It’s exciting to run a small business, and while you may not have the hassles that come with the operation of a larger company, there are some tasks that all businesses must deal with. Among the most important is shipping your products to customers.
Shipping sounds easy but has many steps, and to be efficient, your fulfillment process should be as streamlined as possible to keep your customers satisfied. Not sure where to start? Here are five small business shipping tips to keep you ahead of the consumer curve.
Tip #1: Understand Your Costs
To get your goods into buyers’ hands, there is a process with a dollar value attached. Costs for shipping are based on the following:
- Speed
- Weight
- Dimensions
- Distance
- Volume
The faster you send your items out, the more it will cost you, and this type of service is good for business. Unfortunately, it adds to the bottom line. Weight is also an issue because the heavier the load, the more carriers charge you. The same goes with dimensions because the bigger the package, the more room it takes up in a shipping vehicle.
Distance is a factor because sending a package across town is cheaper than across the country. Lastly is your shipping volume. This is a good thing because rates can be negotiated down as your volume increases because of your loyalty to a carrier.
Once you know exactly the dollar value for shipping, you can accurately charge your customers.
Tip #2: Consider Your Packaging Options
Packaging is a huge factor in shipping; anywhere you can effectively reduce costs means more money in your pocket. Here are a few options to consider:
Buy Bulk
Picking up packaging material separately for each order fulfillment is slow and costly. It is better to buy your shipping material in bulk, especially for the same-sized and popular items, so you can get a volume discount.
Size Up Your Packaging
We have all had an Amazon delivery that comes in a big box, only to find a small item inside. This makes sense for a large distributor like Amazon but not for a small business. You can lower our packaging costs by correctly sized boxes for shipping items.
Reuse Packaging
In your business, you get supplies and material shipped and probably recycle that packaging. To save some money, why not reuse this packaging again? While some material may lose its strength, you can probably utilize most of it to ship your stuff to keep the costs down. This includes padding material like bubble wrap, foam peanuts and plastic.
Tip #3: Shopify Fulfillment
Small businesses may not have the space and resources to hold inventory effectively and ship your products promptly. Fortunately, some companies can handle order fulfillment for you. Among the best is Shopify.
Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN) handles everything for you so you can concentrate on other aspects of the business. They can store your inventory and ship the orders when they come in with their network of fulfillment centres. This creates:
- Faster delivery
- Streamlined return process
- Simple pricing
- Continuous inventory placement
- Smooth onboarding and inboarding receiving
Handling your fulfilment by a professional company with a vast network gives you peace of mind and allows you to concentrate on growing your business.
Tip #4: Free Shipping
We just talked about knowing your shipping cost, but offering free shipping makes sense to grow your business and satisfy your customer base.
This can be implemented in a few different ways.
Minimum Order
If you offer free shipping with a minimum order amount, your customers will likely take advantage of it, which means more sales.
Built-in Shipping Costs
This is a good strategy that includes the cost of shipping into the product price. People don’t mind paying a little more to get something for free, and you will boost sales.
Tip #5: Use Multiple Carriers
You can build a good relationship with one shipping company, and while this may result in some discounts, not all items ship the same way.
Get shipping quotes from various companies for different-sized items and see where the costs line up. You may discover that having a few carriers working with you is the most affordable option. You can even play them against each other for price matching and further discounts for loyalty. Above all, don’t hesitate to negotiate shipping rates using benchmarking and cross-modelling.
These are great tips for improving your shipping when running a small business. Implement them to see how they can make things run smoother and increase your sales and profit. Then you can see your small business grow into a more successful operation, reflecting your hard work and dedication to entrepreneurship.
