A good logistics company will be able to help you minimize your transit times and maximize your profits.  It is worth the time upfront to analyze your supply chain from start to finish and improve the efficiencies.  Look at your LTL rates and LTL quotes, and your postage rates.  Examine transit times and compare them with the online freight quotes system.

There are a lot of logistics tools that you can use to help you order your inventory more accurately.  Or at least get it more quickly.

Supply chain basics are making sure you have your product so you can get it to you customers when they need it.  This sounds very easy but as a business owner you have many factors to consider when adjusting your supply chain.  Probably the most difficult is not over purchasing or under purchasing.  Once you figured out how to predict your need with perfection share it with the rest of the world because nobody else can predict supply and demand perfectly.

Where is your product coming from?  For example the time frame to import an ocean container from China can take 21-30 days.  It could be delayed at the port waiting for a “random” examination.  This can take as long as the examiner wants.  You can ship it much more quickly using air freight but the cost will naturally cost more.

Do you get your products stateside?  If you receive your supplies from somewhere in the US you will have multiple options on ground and in the air to improve the speed of you supply chain.  Simply switching from one carrier to another can get your goods to market a few days sooner.  LTL shipping, full truck loads, Expedited trucks, couriers, and air options are all available to you.  Use the service that best fits your business model.

When you have your product you will need to ask yourself what the choke point of your production line is.  You may have a machine that can load 50 bottles a minute with your product but the next machine can only seal the products at a rate of 25 bottles a minute.  Do you have a team of people who hand craft your goods?  Maybe it is time to automate?  The point is that you need to locate the choke point and take the necessary steps to improve it.

Do you rely mostly on your own trucks or are you a retail store that relies exclusively on customers walking in the door?  If you set your sites a little higher you can use the internet or other methods to find customers any where in the country.

It goes without saying that every supply chain solution needs to be individualized to your specific company needs.  Cubic postage rates are great if you can get USPS discounts and you are shipping items less than a cubic foot.  UPS ground is a great product for ground shipments.  If your products are larger than 100 lbs or need to be moved on a pallet your best bet is using the online freight quotes system.

No matter the solution you need a good logistics company will be able to help you minimize your transit times and maximize your profits.  It is worth the time upfront to analyze your supply chain and improve where ever it is possible

If you run a business you might need online freight quotes.

The vagueness of the previous sentence doesn’t describe anything of use to anybody it may actually be accurate.  You see companies of all shapes and sizes can take advantages of our online freight quotes system.  The easiest fit is a small company that ships as little as once a month.  Other businesses that can take advantage of online freight quotes may move multiple freight shipments a day.  Circumstantial freight rates can be arranged for businesses with annual freight spends from a few hundred thousand dollars up to millions of dollars in freight spend annually.

If you ship to residential customers you might need online freight quotes.  One of the huge advantages of the online freight quotes system is the vast amount of freight carrier partners.  Some of the carriers will be regional carriers that don’t charge extra fees for residential or lift gate charges.  If the carrier runs the lane you will find them in the system.

If you ship to trade shows or anywhere where unions are required to deliver you might need online freight quotes.  YRC is the largest LTL freight carrier in the country.  They are also authorized to deliver to trade shows where unionized labor is required.  If your individual volume of shipments is too low you may not be able to get competitive rates on your own.  With instant freight quotes you will have very aggressive rates from YRC as well as every other LTL carrier in the system.

If you ship different types of to different parts of the country you might need online freight quotes.  No LTL freight carrier has a large enough network where they boast the best rates to anywhere in the country.  Using an online freight portal that gives you access to every freight carrier every where in the country.  Okay every freight carrier is an exaggeration but you can quotes from over 70 different carriers nationally as well as in your local region.

If you are an eBay power seller who sells larger products you might need online freight quotes.  It can be frustrating not knowing how much it will cost to send your product to your customer.  With an account to an online freight shipping portal you can have instant LTL freight shipping quotes to and from anywhere in the country.  You will also get instant LTL freight rates to our Canadian brothers up north.

If you are a metal recycling facility you might need access to online freight quotes.  Dense metal is easy enough to ship.  Some forms of carbide by products can be considered hazardous.  Simply put a check in the box marked “haz” and every LTL freight rate will include the hazardous waste fee.  Every freight rate you get will be from a qualified carrier that has the ability to move hazardous cargo.

