Is Using Shipstation For Amazon Shipping To Earn Credit Card Rewards Points A Good Idea?

Using credit cards with reward programs can be a great strategy for online sellers, but it’s important to evaluate if it makes sense for your specific situation. As an eBay and Etsy seller who also sells on Amazon, I use Pirateship for my shipping needs throughout the year, and I have it attached to my Southwest rewards card so I can earn miles for free travel. However, during the peak selling season in Q4, when I sell more merchant fulfilled products on Amazon, I wanted to see if it would be beneficial for me to switch to shipstation for my Amazon shipping.

One of the factors I considered was the monthly subscription cost of Shipstation. While Pirateship is free and works well for me throughout the year, I needed to determine if the rewards I would earn from my credit card would outweigh the subscription cost during the Q4 period. I also took into account that as a business expense, I could deduct the subscription cost from my profit, which would lower the overall cost.

To evaluate the numbers, I used Inventorylab to calculate my shipping expenses for Amazon merchant fulfilled products during November and December. I then multiplied the number of points I would earn from my credit card, using the value of a Southwest point at 1.5 cents, to see if it would be more than the subscription cost of Shipstation. I found that during the Q4 period, I would come out ahead by using Shipstation, but for the rest of the year, it would not be cost-effective for me, as most of my products are fulfilled by Amazon (FBA).

Another advantage of using Shipstation, especially if you’re low on funds or need more capital for sourcing, is that Amazon pays you the full payout while your shipping expenses may take time to be charged to your credit card. This can provide some extra cash flow for your business. However, it’s important to be mindful of paying off your credit card to avoid interest charges.

In conclusion, as a long-time seller with established numbers on shipping expenses, I found that using Shipstation with a credit card rewards program would only benefit me during the Q4 period when I sell more merchant fulfilled products. For the rest of the year, I will continue to use Pirateship for my eBay and Etsy stores, and add Shipstation only for the two months of November and December to earn extra rewards from Amazon shipping. It’s important to evaluate your own numbers and consider your specific business needs when deciding on the best shipping strategy and credit card rewards program for your online selling business.

When NOT To Use Your Rewards Cards For eBay And Amazon Sourcing

As I reflect on my experience selling online throughout my career, I realize that I made a number of mistakes. One of my early mistakes was not taking advantage of credit card rewards when I first started selling on Amazon. At that time, I was so focused on sourcing, prepping, and shipping products to Amazon that I didn’t give much thought to the potential rewards I could earn from my credit cards.

It wasn’t until I attended some conferences and spoke with other Amazon sellers that I learned how much they were benefiting from credit card rewards for their sourcing expenses. There are several different rewards programs available, but my preferred choice is the Southwest card because I enjoy traveling. I discovered that many sellers would use their credit cards for all their sourcing and shipping expenses during the busy Q4 season, and in return, they would accumulate a significant amount of miles, allowing them to travel for free.

Looking back, I now realize the missed opportunity of not leveraging credit card rewards earlier in my selling career. It’s a valuable lesson I’ve learned, and I now make sure to maximize my credit card rewards to reap the benefits of free travel and other perks.

There are situations when it’s not advisable to use your reward cards, and I’ve noticed this particularly when shopping at bin stores.

Many of these stores have signs indicating that if you don’t pay in cash, they’ll add a three and a half percent surcharge for credit card usage. In such cases, it wouldn’t make sense to use a credit card if the cash back or rewards points you’re earning are only around 1.5%, as they wouldn’t offset the three and a half percent surcharge. If you have the cash on hand, it’s better to avoid paying the extra fee and not use your credit card, as you won’t be able to recoup the cost through your rewards program.

However, if you don’t have the cash available for the purchase, then using your credit card may be necessary, even with the added surcharge. It’s important to weigh the costs and benefits of using your reward cards in different situations to make informed decisions.

Does Resizing Boxes Help Save Money On Shipping?

In this post, I will discuss the importance of resizing boxes to save money on shipping, especially with the rising cost of shipping. Shipping costs have been steadily increasing over the years, and simply throwing a product in a box and shipping it can be expensive. Many companies are now using dimensional sizes, also known as cubic dimensions, for boxes, making it necessary to resize boxes.

