I just bought your book, a complete beginner and didn't even make my first soap. I really enjoy the book and your videos. I already have a business that I work for full time, but starting to think about the future, and making soaps is something that interests me a lot. So thank you!
I love it! That's how I started too! I probably researched soapmaking for 4-5 months before I made my first loaf of soap. The obsession is real! Haha! You'll be ready when the time comes. :)
I recently bought your book and I love it. I think it was very important you mentioned that one can follow a recipe but to really understand why something is used. Anyhow I’m just an aspiring soapmaker but I appreciate your view on business takes. You never know, might catch the soap bug and start selling! Thank you for writing the book.
I felt like you made this video for me!!! I was just contacted about shipping cost from customer. You answered all my questions. Thank you million times ❤ I always love your videos.
Very very helpful information! ! I need to rewatch oil price video you made. I used some software to calculate the actual cost of a bar. The shipping part feels like a big unknown. The numbers don't lie. Pushing for a larger ticket sale is exactly what you need Over $35.00 helps me get out of bed. I'm
Yes, shipping kind of feels like a big unknown until you start doing it. Once you are doing it and have a good idea of your costs, it gets much easier!
Hi Simi Wow! Very Well informed video. Very detailed in terms of calculating everything to know if there is profit or not. Brilliant. Thank you so much !!
Thank you for all info and love put out there. We love you and your info is very valuable. You mentioned pirate ship in the video, just so you know, Etsy stopped allowing new connections with this company since Oct 21, 2024. 😢 I love using their services tho. ❤
Hi there! With calculated shipping, you enter the weight of all your products and the weight of your shipping packaging and it estimates the weight based on what the customer ordered. The problem with this technique is that the software doesn't figure out which size box you're using, so I found the calculation was often off and erred on the high side. With flat rate shipping, you decide what the price will be (for example: $5 for anything) and then the customer knows exactly what they will pay up front, but of course, you're paying some shipping out of pocket. I hope this helps!
I offer free shipping on all my products. I build the shipping cost into the price of the product. When they order multiple items, I add up the total cost of the product itself, plus the actual shipping cost and refund the customer for any overages. Yes, it is an additional step for me, but it’s just easier in the long run for me to do it this way.
Nice! Do the customers know that they'll be receiving a refund? Do you think customers are stopping the sale because of the refund for overages? I'd say that if you can avoid doing refunds, that's way better. As your business gets bigger and you have more and more sales, it's simply unsustainable to check this on every order. If it's working for now, that's great! But, depending on your growth, you may need to choose another model somewhere along the way. And, I'd venture to guess that people are dropping the sale without you knowing. If you have a way to see how many carts are dropped before the purchase, that's a great way to see what is happening at the time of checkout. :)
Good points to consider. Thank you. I have been selling almost entirely in person up to this point, but as I'm starting to do a bit of shipping, I need to consider how to price it. I am also starting my Goimagine shop. So I'll need to decide on a starting point there as well. I'd love info on good places to buy boxes too. I don't want to have to buy 100 boxes in each size, so any tips on that would be greatly appreciated.
That's great! Sounds like you're on the right track. For boxes, I'd suggest buying them locally, as having to ship a bunch of boxes gets expensive! I get most of mine locally from Eco-Enclose and I can just go pick them up! A lot of folks use Uline for boxes, and you can get them in groups of 25 for each size, but the shipping can get pricey. They have a free shipping day once a year (in September or October, I think?), so I sometimes get boxes during this sale if I need them fast!
@@muddymintsoap thank you. I live quite rural, so our local stores options are pretty limited. Next time I travel to the big city, I'll see what options I can find for stores there.
Thank you for this video. How do you handle (or what are your suggestions for) customer claims of lost or damaged orders? Porch pirates? Some people say they factor in a loss of 5% (or more) of sales due to these factors. Thanks in advance!
