An interesting insight about high US shipping costs and China's "free shipping" - Must-watch.

[Fiorenzo]

We all wonder and complain about the high shipping costs here on Zazzle and other US (and European) POD / E-stores and we often compare them with the universal global-wide "free shipping" offered by all these Chinese junk sellers.

Most of us (my humble self included, despite I should know better for having sold and sent my own CD/DVD products in the mid-90s/early 00s directly to customers and dealt with the hurting handling and shipping costs) instinctively blame our domestic postal services and our E-commerce companies (Zazzle included) for wanting to maximize their profits, and/or we explain this with the difference in labor and service costs between China and the Western hemisphere. Let me tell you, this is not half the truth.

Watch this linked video I just stumbled over and you'll open your eyes and understand. And you will have some founded insights you can share with your customers if/when they complain about the shipping prices. I already assumed some of the facts but I didn't imagine it would go that far. Definitely a must-watch.

You can trust the channel. This (South African) guy has lived and worked for decades in China before he literally had to flee the country (lives in the US now) due to his China vlogging about the good, the bad, and the ugly in that country. I'm following him (and others) for quite some time now, truly good content.

Here's the YT video: https://youtu.be/BA6gDep6jVM 

Wondering what you think.

[Barbara]

Oh my! I'd never heard of the United Postal Union, and now that I have, I'm utterly outraged. Knowing other things of the sort, I've tried my best to not buy made-in-China products, but it's fairly unavoidable. At least I was given reason in this video to feel a tad better about buying these products in regular stores.

Thanks for the link.

Colorwash's Home

[Fiorenzo]

Welcome on board. I knew there were some special agreements in regard to shipments from China, but that we in the West pay de facto higher prices on our shipping to subsidize shipments of our most aggressive competitors was new to me, too. It's pretty ironic that China still gets incentives and advantages that are meant to help poor third-world countries (which is fair).