To learn more about cubic shipping, visit the Pirate Ship website. However, the general rule is to make the box as small as possible while still providing adequate protection for the product. For fragile items, consider double boxing or using a larger box with ample packing material.

Cheapest Ways to Ship with USPS from Pirate Ship on Vimeo.

Pirate Ship offers a bag rate that can be used for many items. If using free shipping supplies from the Postal Service, avoid flat rate boxes whenever possible. Instead, create Franken boxes by ordering free supplies from the Postal Service and resizing them using box resizers.

Two popular resizers are the basic box resizer and the razor knife version, which features a segregated roller on the backside. Using a score tool like the segregated roller can make the fold cleaner and the box sturdier. Check out the videos on how to use these resizers.

Resizing boxes can be time-consuming, but it can save money on shipping. When shipping across the country, even an inch can make a significant difference in cost, so always check the weight and dimensions of the package before sealing it up. If the box is just a few ounces over, consider cutting off some of the excess, but don’t compromise the integrity of the box.

It is essential to resize boxes not just to save money, but also for the safety of the product. A large item in a big box can easily bounce around and damage the product during shipping. A box that isn’t packed well can also squish easily under the weight of other packages.

If you’re an eBay seller, resizing boxes can help you make more money on the back end. If you don’t charge shipping, it can also save your customers money by reducing the cost of shipping. Always remember that shipping air is expensive, so resize your boxes to avoid paying for unused space.

Exploring the World of Bin Stores: A Source to Find Treasure and Make a Profit On Ebay

Have you ever heard of a bin store? It’s a unique type of store that buys customer returns from large retailers and sells them by the pallet. These stores toss the items into bin type tables, which customers can then rummage through to find hidden treasures.

But before you get too excited, there are a few things you should know. First, most bin stores have a strict “no opening boxes” policy. If you get caught, you’ll likely be asked to leave. Some stores may allow you to open a certain number of boxes, but it’s usually limited to two per person.

Once the items are placed in the bins, the staff will often tape shut any boxes that have been opened. But there’s still no guarantee that the box’s contents will match the label, or that the item inside will be in good condition. After all, these are customer returns we’re talking about.

So why do people love bin stores? For one, it’s like a treasure hunt. You never know what you might find. And if you’re able to figure out what an item is worth, you could potentially make a big profit. That’s why one of the main goals of this blog post is to help you take the gambling out of your bin store purchases.

Here’s how it works: usually, the price of the items in the bins is lowered each day. For example, on Friday, all items might be priced at $7. On Saturday, they drop to $6. By Tuesday, everything is just $2.50. And on Wednesday, you can snag items for just $1.50.

Of course, the gamble is that you’re not always sure what you’re getting. Some items are easy to identify and assess for sellable condition, while others are more of a guessing game. That’s where the tips and tricks on this website come in. We’ll help you figure out how to identify valuable items and avoid making costly mistakes.

At the end of the day, bin stores can be a lot of fun. It’s exciting to find hidden treasures and potentially make some money. But it’s important to approach it with a smart, informed mindset. With the right tools and knowledge, you can increase your chances of success and minimize your losses.

Benefits Of Using 3rd Party Shipping Sites Like Pirateship For Online Sellers

In this post,  I hope to pull back the curtain and reveal why you need to be using a 3rd party shipping service for all your online selling. I haven’t been doing this until very recently and to be honest, it was a lack of knowledge and not seeing the hidden big picture. 

After I explain the concept, I will then show an example of how I am using it myself.

I will be the first to admit that I have left a lot of money on the table in my years of online selling and I know many sellers that use 3rd party shipping websites but I never connected the dots ( and nobody went of their way to explain it to me) 

There are several services you can use to ship your online sales with besides the built in shipping of say Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Mercari, etc. If you have ever had to ship something you have sold from say eBay for example on USPS, you know it is a pain to do all the copying and pasting of the address and then going back and putting in the required tracking code.  Most of these sites do it automatically for you. 

I  personally have been using Pirateship for eBay and Etsy orders and but I haven’t taken the time to set up Shipstation for Amazon yet ( it would cover eBay and Etsy too).

To be honest, the reason I have been using Pirateship for eBay and Esty is that they offer cubic shipping for USPS Priority. ( Amazon already offers that in their shipping console) and that saves you tons in shipping cost. 

Cubic shipping can be a massive savings for you. If you go through the Pirateship training, they show you have to maximize your savings. 