Hi there! I could probably do a whole video on this question - haha! I've found that this happens rarely, but it does happen. If it says delivered and they don't have it, I always believe the customer by default. I always ask them to wait a week to see if the package arrived, as many times the package shows as delivered, but the mail carrier may have scanned it incorrectly (this happens more than you think!) or it may have gone to the wrong address. Many times, it shows up after a week. In the meantime, I have them check other doors in case it was left there, the bushes near the front door, with the neighbors, etc. If it still doesn't show up, then I resend the package to them or offer a full refund. If I resend the package, I always choose signature and I let the customer know in advance that I'm doing that. If the package is just taking a long time or appears lost, I'll call USPS (although that hardly ever helps) and I set up tracking to ping me on my phone if the package moves. Then I keep an eye on it and keep the customer informed. If it truly gets lost in transit, I'll reship a package or give a refund. I don't know exactly what the rate of loss is, but I'm fairly certain it is less than 5% and we shipped a LOT of packages! If I had to guess, I'd say 1-2% are lost - maybe more over the holidays. I hope this helps!
Thanks for the speedy reply! The people who have mentioned 5% are shipping on FBA and not necessarily soap. I thinking adding signature required is a good idea! Thanks again!
Can you do a tutorial on how to measure different size packages and how to figure out what it would cost to ship them by USPS? It's confusing, I will be using small to large bubble mailers for my t-shirts, small boxes for the coffee mugs, and very small bubble mailers or envelopes for the bracelets. I have been soooo confused on how to measure and calculate the dimensions. For example, what I call width, I think they call length ???
Hi there! Yes, I am planning to do a more visual video on packaging and shipping. Are you always shipping everything separately, or do they sometimes go together. Like, can someone order a mug and a t-shirt? If you use a flat rate bubble mailer for your t-shirts from USPS, they are always the same price and they will ship priority. If you want to take advantage of USPS ground, which is under 1 lb, then it will be cheaper, but you'll need to get your own mailers. If you sign up for Pirate Ship, you can actually play around with all the different hypothetical scenarios and see how much it would cost for each thing. As I mention in the video, sometimes you just have to forge ahead to figure it out!
@@muddymintsoap Hi yes, I will be shipping various items together, because people might order a variety of things. I will use USPS ground advantage, but it looks like I can't use it for everything. Shipping is so hard to me that I wish I could literally take a shipping class where I can ask detailed questions. Thanks. I will watch for the video and subscribe.
Hi there! I have a top 5 list of recipes, but scents are harder because many of them are blends. I do have a list of my top 12 in my book, if you have my book. If I could only buy 5 essential oils, I'd probably choose a variety to be able to make more scent combinations. This is hard, but off the top of my head, I'd choose: lavender, peppermint, orange 10x, cedarwood atlas, and rosemary. This is a very personal thing though, so take it with a grain of salt! :)
Hi there! I used to sell jewelry as well and it is very lightweight and the shipping isn't very expensive. I'm guessing the same is true for bookmarks and t-shirts. I used to do a flat rate of $3 for my jewelry, but these days I'd probably do it for free (or use flat rate of $5 or less), since you can easily add the price of shipping into your product price. For mugs, it might be a different story as it is a fragile item and it weighs more. You may have to figure out how much it costs you to ship mugs and what makes the most sense. However, in general, I think if you're on Etsy, $5 flat rate with free shipping over $35 is a great way to go for any product. Just make sure you're increasing your prices a little to make up for it, if you need to!
I have been afraid of free shipping because I'm in Alaska and it does cost more to ship out of state. After setting everything up through my website it does cost a little less for shipping which helps. Most of my customers have paid more than what it actually costs me to buy the label. I always add at least one extra bar of soap and sometimes a lip balm as well. So far, no one has complained, but I would like to make the shipping better for my customers. I just haven't figured that out yet. I do offer free shipping over $100, but I do know that is too high, so I will be changing that as well when I get it all figured out.
Yep, Alaska is definitely more expensive! I would say that the cubic rate shipping probably helps you out quite a bit in Alaska. And, rather than adding products, I'd charge a little more for your bars and lower shipping. If a bar of soap is $8, you just paid $8 for shipping, if that makes sense. I know that nobody has complained and it sounds like you have wonderful customers, but you're probably losing sales if your shipping is high without even realizing it. But, it's totally up to you! There are a lot of models that work great and if you're happy with your results, then you should do what feels good for you!