Seriously though the rates you can get from the online freight quotes system can benefit almost any type and any size of company.  Do your homework before you commit your business to any company.  It is free to sign up for an account and compare rates.  Also take into consideration the customer service and ease of use and other intangibles before you commit your LTL freight.

Instant online freight quotes is simple and easy. But what if you don’t know how to classify your LTL freight Shipment?  A lower class equals cheap freight.  You should use the lowest class you can.

LTL freight shipping can be the smoothest process in the world.  But it can also become a nightmare if you don’t know what you are doing and choose the wrong class.

First option- Call the freight carrier directly

When you call the carrier you can be sure that your freight will be classified according to what the carrier would classify it as.  This is by far the most reliable option.

YRC has an online chat forum where you can chat with one of there trained agents and learn what class you product is.  If you do not know which carrier you are going to use visit yrc.com.

Second option- Estimate

It is made out of metal and is pretty heavy so I bet it is class 50 right?  Well you better be right or you will end up paying the price on the back end.  It is easy enough to guess what your class is but it can be very costly.

If you make a guess and classify something incorrectly it could potentially double the cost or even more than double it.  With gas prices rising almost daily and various freight carriers hanging on by the skin of their teeth re-weighs and re-classes are occurring more and more frequently.

Business A was shipping a used machine.  He didn’t know the exact dimensions or weight.  Machinery is a density based classification.  He put in some numbers that were close and came up with class 110.  Before he shipped it he made sure to get the real weight and looked up the class again and it came up the same.  However, he never looked at the real dimensions with the real weight.  The freight carrier re-classified the shipment to class 250.  His shipment was quoted at just under $600.  The final charge after the re-class was over $1400.  This is more than double the price.

Never never never guess your freight class.

Third option- Figure it out

You can use the actual NMFC book to look up any freight class and nmfc#.  It will provide you with every possible classification and description.  However, this book could be used as Governor Schwarzenegger dumbbell weight.  It is very thorough but the 8” of height make it a little intimidating.  This book is best used for reference purposes.  For the more experienced shipper and independent personality this may be the preferred method.

Use a software program.  There are different options through software programs to find classes.  For example a program called “Fast Class” will allow you to search the entire code by keywords, item numbers etc.  It is much quicker than using the old fashioned book method.

USPS priority mail can save your business money through using USPS Discounts on SpiderShip.com.  Here are some areas to consider when you are deciding who to ship with.

The first reason to use USPS priority mail is the accessorial fees.  In fact more than 30% of all shipping costs are

made up of accessorial fees.  I should actually say the lack or these fees.  Did you know that the Post Office doesn’t charge a fuel surcharge?  Did you know that the Post Office doesn’t charge residential or delivery area surcharges either?  There are no surprise costs.

You will never be charged more that the flat rate.  The lack of surprise costs is taken to the extreme with USPS priority mail flat rate boxes.  With flat rate boxes you pay one flat rate any where in the country.  It doesn’t even matter how much it weighs as long as it is less than 70 lbs.

Second all rates and fees are shown up front.  USPS priority mail rates are well published and you always known what they are upfront.  When you buy your postage upfront and your package ships you never have to worry about additional charges after the fact.  Look at your most recent invoice from UPS or FedEx.  Are the rates you are charged the same as you where quoted up front?  Sometimes they are but regularly they may not be.  Additional charges and surcharges are not uncommon.

Third, with nearly 37,000 post offices nationwide the Post Office has the greatest ability to reach the final destination.  Nobody has a bigger network or greater capability to reach every address every day in the entire country.

The Fourth reason to use USPS priority mail is Saturday delivery.  The Post Office continues to deliver on Saturday.  Using some quick math you will realize that there are 52 Saturdays in one year.  That is 7 and a half weeks or nearly 2 months.  If you use USPS priority mail your shipping carrier will work for almost 2 months longer than their competitors.  If you compare USPS priority mail to a “Guaranteed” 2 day service you will actually realize that Priority mail will deliver your package sooner.

What happens when you ship something over the weekend?  If your package is sent on Thursday with another 2 day service it won’t arrive until Monday of the next week.  That is actually 4 days.  Like wise if you send it on Friday it will not arrive until the following Tuesday.  That is also a 4 day delivery.  Because of Saturday delivery both of these shipments would arrive I n3 days using USPS priority mail.  It kind of makes you wonder what the guarantee means.  “I could take a dump in a box and slap a guarantee on it but then you would just have a guaranteed pile of crap” to quote Tommy Boy.

