In a very competitive market, only smart business owners survive. Instead of waiting for customers to come to your brick and mortar store, having one online is a great idea. This allows tapping into a wider market. Customers can browse your items and purchase them. Order fulfilling requires shipping items to customer locations. This comes with various costs including packaging that should be considered. Here are ways to ensure that you don’t spend too much when shipping items to customers.
Adjust shipping charges
The amount of customers pay for delivering their items can affect your profit margin. Customers love online shopping for convenience and other perks including free delivery. Some are likely to abandon their cart on realizing high shipping charges. So, offer them a good deal to entice them to buy. However much customers hate paying shipping charges, it can mean a huge expense to your business.
Adjusting your shipping charges to absorb the cost of shipping is a great idea. Only offer free shipping for bulk purchases or expensive items with a high-profit margin. Charge low shipping costs after slightly increasing the price of products. Another pricing strategy to lower shipping costs is to charge a flat rate across all orders. You should also have customers responsible for return shipping charges.
Buy packaging supplies wholesale
Choice of packaging material plays a significant role in your total shipping costs. A wonderful idea is to cheap shipping supplies online from a wholesale supplier. This allows benefiting from the convenience, lower charges, and other perks like free shipping.
The ideal supplier should have a range of packaging materials for shipping including:
- Bubble mailers
- Shrink wrap
- Padded envelopes
- Shredded paper fillers
- Tissue paper
- Packing tape
- Corrugated boxes
Invest in appropriate packaging materials with the right size, material, and design. You can order ship ready suppliers which just needs adding your label to ship. Alternatively, the supplier should have the capacity to make custom packaging material and branding to make your brand stand out. Partnering with a supplier who understands your needs is time-saving.
Switch carriers
Avoid sticking to one carrier company when your shipping costs are skyrocketing. Consider looking or cheaper options. There is a likelihood of having a number of carrier services available depending on the locations you ship to. Make a comparison to ensure to discover one offering cheaper rates compared to what your current service provider charges. You can use online calculators to dig deeper into the shipping costs of various companies.
Evaluating shipping patterns
Identifying your most popular shipping destinations can help formulate strategies to lower costs. When shipping abroad to destinations that are costly, you might have to reconsider you’re a lot of things. Perhaps you should switch the carrier company. Alternatively, you can partner with an international order fulfillment service provider. it is quite hard to control or predict the shipping destination. However, controlling where orders come from is possible.
Consider partnering with a third-party logistics provider. This allows using their warehouses to keep your inventory and to allow shipping to locations nearest to customers. The savings for multiple orders will significantly lower your average shipping costs. Shipping orders becomes easier with pinpointing item weight and customer location zip code.
Partner with a fulfillment partner
Another way to lower your shipping costs is to partner with a fulfillment partner. This saves you from various costs including storing inventory, packing orders, and shipping packages. The service provider will do all these for every order. Additionally, having a fulfillment partner protects you from direct costs like postage, shipping, and fulfillment. This gives you time to focus on marketing your business to grow sales.
Other benefits of outsourcing order fulfillment include:
- Free packaging
- Bulk shipping discounts
- Offsetting shipping costs from extra revenue
- Having fulfillment locations nearer to customers
Speed up your operations
Prompt dispatch of customer orders can hike shipping costs. Allowing orders to pile up creates room for storage. This encourages the need for storage space that comes at a cost. Additionally, using the quickest mode of delivery saves you money and time. The longer the package is on the road before delivery, the higher the transport charges.
So, ensure to evaluate the quickest means of transport as a way to avoid additional shipping charges. This requires knowledge of carrier delivery times and performance to ensure that you are teaming up with a company that helps you beat delivery deadlines.
Wrapping up
Packaging is an important aspect of a business. This allows dispatching items to customers with peace of mind that they are to arrive safe and free from damage. Appropriate packaging is necessary for more than keeping goods safe. Ideal packaging should match the product dimensions and be light enough not to increase the total weight of the item. Ensure to purchase packaging material for your shipping needs wholesale from an online supplier for convenience and cost savings.
