Bryan “Mr. Bigfoot” Goodman lives in Boston, MA and has been selling on eBay since 1998.  He shares his knowledge about ecommerce, social media and selling online as a co-host of RRBRadio.com, a weekly online radio show specializing in ecommerce tips and tricks for sellers.  Bryan is a frequent participant at Ebay and ecommerce events throughout the country.

Stamps.com recently asked Bryan some questions on how the software has helped his shipping program:

Tell us about yourself and your business?
My name is Bryan Goodman and you can find me on eBay as “Mr. Bigfoot”. You can see my eBay store by going to BiggestShoes.com. My site sells shoes, large men’s clothing and a variety of other items — both big and small.

How has Stamps.com helped your shipping program for your ecommerce store?
Stamps.com provided me the ability to print First Class Mail International labels for my overseas orders.  Also, the software integrated so well with my eBay store that it helped streamline the shipping process and therefore saved me a lot of time.  

How do you get your data from eBay into the Stamps.com software?
My previous shipping method required me to copy & paste the delivery address from eBay into my postage platform.  Once I shipped the product, I then had to again copy & paste the delivery confirmation tracking number back into My eBay account so the buyer could see the number. 

With Stamps.com, this process is completely automated allowing me to focus on other, more important tasks (like selling).  The software automatically imports the delivery address and also posts-back the delivery confirmation number to “My eBay” account.  Since I ship a lot of First Class Mail International packages and delivery confirmation is not available for that mail class, Stamps.com will post the Customs Form number which is perfect for me.

Check out Bryan’s site at BiggestShoes.com or follow him on Twitter @misterbigfoot

Kat Simpson has been selling women’s fashions online since 1997.  She operates her own website, KatsKloset.com and also sells on eBay, Amazon and Bonanza.  Along with being an entrepreneur, Kat is a certified eBay education specialist and often teaches new sellers how to find selling opportunities.  She lives in Montgomery, Alabama.

Stamps.com recently caught up with Kat at the eBay Radio party in Las Vegas.

Tell us about yourself and your business.
I’m Kat Simpson from KatsKloset.com  I sell products invented by women for women, such as shoes, hats and hand cream.  We donate 10% of our proceeds to a women’s charity in Honduras and I’m a Stamps.com user and I love it!!!

How are you using Stamps.com to ship your products?
I’m using Stamps.com to make my life easier!   Shipping is one of the most time-intensive processes for an entrepreneur like myself.  So if I can use a service like Stamps.com to import all of my sales order data and I don’t have to retype it four different times in four different places, that software becomes a huge time-saver for me.  Stamps.com imports the sales order data automatically from eBay and Amazon – for my Amazon orders, it really cuts my shipping time because I haven’t found any other program that imports orders from Amazon the way Stamps.com does.  Stamps.com brings the order info into the software, I hit the button and tell it the software how much the product weighs and Stamps.com prints that pretty little shipping label out.  Afterward, in a wonder of wonders, Stamps.com goes back into Amazon and updates the order with a delivery tracking number. 

Tell us more about how Stamps.com saves you time.
The best part about Stamps.com for me and my business is that it processes my Amazon orders almost seamlessly.  I don’t have to go into Amazon and grab the customer info and paste it into the shipping software and then go back to Amazon and copy and paste the tracking number. Stamps.com does all of that for me – the software saves me a ton of time with Amazon orders —  and that’s why I love it.

Check out Kat’s site at KatsKloset.com or follow her on Twitter @katskloset

Thanks for watching!  For more information, be sure to watch our video on importing orders from your ecommerce store.

Stephen Yoss, President of mantisPRO

Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with Stephen Yoss, President of mantisPRO, to see how his company became more efficient by moving from a postage meter to Stamps.com online postage.   mantisPro is an IT solutions firm specializing in communication (VoIP) and document management solutions for businesses.  Stephen Yoss started using Stamps.com over 10 years ago at his family’s CPA firm.  His goal was to save time and money on his USPS mailings.

Stamps.com: How did you find out about Stamps.com and online postage?

mantisPRO: We’ve been with Stamps.com probably since the beginning.  We originally heard about the service from a colleague in the accounting profession so we gave it a shot.  We’ve always been the kind of firm that invested in technology, training, and support.  It was a natural move for us.  So we downloaded the software and instantly saw the value in it.  We’ve been with Stamps.com ever since.