Fifth, the failure rate of the USPS  is actually below 1%.  You can compare this to the big competitors who are closer to the 3% range.

The competitors are able to create the perception that there service levels are greater and more reliable when in fact the opposite is true.  UPS and FedEx pay millions of dollars a year into marketing and building consumer confidence.  They do a good job of this.

With improved capabilities in tracking and scanning and improved rates and services the Post office is getting better and better.  If you haven’t seen or familiarized yourself with the post office lately you should.

“If it fits it ships”.  USPS priority mail flat rat boxes can be a shipping marvel to your company.  Anything you can fit into one the USPS priority mail flat rate boxes will ship to anywhere in the country for one flat rate.  This only applies to the flat rate boxes, which you can get for free at any post office.  You can also order them online and have them delivered to your home or business.   Flat rate boxes come in three different sizes small medium and large.  But only one place offers the best USPS Discounts, SpiderShip.com.  The medium size has two different shapes to accommodate different shaped products.  Oh yeah, and they also have a flat rate envelope that will get to anywhere in the country in 2-3 days.

You can visit you local Post Office to find out many of the details of shipping with priority mail.  Or you can visit www.usps.com to order a free starter kit.  Conduct an in depth analysis of your current rates compared to priority mail to discover when and where to use priority mail services.  Or contact a shipping consultant with SpiderShip.com.

So the question is how does the Post Office maintain a flat rate regardless of the weight?

USPS priority mail flat rate boxes are rated according to the volume.  The post office purchases space on a plane and charges for space on their trucks based solely on the volume that the box occupies.  As long as the box is less than 70 lbs the rate will not change.  You can run into problems if you try to pack too much into the boxes and deform the dimensions.

USPS purchases space based on volume it has also opened up new ways to get rates.  If you ship using priority mail without using the flat rate boxes your rates will be determined just like UPS ground.  The first factor that determines the rate is the zone which is based on distance from the origin.   The second factor is the weight.  The dimensions can also be a determining factor if the dimensional weight is greater than the actual weight.  But with the specific spaces purchased by the post office you can get a pricing structure base on the volume of your shipment.

Shipping like this may not be beneficial to every shipper or shipment.  The real advantage will come with any package that has a volume less than one cubic foot.  Cubic pricing tiers are based on volume and zones.  To use this tier the packages must be less than 20 lbs.  The real advantage to this is when you factor in certain USPS discounts on postage available through SpiderShip.com.

Express airplanes actually move priority mail.  This is how priority mail can get to almost any location within 2 to 3 days.  Using priority mail is the fastest service that isn’t a guaranteed overnight service.  Priority mail actually reaches over 90% of the US within 2 days.  And it will always make it over night within a certain radius of your own area.

Depending on the exact volume and which zone you are shipping to any packages less than 10 lbs should give you a better rate than UPS or FedEx ground.  Depending on your discount with UPS or FedEx it is actually possible to save money shipping with USPS priority mail up to 20 lbs.  And it is faster service.  If you ship packages that meet this volume requirement you can get a special pricing tier.

Thinking that dealing with the Post office is going to be the same as dealing with a civilian company is a mistake.  There can be a lot of red tape if you have to make a claim or your shipment is lost.  The insurance rates that they charge are expensive.  The customer service can be less than stellar depending on whom you are dealing with and at what level.  But overall the service levels and failure rates are exactly on par with the “other guys”.  And if you know how to use USPS Priority Mail flat rate boxes and get USPS discounts you can seriously reduce your shipping costs.

USPS is not a private company.  As a government owned agency it has to run by a separate set of instructions than does civilian shipping companies.  The USPS was originally intended to deliver mail.  And it does this so well that nobody wants to try and compete in that market.  The Post Office is putting forth a lot of time and money to break into the multi million dollar industry of small parcel shipping.  FedEx and UPS have such a stronghold of the small parcel industry the even shipping mega giant DHL was unable to break into the US domestic market.  However, The USPS has some distinct advantages with priority mail that are helping them gain ground and market share.   Those advantages may provide your company with some shipping tools that can save you both time and money.  That is if you are using SpiderShip.com for USPS discounts.

