Shipping with Chit Chats

[gauld]

I've never shipped stuff with Chit Chats before but because of the Canada post strike it seems to be the best option for me for smaller items too that I used to ship letterpost. Does anyone esle have experience uing them?

What should I use for Business Policies to set it up on Ebay for the settings for Chit Chats in it since it's not an option there now.

My sales gave almost died since the strike so I need to try to get them back.  If I can provide them as a cheper alternative to Canada Post with tracking with it being down ... I might be able to get theme back.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Also i'm curious if you guys have any suggestions for ways I can really bump up my sales on here without losting too much money to do it. I went up to 12% promoted listings and it didn't help my sales.

thanks
- Bill

[mrdutch1001]

I should think a longtime 25 year eBay seller with over 2000 feedback should have sufficient knowledge and success to pass helpful information onto others rather than vice versa...

What I have gleaned from other selling sites(aside of Amazon because I am not a seller there), sellers have found deceasing sales over the past several months, so not everything can be blamed on the CP mail stoppage...

[ricarmic]

@mrdutch1001 "deceasing sales" is such an accurate typo! 😉

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Bill,

Are all your items weighed and measured already in the listings? 

My recommendation would be to switch to UPS using calculated shipping. I am unsure if being located in Dartmouth will make your shipping rates uncompetitive with UPS. 

While I think this would be a great opportunity to try out Chit Chats or Stallion (if they are available to you), because it is a chance to figure out and learn how a different carrier works, I don't think they are going to be the solution that you're looking for to replace lettermail. 

If you click my profile and find posts, you will likely find obscenely long posts detailing my experience so far with trying to find substitutions for lettermail. Here is a recent one that outlines why I opted to go with UPS: https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Statement-from-the-CUPW-More-than-55-000-Postal-Workers/...

One thing you could consider doing is using UPS Calculated rates for Canada and for larger items to the USA, but use a flat rate for smaller lettermail size items that would go to the USA and send those smaller USA items via Chit Chats. If your rates in Atlantic Canada are similar to mine, USPS Ground Advantage via Chit Chats should cost about $8 for a DVD or video game in a size 0 bubble mailer, or a comic book in a flat mailer. I would only do this if dropping off at Chit Chats is not a major imposition. If it takes significant time, I would just stick with calculated rates using UPS or Fedex. 

The unfortunate reality of the situation is that there isn't a true 1:1 replacement for lettermail within Canada. The closest thing price wise is UniUni via Stallion, but the lack of integration with eBay means that you will consistently receive orders that don't qualify for the service, and you will have to spend time managing customers and cancelling them. By going with a carrier with calculated shipping like UPS or Fedex, you are going to experience less orders because of the higher cost of shipping, but it's a step above a complete shutdown if Canada Post w/ extended handling times isn't working for you. 

[gauld]

In the past month i've been averaging 1 or 2 sales a day even with promoted listings on for up to 12% .. since the announcement of the strike it's barely  been 1 sale a day if that. If my shipping is a lot less it might help bring up my sales. A lot of this too is all these changes on Ebay has make the site a lot more difficult to use and harder for people to find stuff too.

So have you had any experince with Chti Chats or other companies that aren't in the Business Policies?

[mrdutch1001]

well as you can see, OP's concern is about how to " bump up" sales(an indication that sales have NOT halted) but are obviously not at a level where they "should" be......so I think I am accurate in using the wording"decreasing sales"...

[mrdutch1001]

No experience with ChitChats as that courier is not even available in Saskatchewan...

To be able to ship with a reliable alternative that I believe could handle the increased volumes of mail due to the CP stoppage, I would have to go with what is available near by and convenient for me> UPS...

and eBay does have discounted rates with UPS for purchasing shipping labels through eBay...

[ricarmic]

@mrdutch1001 Yep, but you made a typo, it says deceasing not decreasing....darned spell checkers! 😉

[mrdutch1001]

yeah, unfortunately edit time had expired before that little ole typo was realized...

Sunday's multi-tasking, not always so great! LOL!

[byto253]

I use flat rate shipping so have several business policies for different sizes and types of items.   I have a good idea at this point what the shipping cost will be around for an item, - sometimes I am high, other times low but it works out.   For small items it is easier to get an idea of a range -  I will check the cost to ship to California, Mid-US and East coast and either use the California rate or a mid-point one to set up a policy - ditto for Canada East vs. West and go from there.

