Buyers addresses on eBay - reliable?

marie-20

Just after some ideas really.

We are currently packing between 50 and 90 parcels a day. At present I go in to Paypal and then into each payment, copy their name and item on to a spreadsheet and then work out my costings like the below (I do it like this as I like to know my profits etc)

Mrs Smith XYZ 1 £1 £2 £ 0.26
Ebay Fees 1 0.1
Postage 1 0.54
Paypal Fees 1 0.1
Total Cost £1.74


I then copy XYZ onto a word doc with a number against it and then copy the address off Paypal and paste it into my label template.

Then we pack them, write the relevant no. on the parcel then once they are all done we print out our labels on normal A4 paper, cut them to size, put them into a docs wallet and then stick them all on.

All of which are very time consuming when doing so many so I am trying to find an easier way of doing it. I have looked at the eBay print invoices/labels however I believe that the addresses aren't always correct.

It sounds like a much longer job than it is but if I only save 1 min per parcel that can be upto 1.5 hours a day!

So how do you all do it??

Ohhhh yes I have a PPI account with the RM so I have to put pre-paid postage stamp or label on regardless - these are currently printed on the same 'label' as my addresses.


TIA!

theonlywayisup

Download a free trial of Aimco packing partner, there are two versions, I used the label not invoice version. IT works across eBay, amazon and various others EKM included, I now use Linnworks which is costly but does my stock too.....

Aimco will pull the addresses from eBay but you can log into PayPal and take a few seconds to check the addresses ....if you so feel.....if you are using PPI then you are probably only using non recorded mail, so you don't have seller protection for INR....so doing it as you do now is non cost effective, unless you are using tracked mail.

Incidentally I use RMT, have you been quoted for that?

Aimco will will give you two sheets of paper, one is a packing list, the other a picking list. You can download an e copy of your PPI label and it will also print your address labels with image of PPI onto a label. Pick the items, pack from the list and stick on the appropriate label.

When I was shipping c.100 a day that's how I did it.

As for profits, you can pull reports from both eBay and PayPal which will give you your selling figures. If ou use DMP on EBay you can use an inventory and include a cost price of item too. There is also a space on each eBay record for actual post cost versus amount customer pays.....all done via bulk editing.

IMHO you may get more help over on ebays on boards, particularly the power seller board (if you qualify, but sounds like you should).

But just using Aimco, even if you still want to check Paypal addresses will have your workload cut ten fold!

http://www.aimcosoftware.co.uk/.

chemical.galaxy

marie-20 wrote: »

Just after some ideas really.

We are currently packing between 50 and 90 parcels a day. At present I go in to Paypal and then into each payment, copy their name and item on to a spreadsheet and then work out my costings like the below (I do it like this as I like to know my profits etc)

Mrs Smith XYZ 1 £1 £2 £ 0.26
Ebay Fees 1 0.1
Postage 1 0.54
Paypal Fees 1 0.1
Total Cost £1.74


I then copy XYZ onto a word doc with a number against it and then copy the address off Paypal and paste it into my label template.

Then we pack them, write the relevant no. on the parcel then once they are all done we print out our labels on normal A4 paper, cut them to size, put them into a docs wallet and then stick them all on.

All of which are very time consuming when doing so many so I am trying to find an easier way of doing it. I have looked at the eBay print invoices/labels however I believe that the addresses aren't always correct.

It sounds like a much longer job than it is but if I only save 1 min per parcel that can be upto 1.5 hours a day!

So how do you all do it??

Ohhhh yes I have a PPI account with the RM so I have to put pre-paid postage stamp or label on regardless - these are currently printed on the same 'label' as my addresses.


TIA!

I do the exact same thing - but I only pack between 5 to 10 a day sadly!

Auntie-Dolly

Why are you doing the costings per item? I understand the need to know profitability by item, but surely you'd only need to do that once. I download my sales monthly from paypal & input them & the fees as one entry. The ebay costs come from the monthly invoice, ditto the postage costs from RM.

For posting labels we print an invoice/dispatch note from 'blackthorne' onto an integrated label sheet & simply peel off the address part for the parcel.

marie-20

theonlywayisup - thank you! I will have a look at that and see how I get on. I tihnk I'll also have a look at Linnworks as that could be very interesting. A stupid question I know but what is DMP & RMT? Yes I'm currently a Silver PS and I will be moved up to Gold next week. The main part of our items go as a large letter so the PPI and average weight is fantastic for me and allowed me to be cheaper on a lot than my competitors.

chemical.galaxy - it will get busier! and it's nice to know I'm not the only one that does it that way.