@muddymintsoap Yes, that makes sense. I may try lowering my shipping rates and see how that goes. I probably have lost some sales because of shipping. Thank you for your input ☺️
Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing the lessons you’ve learned along the way. I’m just starting to get requests to ship my soap and this was so timely and helpful! #4A_s_Farm
I recently bought your book and I love it. I think it was very important you mentioned that one can follow a recipe but to really understand why something is used. Anyhow I’m just an aspiring soapmaker but I appreciate your view on business takes. You never know, might catch the soap bug and start selling! Thank you for writing the book.
Thank you so much! I'm really happy you love my book. :) I agree that the why is important, so I'm glad you found this valuable in the book. Thanks for watching!
I love all your teaching information. Can you please do a video about the wholesale side of this business :)
Yes! Coming soon... :)
I second this!
I just bought your book, a complete beginner and didn't even make my first soap. I really enjoy the book and your videos. I already have a business that I work for full time, but starting to think about the future, and making soaps is something that interests me a lot. So thank you!
I love it! That's how I started too! I probably researched soapmaking for 4-5 months before I made my first loaf of soap. The obsession is real! Haha! You'll be ready when the time comes. :)
I recently bought your book and I love it. I think it was very important you mentioned that one can follow a recipe but to really understand why something is used. Anyhow I’m just an aspiring soapmaker but I appreciate your view on business takes. You never know, might catch the soap bug and start selling! Thank you for writing the book.
I love pirate ship! Been using them for a few years now. Saves a lot of money!
Yes! They are great! :)
Great video !
Your book is very informative also. Thank you
Thank you! Glad you like the book! :)
I love these short videos!!!!❤
Thank you!! I'm so happy you're enjoying them! :)
I felt like you made this video for me!!! I was just contacted about shipping cost from customer. You answered all my questions. Thank you million times ❤ I always love your videos.
Yay!! It was for YOU!! :) I'm glad I was able to answer all your questions and thanks for watching!
These videos are really helpful - thank you.
Glad to hear it! Thanks! :)
Very valuable information, thank you.
Thanks!! :)
Your advance is always welcome!!! Love watching your channel and learning about this business!
Thank you!! :)
Excellent advice and video. Thank you for doing this series! So helpful!
I'm glad you found this helpful! Thanks for watching! :)
Thank you, I appreciated the information.
Thanks for being here! :)
I love pirate ship. Thank you so much. Nice information. We appreciate you.
I'm glad you found it helpful! I appreciate all of you so much, so thank you!
I appreciate all of YOU so much!! Thanks for watching! Glad you found it helpful. :)
Yes, this is very helpful info! Thank you for putting it out!
You're welcome! Thanks for watching! :)
🌺🌺🌺Oh yes indeed, these videos are incredibly helpful! Thank you so much🌺🌺🌺
Yay!! I'm so glad you think so! :)
Very very helpful information! ! I need to rewatch oil price video you made. I used some software to calculate the actual cost of a bar. The shipping part feels like a big unknown. The numbers don't lie. Pushing for a larger ticket sale is exactly what you need Over $35.00 helps me get out of bed. I'm
Yes, shipping kind of feels like a big unknown until you start doing it. Once you are doing it and have a good idea of your costs, it gets much easier!
Very informative video. Thank you Simi!
Could you please share the link to the label printer you use in the description?
Absolutely! It's in my Amazon storefront, but here's the link and I'll add it to the description too! amzn.to/3DYLnd2
I love your videos! Thank you so much for sharing!! 🥰
Thank you!!
I was very excited when you mentioned my name 😊, thank you for this information it’s very helpful.
Haha! Love it! Glad you found it helpful and thank you for the question!
Great information. I need to look into Pirate Ship.
It's great if you want to use cubic rate shipping, but don't have it available on the platform you sell on.
Thank you!! As always, I love your videos, and I learn so much from you❤
Thank YOU!! :)
Hi Simi
Wow! Very Well informed video. Very detailed in terms of calculating everything to know if there is profit or not. Brilliant.
Thank you so much !!
Aw, thank you! I'm happy you found it informative! :)
Thanks do much! Very helpful advice
Glad to hear it! :)
On the shelves behind you ... set up your book!
Haha! Great idea! It is back there if you look closely... ;)
Great content
Thanks!
Great video!!
Thank you!! :)
Thank you for all info and love put out there. We love you and your info is very valuable.
