fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3340 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3340 ⌋

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[Xena: Warrior Princess]

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[MLP:FIM]

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[What's My Line?]

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Say you run an online business, you sell products that have to be packaged and shipped, and you have a scale of shipping charges. We'll say $9.95 ground, $15.95 for 3-day, and $25.95 for overnight shipping. What I am interested in is what does "overnight" mean to you? Do you think it means the package should be shipped the same day as the order is received (provided the items in the order are in stock), guaranteeing its arrival the next day, or is that "next day shipping"? Is there a difference between the two?

The reason I ask is because $25.95 is a lot of money to pay if the package wont arrive the next day but "overnight", which can mean several days after an order is placed. Do you think it's fair to ask that much in shipping and calling it "overnight"?

Overnight = over ONE night. But there should be a time limit - if someone orders something at 11 PM, it's more reasonable to expect it to take two days.

If I order something at 8 AM, having it come before night time the next day would be fine.

Ayart

Oh yes, I forgot that detail. This would apply to orders received before noon and for in-stock items.

In that case, yeah, overnight should be one night passes and the following day, I have my item.

Over night, to me, means that if I order it at 7pm on a Monday, it should be at my house by 7pm that Tuesday.

If you order something during office hours, you should receive it the following day.

Speaking from experience, the shipping charges are generally put at a flat rate (i.e. $5.95/$7.95 for Priority Mail) to cover basic shipping charges. In some cases, a package -depending on how much it weighs and where it's end location is compared to the distance from the originating location- can cost less than the base rate. This includes overnights.

And tbh, $25.95 for an overnight is pretty reasonable... but again, presuming that's a generic base rate, because the heavier the package, the more the price will be. And then there's the difference between bog standard FedEx Overnight and FedEx Priority Overnight...

Plus, a lot of e-commerce retailers often make most of their money on shipping credits, since a lot of the money they make on the product oftentimes goes back into the cost of operations, ordering new product, et al. But that's just my experience with a mom 'n pop-type operation. I don't know how bigger retailers handle it.

Op

Thanks, this was informative.

No problem! Funnily enough, this topic comes up just a few days before I'm leaving my e-commerce-related job (of about 4 years) next week. Shipping was my main department, too.

I will say the experience taught me a lot more about both mailing and e-commerce... now I know why an online retailer like JetPens -and even some Etsy sellers- charges you X amount for shipping on one item, when the item itself costs less than $5, haha!

(On a semi-related note, an issue that's came up a lot is shipping small items and charging the basic flat rate for first class, especially the items that cost less than $1. But that's another subject for another time)

Edited 2016-02-26 00:38 (UTC)

Overnight would mean getting it the day after ordering, provided it's ordered before 4 PM (Or at the end of business hours. It's usually 4 PM where I am.) If ordered after that I would add another day. Waiting for three days would not mean overnight for me.

Yes, precisely. Another caveat is that FedEx trucks -i.e. if you own a business or small warehouse/storage place with your goods- will not take 2-Days or Overnights and this includes those in boxes too. Those, you have to drop off at a dropbox or a FedEx store (if the package is too big for the dropbox). Depending on your location, FedEx Overnight boxes typically have pickup times of 5pm (where I live anyways).

Even then, most overnighted orders will or are guaranteed to arrive about 3pm (in the recipients' timezone) the following day. There's the option for Priority Overnight, which will get it to you much earlier in the day, though I don't remember exactly how early.

Edited 2016-02-26 00:29 (UTC)

I get packages shipped all the time, sometimes several times a week, and the answer is... it depends on the company?

Overnight does not necessarily mean overnight processing. It really ONLY means overnight shipping. Some companies process and ship orders the next day regardless of what sort of shipping you get, others take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to process orders before shipping. Generally if it's a company that does a lot of online sales and/or shipped orders they'll list their average/expected processing time somewhere on the website.

Shipping is really fucking expensive, especially overnighting a package. So yeah, it's totally fair to charge $30 for overnighting it, even if that's after a week of processing, b/c the company likely isn't making a dime of that $30 and likely warned you it wouldn't ship the next day anyway. That money is entirely going from you to the postal service so they can ship your box in a day rather than the week or two it'd take for standard post.

Personally if I truly need something the next day, I'll place the order by phone and ask if they can get it out. Most of the companies I order from are very accommodating if it's truly an emergency, but if I don't ask I expect it to take at least 3-5 days before they mail it.

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