E-Commerce Shipping Solution: What Should I Charge Customers?

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 Shipping Solution for e-commerce

For every business that relies on shipping services, there’s a budget-friendly strategy to optimize how those services affect profits. While low-cost shipping options provide a direct reduction in business expenses, offering consumer incentives, such as free shipping and expedited shipping, can increase sales volume, improving a business’s bottom line.

The right strategy for one venture may not be right for another, though. This article will introduce you to a few common shipping options that might be the perfect fit for your small business.

If you operate an e-commerce company, finding the ideal shipping solution isn’t just a way to increase profits; it’s a necessity to keep up with competitors. If your inventory and convenience are the same as another business’s, your shipping options can be the factor that determines where consumers spend their money.

3 Shipping Strategies and Why They Work for Small Businesses

1. Free Shipping

Thanks to increased competition in the e-commerce marketplace, more consumers are expecting free shipping from online vendors. If you just launched a startup but another company offers the same products with free shipping, you might need to do the same in order to compete.

Companies are becoming cleverer when it comes to offsetting shipping cost. One popular option is using cash back rewards offered by credit card companies. This can work in two ways:

  1. Shipping supplies and USPS fees are paid with a credit card, and the cash back serves as an immediate discount.
  2. Cash-back rewards are appropriated for shipping costs.

Another method of compensating for free shipping is requiring a certain amount to be spent to “earn” this perk. According to Shopify.com, this is one of the most effective methods because moving inventory has benefits outside of increased profits, such as better relations with wholesalers.

Free shipping doesn’t need to be a permanent offer. During the holiday season, many online vendors promote limited-time free shipping to drive sales.

Two factors should ultimately determine whether or not your business offers free shipping on a permanent basis: competition and profit margin. Shipping can be expensive, and if it cuts into your profits too much, it might not be an option.

If your competition offers free shipping, you could compensate by offering a different perk, such as fast delivery. If you feel, however, that offering free shipping is necessary, consider ways to offset the cost.

2. Charge the Shipping Cost, No More and No Less

Thanks to programs that offer real-time shipping quotes, it’s entirely possible for customers to pay almost the exact amount for shipping that is charged to the vendor. Customers like these “shipping calculators” because they’re transparent and shipping costs can be updated as items are added to the shopping cart.

However, shipping calculators have some downfalls. For instance, most of them estimate shipping based on package weight. So, if the products you are shipping are light but take up a lot of space, you might end up paying more for shipping than the customer.

This software is recommended for shipping products that can be accurately priced by the calculator. It won’t provide the competitive advantage of free shipping, but there are a number of other competitive shipping strategies, such as offering free returns or low-cost insurance.

3. Offer Flat Rates

Flat rates aren’t intended to be a one-size-fits-all charge for all products. Rates are categorized, usually by package size or weight, and each category has a fixed price.

Flat rates are an even simpler approach than incorporating shipping calculators. However, while shipping calculators can be updated automatically based on the latest USPS rates, flat rates often must be manually updated. If a company fails to keep their shipping rates current, it could end up spending more for shipping than the customer.

Also, it’s not always easy for a vendor to categorize inventory for shipping. Many online stores sell a range of products, each of a different size, shape, weight and fragility. Not only would these ventures need to stay current with shipping cost but also with USPS policies regarding different types of packages.

The right shipping solution might not make your product any more valuable, but it can make your business the best choice for consumers. Find out what your shoppers want and expect, and design your shipping policies to cater to those demands.

About the Author: Jackson Smith operates a 3PL shipping service.

Mobile Website: Get Your Business M-Ready

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Computing has become very much personal, these days. PCs, Laptops, Palmtops, Pads, and now Mobiles, the changing face of computing and associated activities is prompting business owners to adapt to the demand. Almost every work that someone was doing some few years back with the computers is now possible on your small mobile devices. E-commerce is rapidly changing into M-commerce; and pushing business and website owners to create mobile website.

Mobile Website

International Data Corporation (IDC), in one of its recent survey reports says ‘More than half of next year’s expected 5.7% increase in global IT spending will be driven by sales of smartphones, tablets and e-readers.’ This data indicates that people will be spending life in and around a mobile device; be it a smartphone, tablet, or e-reader.

The global trend in the last few years is showing a sharp change in consumers’ buying behavior. With tremendous support from robust logistic models, easy, affordable, instant, and anywhere access of Internet, people are now able to make purchase decisions on the fly. This has become possible on because of strategic implementation of mobile websites. Name any business, they find a place online and also prompt users to visit their mobile site. More and more FMCG, consumer durable, travel and ticket booking businesses are coming with impressive mobile websites.

However, when we talk about mobile websites; marketers must take care of the following aspects that cause in creating a good mobile website.

User Experience

User experience has to be ultimate. A mobile site is similar to the summary of a long article that gives all the taste, flavors, and essence of the entire article. When it comes to making profit out of your mobile website, developers must focus on the following ingredients for bringing in the ultimate user experience.

  • Easy Navigation: Users must be able to navigate easily within the website. The various sections and tabs must be well placed and clearly visible within the screen. Each page should leave the option open to go back to the previous page.
  • Browser Compatibility: Different users like to use different browsers; the mobile site must be compatible with all the popularly used browser used across different mobile devices.
  • Load Time: The page load time does matter. The home page and the internal pages must be very light enough to load for a wait-less experience.
  • Smart Use of Screen Space: Mobile screens are definitely much smaller compared to the laptop or desktop. The website must be accordingly developed so that it contains all the relevant information and links useful for the readers within the space budget.

Content

Content of the website should speak for its purpose. It solely depends on the power of the content to deliver the desired message to the readers within the permissible space. When we say content; it includes the text, images, and videos. Content has to be concise, actionable, and clear. The images used should be in sync with the overall philosophy of the website. Video streaming should also be effortless and uninterrupted.

Social Integration

Every modern mobile device is built for socialization. The mobile website should also hold this idea by intelligent social integration. This is one golden feather attached to your website that would fling your business to maximum numbers of readers without much effort.

Get your website ready for M-commerce.

Author Bio: Mohit is a seasoned online marketing professional with more than 7 years of experience. He also writes on various topic of his interest including technology, computing, Internet marketing, SEO, telecom, ecommerce, and many more.