Tag: boxes

Shipping and E-commerce changes

Published on by John Rumsey1 Comment

This year and last have changed how our economy runs.  The changes from the pandemic and lockdowns have really moved us to shop more from home then we do in person.  The swap has been incredible.  Shipping things across the nation goes back quite a bit in time. Images of postmen on horses in the early American west may spring to mind. Runners with messages back in Greece may also creep into your thoughts. But how is it that we’ve little to no recollection of parcels being taken from one far off land to another? Why is it always mail and written letters that we think of crossing continents? 

In reality, boxes are more prevalent than anything but shipping containers now.  We have moved into a new realm of commerce.


The old thoughts are gone and the new generation has taken hold. The biggest reason is likely just that: continents are made of land. Traveling on land was much harder back in the day and took much more time for fewer, smaller items. Yet when you think of shipping overseas, the namesake of the word is the first thing you focus on: ships. Crossing bodies of water on huge vessels laden with packages, goods, parcels, and people was no problem and took little energy thanks to sails.

What does this mean with modern travel when ii t comes to these? It really means that now the whole industry even how it gets there is changing.  It is more about speed then anything now.  So, now that we have planes (“airships”), trains, and trucks, the process is just as reliable, quick, and efficient as ships were back in the day, if not more so. Our goods, toys, books, technology, clothes, and whatever else we order off the internet arrive safe and sound on our doorsteps in shipping supplies made to withstand long bouts of travel. We can easily pay for our things online thanks to credit cards and the internet. And what we see online is what ends up arriving at our houses, just as promised. It’s kind of amazing, really.

How many new companies have started this year?  Millions of eCommerce ones I believe.  So, it comes as no surprise that the most abundant new businesses popping up in the last few years revolve around shipping things to people who order something on an online catalog. This is called e-commerce, and it’s wildly popular for entrepreneurs looking to carve their niche in a budding industry. So long as you think of a product that’s specific enough to capture a wide audience’s attention and convince them they need it, especially from your company, you’ll have a decent chance of succeeding.

So do you jump into this new realm?  I think it is wise. Whether or not you’re one of these entrepreneurs taking advantage of online goods sales, you’ve definitely been affected by the arising culture. Almost everyone has accounts saved on some website online because purchasing something off the internet and having it sent to your house is just so much easier than going to a store to find what it is you’re looking for. You save time, energy, and gas by simply clicking a button on your computer at home and waiting for your items to arrive in shipping supplies.

How To Start An ECommerce Company

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If you have been keeping up to date with recent developments in the business world, then you may have heard of this little thing called eCommerce. Of course, I am being a little bit facetious in this manner. If you are worth anything in the business world, then you’ve definitely heard of eCommerce. The thing about eCommerce is that it has continued to become more and more popular with time, and it seems as though things are only going to become more and more lucrative as time goes on.

I have a lot of business partners who have looked into starting their own eCommerce companies, but it is true that it can be harder to start this type of business than one may think. Fortunately for you, I have a lot of experience and extensive knowledge about this sort of topic, So if you are looking for some brief tips and tricks on how to start your next eCommerce business, then you are in the right place my friend. The first thing you need to know is that I am a man of honesty and complete integrity, and I would never speak on a topic like this unless I had complete faith in my own skills and ability to properly impart my wisdom and knowledge onto you. With that being said, let’s get into it.

The first thing you need to know about eCommerce is that there are many different types of eCommerce business. The online world is broad, and this translates to the way that business is done within an online setting. For starters, let’s talk about a few different business models for eCommerce companies. The first type is called Business to Consumer, which is exactly what it sounds like. Basically, this model is for businesses that are looking to sell specific products and goods directly to consumers. There is also a model called Business to Business, which is basically where a company is selling products specifically to other businesses that want to buy them. An example of this might be a packaging and supply company that sells shipping boxes to other businesses. Businesses that need shipping boxes in order to ship out their products can buy from this packaging and supply company, and therefore participate in Business to Business eCommerce. Within the different models of eCommerce businesses, there are also different business models and means of selling and distribution.

