrow.
Now, I do have my own Customs Broker working for me that clears all of my regular stock that I get from the U.S., and they ship to me via UPS as well. I wonder if my Customs broker can work on my behalf when I send items down to the U.S., and then just bill me as he does when I receive my stock shipments. Maybe that's another phone call worth making tomorrow. Thanks,

Axe

[whoscloset]

Yes, he can absolutely do that. In fact if your are going to increase your business with him that way you should re-negotiate your rate.

[recped]

Axe

As Monique mentioned, if your broker is clearing your incoming UPS shipments they can clear your outgoing ones and probably for somewhat less than UPS charges.

I don't know your volume but if it's reasonable you may be able to ship UPS as cheap or cheaper than CP-Xpresspost even if you include the brokerage.

I'll leave the website info to Monique, I made an effort to become a web "expert" 10 years ago but like so many things I just never finished educating myself and here I am 10 years later with nothing more than a very basic understanding of HTML.
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

[axe_n_gear_music]

Thanks guys, I will let you know how it goes with UPS when I call this morning. (After I get out from under some of this snow!!)

Axe