Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels
If you’re selling physical items online then you need to have a way to get them to your customers. Creating an effective shipping strategy can make a huge difference to the success of your business. With that in mind, here are some tips on how to do so.
Consider outsourcing your shipping
There are three main ways of outsourcing your shipping. These are drop-shipping, Amazon FBA and directly hiring a company or freelancer to manage it for you.
Drop-shipping is when manufacturers/wholesalers take care of processing orders sent to them by the end retailer. The end-retailer owns the customer relationship. This approach can be hugely convenient for retailers but it most certainly has its pitfalls.
The retailer has to have total confidence in the manufacturer/wholesaler to fulfill the order to the customer’s expectations. If they don’t, then it’s the end-retailer who has to manage the disappointed customer.
Amazon FBA is very similar to drop-shipping. The key difference is that you ship the items in bulk to Amazon and Amazon then takes care of shipping them to your end customers. This means that you at least know that the items you’re selling are both high-quality and in stock.
Hiring a company or freelancer to manage your shipping takes the most effort but it does give you the most control over the process. It also allows you to personalize your shipping in a way that’s impossible with both drop-shipping and Amazon FBA.
Keep on top of shipping costs
Even if you’re outsourcing your shipping, it’s still highly advisable to keep on top of shipping costs. This will allow you to make an informed judgment on whether or not you’re (still) getting the best overall deal for your money. When making this decision, however, you need to remember that there are two parts to shipping namely packing and posting.
If you’re running your own shipping in-house then you need to be prepared to invest in packing tools and materials. In particular, you’ll need high-quality scales designed for the type of items you’ll be sending. Nowadays you can find a scale for just about every purpose from a baking scale and a bathroom scale to a corrosive chemicals scale.
You’re also going to need to account for the time needed to do the packaging. Depending on your exact shipping arrangements, you may also need to account for the time needed to take them to a drop-off point. The actual cost of postage goes on top of all that. In many cases, however, it will only be a small portion of the overall shipping cost.
Aim for simplicity
Ideally, you want to offer your customers free shipping. In other words, you want your shipping to be baked into the price you show them. This means that simplicity is often more valuable than the absolute lowest cost.
The key point to remember here is that customers hate nasty surprises at the checkout. Even if you’ve told them shipping will be added later, they may still not like what they see when it is. If you want to split the difference, consider offering economy shipping for free (i.e. included in the price). Then allow customers to upgrade at the checkout if they wish.