You mentioned pirate ship in the video, just so you know, Etsy stopped allowing new connections with this company since Oct 21, 2024. 😢 I love using their services tho. ❤
How is the shipping cost figured for the customer? By location and weight? But it's not weighed till it's sent
Hi there! With calculated shipping, you enter the weight of all your products and the weight of your shipping packaging and it estimates the weight based on what the customer ordered. The problem with this technique is that the software doesn't figure out which size box you're using, so I found the calculation was often off and erred on the high side. With flat rate shipping, you decide what the price will be (for example: $5 for anything) and then the customer knows exactly what they will pay up front, but of course, you're paying some shipping out of pocket. I hope this helps!
I offer free shipping on all my products. I build the shipping cost into the price of the product. When they order multiple items, I add up the total cost of the product itself, plus the actual shipping cost and refund the customer for any overages. Yes, it is an additional step for me, but it’s just easier in the long run for me to do it this way.
Nice! Do the customers know that they'll be receiving a refund? Do you think customers are stopping the sale because of the refund for overages? I'd say that if you can avoid doing refunds, that's way better. As your business gets bigger and you have more and more sales, it's simply unsustainable to check this on every order. If it's working for now, that's great! But, depending on your growth, you may need to choose another model somewhere along the way. And, I'd venture to guess that people are dropping the sale without you knowing. If you have a way to see how many carts are dropped before the purchase, that's a great way to see what is happening at the time of checkout. :)
Good points to consider. Thank you. I have been selling almost entirely in person up to this point, but as I'm starting to do a bit of shipping, I need to consider how to price it. I am also starting my Goimagine shop. So I'll need to decide on a starting point there as well.
I'd love info on good places to buy boxes too. I don't want to have to buy 100 boxes in each size, so any tips on that would be greatly appreciated.
That's great! Sounds like you're on the right track. For boxes, I'd suggest buying them locally, as having to ship a bunch of boxes gets expensive! I get most of mine locally from Eco-Enclose and I can just go pick them up! A lot of folks use Uline for boxes, and you can get them in groups of 25 for each size, but the shipping can get pricey. They have a free shipping day once a year (in September or October, I think?), so I sometimes get boxes during this sale if I need them fast!
@@muddymintsoap thank you. I live quite rural, so our local stores options are pretty limited. Next time I travel to the big city, I'll see what options I can find for stores there.
Great video! Thank you! I
Thanks for watching! :)
Thank you for this video. How do you handle (or what are your suggestions for) customer claims of lost or damaged orders? Porch pirates? Some people say they factor in a loss of 5% (or more) of sales due to these factors. Thanks in advance!
Hi there! I could probably do a whole video on this question - haha! I've found that this happens rarely, but it does happen. If it says delivered and they don't have it, I always believe the customer by default. I always ask them to wait a week to see if the package arrived, as many times the package shows as delivered, but the mail carrier may have scanned it incorrectly (this happens more than you think!) or it may have gone to the wrong address. Many times, it shows up after a week. In the meantime, I have them check other doors in case it was left there, the bushes near the front door, with the neighbors, etc. If it still doesn't show up, then I resend the package to them or offer a full refund. If I resend the package, I always choose signature and I let the customer know in advance that I'm doing that. If the package is just taking a long time or appears lost, I'll call USPS (although that hardly ever helps) and I set up tracking to ping me on my phone if the package moves. Then I keep an eye on it and keep the customer informed. If it truly gets lost in transit, I'll reship a package or give a refund. I don't know exactly what the rate of loss is, but I'm fairly certain it is less than 5% and we shipped a LOT of packages! If I had to guess, I'd say 1-2% are lost - maybe more over the holidays. I hope this helps!
Thanks for the speedy reply! The people who have mentioned 5% are shipping on FBA and not necessarily soap. I thinking adding signature required is a good idea! Thanks again!
Can you do a tutorial on how to measure different size packages and how to figure out what it would cost to ship them by USPS? It's confusing, I will be using small to large bubble mailers for my t-shirts, small boxes for the coffee mugs, and very small bubble mailers or envelopes for the bracelets. I have been soooo confused on how to measure and calculate the dimensions. For example, what I call width, I think they call length ???
