An Ultimate Guide To Shipping Solution & Ecommerce Delivery

All the brands out there want themselves to establish and reach their audience.

And for this, they do everything, from doing marketing research to come up with the best strategy to improve their services.

However, shipping and delivery are some of the overlooked and underestimated points.

This is true that regardless of what you are offering, customers are not going to stick with you if your shipping and delivery are messed up.

It also adds the cost to you which makes trouble to the business.

To understand how you can plan your best strategies and navigate to find the best shipping solution and eCommerce delivery, here is the guide for your help.

What is Ecommerce Shipping and Delivery?

Ecommerce shipping means the complete process that is done from taking the items from shelves to delivering them to customers.

It’s important to understand that finding the right partner can help you in improving your delivery, and also can boost sales.

There are more than 62% of US customers who say that fast shipping speed is one of the important factors when they are looking for a positive experience.

Image source: amazonsellercentral

Since Amazon is delivering the prime and same-day options without adding cost, that turned the market and now people have more expectations.

As per Statista, 63% of respondents abandoned the carts because of the cost of shipping and 36% abandoned them due to late process.

According to Deloitte’s research, 72% of consumers consider free shipping as one of the reasons why they do shop online.

Well, the important point here that you need to know is to if you want to compete, you need to make your shipping and delivery solutions more reliable, inexpensive, and fast for the customers.

What To Consider Before Ecommerce Shipping?

There is no doubt that shipping strategy is important and also to understand how you can improve is vital for your brand as well as the business.

The important points that you can consider for your eCommerce are listed below

Assemble Your Right Team

To start your shipping you are going to need a team for yourself, and to choose the right team you need to find the right people.

These people can help you in making the right decisions for your business.

The first thing you will require is to bring a conversation with your stakeholders in your organization. If you are a small business you are going to need to get the right people on board.

Set Clear Goals For Your Shipping

Once you get the right team you are going to need the right strategy that can help you in accomplishing your shipping strategy for your eCommerce.

Some of the important goals that you can consider are:

To increase your conversion
To boost average order value
Decrease your overall cost
To make your operational efficiency better
Expand your market
Target your right audience

What are E-Commerce shipping options for you?

Well, the next thing you might be considering is what type of shipping method should you offer.

Most the E-commerce business offers different ranges when it comes to shipping options for their customers so they can choose what they prefer.

The options can be based on what you can find suitable for your business. it also includes the price of shipping and how much you can afford to give the options

well, there is a most common delivery option that you might consider :

2-day Shipping

This one becomes popular after Amazon, the concept of 2-day shipping means that customers will get their orders within two standard days

Image source: sales&orders.

However, in some cases, it also means that the product will be shipped within 2 working days.

Same-day Shipping

The concept of same-day shipping is where orders get delivered to the customers within 24 hours or the same day when the order was placed.

Overnight Shipping

When you are offering overnight shipping it means that the customer will get their orders to the next business day.

In some cases, this also refers to next shipping or considered as one-day shipping.

International Shipping

If you are shipping items from one country to another it means you are offering international shipping.

However, this one if you are getting international customers or you have an audience that is all over the world.

Offering international shipping connects your business to more buyers. Also, you get the chance to find potential customers and sales.

Free Shipping

This one has massively grown and its popularity gets hyped up after Amazon started the concept.

Free shipping helps the customer to save their money on paying for the delivery as well as another cost that gets additionally added.

However, this can be a problem for the seller as they need to handle the overall price on their own.

But there are solutions for that too. For example, Amazon offers free shipping when customers order more than $25.

This means they get the sales of a fixed price before they offer the free shipping.

Not just the customers get happy but amazon also receives at least $25 worth of sales.

Flat and Table Rate Shipping

This one is good if you are planning to avoid certain challenges that come with free shipping.

Flat rate shipping means the certain amount that will be charged for shipping regardless of the order’s value.