Adding USPS priority mail small parcel services to their quiver is a no brainer business decision.  The first and foremost advantage of the Post Office is the vast size of the existing infrastructure.  Nobody operates a larger network or delivery trucks than the post office.  It also has the most natural gas vehicles.  USPS already delivers to every address in the US everyday.

So how can USPS priority mail help my company reduce shipping costs?

If your commodity fits into any size flat rate box and is heavy and travels a long distance your best bet is USPS priority mail flat rate boxes.  Your potential savings will depend on what you ship.  All shipping is based on zones, weight, and dimensions.  If you are serious about examining and comparing rates it is fairly easy to compare an existing invoice to posted USPS postage rates.  But as a rule of thumb packages under 4 pounds are better to send with the post office.  If you are less than 10 pounds and shipping to residential addresses ship with the post office.  If you are under 20 lbs and less than a cubic foot in your dimensions the post office may be the way to go.

With so much electronic mailings and transfers there is no reason for anybody else to even attempt a venture into first class mail.  The Post office was originally designed to deliver letters to every address in the country.  It still does this and does it very well.  The Post office uses so many trucks and employs so many people in this endeavor that it will forever hold a monopoly in this section of the industry.

The Post office is trying to gobble up as much of the small parcel industry as possible.  This is one of the many reasons you see such a big push for USPS priority and express mail, especially for the USPS priority mail flat rate boxes and envelopes.

The Post Office has some advantages that DHL didn’t have.  In the last decade the largest shipping company in the world DHL tried to enter the domestic US small parcel shipping market and couldn’t do it.  Reports show that they were losing around $300 million a year trying to compete against FedEx and UPS.  They withdrew this attempt a few years ago.

SpiderShip.com has been offering discounted rates for domestic USPS Priority Mail and Express Mail.  Coming soon it will also offer USPS Discounts for Priority international mail.  Priority international mail will include flat rate boxes and standard priority international rates.  All rules and regulations established by the USPS will apply.  Promotional free trial memberships will be available for new users.

Almost everyone has heard the catch phrase “if it fits it ships”.  This concept also applies to international shipping.  Spidership.com can offer you the best rates and most user friendly software for USPS priority mail.  Now you will have the ability to ship internationally through the same web based portal.  Print all of your postage and schedule your shipment for both domestic and international shipping.

All USPS priority mail flat rate boxes can be used for either domestic or international use.  For international shipping the flat rate applies to each different country.  For example Canada will have a different flat rate than Zimbabwe.  But the rate will not change based on weight.

Available rates will not be limited to just the flat rate boxes.  USPS discounts will also apply to standard shipping practices.  This means that you can also use your own packaging and still ship through one convenient site.

All rules and regulations established by the United States Post office apply to all shipments.  Please visit www.usps.com for full details on international shipping.  However, because the USPS is a government entity it has special privileges importing into other countries.  The USPS has a separate import export facility from other shipments going into other countries and is consequently able to be cleared more quickly.

The United States Post office also has the best security for small parcel shipping.  Federal agents have the ability to monitor USPS employees to insure package safety.  Stealing a package from the post office is a federal offense and taken much more seriously than regular theft.

The very minimal drawbacks are tracking your international package and making a claim if there is one.

Tracking packages international is a difficult prospect for many countries.  Depending on which country you are shipping to they may r may not have adequate facilities to track shipments.  As of right now the Post Office doesn’t offer tracking for regular priority mail to international locations.

If you have a package that is lost or damaged it can take months to receive your claim.  The Post Office is still a government run agency and operates as such.  If you need to make a claim do not give up in frustration too early.  If you have the patience to cut through red tape it pays off.

You may contact Spidership.com today for a free trial offer.

The internet revolution has become as influential in the business world as was the advent of the industrial revolution.  With instant access to products and services through various websites and information being passed via API (I don’t even really understand what that API means) almost anyone from anywhere can run a multi-million dollar corporation.  You dont even have to physically stock any items or ship it yourself.  You can use online freight quotes for freight shipping and also to ship USPS priority mail flat rate boxes.

Don’t take my word for it check you e-mail, Face book, or listen to the radio and you will here about some stay at home mom who makes $5000 a week.  They don’t actually tell you what she is doing and how hard it is.  Many companies that promote this have different business models.  But many of them are EBay type businesses that take full advantage of drop shipping.

