Another major piece of BoxCycle functionality – Delivery Support – is now in place.  Box sellers can offer buyers the option of having their boxes delivered.

More Reach for Sellers

Your listing will appear in all search results within your delivery area.  For example, if a buyer searches for sellers within 5 miles and you are 20 miles away, but deliver to the buyer’s location, you’ll appear in their results as a delivery-only option.  This is especially beneficial to sellers who are located outside of major metro areas.

More Visibility

Listings with delivery are made to stand out with a Green Truck icon.

Happier Buyers

Most buyers prefer delivery, some will only order if delivery is available.

Delivery Area and Prices

As a seller, you decide how far you want to deliver and at what prices.  For example, you can set delivery cost to $10 within 5 miles, $20 within 15 miles, $40 within 50 miles, etc.

You can also specify a delivery discount at a certain order size.  For example, you can discount delivery by $10 for buyers who order $50 or more.  In the example above it would give the buyer FREE delivery within 5 miles if they reach $50 (and discounted delivery to other areas).  This discount is made very visible to buyers in the delivery price list and in the shopping cart to encourage them to buy more.

Delivery Commission

BoxCycle commission on delivery charges is only 5%.

How It Works

The delivery order process is very similar to pickup orders with buyer and seller appointment responsibilities exchanged.

As a reminder, for pickup orders buyers select several pickup choices from within seller hours.  The seller then selects a single time when confirming the order.  The buyer is provided with the seller’s address only after the order is confirmed.  The buyer is obligated to show up on time (within 15 minutes of their appointment.)

With deliveries, the buyer chooses 2 time ranges of at least 4 hours each from within seller hours.  At least one range must be 24+ hours in the future.  When confirming the order, the seller selects a single time when they will deliver the boxes.  Buyer’s exact address is provided only after confirmation; only approximate location (accurate to about a block) is available beforehand.  The seller is obligated to deliver within 15 minutes of their appointment.  Seller’s address is never made available to buyers who order delivery.

Check out the Delivery Order Process for more details.

What About Issues?

We already have penalties in place for missing appointments.  Delivery fees are not refundable and delivery discounts will not apply if the buyer misses their appointment or refuses delivery (unless, of course, the seller is at fault.)  If the buyer misses their appointment, the seller can either:

• come back (and the buyer will need to pay penalties + additional delivery fees to reschedule) OR
• simply leave the boxes at, or near the location; the buyer takes responsibility for loss.

Since delivery takes a substantial amount of effort, the seller can decide which of the above options they’d like.  However, to protect buyers, the seller must contact BoxCycle beforehand.  We will notify the buyer by phone and email to give them a chance to make last minute arrangements to minimize loss.

The seller may wait for the buyer at the appointment site, but is never obligated to do so beyond 15 minutes.

See the Buyer Appointment Agreement for more details.

What About Shipping?

Shipping differs from delivery in that it’s generally performed by a commercial carrier like UPS, does not require appointments, and offers tracking.  Shipping isn’t supported in this release, but we expect to add it soon.  If you need shipping, let  us know so we can prioritize.

I Have a Delivery Route; How Do I Make This Work?

At this time we require exact appointments; sellers with an existing route may have trouble predicting their delivery time within 30 minutes.  We hope to be able to offer delivery time ranges (e.g. 2pm-6pm) in the future.  If you need this, let us know so we can prioritize.

What Else?

Delivery has a number of complexities; we’ll be fine-tuning the process as we go along.  Your feedback on this functionality is much appreciated.

Many people think of BoxCycle primarily in the context of moving boxes, but it is also designed to help people sell and find cheap shipping boxes.  For example, you can now find a decent variety of new and used shipping boxes in Los Angeles.  And if shipping boxes you need aren’t available in your area yet you can create Boxes Wanted listings, which are designed to help large sellers find buyers looking for specific boxes.

It is usually harder to find used shipping boxes than moving boxes.  Smaller shipping boxes are easier to get rid of and aren’t worth as much so most people don’t think much about them before recycling them.  Shipping boxes are needed in larger quantities and specific dimensions are usually much more important than for moving boxes. 

For online merchants and warehouses shipping boxes are the flip side of the box problem.  These businesses get their merchandise in bulk in large boxes, but send it out in small quantities using small boxes.  They end up with lots of moving size boxes they can’t use, but find themselves constantly buying new shipping boxes when used boxes would work just as well.

There actually are plenty of sources for unneeded shipping boxes.  Box manufacturers often have misprinted, overrun, and discontinued boxes by the truckload that they literally throw into the recycling bin.  Companies often buy boxes by the thousands for a specific purpose.  If their idea doesn’t pan out they are stuck with lots of boxes they have no use for.  In both of these examples, boxes are thrown out without ever being used!

The problem is that finding such sources is difficult, especially when you need specific size boxes.  Similarly, it is nearly impossible for sellers to find buyers for their boxes.  Although people are always looking to buy and sell finding a match of size and quantity at a specific point in time is difficult and most don’t bother.

Our Boxes Wantedsection was designed to help sellers find buyers.  But we also have sellers regularly list their unneeded shipping boxes.  If you are in the mailing business checking BoxCycle before buying boxes just might save you some money without a lot of work.  You can make it even easier on yourself by getting an automated notification when sellers list specific boxes.

Plus you’ll be doing a big favor for the environment.

Notification Edit Screen

Today’s release makes it easy for buyers to modify their wanted listing if their box needs or contact information changes.  Buyers can also delete their listing if they do not want to receive further notifications.

For security, buyers need a special edit link to modify their listing.  The link is emailed upon creation of the wanted listing and is also included in emails notifying buyers of new boxes in their area.

BoxCycle launched with the focus of helping businesses and individuals with more or less regular supply of used boxes to connect with people who need boxes on occasion.  A typical example would be a retail store with boxes and a person looking for moving boxes.

There is a related, but very different scenario that is quite common.  To our knowledge it is also completely unserved: businesses with regular demand for specific boxes trying to find sellers with occasional supply.  A typical example would be a fulfillment center that regularly needs specific shipping boxes and a box manufacturer with overruns.

It is difficult for sellers like the box manufacturer above to list their boxes and be found by buyers.  Their inventory changes frequently and boxes often head to the recycling bin in days if not hours.  What is needed is a way for sellers to find buyers who have immediate demand.

A major new section recently added to BoxCycle allows for exactly this functionality: Boxes Wanted. 

Potential buyers can now indicate exactly what boxes they need including quantity, frequency, dimensions, color, wall thickness, printing, etc.   The listings are visible to anyone and buyers are notified each time a matching seller lists boxes.  Sellers can also respond to wanted listings without actually listing their boxes.

Boxes Wanted section is built on notification functionality we offered since launch and much of the current data comes from notification requests we received until now.

Buyers can still specify just their name and email address (or phone number) and be notified each time a new seller lists boxes near them.  We’ve added the ability for them to enter more specifics about the boxes they need and to restrict notifications to only those listings that match these specifics.

Furthermore, notification requests are now automatically visible in Boxes Wanted.  This allows occasional sellers to find regular buyers.  It also makes buyer requests more influential since visible requests signal demand which may encourage new sellers to list boxes in the area.

I am quite excited about the Wanted section.  It brings potential for efficiency and waste reduction to a complementary, but entirely new, audience.  At the same time I hope that it will increase the number of notifications submitted and make demand more visible to potential sellers which in turn could help BoxCycle get through the initial ‘chicken or the egg’ problem of a completely new marketplace.

We have two ways for schools, churches, and non-profits to do green fundraising with used boxes.  For details check out our press release at http://www.boxcycle.com/about/press/fundraising .