It’s not unusual that year after year each shipping company (USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.) will raise their shipping rates. This year isn’t any different (USPS is raising their rates on January 27th). Shipping is the thorn in the side of every ecommerce business owner.
When Amazon introduced free, two-day shipping with Prime they changed the game and now most consumers expect free or very cheap shipping. It doesn’t help that it’s cheaper to ship a product from China to the US than it is to ship something within the US – within the same city even.
But you shouldn’t let those obstacles get in your way or bring you down. While shipping prices go up each year, there are ways to lower your shipping costs. This way when shipping prices go up, you’ll be prepared.
Ship Out Faster
The faster you can get an order out the door the sooner it will get to your customer. This will help you save on shipping because you won’t have to pay extra for faster shipping to get it to your customer by the promised delivery date.
We understand that many small and even mid-sized ecommerce business are run as a side-gig or one man team. Processing orders as they come in can be very time consuming. Heck it can even be very time consuming to process orders once a day. It’s often easier to process and ship orders a few times a week but while this saves on time, it can cost you more in shipping if you have to express ship an order to get it to your customer on time.
If you set aside time each day to process new orders that come in and ship them out the next day you’ll be able to stay on top of things much more easily and spend less on shipping too. An even easier solution is to outsource your order fulfillment.
At Ship Central Fulfillment we ship orders within 24 hours so that there’s no need rush an order because it went out late. Your customers will be getting the best service possible and they’ll always get their orders on time.
Increase Average Order Value
You can also save on shipping is by incentivizing customers to buy more. The more they spend and the bigger the order means the less you’re paying for shipping per item than if every item were bought and shipped separately.
There are a few different ways that you can do this but offering a bundle of products is a very popular way to get customers to buy several things at once. Bundling products together can also be a great way of adding value for your customer. If you have a few products that work really well together putting them together in a fun bundle can mean less guesswork for your customer when trying to decide what to buy.
You can also offer a discount or some other reward if they spend a certain amount. This is a classic tactic to get customers to reach a little further to get that discount. Be sure that you set the threshold for the discount about your current AOV. If you set the threshold at $50 but most of your customers are already spending that then you’ll only be giving your customers discounts without getting them to spend more.
Flat Rate Shipping
Another way to save big on shipping expenses is by using flat rate shipping boxes. While other shipping methods depend on the weight of the box, flat rate shipping boxes ship for one flat rate no matter how heavy the package is (as long as everything fits).
Flat rate shipping boxes come in several different sizes so there’s most likely a good option for you no matter what you’re shipping. They even offer envelopes for small heavy items.
You’ve probably heard of flat rate shipping before but weren’t sure if it was the right option for your company. If you’re shipping heavy items that aren’t huge, flat rate shipping is especially useful. It’s a good idea to compare the cost to ship your average order by weight versus by flat rate.
If you’re shipping small pieces of jewelry or small bottles of supplements, flat rate might cost you more. On the other hand, if you’re shipping candles in glass jars or steel toed boots, flat rate could save you a lot of money.
Work with an Order Fulfillment Company
Ok we might seem a little biassed about this one but the truth is that when you work with an order fulfillment company you can get better shipping rates. On your own you might send out a few hundred orders each week which means you only get the shipping rates of a company that ships a few hundred orders.
When you use an order fulfillment company you get the same rates as a company that sends out thousands of orders each week. We negotiate with shipping companies to get the best rates possible so it’s like you’re part of an ecommerce union that works together to get amazing benefits. Except you don’t have to do any of the work.
We also get better rates on supplies and software too. We buy our boxes in large bulk quantities so that they’re much cheaper than if you were to buy them on your own. The same thing goes for packing materials as well. On top of all that we use high-tech software to manage all the orders and the warehouse. When you partner with us you get to utilize and benefit from this software as well.
In the end with an order fulfillment company like Ship Central Fulfillment you can potentially save money on shipping (and a few other things too!). We specialize in order fulfillment to hone the process so it’s as cheap and efficient as possible.
Contact us today to start saving on shipping and find out how we can help your business grow.