So let’s talk a little bit more about eCommerce. Within online buying and selling, there exists a delivery model called Direct to Consumer. This means that the eCommerce business is making, manufacturing, selling, and distributing all it’s own products directly to the customers that are buying it. This is a model that a lot of eCommerce companies have been using for years, and it is often where the biggest profit margins can be found in any business. There is also another eCommerce delivery model known as wholesaling, which entails selling mass quantities of products or goods in bulk, usually to other businesses. If you have not put it together already, this type of delivery model usually falls within the Business to Business model of eCommerce. There is a lot more that you need to know about eCommerce before you start your own company, so make sure to come back for part two of this article!

Treats in Boxes are Better than Bags

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It is a little interesting how things are packaged these days.  Even now, I find that the way shopping happens is strange.  As you stroll through the store looking to get groceries (or treats, in this article’s instance), do you ever stop to consider how much plastic our food is housed in? Bags of noodles are in plastic. Almost all frozen foods are in a plastic bag within a cardboard box. All of this plastic is simply everywhere and all around. 

Plastic, unfortunately, reigns supreme in packaging so much of our food, even though it’s quite toxic for the environment and can take anywhere from 450 to 1000 years to decompose. That’s almost 1800 to 4000 times longer than it takes cardboard to decompose, people. Wow, that means that it is a much more difficult product to get rid of and yet we tend to trash a vast majority of it in the ground and not recycle it.  

This goes for all the small things in your life.  Ponder on how you can help make differences as well.  The next time you’re walking down the candy aisle, as we’ve finally come to focus on, take a close look at all the candies in plastic and those in cardboard. It’s really quite crazy how much plastic we actually use, especially in that one aisle alone! Imagine how much other plastic packaging you’d find in every other aisle of the store, though. It is a big switch up and it can help your persective.

So why am I going about saying that candy boxes are, by far, much more useful overall than bags? When you think about it, though, we see bags far more often at stores, though. Plastic reigns supreme in the packaging of candy unless you’re at the theater looking to get your licorice fix.  It hurts to see and I want to work on making a change.

Is there really a true need for all of this plastic thought?  Why is this, though? Why is it that plastic bags are far more common than cardboard candy boxes? And why is it that, half the time, the small cardboard boxes have plastic bags of candy within them? It simply is annoying that the FDA puts these rules together just to let us taste and eat plastic too.

Part of it is likely freshness. A sealed plastic bag is guaranteed to keep candies fresh. And while sugary candies are likely much better off at staying “fresh” for longer than chocolates, the whole point is to have an extremely long shelf life.  The thing is, plastic isn’t very environmentally friendly. So if you make your own candies are confectionaries, think about popping your treats in cardboard boxes for your customers. They’re more sustainable, typically have dividers within so that you can include different candies in different compartments, and they’re classier with a touch of uniqueness in the face of all the plastic we see daily. I believe that there has to be another way for all of this.

We must find another change.  No matter which you opt for, though, consider the environmental impact you’re making by choosing not to go with plastic. Your customers can feel much better about being able to recycle something more natural than plastic, to boot.

Be Careful with USPS and eBay

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I love the new world we are living in.  Everyone is using online shopping and the eCommerce world is thriving.  We changed how we shopped as a nation this year do to all the pandemic legislation.  It has been a crazy time, but one thing has thrived when most of the economy crashed, and that was the online selling world.  But as millions of people are jumping into selling online there is a lot to know about some of the most basic places to start.  Tons of people are heading to eBay to start their company and I think that is a great and super easy choice, but there are things to know.  There is also a lot to know about USPS and how you plan on sending your items to your buyers once they make a purchase.

