It’s amazing to think that Holiday Season is just around the corner! From Black Friday to the Christmas Rush – rest assured that UPS shipping has your back.

We at Stamps.com are happy to share that UPS saves the Holidays! With incredible low rates and no Peak Surcharges, let UPS be Santa’s (not so little) helper that will save you lots on your shipping to your customers. Compare UPS to other carriers and you will be surprised on how much UPS can save you this holiday season.

As a commitment to small business owners, UPS will not apply Peak Surcharge to merchants that opened their account on Stamps.com.

Online retailers can take advantage of these great UPS rate discounts:

• Up to 78% off on UPS® Ground shipments
• Up to 73% for UPS 2nd Day Air® service
• Up to 73% for UPS Next Day Air® service
• Up to 82% off on International services
• Rates that include Fuel Surcharge and Residential Surcharge for all services and Delivery Area Surcharge for Domestic Services.*

Stamps.com and UPS wish you a happy holiday season! No rate increase? No Peak Surcharge? No Brainer! Trust UPS for your Peak shipping!

How to Add UPS Shipping to Your Stamps.com Account
Adding UPS Shipping to your Stamps.com account couldn’t be easier. Go to “Settings” in your Stamps.com account, select “Add a Carrier” and select “UPS.” Once you activate your account, you’ll be ready to ship and take advantage of all the benefits of UPS through Stamps.com.

*Discounts off UPS^® Daily Rates. Rates are limited to shipping from the U.S. only. Rates and any applicable discounts are subject to change at any time without notice.

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Need it there tomorrow? Enjoy peace of mind and save up to 65% off with UPS Next Day Air® Shipping.

The old saying, ‘time is money’ still holds true in the pandemic. In a time when so much is uncertain, take the guesswork out of your professional shipments. Need to get an important document delivered overnight? Does your business require time-sensitive deliveries? Rest assured with UPS Next Day Air® service that the documents that keep your professional organization running smoothly will arrive there in time.

Don’t miss a deadline with the speed and reliability available to you with UPS Next Day Air® service. Rest easy knowing that your urgent documents will make it there safely, overnight. Whether you work in law, banking, medical, or insurance – every industry experiences time crunches. Alleviate stress, and rely on UPS Next Day Air® delivery to get your items there in time.

UPS Next Day Air® service stands out when compared to competitors. The United States Postal Service does not have a comparable service. The United States Postal Service offers Priority Mail Express® service which has an overnight to 2-Day delivery time. And FedEx Priority Overnight® serves fewer businesses and zip codes than UPS Next Day Air®*. Throughout this pandemic, when everyone has been adjusting to new challenges, UPS has gone above and beyond to get your package where it needs to be, when it needs to be there.

Try UPS Next Day Air® to fulfill your professional shipping needs today!

How to Add UPS Shipping to Your Stamps.com Account
Adding UPS Shipping to your Stamps.com account couldn’t be easier. Go to “Settings” in your Stamps.com account, select “Add a Carrier” and select “UPS.” Once you activate your account, you’ll be ready to ship and take advantage of all the benefits of UPS through Stamps.com.

Introduction to Dynamic Pricing

If you want your business to scale, you need to stay with the times. Nowadays, consumers are highly aware of the market and do their research on a brand before making a purchase. Thus, it’s important to be aware of the current online retailer trends to stay on top. One such common trend in today’s e-commerce competitive marketplace is dynamic pricing. Strategically adjusting the price of your product to match the current demands is a sure way to gain customers’ attention and make them choose you for their business.

So how does it work? Dynamic pricing curates prices for products by gathering large amounts of data regarding customer demand, competitors, and market conditions. So the prices are always changing depending on the market and time. This is especially beneficial for businesses related to traveling, e-commerce, transportation, etc.

But is it beneficial for consumers? Are there any disadvantages associated with it? And how to implement it? We are going to answer this and much more ahead, so keep on reading.

Dynamic Pricing Strategies

Dynamic pricing is available in multiple forms which you can implement depending on your business and product type:

1.    Time-Based Pricing

In the time-based pricing strategy, businesses can increase or lower the price of products based on their inventory available in their store or warehouse, date of release, and competitor price. Businesses can also use specific hours of a day to increase their sales, such as “happy hours” in a bar or offer same-day delivery with slightly higher prices.  

