4 ms·

I think her/his point was that shipping is cheap enough that there's even room to bake it in on a $2 product - I can't imagine that being viable were you skippi

by 542458 11y ago

I think her/his point was that shipping is cheap enough that there's even room to bake it in on a $2 product - I can't imagine that being viable were you skipping exclusively with USPS. There are stores on aliexpress that sell nothing but sub-$2 products, so I don't believe that those are all loss-leaders.

Alupis 11y ago
> so I don't believe that those are all loss-leaders Probably not. If the products are from over-seas, it's likely a great many are being shipped at the same time (a pallet of various products, etc... which cuts down dramatically on shipping fees), then broken out into individual packages once arriving at port. The cheapest way USPS will ship a regular package is "USPS First Class Flats", which offers no tracking information and is restricted to light-weight and mostly small/flat packaging. It's $0.98 usually (anywhere in the US). So, if you purchase a $2.00 item with includes "Free shipping", it's safe to assume about $1.00 of the price is for packaging materials and shipping fees. Perhaps another $0.50 is product cost, leaving less than $0.50 in profit after labor is paid for. Seems like very little, but if you ship a large volume every day...
- djcapelis 11y ago
  You probably haven't ordered a sub $2 product with free shipping from aliexpress recently, have you? They are not shipped together and broken out at port, they get separate tracking numbers in a separate package. There is no fulfillment middleman on the US side. Looking at USPS's domestic rate table to understand how most aliexpress shippers get their products to the US isn't likely to be that enlightening. Read up on epacket, which is one program between Hong Kong post and USPS that is used pretty frequently.
  - Alupis 11y ago
    Just because they have individual tracking numbers certainty doesn't mean they don't come over in a container together. For a domestic example, check into UPS Mail Innovations (FedEx has a similar service). Regardless, epacket appears to be a subsidy-like system setup by USPS (yet another reason they are losing money), and masks the true shipping cost.
    - djcapelis 11y ago
      If you've ever looked at the packaging and the documents around it, it's very clear that what you're saying just isn't the case. They are individual parcels. I'm sure the post offices involved stuff a bunch of them into the same container (it goes by air not by sea, by the way. So we're talking air mail containers, not 40ft shipping containers.) when they send it, but that's true of any package. I understand why you would speculate these things are true, but all the evidence seems to indicate that none of those speculations are correct. And yes, USPS may be losing money on those packages, but that doesn't really matter to the shipper and certainly doesn't show up in the product pricing.
DrScump 11y ago
Bear in mind that they may not be seeking to move product for little/no profit so much as they are seeking to assemble demographic data on their buyers for use/resale elsewhere.

by 542458 11y ago

Alupis 11y ago

> so I don't believe that those are all loss-leaders Probably not. If the products are from over-seas, it's likely a great many are being shipped at the same time (a pallet of various products, etc... which cuts down dramatically on shipping fees), then broken out into individual packages once arriving at port. The cheapest way USPS will ship a regular package is "USPS First Class Flats", which offers no tracking information and is restricted to light-weight and mostly small/flat packaging. It's $0.98 usually (anywhere in the US). So, if you purchase a $2.00 item with includes "Free shipping", it's safe to assume about $1.00 of the price is for packaging materials and shipping fees. Perhaps another $0.50 is product cost, leaving less than $0.50 in profit after labor is paid for. Seems like very little, but if you ship a large volume every day...

djcapelis 11y ago
You probably haven't ordered a sub $2 product with free shipping from aliexpress recently, have you? They are not shipped together and broken out at port, they get separate tracking numbers in a separate package. There is no fulfillment middleman on the US side. Looking at USPS's domestic rate table to understand how most aliexpress shippers get their products to the US isn't likely to be that enlightening. Read up on epacket, which is one program between Hong Kong post and USPS that is used pretty frequently.
- Alupis 11y ago
  Just because they have individual tracking numbers certainty doesn't mean they don't come over in a container together. For a domestic example, check into UPS Mail Innovations (FedEx has a similar service). Regardless, epacket appears to be a subsidy-like system setup by USPS (yet another reason they are losing money), and masks the true shipping cost.
  - djcapelis 11y ago
    If you've ever looked at the packaging and the documents around it, it's very clear that what you're saying just isn't the case. They are individual parcels. I'm sure the post offices involved stuff a bunch of them into the same container (it goes by air not by sea, by the way. So we're talking air mail containers, not 40ft shipping containers.) when they send it, but that's true of any package. I understand why you would speculate these things are true, but all the evidence seems to indicate that none of those speculations are correct. And yes, USPS may be losing money on those packages, but that doesn't really matter to the shipper and certainly doesn't show up in the product pricing.

DrScump 11y ago

Bear in mind that they may not be seeking to move product for little/no profit so much as they are seeking to assemble demographic data on their buyers for use/resale elsewhere.