Auntie-dolly - I started out doing it that way and have just continued it TBH. I'm a bit anal at times and I like to know EXACTLY where I am with the figures but I think that I will start and do the monthly reports instead


Now all I've to decide is what to do with all of my free time . . . . . :rotfl:

marie-20

Ahhhhh I can't get Aimco to show me my variation details as I sell quite a few things in 1, 2, 5, 10 etc so it picks up the sale but not the quantity. I will have to have a play tonight and see what I can do.

RFW

You can print invoice and labelling invoices via Selling manager Pro, you can even get the label paper from Ebay for not too much (no more than 10p a sheet) that sounds like it would save you a lot of time. I've very rarely had a problem with the addresses for it to be an issue, if pushed I'd say one in a thousand was wrong and it is the buyer's fault it is. The addresses seem to be getting better for being correct.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I've never bothered with invoices in parcels unless specifically requested as most just end up in landfill or recycling boxes.

Aimco shows me the quantity, if you are having issues give Andrew a call from the number on his site, I've always found him to be very helpful with support.

Unfortunately I have to disagree with the above and often find problems with eBay addresses, there appears to be a glitch with new members and house numbers being omitted and many people seem to leave out road names or other parts of their address that appear on the RM database.

I go through the addresses and take out anything not needed (Glasgow (City of) becomes GLASGOW, Greater Manchester becomes just Manchester, Birmingham, West Midlands just Birmingham, etc) and anyone who feels the need to call themselves Dr S M J C James Smith has their name shortened to S Smith (all saves a bit of ink here and there) and any address that doesn't look correct or doesn't have a house number/road name is run through RM's address finder.

People in Croydon for example might type CRO rather than CR0 which means Aimco doesn't recognise it as a postcode and so it isn't formatted correctly. Some people put the whole address on one line leaving you with tiny text on the label and in some cases the same town or county name 3 times, all of which is stripped out so the label is as clear and concise as possible.

The label includes my PPI number so I've added the date underneath and change this each day, that way if there is a delay the buyer can at least, hopefully, see the date I posted, which may help with feedback.

lovinituk

ludovico wrote: »

Unfortunately I have to disagree with the above and often find problems with eBay addresses, there appears to be a glitch with new members and house numbers being omitted and many people seem to leave out road names or other parts of their address that appear on the RM database.

People in Croydon for example might type CRO rather than CR0 which means Aimco doesn't recognise it as a postcode and so it isn't formatted correctly. Some people put the whole address on one line leaving you with tiny text on the label and in some cases the same town or county name 3 times, all of which is stripped out so the label is as clear and concise as possible.

Out of thousands of items sold on ebay I have only had one problem with an address where the customer put quotes around their house name and it completely messed up that record when we put it through our invoice/order software. I've just relied on all the others and never had a problem.

The software I use doesn't shrink the text if a line in the address is too long, it just line wraps it instead so its still readable. If the town name is in there several times it gets left - all get delivered fine. I even leave the word 'default' in the address for Ireland where they don't have post codes - again all delivered fine.

I would hate to think how much extra time I would have spent doing what you describe above!

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I would hate to think how much extra time I would have spent doing what you describe above!

With Aimco it takes me about 2 minutes for 100 addresses, since December I've had 5 orders with no house number (all new members and I'm sure it's an eBay glitch that's been about for over a year now) and a few where I've had to add bits that are missing. I'm pretty particular as well so do this for my own satisfaction but also with RM not offering compensation for the parcels we send I'm not taking any chances now.

The software I use doesn't shrink the text if a line in the address is too long, it just line wraps it instead so its still readable.

My Aimco is set so the text fits to the size of the box, one buyer this week had a long road name, town name, Guernesy, Channel Islands all in the first line which would have made the text tiny! I've accidentally printed sheets of labels off without checking the addresses first and always had to reprint a few labels due to mistakes.

I also hate the customers too lazy to hit the shift key or type correctly (how hard is it to know how to write your own address correctly?) and would rather my parcels look somewhat professional when they arrive.

marie-20

RFW wrote: »

You can print invoice and labelling invoices via Selling manager Pro, you can even get the label paper from Ebay for not too much (no more than 10p a sheet) that sounds like it would save you a lot of time. I've very rarely had a problem with the addresses for it to be an issue, if pushed I'd say one in a thousand was wrong and it is the buyer's fault it is. The addresses seem to be getting better for being correct.

I know it's only 10p but unfortuantely it's too much. On some of my items I only make 30p on (thankfully not too many!!!) - I am a high volume, low value seller - around 80% of my items are under £2.00. Fortunately my profit margins are increasing thanks to my PPI and also ordering directly from the manufacturers now rather than a wholesaler but it will never make me a millionaire lol.


Well I've upgraded to Seller Pro so now I just need to figure out how to add all of my current listings into my inventory rather than doing them all manually which would take forever so that I can out costs and postage against them to give me my ongoing profit/loss.

Thank you all for taking time out to give me a helping hand!