2.    Market-Based Pricing

Fluctuation in the market is a common thing and recent times have made us more aware of this than ever. Businesses would need to lower their prices if the demand decreases and increase the prices when demand is high.

3.    Segmented Pricing

Segmented pricing refers to setting different prices for the same product. This is done by segmenting the buyer into categories, such as prices that could be higher or lower based on location, delivery time, membership, high-value customers, and much more. You can also set prices for the services provided, such as faster delivery and quality. Through segmented pricing, everyone can afford your product on their terms.

4.    Penetration Pricing

Penetration pricing is perfect for new businesses who want to get noticed immediately. This strategy involves initially pricing the products and services at prices lower than those provided by the competitors. This results in increased visibility which helps startups gain the traffic they desire.

5.    Peak Pricing

Peak pricing is implemented when the demand is high and the competition is low. It is mostly employed during peak hours or seasonal sales where the products are priced dynamically to result in more sales. For example, during the holiday season, travelers buying airplane tickets normally see much higher prices than in non-seasonal time. 

There are many dynamic pricing plugins available that can set up different pricing strategies and analyze results to see which works best for your business.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing can easily go sideways if not implemented property and thus along with advantages, it has few disadvantages as well. Let’s see if the pros outweigh the cons in this matter.

Advantages

1.     Increased Profit

By implementing dynamic pricing on your online store, you can benefit from increased sales and revenue. How? Because the machine collecting data to create a specific algorithm for your business makes sure your pricing is right. For example, if your competitor is selling the product for $3 and you sell them for $1. The dynamic pricing strategy will price your product at $2, which will be profitable for your business and also improve customer satisfaction as they believe they are getting a better deal from you.

2.     Knowing Your Competitors

Perfectly implementing a dynamic pricing strategy requires you to know your competitors. It is important to know what your successors have been doing. What are their prices? How do they price their products? When and how do they lower or increase prices? And much more. Once you have a clear view of your competitors, you can improve and implement these strategies seamlessly in your store.

3.     Customer Insight

The better you know your customers, the easier it will be to sell to them. Dynamic pricing provides you insight into your customer behavior, their shopping hours, their willingness to pay a price, their interests, and their demands. This helps you provide an optimum shopping experience to your customers and result in increased sales.

Disadvantages

1.     Increase in Competition

Dynamic pricing can easily get out of hand and start a price war. Now, what’s a price war? If a single business lowers its price to gain customers, similarly another business does the same and soon all other competitors follow which leads to incredibly reduced prices which are gaining no profit for the businesses.

2.     Distrust in Customers

These price wars lead to distrust in customers as well. How? If your loyal customers find out that someone else got the same product at half the price from another vendor, they will feel cheated. And no matter how loyal a customer is, a further reduced price is sure to get them converted to another business. 

To avoid these errors, make sure to have a perfect dynamic strategy in place and stay true to it because overdoing dynamic pricing could result in loss.

How to Implement Dynamic Pricing on your WooCommerce Store

There are many ways you can implement and integrate dynamic pricing into your online store. Setting up dynamic pricing cannot be done overnight. It is a long and laborious process of easing into the market, getting the customers, and increasing profit keeping the demand in view. Below we have mentioned a few strategies that you can implement on your site to properly enable dynamic pricing.

1.    Initial Pricing

As mentioned above, this pricing strategy is employed by new business owners, who introduce products at prices that are considerably lesser than the competitor. How? Because they take little profit at the beginning to gain customers and then once a strong client list has been established, the prices are gradually increased.

2.    Introduce Bundle Pricing

Another effective way to introduce dynamic pricing is by creating bundles. This is great for businesses that deal with clothes, food, sports equipment, etc. For example, an online store that deals with computers and their accessories, can bundle up a complete computer system and sell it for a slightly discounted price. This would help in increasing sales as your customers think they are getting a good offer and also increase the average order value. 

3.    Offer Discounts and Coupons

We all know customers love a good deal. Coupons and discounts are great for attracting the audience’s attention, but too much use of this dynamic pricing strategy could result in less profit, the difficulty of increasing the prices later on, and also makes your product seem cheap. Thus, it is recommended to occasionally and strategically place discounts depending on the need.

