You costed the product carefully, and then it ships in a box, wrapped in tissue, with a label, for a postage fee. Those fulfillment costs land on every order, and they're some of the most-forgotten numbers in a handmade business. Left out, they quietly thin every sale's profit.
What counts as a shipping cost
- Packaging: the box or mailer, tissue, filler, and the branded touches.
- Labels and inserts: shipping labels, thank-you cards, care cards.
- Postage: what the carrier charges to actually move it.
None is large alone; together they can rival a product's material cost on a small order. That's why they belong in the math, not in your head.
Track packaging like materials
Your boxes, mailers, and tissue are inventory too: you buy them, you use them up, and you can run out at the worst moment. Track them the way you track product materials, so you know your per-order packaging cost and reorder before a sale stalls.
Fold it into your real profit
Postage varies by weight and destination, but you can estimate a typical cost per order and include it alongside your true cost and any marketplace fees. Only then do you see what a sale actually nets you.
The sale isn't done when the product's made. It's done when it's boxed, labeled, and out the door, and all of that costs money.
Know it per order
Tracking packaging and postage by hand is tedious, so most makers guess, and undercount. From the Maker plan, Keepsel lets you list the shipping and packaging items each product goes out in, so its true cost includes what it takes to get it to the customer.