Shipping rates are increased by carriers every year. Every online shopper’s dream is to get their orders delivered quickly and at an affordable price. Most online shoppers abandon their carts because of excess shipping costs and high taxes. The following are ways to reduce commerce shipping costs and improve the profit margin:
Find Discounted Supplies
Shipping companies provide small businesses with various boxes and envelopes at a discount for particular packing supplies or for free. You also have the option of purchasing the packaging supplies, e.g., poly mailers, bubble wrap, and air fill in bulk to save money. The higher investment upfront should not scare you off. Finding discounted supplies also helps to reduce your average per shipment cost.
Reduce the Weight of Packages
When it comes to the shipping and packaging suppliers, weight is money. The heavier the commodity’s natural or dimensional weight is, the more your total shipping will cost. It may look as easy as a few cents per package, but the real deal is when you have to calculate the cents and multiply it with several packages. Therefore, it is recommended to do lightweight packing to improve the profit margin and reduce shipping costs.
On the other hand, Dimensional weight measures the size of your package. The bigger your package is, the more it will cost for shipping, even when it is as light as a feather. The size of packages makes it hard for businesses with large or bulky materials as they are charged dimensional weight.
Offer Local Delivery Pickup Services
Local delivery is where customers buy their things online and deliver them to their homes. Similarly, you can have your clients come to pick up their goods from your store. Pickups and local delivery act as an alternative to shipping with a carrier and massively help you save on shipping costs. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this became a common trend. If COVID exposure is a concern, you can include contactless pickup as an option. It creates a safer environment for your customers and employees.
Being in contact with your local community, improving your customer experience, and increasing sales are some of the benefits of adapting to local delivery services. To impact your bottom line, save your customers the hustle of purchasing and ensure customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Give Hybrid Services a Try
Hybrid services like UPS SurePost and FedEx SmartPost can cut your shipping costs by half. They pick up your orders; cooperate with other transporters to take the package to a sorting facility that is finally shipped to a residential area. The only disadvantage with hybrid services is that they have a lot of restrictions when it comes to weight, size policies, and volume.
In some cases, hybrid services can help you save up to 50% of the original intended cost, but they may be slow and take up a lot of time to deliver the packages, making you opt for standard shipping options with the exact carriers.
Decrease the Shipping Distance
Brands pay more when they deliver packages to places that are far away. In the US, shipping zones are the geographical areas shipped to carriers that span from Zone 1 to Zone 8 for domestic shipments. Zones help measure the distance traveled by the shipment; the point of origin is always located in Zone 1.
The farther the shipping destination, the higher the zone is and the more expensive it becomes for a shipment to arrive at the owner. It also takes a long time for the particular shipment to arrive. It is vital to look out for the shipping distance if you intend to spend less on shipping services.
Final Thoughts
Fast shipping and having the packages delivered at a low cost is the ultimate goal for a seller and a buyer. Sometimes, trying to satisfy the customer’s needs and maintain a healthy bond can get overwhelming, but this does not give you a choice to go below your standards or be reckless in spending. For shipment of non-fragile goods like clothes, you can opt for poly mailers packaging because they are relatively cheap, reduce packaging costs and save on space.
