E-commerce Shipping Methods 2021: Shipping is often the “make or break” decision of a consumer’s online purchase.
To develop an effective shipping model for your e-commerce you need to understand the market and your customers’ demand. If the shipping is inconvenient in any way, a potential customer is more than happy to look for their product somewhere else.
Thus, our purpose at Yugasa is to help our clients in developing an effective shipping strategy for their e-commerce business model.
Many big brands start their e-commerce business by choosing the simplest approach to shipping, such as offering free shipping. To develop a profitable e-commerce business model, you need to plan the shipping methods to reduce the cost and generate more revenue.
And it’s not only the cost that makes a difference. Offering the right shipping options to the customers at the right time affects increasing revenue.
For your e-commerce store, you always have a choice to lower the shipping rates yet run a profitable business model. This is going to be a win-win situation, for your business and your customers also.
Here’s a to-do list on how to plan an effective and efficient e-commerce business model. In this guide, we’ll explain absolute must-haves and must-knows for a solid eCommerce shipping strategy that makes both your margins and your customers happy.
1. Add-on shipping solutions
Invest in additional shipping solutions only if you:
- Want to give the option of non-standard or local shipping service to your customers.
- Are looking to outsource to a shipping suite that will manage functionality like generating and
printing labels, sending notifications, or product inventory.
There are a various variety of add-on solutions available that can streamline nearly every part of the shipping process, including:
- Shipping providers — Services from local providers along with real-time rate calculation based on estimated weight and distance.
- Process automation — Services that automatically handle processes like label printing, dropshipping notifications, email notifications, and so on.
- Outsource shipping — Sync with external shipping agencies who manage shipments, returns, or customer communication.
Hence, depending on the shipping options you want to allow in your store, and how much time you have, you can use an add-on to automate different segments of the process. This gives you more time to focus on the most productive functions.
2. Table Rate Shipping Method – E-commerce Shipping Methods 2021
Table Rate Shipping allows maximum flexibility and helps in easy calculation of delivery charges and helps in easy calculation of different zones
Only Choose table rate shipping if you:
- Own a large or growing store that ships to multiple locations.
- Need the flexibility of providing fairly different rates and methods by ZIP or postal code, state, region, or country.
3. Flat Rate Shipping
With the Flat Rate Box Shipping option, you can select exactly how much you want to charge in shipping for boxes, or if you want to charge for different zones. This is especially helpful if you ship internationally.
Invest inbox rate shipping if you:
- Want to charge shipping rates based on the number of boxes/ cartons sent to the particular customer.
- Know or can calculate the exact dimensions of your products and shipping boxes.
If your shipments differ in the sizes of the boxes/cartons, it is more suitable to define your shipping charges after calculating the height and weights of the boxes.
4. Ship to Multiple Addresses – E-commerce Shipping Methods 2021
If you allow orders to be split up at the bag check-out, ship to multiple addresses is a better option. To allow multiple addresses in the same order can be so powerful. Your customers will appreciate not having to place multiple orders for the same product.
Choose for multi-address shipping if you:
- Have a large or growing store with customers who have specially requested this feature.
- Are interested in growing your sales during the holidays or lockdown.
This shipping method is going to be a game-changer in the Corona-times, when you can’t visit your loved ones, but can always surprise them with gifts!
5. Customized Packaging Method – Ecommerce Shipping Methods 2021
To get repeat sales, get into customization of the products.
Choose for customized packaging shipping method only if:
- You sell gifts and other personalized products.
- You cater to a high niche market, which prefers good service or cost affordability.
This is a good option for stores with a larger shipping budget as the prices are slightly higher, at the same time they should have customers with luxury preference over normal.
Often, a new approach will take some time to streamline, so if you have the data to back up your changes or introduce a new shipping method, be prepared to stick with it and make some adjustments as you proceed with it.
Hence, choosing the right shipping method is extremely crucial for the profitable management of your e-commerce store.
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