What is the best way to ship a package?

Many small business owners struggle with shipping products to faraway clients and customers. You’re likely familiar with the enormous costs associated with shipping, but did you know that you can reduce these costs and optimize your shipping logistics? It’s not a quick or straightforward process by any means, but you can take it step by step as your business grows. 

If you’re wondering how to optimize shipping and offer your products to distant customers without breaking the bank, there are some methods you can use. Here are some of the most notable ones and how they can affect your company’s shipping strategy. 

Negotiate shipping rates

If you intend to ship large numbers of packages, you need to work on your negotiation skills. You should be able to work out deals with your shipping company that benefit your business. The base rates for shipping can be quite high, but there are ways to negotiate to lower prices. 

Benchmarking is a good place to start. Look at the rates that other companies get for similar products and try to negotiate those prices for your own business. Cross-modelling is another option. For this method, you’ll need to get familiar with the carriers’ profit margins and how they can be affected by your shipments. If you can boost the margins, this will be excellent leverage to convince the carrier to lower prices. 

Adjust prices based on shipping costs

Once you start shipping, the cost of a shipment will vary drastically. It depends on the weight and dimensions of your products, the number of zones they will cross, as well as the shipping options you decide to use. You can figure out an average cost for every shipment and use it to make some major changes to your shipping policy.

People like to see the words “Free Shipping” on products, and it’s considered a good business decision to offer this service. If you add the average cost of shipping to the price of a product, you can start offering free shipping on products without losing profits. 

Offer free shipping over a certain value

We’ve talked about how much people like products with free shipping, but that’s not the only benefit you can get with this kind of shipping policy. A great way to entice customers to purchase more would be to offer free shipping for shipments over a certain value. If an order is below the threshold, customers are more likely to order multiples or other products to reach that threshold. 

While the amount of extra money customers are willing to spend may vary, you can be sure that it will outweigh the shipping costs significantly. By offering free shipping, you can guarantee that more customers will order products. 

Figure out a shipping strategy

Shipping can be incredibly complex from a logistical perspective. No matter the size of your business, you’ll have to do a lot of planning to get things going. Start by asking the question—Where will you start selling products? If you’re aiming for multiple marketplaces and want to include giants like Amazon and eBay, consider how their shipping policies will affect your business. This can have a major influence on the cost of doing business with them.

Think about which carriers you will use as well. Using one carrier could get you certain benefits, but only to a certain point. After your business grows large enough, you might want to consider a multi-carrier approach. As you start selling in bulk, handling things on your own will become increasingly difficult. You will require the help of an efficient freight forwarder and other logistics services. 

Find the right packaging solutions

Packaging is just as important as the methods you use to shop orders. You're not shipping products; you’re shipping boxes that contain them. If these boxes aren’t suitable for specific products, they could end up costing you more than you think. Because of this, aiming for high-quality packaging solutions is the right choice. 

At the same time, you have to consider buying in bulk and recycling packaging. Purchasing packages in bulk is a great way to lower costs, but it only works if you can send a certain number of shipments in a specific timeframe. If possible, reuse packages while they remain functional. It’s the eco-friendly thing to do, and it will help you save on packaging costs. 

Conclusion

Shipping has become an absolutely essential service in modern sales. Whether you're selling T-shirts, cosmetics, or industrial products, you’ll need to offer shipping. This goes double if you intend to reach a global audience. While shipping may be incredibly complex at times, there are numerous things you can do to simplify the process and improve your profits. There's no single best way to ship products for any industry, but improving your strategy can go a long way towards making bank.