Are You Spending Too Much on Shipping? Here Are 8 Tips to Lower Your Shipping Costs.

8 Min Read

Statistics show that only 15% of customers of online retailers meet the expectations they have for speed of delivery.

Shipping quickly requires manpower and additional costs typically for your business. How can you juggle customer expectations and not overspend on your shipping expenses? You can start by lowering your expenses so that you are spending less on shipping as a whole. Keep reading to learn how to lower the cost of shipping. 

Proper Packaging

This is a huge area of improvement that most businesses can adapt to. Have you ever received a package personally for a small item that was in a large box with plastic taking up 90% of the content of the package? Your first thought was probably about the size of the box and how unnecessary it was. 

You are an expert on your products and know their size and dimensions. With this information, you can choose packaging that the products fit in properly. Creating a few different options depending on the size of the orders will allow you to package your products for shipping in a more efficient way. Why pay for the cost of a large box when it can fit in a small one?

Your customers will enjoy not having to store and recycle the large packages too, so it is a win-win for everyone.

Include Shipping Fees When Pricing Products

If you want to offer free or discounted shipping options for customers, you can start by including the shipping cost in the price of the product. Free shipping is enticing to many consumers and studies have shown that they are willing to spend more just to achieve a free shipping option. 

Every business is aware of how pricing can affect their sales, so this is a collaborative effort to help the product and shipping cost work better together. The small change in cost is not likely to affect a customer’s purchasing decision if they feel like they are getting a deal on shipping. Paying attention to the importance of shipping can help in your overall customer service approach as well. 

Shop Around for Shipping Insurance

Just like with any other insurance, it is important to shop around before landing on shipping insurance for your products. There are many options out there and sometimes the third-party vendors can offer a more affordable insurance rate for the same coverage that the larger insurers have.

Getting a clear idea of the exact coverage you need and how much your budget allows you to spend on insurance can help narrow down your options when it comes to the insurance coverage. Sticking to what you need and changing it as you grow is better than spending too much on coverage that you aren’t maximizing at this time.

Research Fees

Hidden fees are no fun for anyone. Are there fees if you don’t meet a specific shipping quota for the year? Do you have to spend a certain amount to get a discounted price?

Knowing what fees each carrier charges can play a huge role in which carrier or carriers that you decide to use. If you know about them in advance, you can plan properly to avoid them and not have your budget affected by fees that you could have avoided.

Finding out if there are carriers that promise no fees or offer flexible quota options when you partner with them. 

Buy Supplies in Bulk

Once you know the size of boxes that you need to meet the order needs, as well as the other shipping materials, you can order these items in bulk. By ordering more at once, you can cut down on the cost per unit and spend less. As you reach peak times of the year, you may need to put in additional orders but can be prepared by ordering ahead of time. 

Last-minute shipping is costly, especially for materials. Avoiding spending extra money to package 10 boxes can be beneficial for your business and cause less stress for your shipping team.

Look At Regional Options

Regional is local in terms of your business location. If most of your customers are buying within your region, why use a national carrier to deliver their products? Regional carriers can be more affordable given that they are already located in your area and specialize in deliveries within the region you are in. This can make your overall shipping more efficient when orders don’t need to bounce around multiple shipping warehouses before arriving to the customer. 

Check Out Free Packaging

Is there a free packaging option with certain carriers? Are you able to utilize these packages for your business? 

Whenever you get anything for free, it equates to cost savings for your business. Properly strategizing the use of these free materials can allow you to spend more for the custom orders as needed. It can also be a reason to partner with a specific carrier if they offer certain items for free and you only are responsible for the shipping cost. 

Optimize Your Shipping

How is your shipping handled currently? Do you have a few people or a team in charge of this area? Are there ways to contact your carrier to follow up on invoices or concerns? 

If there was an option to reduce shipping costs AND transit times, would you invest in it? The answer is likely yes and this is commonly referred to as logistics optimization. Instead of looking at your shipping operations as a stress and expense for your business, it can be a profitable area for you.

No longer will you have to spend days editing contracts with carriers to reach your desired result because you can do it all in one place now. 

Start Saving Today

Now that you have read more about ways to lower shipping costs for your business, you can get started with saving today. Lowering shipping expenses will allow you to reallocate the funds into other areas of your business. Check out our website for more informational business articles like this one!

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