Final Thoughts on Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing can be an ideal solution for the competitive e-commerce market, but it can also create customer mistrust in your brand  if misused. Thus, it is important to devise a proper strategy and work accordingly. Overdoing anything will have its consequences, such as running year-long discounts will give your customers the impression that your products are cheap or they won’t purchase when you increase the price. It is a continuous ongoing process and you need to improve and implement it on the way based on the supply and demand.

Stamps.com Connects Directly to WooCommerce!

Stamps.com’s direct integration with WooCommerce allows online retailers to easily import, manage, and ship your e-commerce orders. Benefits include:

• Import order data directly into Stamps.com from WooCommerce
• Print USPS and UPS shipping labels in one step
• Automatically post back order and tracking info to your store

Make your WooCommerce shipping easier today by connecting your store to Stamps.com!

Author’s Bio

Xaviera Khalid is the content writer at WooKeeper.com. She is an avid reader and uses her creativity to write interesting articles about WooCommerce and its related topics. She focuses on SEO-optimized content and provides factual writing.

Even though I am an eBay seller and educator with 16 years’ experience and 20,000 + feedback, I am constantly trying to think of ways to work smarter, not harder.  Last January, right before COVID hit, I decided to downsize and streamline my eBay business.  Instead of running it out of a warehouse, I moved it back to my house.  When social distancing became the norm, I started doing all of the listing myself instead of paying someone to list.  Because of all of these changes, I became laser focused on low-cost products that are easy to source, easy to store, and easy to ship.  As a result, I sell less but make more! 

The following four items are among the type of products I now sell on a regular basis.  If you don’t have much space, and you want to maximize profits in 2021, don’t miss out on these easy-to-source products:  

#1 Women’s bras and lightweight tops:  Both of these products meet the aforementioned criteria.  Heavily padded bras in all sizes from brands such as Victoria’s Secret are always hot sellers.  Be sure to mention style names in the titles of the listings you create.  Lightweight tops (especially camisole-type tank tops) from companies such as White House Black Market are also popular.  Bras and tops are easy to find at yard sales where they often hide in large piles of clothing and can be purchased for next to nothing.  In general, try to focus on those items that are light enough to be sent via First Class Package Service (under 1 lb.).

#2 Swimsuits:  Name brand swimsuits for men and women are also fun to sell.  Swimsuits are easy to store, and they don’t weigh much.  Focus on new or almost new name brand suits that are photogenic. As far as sizes go, the bigger the better.  A few years ago, I purchased 90 name brand swimsuits at an end-of-the-summer sale at a local thrift shop.  During COVID, there were no yard sales, and shopping at thrift shops was not an option.  That’s when I pulled out the bags full of swimsuits I had purchased!      

#3 Lego Minifigures: Legos can be sold by the pound, but did you know that Lego minifigures can be sold individually for a nice profit?  Minifigures (or minifigs) are small, lightweight figurines produced by the Lego company.  Both children and adults collect minifigs, and they are sold individually or as parts of sets.  Some are produced to fit a certain theme while others are specific characters from film, television, or game franchises.  We often purchase large lots of Legos and sift through them looking for minifigs.

#4 Vintage ashtrays and plates: I love listing vintage ashtrays and plates from bars, restaurants, and hotels, especially if the establishments no longer exist.  I recently sold a set of four small vintage dessert plates from a hotel for $60.  These treasures are relatively easy to find at estate sales and can be listed in just a few minutes from just about anywhere. 

eBay Seller Tip!  Remember, you make your money when you buy!  So when you’re out and about sourcing for your online business, don’t miss out on these small, lightweight, easy-to-source items that will help you maximize profits in 2021!

About the Author
Miriam Otto is an e-commerce blogger and credentialed teacher with 16 years’ experience selling on eBay.  She was a frequent guest on eBay Radio and has participated in eBay seller panels and projects.

A typical year would have us just simply post the USPS holiday shipping deadlines and say “enjoy a great holiday shipping season”, but this year is like none other.

In my 20+ years of work with USPS international services I’ve never witnessed a more interesting year than 2020. I spoke with Kelley Martinez, Vice-President at RR Donnelly (a large international consolidator) and she agreed “It has been a very unique year with every day presenting new challenges. Volume surges during historically slower periods coupled with destination suspensions and resumptions with little notice has been both challenging and rewarding.” 