Chitchats also now offers USPS media mail shipping, so books, DVDs, Bluray, VHS, Vinyl LPs, cassettes can all be shipped to the US at a cost that is often well under Canada Post.  That is something worth checking into strike or no strike as shipping can be waaay cheaper.  A quirk is that the shipping calculator will not give you  a media mail estimate.   That is only provided on actual items you sold and have imported into Chitchats so  I will use an item to input whatever location, dimensions and weight I want to get an estimate.

Suggest signing up, linking your ebay account to easily import orders and checking out the shipping options and costs for some orders.  There is no obligation to send an item, I check out shipping costs that way all the time and then just delete the ones I won't be sending with Chitchats.  

Interesting the Chitchats in the Maritimes has 1 corporate location and 29 dropoff spots at Maritime Bus Depots.  That is the best coverage in the country!  

[gauld]

I haven't figured out how to link my account to Chit Chats yet ..... but it would come in handy if i could do that. I'm going to go over there tomorrow and talk to them anyways. It's about 20-30 minute drive to where they are at. If I had enough volume I could always arrange for pick upt too.

What do you pick for shipping option in Business Policy? Or does it matter? Or do you have your ebay account linked to it?

I signed up for it last night but still not sure about some stuff with them. They do look insanely cheaper tehn Canada Post except for letterpost as an option. People might like the tracking option though it has for not too much more then letterpost.

thanks

-Bill

[gauld]

UPS is so expensive here for smaller items .... i'd be looking at at least $15.00 by UPS ground and for my  bigger items more then Expedit is for Canada Post. I was looking into it already using it on Ebay.

[gauld]

UPS is so expensive for my smaller items. I sell more stuff like comics, movies, and smaller items like those then my bigger items.  If I could ship for  alot less i'd be able to sell a lot more and would be a lot more competive I think. UPS Ground is an option .. but not sure if i want to go that route quite yet. I may add it for option for people though.

[byto253]

Just give them a call, no need to really go in.  I have found the phone support very good and they have helped me with account setup/configuration questions.  

I list on .com so shipping options are different than on .ca.  On .com I use  "Standard Shipping from outside US" for the US and "Standard International Shipping"  for Canada.    For .ca if you choose flat rate shipping there are similar generic shipping options but calculated does not have the generic setups.  

My eBay account is linked to Chitchats so that I can import sales info directly into Chitchats from eBay so I don't need to fill in the address and customs info.  

[gauld]

For my first time i;' rather go talk to them in person .... after that if I have any other questions i'll call them, I signed up for the .com version ..... I didn't know there was a .ca version.

How did you link your account to you Chit Chats account? I did something wrong so it didn't link to it.

[byto253]

By .com I was referring to eBay.com, the US site.  Chitchats is just chitchats!

I linked that a few years ago, just recall it was part of the setup and could not exactly tell you how to.  

Here is the page on how to link or integrate eBay with Chitchats.  If you still have trouble, I would call in so that you have your computer in front of you and they will walk you through it. 

https://support.chitchats.com/en/support/solutions/articles/47000427088-how-can-i-integrate-my-ebay-...

[gauld]

Thank you!!  I tried it out with one item and I was able to import it to Chit Chats. I was hoping it would do it to Ebay but I guess that's not the way it works. Once i'm ready to ship out the items i'll put in the details and it will make it a bit easier. Does it put any imfo on Ebay though> I did notice that it imported it from Ebay.com and not from my .ca ..... I guess it's pretty much the same anyways though for information.

[mrdutch1001]

yes, it really depends on the size and value of items as to which carrier to choose...

(this example below is from someone else in the household who is also an eBay seller):

a 425 g item (value over $50)shipping via UPS Ground from Regina to a B.C. city east of Vancouver using eBay 's UPS shipping label>just over $18.00...that same item would have been shipped via Canada Post in the smallest flat rate box for $18.89...

[byto253]

The tracking information will be automatically updated to eBay from Chitchats.  

[gauld]

That would be good. Hopefully it works good then .... I guess i'll know if it's working for me in a couple days once do my first transactions on there on Tueday.