Shipping is one of the most pivotal elements of an eCommerce business. Prioritising fast, free shipping for customers can help you to improve your sales figures and bring in more revenue. However, you must reduce your shipping costs while offering free shipping to protect your profit margins.

So, how do you reduce shipping costs to offer your customers better service?

Keep reading to learn about the top ways to reduce shipping for eCommerce in 2022. This guide could help you to gain an edge against your competitors and grow your business.

What Are The Benefits Of Lowering Shipping Costs?

One obvious benefit to lowering your shipping costs is that it allows you to increase your profit margins for each product you sell to online shoppers.

However, lowering your shipping costs also plays a crucial role in helping you to grow your sales figures and gain an advantage over your competitors in the eCommerce sphere. When online shoppers decide between products, the shipping costs can be the deciding factor. So, if your competitor offers free shipping, the customer will select their product over yours.

Free shipping is also a powerful tool in your eCommerce marketing strategy. You can create limited-time free shipping for your customers to encourage them to shop at your store. Or, you might consider offering free shipping for specific items and customers who spend over a certain amount in your store.

To offer free shipping and increase your sales figures, you need to ensure that the shipping cost does not carve out a portion of your profit margins. This is why it’s essential to lower your shipping costs as an eCommerce seller.

10 Ways To Reduce Shipping Costs For Your eCommerce Business

Consider these ten best methods to lower shipping costs for your eCommerce business.

1. Start Negotiating With Carriers

Negotiation is one of the most powerful tools to further your business’ success. Building your negotiation skills helps you to re-negotiate your relationships with manufacturers, carriers, and more to trim the fat and eliminate unnecessary costs.

When negotiating with carriers, remember that getting quotes from several carriers is essential. Try to get the carriers to compete, seeing how low you can drive the price by comparing offers. If the carrier knows your business will go to their competitor, you’ll likely get more desirable shipping rates if they don’t offer better.

Negotiation may not be your strength, but by adopting an assertive and disagreeable stance, you might be able to lower shipping costs in your favour.

2. Consider The Package Weight

The weight of your packages affects how much your shipping costs. To streamline your shipping fees, you can evaluate your products in line with their weight.

Auditing your products in line with their weight will help eliminate any products costing too much to ship. If the item isn’t a best-seller, it might be worth discontinuing.

Here are some other steps you can take to reduce the weight of your packages and lower shipping rates:

• Reducing packaging – if your packages are stuffed with too much bubble wrap, paper, and protective packaging to stop the product from rattling around, it might be a good idea to opt for smaller boxes and reduce the package weight.
• Rethinking your manufacturing materials – if your products are stored in containers and packaging, you can reach out to your manufacturer and ask if there’s any way to streamline the containers and lower the product’s weight.

3. Switch To Third Party Insurance

For convenience, many eCommerce sellers opt for shipping their shipping companies provide. However, a third party may provide you with a better price for your shipping insurance.

Reach out to third-party insurance companies, and get quotes for your shipping insurance. You can implement the negotiation techniques we discussed to get the best price.

4. Streamline Your Packaging Costs

You can streamline your packaging costs easily by reevaluating your packaging options. For instance, if you’re using boxes to package lightweight and small items, you might consider using poly mailers instead.

Poly mailers are a much cheaper alternative, as they take up less space.

When you store your products in fulfilment centres, the centre will charge you how much warehouse space your items occupy. So, opting for poly mailers will help you streamline your packaging costs and fulfilment centre costs.

5. Leverage Refunds To Your Advantage

Taking advantage of your refund entitlements will help you make significant cost savings on your shipping. Read up on the refund policies of your shipment provider. Often, shipment providers will provide you with a refund on the shipping cost if your packages arrive late.

To benefit from this refund policy, you’ll need to look carefully when your orders come in. This might seem unnecessary to your already large workload, but the payoff will be worth it. For any late shipments, put in a request for a refund with your shipment provider.

6. Rethink Your Shipping Zones and Shipping Destination

Shipping zones are the locations that your shipping provider can ship to. The more shipping zones you include in your package shipping plan, the more expensive your shipping will be.

