International shipping and integration with online shipping software

I am a US based selling on Tindie and I’m looking to setup up international shipping. I want to make the process as streamlined as possible for myself and to do that it looks like it’s best to use something like Stamps.com or other software that fills out customs forms for you. I use Linux for my desktop so running the Stamps.com software isn’t easy. I’m looking at the following online shipping software.
ShippingEasy.com
ShipStation.com
ShipRobot.com

They all offer manual CSV uploads of some sort so I’m sure there is a way to take the orders download from Tindie and create a script put the data into the form that the online software wants then upload to one of these sites.

I’m wondering if Tindie has any plans to work with one of these sites or another shipping solution? If so I don’t want to spend time creating a work around that might not be needed.

Or if any knows of other options for making international shipping easy? Right now I use paypal.com/shipnow which is a manual process and doesn’t offer international shipping.

Thanks,
Eric

Hey Eric -

We have begun looking for shipping solutions (pricing, labels & customs to start). There are tons of options - Endicia, Shippo, etc. So we are 100% on board for working out a solution. It would be great to open this discussion as a community and start to see what people are using/like/don’t like.

Thoughts?

Emile

Also there’s this discussion - maybe we should keep the thoughts on one thread?

yeah shipping is one thing but International is another.
Side note: I hear the USPS is finally going to start working weekends? (delivery i think)

International shipping is just about the worst thing, the base price to UK was so much i had to stop shipping there. No one wants to pay $3 for a PCB and $10 shipping. So it would be awesome if we could perhaps make a deal with companies some how for a discount. Didnt ebay do something like that with USPS? or was it Paypal only?

I’ve switched to using Endicia (for mac). I don’t presently have an integration with Tindie, but my volume is not so high that simply copying and pasting from Safari into Endicia is a bad workflow.

I found my shipping costs went down a bunch when I went this direction. I used to ship everything with priority mail flat rate boxes, but now I use bubble-kraft envelopes and ship stuff first class. Most of my stuff winds up being less than an ounce even with all of the packaging. It’s worked out so well that I decided to do free US shipping (I’ll stop now because it’s starting to sound too much like an advertisement).

Thanks I’ll look into it

Integration within the Tindie’s website with the top three fedex, ups and usps would be ideal. As with other online stores, shipping cost is based on size, weight and too and from locations. Some of the products I ship are heavy and having to charge the same price to every location makes the price higher then it needs to be for customers.

Please bear in mind that the US is not the only place where Tindie sellers reside.

Yep understand, even more to the point Having the intergration and
automation to create the shipping docs would be great! In the past I have
used www.shiprush.com they have an api that includes a browser plugin that
is exactly what I am looking for

I’ve found shipping methods for a small business rubbish. In the UK you require either to do a certain amount of parcels, drop it off at certain places or get it collected at around £300-500 and sometimes require an extra large label printer at £200+

I now have given up and just print the labels using my trusty QL-570 as usual and then luckily now the post office have a “Drop & Go” account where I then have to add the postcodes and service I require.

I found it works the best for the cheapest price. At the end of the day I don’t fancy paying £200 to be locked into an rubbish service vs my nice £40 printer.