This year is 2020 and eBay has made some fundamental changes to the way things work.  They decided to get rid of PayPal as a major way people could pay for items.  This was a very sad thing to see, but now it makes the costs of selling on eBay a little more straight forward.  What you used to do was to pay a fee to eBay for listing your item online.  That allowed people to see how many items you had for sale.  Now sometimes they give you a limit of items you can list and they will allow you to it for free and charge you after that limit. But now they are not only charging a listing fee but they charge a seller’s fee.  Every time you sell an item they used to charge 10%.  That means if you sell an item for 100 dollars you would receive a 10 dollar bill from eBay at the end of the month.  This means that you only make 90% of the money you sell on eBay.  But there is a little more to it. When someone used to pay with PayPal you would be charged a 3% charge for that transaction.  So on each sell, you would actually lose 13% of your money.  But now that has changed and eBay cut out PayPal.  You now only pay 12.5% directly to eBay. 

This is a fee you need to think about when selling any item on eBay because you will be charged no matter what and it will come a month later.  So prepare and budget for this cost and remember to charge more for it.

But another area is when you go to send your items to your buyer.  You need to make sure you are not losing money on shipping supplies.  This means that you have to buy boxes and bags and tape to send those items.  Shipping supplies are expensive and you should not buy them directly from USPS.  This will cost a ton of money and you will end up having issues.  So one thing you need to see is that many people will offer free shipping on eBay.  That means that you will be charged to ship the item out of the original selling price.  So make sure to add that cost to your selling price. I remember losing money on my first sale because after fees I lost 40% of the profit when I purchased all the stuff to ship and sent the item.

Did you think these drinks have so much sugar?

Published on by John Rumsey1 Comment

Now it may be 21st century but some things can still surprise you.  It is really incredible what I am now learning about health and not because of the pandemic.  One of those areas that come to mind is teeth thanks to all these stupid mask mandates.  When it comes to dental health, so often we hear to stay away from candies. Why is it that candy of all things seems to be the “big bad guy” of the dental world? Well, one of the main reasons is how sugary they are. The more sugar you consume, the more likely that sugar is to take hold on your teeth and cause plaque to build up and eat away at your teeth’s enamel.  Part of this is done for some awful reasons. 

The thing is, there are other food and drinks out there that have far more sugar than candy boxes contain; you just don’t ever hear about it.  It is something that our media and FDA try to keep out of all news so we become addicted to it and are forced to use it in our foods every day.  Our tariffs that are placed on alternatives destroy any possibility of having it any other way.  

So, we’ve come up with a list of those drinks that are pretty common yet have tons of sugar. Whether you’re trying to stay hydrated playing sports or want to enjoy juice at home, you should definitely keep an eye on drink labels if you want to keep your teeth healthy.

It really is sad to see that grape juice is mostly just bad for you.  Tooth decay can often occur because of the various “healthy” fruit juices you may have at home. But were you aware that grape juice contains more sugar than almost any other type of juice?  That is because it is simply not really good for you at all.  A twelve ounce glass of grape juice contains more than 58 grams of sugar. That’s 2 full ounces of pure sugar in the twelve ounce glass and around 20 grams more than a can of soda.  This means it can really harm your health and you should think about drinking something else on a regular basis.

It is truly sad to think that a health drink like vitamin water could be one of the least healthy drinks of all.  But drinks with “vitamin” in their names aren’t always as healthy as they may advertise. While they may be packed with specific vitamins, be sure to check the label for what all is within. So before you grab yourself a vitamin water, you should know that a regular twenty-ounce bottle has 31 grams of sugar. For comparison, a regular size candy bar has around 27 grams.So, think about that the next time you want to drink healthy things.  Go get a water instead. 

We all know that sports drinks like Gatorade are not super healthy, but are there for a purpose of allowing you to keep up a sporting activity.  This is another common go-to drink for people who are active in sports and exercise. Unfortunately, it may not be the best choice for post-exercise rehydration. While it can vary between flavors, a typical twenty-ounce bottle of Gatorade averages 34 grams of sugar.  This is a terrible way to feel healthy and for most people, they are rotting their teeth while they play basketball. Why not eat a few candy boxes instead.