4 Great Shipping Tips For New eCommerce Businesses.

Posted October 12, 2020

When it comes to shipping your products to customers, you want to make sure the shipment reaches the destination on time and in the right shape. How do you ensure this? Here are 4 great shipping tips that can help.

1. Weight of Shipment

In order to get an accurate figure of weight, it would help to determine the shipping weight of your product along with its packaging weight. The weight of a product may not be its actual weight. It is the packaging material that adds to the overall weight of shipment.

Another criteria to evaluate a product’s weight is the DIM or dimensional weight formula. For example, you sell body pillows, which are very light, but relatively bulky. As a result, they are subject to dimensional weight, which is used to charge shipping on the basis of actual or average weight of a package of almost the same size.

It would help to know the shipping weight of your products. This can help you estimate shipping costs more accurately.

2. Regional Shipping, Flat Rate

This is a simple shipping method. As a startup eCommerce business, you would benefit from flat rate and regional shipping services that are competitively priced. Although these aren’t the least expensive options, the orders are packed in postal service supplied boxes, which are available in different sizes and save you some money.

Free boxes reduce your packaging cost, so you can make saving on packaging, delivery time, and shipping costs. This promises to be a significant cost saving for your business.

As your business expands and grows, you may want to move to partnering with an eCommerce order fulfillment company which specializes in order fulfillment.

3. The Shipping Box is an Extension of Your Brand

One of the most useful shipping tips is to leverage shipping boxes as a representation and promotional tool of your brand. When you ship an order, you are selling a product while spreading the word about your business through the shipping boxes. Your shipping label and product along with your box represent your brand.

It is a shipping mistake to use the same boxes that you have received from your supplier for shipping the product to the customer. Some new eCommerce businesses simply slap a new label on the boxes received from the supplier and set it on for further shipment.

If you reuse old boxes, it only points toward you being amateur and unprofessional. As a startup, you want to make that first impression BIG on your customers.

4. Don’t Worry About Shipping Costs

As a new eCommerce business, you may be unwilling to pay the shipping cost on returns. No doubt, you will lose some money on returns, but this is a safe way to retain customers.

Sometimes shipping may seem like devouring your profits, but it is a cost of doing business. Focus on making your sales profitable by improving the quality of your products, so there aren’t too many returns. Think shipping as a way of doing business, without worrying too much about how it impacts individual orders.

Bottom Line

These shipping tips can be extremely helpful in setting up your new eCommerce business for success. Keep them in mind as you expand and grow your business. Do not be afraid to outsource some of your workload to professional order fulfillment and shipping service providers.

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Elite OPS has been a leader in Shipping and Logistics for over 25 years. Contact Us to find out how we can help you Save Time and Money on Procurement as a Service, eCommerce Order Fulfillment, and Kitting and Assembly.