I didn’t even understand what drop shipping was before I was in the industry.  But now it is a daily part of life.  The basics of drop shipping are that company ABC can market and sell a product that company XYZ manufactures.   When the sale is finalized the product is shipped straight from XYZ to the end user or customer.  The details within that model can vary.

If you want to be bold and “ship where no man has shipped before”, drop shipping could be the answer.  Imagine starting a beverage company and making a sale to the likes of Walmart.  Well if you have the prototype and can make that big of a sale you will find a line of companies willing to produce the product for you.  Locally to me there are warehouses that buy various products and use distributors to sell the products.  This type of distributor has virtually no overhead.  They pay for the product from the warehouse and ship it in the same day.

Because of the low overhead small companies can be very aggressive with there marketing and make huge sales and grow very rapidly without ever stocking a single product.

SpiderShip.com can help you with all of your drop shipping needs.  If you are an EBay seller and need instant quotes to tell your customers simply log in to your account and you will have instant access to rates from over 65 different freight carriers.   You will also have the ability to get rates from the USPS particularly for priority mail flat rate boxes.  You can also immediately print the BOL or the postage.

This can also work directly with the warehouse or fulfillment center.

So if you are looking to have your own business or if you buy into the eBay system drop shipping can be a phenomenal advantage to your company.  Imagine selling hundreds of products but never having to purchase any of them.

Every year Time Magazine highlights 37 countries that it feels are hubs for doing international business.  I am going breakdown the highlights of 5 great countries and why you should ship internationally to these countries, and how SpiderShip.com can assist you with your international freight quotes and shipping.  The top twenty countries are listed below.

Here are some basic highlights before you read the list.  The United States is first due to high capital availability, low cost for firing workers, and a huge market size.  The U.S. has a lot of buying power because we are a very large country.  South Korea jumped 12 spots to be ranked 11^th.  Singapore is the size of New York City and is ranked 5^th overall.

1.       United States

2.       Switzerland

3.       Denmark

4.       Sweden

5.       Singapore

6.       Finland

7.       Germany

8.       Netherlands

9.       Japan

10.   Canada

11.   Hong Kong

12.   United Kingdom

13.   South Korea

14.   Austria

15.   Norway

16.   France

17.   Taiwan

18.   China

19.   Australia

20.   Belgium

21.   Iceland

To cut through the reporting mumble jumble, here is the basic summary of the report.  They measure 113 factors for each country and give it a GCI (Global Competitiveness Index) ranking.  In a nutshell what the GCI measures are a countries investment appeal, government stability and business efficiency.  It is not necessarily the best ranking for product demand, but it lets you know who has money to buy products and a stable economy.

Canada

Always look to Canada first since it is so close and easy to cut your teeth in the international world.  Beware however, even though Canada is very close they have high taxes on incoming goods, and very strict customs rules for shipping.  Cover your bases and get an online freight quote before venturing into Canada sales.  It is very easy to add Canada to your sales clientele, it is a great place to get your internationally feet wet, and they like to buy American

The United Kingdom

Your next best bet is to look to the United Kingdom.  The U.K. is the world’s 6^th largest importing nation.  Even though they may seem like a small country, they buy a lot of stuff.  And they have a high population.  Last year they spent $636 billion on imports.   Manufactured goods were in the top 5 of those imports.  Foodstuff was number 1.  There is some market share to be won in the U.K.  With all those imports, the United States was not even on the list of their top suppliers.  We are not taking advantage of the U.K.’s desire to buy.

Singapore

I was surprised to see such a small country (smaller than NYC) take 5^th out of 131 top countries.  Check out this article Singapore:  The Hottest (Little) Economy in the World.

Basically Singapore is growing and has completely bounced back from the economic world crisis.  They are booming.  Some articles highlight their setbacks, but regardless, they have basically zero unemployment rate and they are continuing to grow.

Japan

Japan is the 10^th largest populated country in the world.  Since it has so many people, it will be easier to find a large population in your target market.  Play the numbers game.  Japan is a great place to win. They love high quality products, just don’t try to sell them any cell phones or electronics.  This market will really depend on your product.   Do your homework here.

Germany

I was surprised to see that Germany had such a large population ranked 14^th highest population in the world.  Germans from my experience love to buy online.  One of the first places that eBay had a very profitable destination site was Germany.  eBay Germany does huge amounts of business.  Germany is a great place to look to market your product online.  Spidership.com can provide shipping solutions for domestic freight with instant online freight quotes and international freight and small parcel solutions to eBay sellers and buyer of all kinds.

