A study shows that e-commerce shipping charges are the primary reasons for the abandoned carts. This is the point where many of your customers left the shopping cart without proceeding to the checkout as they see the additional shipping charged they have to pay exclusive of the actual product pricing.
Shipping costs for your online store are a huge pain. Whether you are a small or large seller, no doubt you have felt the pain of shipping costs and many a time, the number of abandoned items on your dashboard. Today, free shipping has become so familiar and expected by your customers. Cutting down your e-commerce shipping costs will surely help you make more profit and possibly grow your sales.
Are there any proven ways to cut down your shipping costs?
Yes. Here are seven tips e-commerce owners can use right now to help get control of their shipping expenses.
1. Use Multiple Courier Partners
Having multiple courier partners is an advantage that most e-commerce players are in need of.
Key Benefits of using services from multiple courier partners are:
A. Backup When One Unavailable
Imagine you’re having a tie-up with only one courier partner with delivery limitations and you get several orders at once!
Why depend on a single courier partner when you can have multiple options?
B. Increased Reach
Relying on a single courier partner has one major limitation. The Reach. However, in case of multiple courier partners, no matter how distant your customer resides, you can make the shipment possible in a limited span of time with the help of a courier partner which covers that area.
C. Helpful During Festivals
In India we frequently observe a considerable rise in online shopping around the holidays and festival seasons and companies find it challenging to keep up with their delivery deadlines at such times.
With the help of multiple courier partners, it becomes easy to manage the sales load during such festive seasons and keep your customers happy reaching them on-time.
D. Competitive Price
It is beneficial that you tie up with multiple e-commerce shipping agencies and choose the ones that suit your preferences and budget. Get the best out of the competition from multiple courier companies to get access to quality services at competitive prices.
Here, negotiation also plays a vital role. It is up to you how well you negotiate with a delivery partner to get better services at lower prices.
2. Consider Logistics Aggregator
As the popularity of online shopping grows, e-commerce logistics aggregators are emerging in India to provide one-stop delivery solutions for online merchants.
First of all, let’s have a brief understanding of what is a logistics aggregator?
The logistics aggregator is a technology-driven logistic company that operates on a B2B platform to cater to all the logistics needs of online sellers.
If you understand that you need to have services from multiple courier companies, you don’t require to tie up with these logistics service providers individually. Instead, make a smart choice of logistics aggregators like iThink Logistics, where you create your account and get tied up with all the major courier partners at once. Some of the well-known courier companies include Delhivery, Aramex, Xpressbees to name a few.
Advantages of using services of Logistics Aggregator.
A. Multiple Carrier Partners
Use the services of multiple courier partners on a single platform. You don’t need to have a separate agreement with all the courier partners. Just register with the aggregator and you are all set.
B. Economical
You can choose the best shipping rates comparing multiple courier partners to process orders. Alternatively, you can have a standard flat rate for all partners at your ease.
C. Technical Support
Most automated e-commerce shipping solutions are made available and can also be easily integrated with your existing systems allowing for timely and centralized order information.
D. Shorter Remittance Cycle
With the help of logistics aggregator, you can reduce the long remittance cycle, say up to 7days or even less than that!
3. Use Packaging Provided By Your Carrier
Another vital way to reduce shipping costs is to go for the packaging provided by the courier companies. If you are going to handle the packaging part on your own, you might end up spending extra and don’t forget the efforts which you are going to make for the packaging. To avoid those additional costs & time, consider using the packaging provided by your carrier.
4. Prepaid Shipping
Here is another smart option to cut down your shipping cost by availing shipping rate discounts from courier companies. There are delivery services which provide good discount rates on prepaid shipment orders. You can get a good discount here, which may sound lame but very well effective if you are shipping a reasonable quantity.
Prepaid shipping operates best when you know you’ll be sending out the same weight packages frequently and can determine the shipping price in advance.
5.Use Postal Services
Why use Indian postal services?
Indian postal service has an unbeatable network! This network covers about 25000 pin codes which are quite large.
Postal India has extensive rural reach. If your target customers reside in most of the rural areas, this option will definitely work well.
6.Use Correct Mode Of Shipment
A common difficulty for small businesses is deciding the appropriate shipping mode to use for deliveries. In India, you are having multiple choices to reach your customer which includes Roadway, airway, waterway, railway and combination of any of these.
It is on your part to pay enough attention to the weight and characteristics of the shipment, location, service needs, cost of shipment mode, loss or damage concerns etc. while choosing the shipment mode for the delivery.
Again, prioritizing customer needs and urgency, understanding your shipment and comparing costs is uber important while choosing the best mode of transport.
7. Consolidate Orders Whenever Possible
Did you know order consolidation can benefit you save some really good amount and even efforts? Consider you got multiple orders from the same customer, try to deliver all the products within the same package, provided the order/delivery date is nearly the same for all.
Combining orders provide benefits to both shippers and receivers of small package and freight shipments, including:
- Reduced shipping supply rates.
- Higher fuel efficiency.
- Less time needed to receive, handle and restock orders.
Shipping is a primary cost factor for any small business that ship products to the customers. It is often possible to decrease these costs with a little research, planning and effort.
Carefully crafted shipping strategy helps you to cut down the cost while keeping your customers happy.