We probably sent back our Pitney Bowes machines with Stamps.com postage!

Stamps.com:  What type of mailing program did you use prior to online postage?

mantisPRO: We used a variety of technologies.  From something as simple to just putting a stamp on a letter to having an expensive postage meter.  Our business gets very busy once a year during tax season.  And during that time of the year, it’s great having a meter, but the rest of the year it didn’t really make sense to us because we weren’t really using it all that much.

We moved away from that postage meter because of the cost of leasing the equipment.  There were maintenance fees and other costs that we didn’t really understand.  With the Stamps.com subscription  model, it was much more cost efficient and you just use print postage when you need it, right from your desktop.

Stamps.com: What type of features were you looking for with online postage that you were not finding with a Postage Meter?

mantisPRO: In our industry, we bill by the minute and if you’re not billing, you’re not making money.  From a cost standpoint, we had to pay for the postage meter equipment, the account fees, and the fee to add more postage to the meter.  All these fees really added up quickly.  Over the lifespan of our postage machine lease, something that should have cost very little ended up costing a lot.

By moving to Stamps.com, we not only saved money but we also saved time, which is very important to us.

Our product is our knowledge and our ability to produce for our clients.  With Stamps.com, we were able to free up the time of our associates.  Instead of having to either call a company in order to buy postage for the meter or go to the Post Office for stamps, they can just print the postage that they need and move on to the next project.  At the end of the day, our time is the most important thing to our business.

Stamps.com: Was it hard to get started?   Did you find the software easy to use?

mantisPRO: Yes, absolutely easy to use.  When you log in to the software, you select exactly what mail piece you are trying to send, whether it be a package, a postcard or a letter.  Then you select how much it weighs.  If it’s a flat rate mail piece, Stamps.com will tell you don’t even bother weighing this, just print the postage.

If you need additional services such as return receipt, certified mail, or insured mail, the software will print that particular piece and deduct the amount accordingly off your account balance.

Getting started was easy to do.  Just download the software and you’re done, for the most part.  Input your credit card information, buy the NetStamps, and you’re ready to go.

Stamps.com: What type of mail pieces do you commonly mail out?

mantisPRO: We send a variety of packages out —  everything from basic letters to large envelopes with tax-returns, to packages, to whatever.  We use the scale and either print the label or we’ll print a sheet of NetStamps.

We usually have a couple of different folders for our clients that we’re tracking costs for and we’ll keep postage in a folder for each of them.  We’ll print out a sheet of labels and use them as need be.

We always have one sheet of labels with like 10 stamps or so missing because that’s when we need to print a stamp with $1.50 or a $2.51 denomination.  Stamps.com gives us that flexibility.  The cool thing is, Stamps.com tracks what stamps are gone from each label, so you’re never printing the wrong one to an empty space.

Sometimes we’re sending something as simple as a bill, or a letter, then we’ll just print First Class postage.  If we’re sending a postcard, we have the flexibility to print $0.28 postage stamp.  There are so many different things you can do within Stamps.com that really makes it effective for us.

Stamps.com: What type of cost tracking and reports have you used with Stamps.com?

mantisPRO: We have a lot of clients that we handle all of their back office support for.  And for these clients, it’s very easy to track what you’re spending your money on with Stamps.com.

With Pitney Bowes, or a traditional machine, we would just meter the envelope and it would be done; we didn’t really track the costs to that level. But now, we have an account for each client that allows us to pass the cost of the postage on to them and track those costs more effectively.  So instead of our company just eating the entire cost, we’re able to make sure we’re being reimbursed for the postage we use for each client.

Also, the only real expense is the labels, which is completely reasonable.  There’s no equipment leasing fee or other hidden fees, and at the end of the day, a stamp costs the same no matter where you buy it.