Hi there! Yes, I am planning to do a more visual video on packaging and shipping. Are you always shipping everything separately, or do they sometimes go together. Like, can someone order a mug and a t-shirt? If you use a flat rate bubble mailer for your t-shirts from USPS, they are always the same price and they will ship priority. If you want to take advantage of USPS ground, which is under 1 lb, then it will be cheaper, but you'll need to get your own mailers. If you sign up for Pirate Ship, you can actually play around with all the different hypothetical scenarios and see how much it would cost for each thing. As I mention in the video, sometimes you just have to forge ahead to figure it out!
@@muddymintsoap Hi yes, I will be shipping various items together, because people might order a variety of things. I will use USPS ground advantage, but it looks like I can't use it for everything. Shipping is so hard to me that I wish I could literally take a shipping class where I can ask detailed questions. Thanks. I will watch for the video and subscribe.
How much do your bars weigh?
Hi! Our bars are usually a little over 5 oz.
@muddymintsoap Thank you
I was wondering what are the most used essential oils.
Hi there! This is hard to say as so many people love different scents, but I would say that lavender was our most used essential oil, by far. :)
@@muddymintsoap Thank you. Do you by any chance have a top five. I would like to invest more in the scents that are more requested
Hi there! I have a top 5 list of recipes, but scents are harder because many of them are blends. I do have a list of my top 12 in my book, if you have my book. If I could only buy 5 essential oils, I'd probably choose a variety to be able to make more scent combinations. This is hard, but off the top of my head, I'd choose: lavender, peppermint, orange 10x, cedarwood atlas, and rosemary. This is a very personal thing though, so take it with a grain of salt! :)
@@muddymintsoap I am purchasing the book right now. Knowing how much knowledge you have, it will be a step forward in my soap journey :) Thank you
Thank you!!
❤❤❤
Hello, I sell t-shirts, jewelry, coffee mugs and bookmarks. What type of shipping do you recommend, free or flat rate etc.?
Hi there! I used to sell jewelry as well and it is very lightweight and the shipping isn't very expensive. I'm guessing the same is true for bookmarks and t-shirts. I used to do a flat rate of $3 for my jewelry, but these days I'd probably do it for free (or use flat rate of $5 or less), since you can easily add the price of shipping into your product price. For mugs, it might be a different story as it is a fragile item and it weighs more. You may have to figure out how much it costs you to ship mugs and what makes the most sense. However, in general, I think if you're on Etsy, $5 flat rate with free shipping over $35 is a great way to go for any product. Just make sure you're increasing your prices a little to make up for it, if you need to!
I have been afraid of free shipping because I'm in Alaska and it does cost more to ship out of state. After setting everything up through my website it does cost a little less for shipping which helps. Most of my customers have paid more than what it actually costs me to buy the label. I always add at least one extra bar of soap and sometimes a lip balm as well. So far, no one has complained, but I would like to make the shipping better for my customers. I just haven't figured that out yet. I do offer free shipping over $100, but I do know that is too high, so I will be changing that as well when I get it all figured out.
Yep, Alaska is definitely more expensive! I would say that the cubic rate shipping probably helps you out quite a bit in Alaska. And, rather than adding products, I'd charge a little more for your bars and lower shipping. If a bar of soap is $8, you just paid $8 for shipping, if that makes sense. I know that nobody has complained and it sounds like you have wonderful customers, but you're probably losing sales if your shipping is high without even realizing it. But, it's totally up to you! There are a lot of models that work great and if you're happy with your results, then you should do what feels good for you!
@muddymintsoap Yes, that makes sense. I may try lowering my shipping rates and see how that goes. I probably have lost some sales because of shipping. Thank you for your input ☺️
Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing the lessons you’ve learned along the way. I’m just starting to get requests to ship my soap and this was so timely and helpful! #4A_s_Farm
Woohoo!! That's awesome that you're getting requests to ship your soap. It's just the beginning... enjoy the ride! :)
I recently bought your book and I love it. I think it was very important you mentioned that one can follow a recipe but to really understand why something is used. Anyhow I’m just an aspiring soapmaker but I appreciate your view on business takes. You never know, might catch the soap bug and start selling! Thank you for writing the book.
Thank you so much! I'm really happy you love my book. :) I agree that the why is important, so I'm glad you found this valuable in the book. Thanks for watching!