To save money on shipping costs, you can rethink your shipping zones.

Take a look at where your orders are coming from. If most of your orders are coming from another part of the country, you can relocate your shipping zones closer to your customer base to save money on shipping fees.

7. Try A Multi-Carrier Strategy

A multi-carrier strategy is one of the best ways to reduce shipping costs. Many eCommerce businesses are choosing multiple carriers, despite the additional effort. Here’s why:

• More competitive pricing – if you opt for multiple carriers, you can ensure that all the major carriers offer similar pricing for their services. They will compete to retain your business and keep their prices consistent with the other carriers.
• Less risk – separate carriers handling your shipments eliminates some risk. If something goes wrong with one of your carriers, you’ll have another to make up for the error. This will help you to reduce shipping costs incurred by your carrier.
• Tailored services – some carriers offer services best suited to different shipping methods. So, you can choose different shipping providers for different purposes.

8. Analyse Your Shipping Costs

You need to know precisely what you’re paying for when you pay for shipping services. Your shipping provider may charge more for specific delivery times, like weekends.

Knowing these additional shipping rates allows you to offer free shipping during the week to avoid weekend delivery charges. Knowing the details of your shipping costs can help you to coordinate a more cost-effective shipping strategy.

9. Increase The Price Of Your Product

One way to increase your profit margins and mitigate shipping costs is to increase the price of your product. The price increase will account for a portion of the shipping costs, preventing them from being a detriment to your earnings.

This option could make you lose the edge on your competitors, although many eCommerce marketing experts suggest that free shipping with conditions is an extremely valuable marketing tool.

10. Partner with a 3PL service

One of the best ways to reduce shipping costs and keep shipping costs low for an extended period is to partner with a 3PL service like eCommerce Shipping. When you partner with our 3PL service, you have the chance to select your preferred shipping carriers and gain access to discounted shipping rates.

We’ll also take care of your shipping labels and other administrative tasks, so you don’t need to worry about finding the best prices for your shipping strategy.

We have partnered with several well-known shipping carriers like DHL, Australia Post, and so many more, so you have complete control over the shipping fee associated with your chosen carrier. eCommerce Shipping also allows your customers to select from various shipping options, including expedited or free shipping. That means we integrate low-cost shipping with a positive customer experience.

Additionally, we reduce shipping costs by offering you a dashboard that provides live shipping rate quotes, providing greater visibility and control over your average shipping cost. With this, you’ll be able to compare prices and select the cheapest shipping method that complements your shipping process budget.

eCommerce Shipping provides partners with exclusive access to cheaper rates for major carriers and competitive costs that you won’t find anywhere else. That’s because we focus on building positive relationships with your chosen shipping company to give you the best cost possible.

If you’re not happy with your shipping options, then don’t worry. eCommerce Shipping offers total flexibility as a way of reducing shipping costs. You’ll be able to flex between economy shipping to worldwide express shipping and switch your shipping carrier if you want to save money. You can do this with total efficiency by using our user-friendly software.

Summary

If you’re looking for ways to reduce shipping costs while streamlining your order fulfilment, warehousing, returns, and so much more, look no further than eCommerce Shipping’s 3Pl services. We’re committed to shipping packages with care and consideration for your business’ reputation and budget.

Our proprietary software is an excellent solution for all eCommerce businesses, regardless of size. We’ll arm you with more robust inventory management and better shipping solutions so you’re well on your way to meeting your crucial progression objectives.

Contact us now to find out now!

FAQS

What are fuel surcharges?

Fuel surcharges refer to additional fees that shipping carriers charge companies or third parties to pay for increasing fuel prices. This is typically calculated with the current climate in mind and added to your shipping costs before you ship your goods.

What are Saturday delivery fees?

Saturday delivery fees refer to the additional cost it takes to deliver packages on a Saturday. This is to cover the cost of expedited shipping fees and pay additional rates for delivery professionals that work outside the traditional work week.

What is flat rate shipping?

Flat rate shipping is a method of charging shipping costs regardless of the item’s weight, size or shape. This means you’ll pay a single fee for a package, no matter the package’s dimensions. This can be a great way to simplify your shipping costs.