So, let’s have an honest conversation about 2020 “Peak” and what you really need to know about the international shipping deadlines for the 2020 holiday season.

Holiday Shipping Deadlines at First Glance

After reviewing the holiday shipping deadline (see table below) for major international markets, the USPS deadlines have not changed much from previous years. This is very interesting since postal and shipping carriers across the globe have seen delivery delays due to COVID-19 closures and increased residential delivery due to growth in e-commerce. 

First Class Package International Service	2018	2019	2020
Africa	1-Dec	30-Nov	30-Nov
Asia/Pacific Rim	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Australia/New Zealand	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Canada	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Caribbean	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Central & South America	1-Dec	30-Nov	30-Nov
Mexico	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Europe	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Middle East	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec

Priority Mail International	2018	2019	2020
Africa	1-Dec	30-Nov	30-Nov
Asia/Pacific Rim	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Australia/New Zealand	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Canada	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Caribbean	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Central & South America	1-Dec	30-Nov	30-Nov
Mexico	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Europe	8-Dec	9-Dec	7-Dec
Middle East	8-Dec	9-Dec	7-Dec

Priority Mail Express International	2018	2019	2020
Africa	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Asia/Pacific Rim	15-Dec	14-Dec	14-Dec
Australia/New Zealand	15-Dec	14-Dec	14-Dec
Canada	15-Dec	16-Dec	14-Dec
Caribbean	15-Dec	14-Dec	14-Dec
Central & South America	8-Dec	7-Dec	7-Dec
Mexico	15-Dec	14-Dec	14-Dec
Europe	15-Dec	14-Dec	14-Dec
Middle East	15-Dec	14-Dec	14-Dec

There are two challenges that we feel will have a significant impact on international parcel delivery during the holiday peak period.  After analyzing global parcel delivery over the last 120 days, we feel you should allow for 1-2 weeks of delay for peak this year. So, if take the most popular product by volume and destination (First Class Package International Service to Canada) and the USPS deadline provides a “mail by December 7” date, then I would try to have it out by November 30 to be safe.

Challenge #1 – COVID-19’s Impact on International Airplane Transportation

Many might not know, but those very planes you take to visit your Aunt in France are the same planes that deliver packages to other countries. Reduced routes because of COVID-19 means fewer flights and fewer flights means more packages being held waiting at transportation hubs. The situation became such an issue that USPS has resorted to ocean freight for parcels. If transportation is still limited during the holiday season, then we should expect continued delays from international transportation alone.

Challenge #2 – COVID-19’s Impact on Domestic Parcel Delivery

USPS has five international service centers located around the country in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Miami. Depending on where you ship your package, your shipments will travel through one of these locations. To get your package to these locations, your shipments will travel on the very same network used for domestic shipments. Right now, USPS is experiencing an increase in domestic parcel delivery (up 46% in July 2020, compared to July 2019 according to data from ShipMatrix) and the holiday peak period is starting to look like a monster. If the domestic network gets clogged it will surely impact the speed of your international shipments to one of those processing centers.

Giving a Refresh on the USPS International Shipping Deadlines

I would start your Q4 seasonal sales promotions by at least two weeks earlier than previous years. By doing so it will allow a little more time to get your packages to your recipient and it will fall outside the typical holiday windows that will impact domestic and international transportation.

Should I Seek an Alternative Carrier?

Not necessarily. USPS still offers a very competitively priced product and with proper planning, you should be fine. Also, other alternatives are not immune to some of the same delivery issues and this year looks to be a challenge for all in the international shipping space. At GlobalPost, we try to address these impacts by using a mix of postal based services using USPS and other postal operators to provide the best possible postal optimized delivery experience. 

What is GlobalPost?

The GlobalPost delivery network leverages partnerships with international postal operators as well as commercial carriers to offer worldwide delivery. GlobalPost services reach over 200 countries and territories and include features not found in traditional international postal services. Get more info on International Shipping.

About the author

Shea Felix, General Manager – GlobalPost

With years of implementing global business solutions under his belt, Shea Felix brings distinct insights into the world of shipping. As the global shipping guru for Stamps.com, Shea inspires and empowers small businesses to take their services global. He is experienced in strategic planning and tactical execution, and has an exceptional understanding of product development, cross-border trade and logistics, e-commerce technology, website and mobile design, and global online marketplaces.