Shipping and handling fees are a combination of the fees needed to pay for shipping something and the labor involved in “handling” shipped items. The handling portion is that which exhibits the most variance in price, while shipping items tends to be about the same price for similar size weight items. You’ll pay about the same price for shipping whether you ship from the post office, or from companies like the United Postal Service (UPS) or Federal Express.

When you order something, especially from home shopping channels, from infomercials, or on the Internet, you are often assessed shipping and handling fees. It may be hard to tell exactly how much you are being charged by someone or some company to “handle” a package. Occasionally you can tell when you receive something by looking at the shipping label, which may state the shipping cost. From time to time, the handling cost is disproportionate.

This occurs with more and more frequency in the new mompreneur world of small eBay sellers. Some sellers make their profit not on the items they sell but on the handling fees they assess when they ship the products. If you charge $5-6 US Dollars (USD) for shipping and handling fees of a relatively small item, and you sell a lot of small items, you may make a considerable profit on your handling fees. While people who sell something do need to be compensated for the time it takes them to package and ship products, this may be considered by some an unfair rate and too great of an expense.

You’ll also note many products of the infomercial type that are sold and have free extra products. Even if these are free you may have to pay shipping and handling fees to get them. It’s a pretty safe bet to assume that the seller makes a small profit on these “free” items by charging more in handling fees.

To avoid paying these shipping and handling fees, you can look to companies that offer free shipping. Sometimes, you may be charged extra for the items you buy in order to compensate for free offers of shipping, but if a company is motivated to sell merchandise, this may not always be the case. You can look at a company like Zappos® shoe store which offers free shipping and handling, and no return shipping and handling fees if shoes don’t fit, and when you watch the prices on these sites, you may note they are slightly higher than the same shoes priced elsewhere. On the other hand, if you find a pair of shoes on sale or reduced in price, ordering from Zappos® can be very economical.

Other companies, which have huge online businesses, like Amazon® may offer free shipping and handling as an incentive to get you to spend more money, if you purchase $25-50 USD of “qualifying” merchandise. You have to look at the limitations on these offers, but they may occasionally provide extra savings. These offers are frequently attractive and increase sales, thereby increasing profits and making shipping and handling fees unnecessary.