How to Reduce Shipping & Packaging Costs of Your Ecommerce Business

Starting your own eCommerce business is not a walk in the park. Just think about it, there are countless elements that you need to lead to perfection for the whole concept to work. So, you will need to invest countless hours into work and research before you can say that you have achieved something. You can be sure that this experience is completely different every time you do it.

However, there is one factor that every eCommerce site has. We are talking about shipping. Whatever you sell, it all leads to the shipping. So, you will need to take a look into this factor a lot of time, until you make it perfect.

Naturally, every eCommerce site owner knows that this factor can be quite a big hit on the finances.
Transporting your merchandise to another part of the country is costly, not to mention that shipping the products to another country. That doesn’t mean that there are no ways you can lower these costs to the price that will be reasonable both for you and your customer. Once again, you will be back to research. To make this process much easier for you, we would like to provide you with a couple of tips on how you can achieve this level much faster.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at these.

Understand the Basics

Many beginners don’t understand how big of a challenge shipping can be. The reason why it can be so challenging is that you will be required to have an insight into all the parts of the process. For instance, you will need to take care of all the factors with packing and mailing the product. After the package has been delivered to the shipping carrier, then you will have no control over it.

Until it reaches its destination, you will have no feedback about it. As you can presume, the product can be damaged during this process, for a wide array of different factors. All-in-all, this will be quite a stressful thing the first couple of times, until you don’t develop a modus operandi that will guarantee the quality of the service completely. Consider using an order fulfillment services provider to handle your end-to-end shipping, including returns like https://redstagfulfillment.com/order-fulfillment/.

Consider the Package

Thinking about the right package is an essential part of finding a much cheaper shipping solution. Naturally, this might look like an easy thing to do. We assure you, it can be quite problematic sometimes, especially if you don’t know about the topic.

But one thing is for certain, there are a lot of different options you can take a look at before you can make the best decision. The package is much more than just a box where your product will be during transportation. There are many reports and surveys where we can see that customers consider the package to be one of the most important elements.

In addition, you can take a look at many materials that can make transportation much easier. Some shipping companies offer discounts when you choose green materials for your package. If you want to take a look at a couple of different sorts of packages, take a look here.

Negotiate the Rates

The next thing we believe is important is not to agree to the rate you are offered immediately. Naturally, there is always room for you to lower the price if you play your cards right. We’ve mentioned that these rates can be quite high sometimes. For you to prevent this from happening, you will need to talk with the company that distributes your products all over the country.

Many make the mistake of believing that the price they will get at first is non-negotiable. However, it needs to be said that companies are prone to changing their decision if you provide them with strong arguments. Not to mention that a lot of them will provide some sort of discounts if you meet some standards. Now that you know lowering the price is a possibility, don’t hesitate to try it out.

Claim Refunds

Naturally, problems can happen on their own, even when there are no conditions that can cause them. Since this is not something that is controlled either by you or the shipping company, you should take a look at a couple of ways you can make the most out of these situations. When we say that, we mean that you should claim a refund every time something like this happens.

Chances are that you will need to return the money to your customer. So, it wouldn’t hurt to minimize these costs to an absolute minimum, don’t you agree? Especially in cases where you send a lot of packages every day. It is not uncommon to see a large shipment getting lost for some reason. So, you should think about these scenarios way before they happen. Being prepared for anything is a crucial factor in having a successful business.

Third-Party Insurance

Finally, we would like to talk about ensuring your products while they are on the way to be delivered to the customers. We can see that some of the biggest players in the industry tend to overcharge their customers for shipping. That’s why it would be beneficial for you to look for third-party insurance. Sure, this is something that will require a lot of research on your behalf.

A high percentage of these third-party insurance companies are simply unreliable for a wide array of reasons. Thankfully, you can take a look at some online reviews where you can have an insight into the quality of their services. Pretty much all of them have clients who are loyal, meaning, you can find about all the major factors of their modus operandi just by taking a look at these online reviews. Be sure to check them out.

In Summation

Since shipping is so significant for your business, you should think carefully about the moves you will make in this regard. Here, we’ve done our best to make this process much easier for you. All these elements will play a crucial role in lowering down the costs as much as possible.