Stamps.com: Does mantisPro ever send Certified Mail?

mantisPRO: When you’re an accountant, you’re dealing a lot with sensitive information, and for some things we need to know  the tax return got there on time.  We often encounter stragglers who come in on April 14th.  We really don’t have time to complete their taxes, or we can’t e-file a return, but we need to make sure an extension gets to the IRS on time — you know, due to professional liability.  So yeah, we’ll select Return Receipt and Certified Mail to make sure that that item is taken care of.  We’ll do that on a case by case basis.

To learn more about mantisPRO, visit their site at www.mantispro.com

MO Consulting is a legal services company located in Los Angeles, CA.  CEO Marge Okabe was looking for ways to save  time processing her monthly invoices.  On the advice of a friend, she signed up for Stamps.com.  We recently spoke with Marge to talk about her mail program.  MO Consulting has been a Stamps.com customer since December of 2000. 

Before using Stamps.com, how did you process your invoices?
We were wasting about two to three hours each month on our invoice procedure as we printed the addresses on envelopes and then manually applied postage stamps to each individual envelope.  We often ran into a problem when an envelope was heavier than the others and required additional postage.   Prior to Stamps.com, I just guessed the weight of each envelope and added more first class postage if the envelope felt heavier than the others.  With hundreds of invoices to send each month, the process was very time consuming and we were applying more postage than the envelopes needed to at least 40% of our invoices.  With Stamps.com, I can get the exact weight of each envelope using the free scale and apply the correct postage.

Besides printing postage, are there other Stamps.com features that have helped your business?
The ability to print postage, delivery address and return address has been a huge time-saver for us.  We were able to import all of our account payable contacts from Microsoft Outlook directly into the Stamps.com address book.  Once the data was loaded, we can print postage and both the delivery address and return address in one pass through the printer.  This feature alone has saved us at least 90 minutes per week.

Have you used other Stamps.com MS Office integrations?
The compatibility with Stamps.com and Microsoft Office has made things very easy for us.   With just a few  macro’s set-up in the database, I can have the form letters and envelopes print out in alphabetical order to help me speed up the stuffing process.   Prior to Stamps.com, the mailings would take about an hour or two as we matched the recipient address from letters to envelopes.   But with Stamps.com, I can process 1600 raw data recipients in about 20 minutes. TIME can’t be recycled once it’s gone. 

Do you use Cost Codes on your mailings?
Yes, the cost code feature helps me bill postage costs to the appropriate client.   I also use Stamps.com for my personal mail, so the cost codes make it easy for me in April at tax time to sort business postage costs from personal.

Get more info on MO Solutions at 310-375-0448.

Coliant Solutions is a world-class infrastructure security company located in Atlanta, GA.  Kim Barth, the office administrator, is in charge of ordering office supplies, answering the phones, and saving the company money.   We recently spoke with Kim to talk about her mailing and shipping program.  Coliant Solutions has been a Stamps.com customer since March of 2009.

Before using Stamps.com, how did you process your mailings? 
Prior to signing up for Stamps.com, we were buying postage on a Pitney Bowes postage meter.  It was a pain to refill the postage meter machine all the time.  I would have to unplug the meter and then lug the machine over to our fax machine (for an outgoing phone line) to refill the postage.  This was always a hassle.

What made you want to test Stamps.com?
We received a CD in the mail from Stamps.com.  After constantly looking at the Pitney Bowes monthly invoice, I saw they were charging us a fee every time we refilled our postage on top of the monthly service fee we were paying.  So It was a no-brainer to make the switch and save a ton of money!

Was it easy to install and start using the Stamps.com software?
It was easy for us.  I signed up on line, which was a very quick and easy process.  The interface was intuitive and easy to figure out.   I also received the free scale and welcome kit within a few days of signing up.  

Has your shipping and mailing program become easier since switching from a postage meter to Stamps.com?
Stamps.com has definitely made my life easier.  To print a stamp, it is as easy as a couple of clicks and you have your stamp!  There is no more refilling the postage meter, running maintenance on the meter, etc.

Have you noticed any cost savings since in your mailing and shipping program since using Stamps.com?
Yes, we have seen a savings.  On average, we are saving around $48.00 per month compared to the postage meter.   Those savings have been mainly due to the numerous postage refill charges we encountered.

Get more info on Coliant Solutions at their web site:  http://www.ColiantSolutions.com or by calling (770) 614-3454