So that is a big benefit, that is not really the real reason you should be using Pirateship ( or any other service like Shipstation)  

It is about cashflow! 

So let’s say you make a sale on Ebay and you go through their shipping. 

First the money from the sale is already in your Paypal account ( this is a big advantage over sites like Amazon and Etsy) but when you buy the shipping, that cost is withdrawn from your Paypal. 

So you have less capital to work with. 

Say the sale was $100 and you spent $20 on shipping.  You now have only $80 at your disposal to reinvest into inventory. 

Now if you use the 3rd party shipping service, the cost of shipping will be charged to your credit card and you can use the money for free for the 30 day billing cycle. ( This is a very important concept to pick up)  

So for example, I know an Amazon seller that does most MF ( Merchant Fulfilled ) and during Q4 , ships upwards to 500 packages a day via a 3rd party shipping website. 

Now with Amazon the effect of using free money is sort of the same except with 2 week payouts, the numbers can get very large if you realize the scale of say 500 packages a day.  

If you ship through Amazon, they will take that out of your payment. 

Now if you use the 3rd party shipping, it is all being charged to a credit card and depending on the billing cycle, you can use the credit cards money for free for at least 2 weeks ( which could be huge during Q4) and maybe longer ( or bite the bullet and make a minimum credit card payment for a month or 2 and have a lot more capital to work with during that time) 

Well that is all fine and dandy, but I just sell FBA you say. 

Well the guy I am referring to sells Prime, Seller Fulfilled Prime that is and if you understand how all this works, cash flow is very important when you can source and have your products up and available “prime” in the same day. 

So none this honestly applies to me. I do utilize the cubic shipping of Pirateship but I don’t really need to worry about the cash flow.  I never seem to get maxed out and run out of funds, but this next part is why I need to use the 3rd party shipping websites. 

That same seller I am referring to, seems to disappear each year after Q4 and travels a lot. I see him making almost weekly weekend trips all around the US on top of other bigger trips.

This is the thing that took awhile to click in for me. How was he doing all that traveling? 

Well the quick answer is credit card points. 

He uses a Southwest rewards card for all his 3rd party shipping. 

So some quick math. 1 Southwest point is worth about $.015, which doesn’t sound like much but let’s say he pays $10 shipping on each package and is shipping 500 packages a day. 

That works out to $75 a day worth of free flight money. ( you could also do the same thing with a cash back credit card) 

So this is what I wanted to do and didn’t know how to do it.

So here is the real world example of how I am using the credit credit reward from all my shipping expenses

I did sit through a credit card reward session at a FBA seller conference and was totally lost on all this stuff ( I think it was for advance people, not newbies) 

Finally my son explained the whole Southwest companion pass thing to me ( this is what you want) 

So you get a companion pass which basically allows someone to fly free with you ( it is actually like $11 round trip in fees but basically free).

To get this companion pass, you need to earn 125,000 points in a year. This is what got me confused. I was thinking that meant I had to spend $125,000 on the credit card and that is some serious spending on a credit card for most people. 

So this is not how it works. 

If you sign up for a personal credit card with Southwest, after you spend $1k ( in 3 months), you get 40,000 points ( plus the 1000 points for the $1k of spending) Now I got a bonus of 50k points for $2k of spending  for signing up via an inflight offer. 

These point will go to your Rapid Rewards account. 

Next you open a Southwest business card. This gives you a

70k point bonus after spending $5k.  ( so 75k points after your spend) 

These both go on the same Rapid Reward account.

With the bonus offers, it really doesn’t take much spending at all to reach the companion pass level since 110k or 120k is from the bonuses.  There are a few tricks to make it even better. If you start this in January and say you reach the 125K level in July, you get the rest of that year and the whole following year for the companion pass.

So this is how the Amazon seller I know  travels all over the place ( for free at that) . He charges all his shipping to his credit card which gives him points and he has the companion pass for his wife, so they fly free. 

As you can see, I have been missing out on getting all this free travel ( and paying full price for the airfare I have been using) simply because I hadn’t signed up for this program ( I had the shipping spend but it wasn’t counting for anything) 

There are multiple other ways to benefit from the spend you have for shipping with the various credit card offers but you will not receive any of that if you just use the shipping service provided but the e commerce sites you sell on.