Please help, shipping price issue, NJ Sales Tax

ArtisticTouchBeads · Posts: 16

Hi,

I've opened my store so I can test things before I list everything. Found some problems.

My shipping is coming to $8.25 to mail something to the next town over. The item weighs well under a pound with packaging. I sell beads. Often 5,7,22 grams at a time. Very light.

When listing the items, when I entered the weight I could not enter less than 1. The actual item weighs 1.25 ounces, which according to Google is .078 pounds. Is there a way to enter the weight more accurately?

Second issue: I live in NJ where we just have to be crazy. Our sales tax is 6.625%. The form only allows for 2 decimal points. So I rounded to 6.63% but I really don't like that. Any advice?

Thank you!

Chakracord · Posts: 213

SheilaDeesPostcards · moderator Posts: 4619

First, Welcome to eCRATER and to the eCRATER Community.

Your item weight must be entered as a decimal with a leading number. For your example, the actual item weighs 1.25 ounce and you said that would be .072 so the item weight would be entered as 0.072. I would suggest you enter the packed weight rather than the item weight. One thing you will find is that the Calculated Shipping uses the USPS Retail prices. First Class Parcel is only available up to 13 oz., so any item over 13 oz will be charged the Priority Mail rate. Different sellers have their own opinion on how to handle this, but I use 0.8125 (13 oz.) for higher weights so the buyer will be charged the retail First Class Parcel Rate for 13 oz. I'm going to ship via the Commercial First Class Rate which allows First Class up to 15.999 ozs.

If you look in the community here: FAQs and Solutions > Solutions to Common Questions - SHIPPING MATRIX & MORE, https://community.ecrater.com/viewtopic.php?t=2461 and scroll down on the 1st page you'll see a posting that has a chart "Converting ounces to pounds as decimals". I printed a copy and keep it near my computer when I'm listing.

I don't have an answer for the Sales Tax issue. You might want to contact the staff (contact link on the eCRATER home page) to see if that field can be expanded to 3 decimal places. This is a VERY seller friendly site!

SheilaDeesPostcards · moderator Posts: 4619

Well, I see Chakracord answered while I was typing. Laughing

Hey, Chakracord, you should check your private messages. .. You have mail! Very Happy

ArtisticTouchBeads · Posts: 16

Thank you both for replying!

I thought I tried it with a leading 0 but I must be wrong! That is great that I can enter less than 1 pound.

Believe it or not, that 1.25 oz is the packed weight of the item, including 2 sheets of paper (for invoice and label. I have not figured out labelling yet but I will get there), packed in a bubble mailer. I ordered some flat rate boxes for those large bead orders I hope to get.

Thank you both so much for helping me. I love the idea of printing the conversion chart. Also I'm so grateful for the speedy reply. I am adding items as quickly as I can manage, and now I can do it properly!

I will contact ecrater regarding the wacky NJ Sales Tax. I love my state but we seem to overcomplicate EVERYTHING!

ArtisticTouchBeads · Posts: 16

I contacted eCrater and they changed the 2 decimal points to 3. So I have corrected the NJ Sales Tax to the very strange 6.625% that it currently is.

I am astounded at how quickly eCrater solved my problem! Kudos to eCrater!!