The ABCs of Successful Shipping Strategies
Learning requires successfully mastering building blocks. One of the first building blocks of learning involves mastering the ABCs, which helps young students form words and recognize letter patterns in books. For fulfillment & shipping, business owners and operators must master the ABCs of successful shipping strategies. One startling statistic makes it apparent why it is important to master the ABCs of successful shipping strategies.
Thirty-six percent of online customers abandon a purchase because of shipping costs.
Several factors determine shipping costs. The size and weight of the items shipped represent the most important factors for calculating shipping costs. Business owners and operators also have to account for packing materials, as well as the labor used to fulfill and ship orders. However, lowering shipping costs should be just one of several successful shipping strategies implemented by your company.
Outsource Fulfillment & Shipping
The ABCs of successful shipping strategies start with outsourcing fulfillment & shipping. Hiring a company such as Complete Mailing & Printing to take care of fulfillment and shipping responsibilities delivers several benefits.
First, you free up considerably more time to address other business challenges, such as deciding how to grow your loyal customer base. You no longer have to spend time organizing each fulfillment and shipping order. Second, you save money on printing and mailing costs. Although you pay a third party for fulfillment and shipping services, you save money by not wasting postage on sending mail to the wrong addresses. Third, outsourcing fulfillment & shipping streamlines your back-office management responsibilities.
Offer Varied Rates
One popular shipping strategy involves mixing it up by offering varied rates.
Live rates represent the standard for businesses calculating shipping rates. You offer shipping rates for the exact cost of different sizes, weights, and distances. If the third party handling your shipping services increases rates by 10 percent, your business automatically updates the shipping charges to account for the higher rate.
Table rates follow a set of criteria to calculate shipping charges. For example, one order might calculate shipping rates based on weight, but not size and destination. A table rate allows your business to account for the most volatile costs involved in shipping a particular product. You can offer a discount for shipping on any order that weighs fewer than 1,000 pounds.
Offering a flat rate is easy to calculate because your business charges the same amount regardless of any criteria. This type of shipping rate is used by businesses that outsource a majority of shipping orders to the same third party.
Offer Free Shipping
Offering free shipping does not seem to make good business sense. However, your customers love free shipping. Ninety-three percent of all consumers would buy more products if they received a free shipping service. You can add an incentive like providing free shipping for customer orders that exceed a certain value. Free shipping is not the right service to offer for some businesses, such as businesses that ship low-value orders to the same customers several times every month. Nonetheless, offering free shipping is a smart move for most businesses, especially businesses that ship high-value products.
Understand the ABCs of successful shipping strategies to increase sales and lower operating costs.