It doesn’t matter where you start, just start to ship outside the box.   Sales are sales whether they are domestic or international.  Don’t make the mistake of limiting your sales because you think you are too small to sell internationally.  Whether you have 2 employees or hundreds, you are never too big or too small to sell overseas.  If you really think it is impossible and you are too small, stop thinking that way right now.  It is that kind of thinking that is holding you back.  I know several companies personally who sell tons of product overseas and they have only 4 employees.  Don’t ever feel like you need to be a major corporation before you grow your business internationally.

Most businesses get stuck in what Stephen Covey calls, “The thick of thin things.”  Are you so busy doing that you are forgetting where you are going?  Are you trapped putting out daily fires that you forget to see the big picture?  Do you have a big picture?  How clear is your big picture, or is it just a fuzzy cloud of ambiguity?

To boldly ship where no one in your industry has shipped before, you need to get a bigger picture.   Is your picture big enough?  Have you analyzed the full gambit of your your supply chain from small parcel to large freight shipping and international importing?  Are you settling?  Are you content to merely squeak through another month of production and sales?  Is your business expanding and growing?  If you are not expanding and growing then guaranteed you are lacking in vision.   In order to be a true leader you need to get true vision for your company.

True Vision of a True Leader

Stephen Covey uses the example of forest workers.  Hundreds of workers in the forest are busy chopping down trees, they are working hard and making it happen.  The manager is happy because they are producing mega amounts of trees.  Everything seems to be running smoothly, however, a true leader will not be weighed down by all the day to day.  He makes time to climb the ladder and look over the thick trees.  After seeing where they are headed, the leader yells, “wrong forest”.  True vision and leadership will always make sure the company is headed in the right direction.  Are you leading your business to greatness, or are you just hoping for the best and a lot of luck?  Are you holding the reigns of leadership, or are you just winding with the road hoping it goes where you want?  Are you on the right road?

4 steps to leadership

Get real with yourself

What are your assets?  What is your capacity?  What is the potential of your product?  Have you looked at your target market in other countries?  What fears are holding you back?  For example, you may be hesitant to change, hesitant to expand, hesitant to ship internationally, and a million other artificial fears that are stopping your business from moving forward.  The most important question to ask is, “What is stopping you?”  Get rid of all your excuses that you have been holding onto for years.  Many of us have these walls surrounding us and we don’t even know it.  Get real with yourself and ask yourself why not?  Why can’t we grow and be successful?  You can!  If other companies can do it, so can you.  Now figure out what your dreams are and don’t make any more excuses.

Cut the Crap

Now it is time to get rid of stuff that isn’t working.  This process is kind of like cleaning out the closet.  Are there legacy systems holding you back from gaining more capacity?  Are you bogged down with outdated processes?  Is there a better faster, more profitable way to do things?  Do you need to add quality and support?  Basically, this is where you get rid of all those bad things that creep in and clean house.  Clean things up, freshen up, and get ready for expansion.

Plan and do

This is where you lay it all on the table.  Make practical plans to bring about true leadership.  You first got real with yourself and set some dreams, then you cleaned out the closet of what wasn’t working, now you are ready to add good plans to make things happen.  Take time to think of what it is going to take, research new countries, new markets, new customers, new advertising methods, new product lines, new whatever it takes to reach your goals.  Think, Research, and Make concrete plans.  Stop pipe dreaming and truly set the stage for true leadership and do it.  Do I need to stress the doing?  Plans are nothing if not backed by action.  Make feasible solid plans and all your work will be profitable.

They will come

Reap the rewards of your efforts.  By taking the time to step back and see the big picture you have now entered the realm of leadership and not just management.  A manager can always maintain status quo, it takes a true leader to effect growth and reach unforeseen benchmarks of success.

In maintaining with our theme of the month “To boldly ship where no one has shipped before.” Make sure to look at all your options.  When you are looking at your options, don’t forget to look outside the box, that means looking internationally.  Before you make your plans and when you are getting real with your product, services, and potential, feel free to get some online freight quotes to help you out.  An online freight quote is great market research to find out what is feasible for you before you make plans. Get a true COGS (Cost of Goods Sold, by adding the shipping cost).  Always do your homework before you make solid plans, make sure you are working in the right forest.