For example, Overstock charges $2.95 to most of the locations in the US.

Image source: medium

Whereas Table rate shipping means the charges depend on live rate. Or it can be based on the weight of the order.

It’s much more complex than flat rate shipping.

How To Calculate Your Shipping Cost?

There are different factors that affect the price of the product as well as your shipping cost.

It includes the destination, size of your product, and distance mainly.

To calculate your shipping cost, here are a few things you might need.

things consider for ecommerce shipping cost

Calculate By Adding Dimensions And Weight

To understand the shipping cost, you will require to know about the space that your package will take.

You can also call this density of a product as it plays a very important role and you should understand before you ship your product.

The density or just space of the parcel will implicate how much space it will require in the vehicle or the weight if you are shipping using aircraft.

You can use the technology which is called the DIM or dimensional weight.

To Calculate this,

you are going to need the formula

Length X Width X Height

Or L x W x H of your package.

The weight of your package will also be considered an important factor when it comes to calculating the price.

Image source: efulfilmentservice

Apart from this, the destination of your parcel is included too.

The general rule of thumb says that more distance means a more expensive rate. it means if you are sending your package somewhere far away, it will be automatically expensive for you.

So, consider sending your parcel destination as if you are sending far away it means it will cost according to that.

Shipping Options

Managing the options in shipping not just saves your cost but also keeps the experience delightful for the customers.

It’s important to look beyond the giant names, there are several companies that can help you in offering the next day delivery, same-day delivery, and cost-effective delivery.

You can find the largest items on which you can get the same services.

What Are The Best Practices For E-commerce Shipping?

Once you are done with planning your e-commerce shipping, here are a few practices that you can consider as well.

Consider The Free Shipping

For eCommerce, free shipping is like a holy grail.

There are lots of brands that are offering the services for their customers. Free shipping has its own benefit, mostly the numbers that it attracts in customers.

But it’s not something that will fit every seller’s choice. Also, it’s not something that has been implemented on every business model.

Image source: Fera

However, there are different takes you can consider. If free shipping for all time is not your thing, and you can’t manage the profit.

You can still get the profits from it, for that you can make free shipping for a certain time or certain products.

Another best thing you can do here is offering free shipping after a certain amount of order.

This will make sure that you are not losing the money and also boost the sales.

Stay In Touch With Customers

After the customer confirms their order via email, it doesn’t mean that your conversation should stop right there too.

Miscommunication can cause more issues and it can manage your customers. That’s why you need to stay in contact with them through text or emails.

Update them about the order, if there is something that they should know, inform them.

Offer them the tracking services, so they can know the location of their parcel. It will keep them much more confident and calm about the purchase.

Keep Fees And Shipping Cost Transparent

One of the biggest reasons why people abandon their carts at the very last moment is the shipping prices.

The unexpected price which makes no sense to the customer can be a huge mistake and it will affect badly on your sales.

This is why it’s important to make sure of not having any surprise fee waiting for the checkout process.

Image source: baymardinstitute

Offer the shipping cost to your customer before they move forward with their carts. Or you can add when they add the information about their address.

Don’t keep the cost hidden or try to be sneaky with it. Not just you will end up losing sales but also customers won’t return to your site ever.

Show The Delivery Time

There is no doubt that shipping takes time. And the customer can wait if they know how long.

If your shipping will take 2 days and it’s clearly written on the checkout page or follow-up emails. Then it should take exactly that much time.

Image source: zoho

Customers get frustrated when they have to wait five days to receive the products that they are supposed to get within 2 days.

However, you can’t ignore that there can be something or external factors that can make the delivery late. And that’s why you should make sure that your customer knows about it too.

Offer Return Services

Around 95% of customers reported happiness when they get the return services, and they say to shop again at the same pace too.

Also if your return services are disappointing the customer more than 3 times, there is a huge chance that they won’t do shopping with your brand ever again.

So it’s important that you focus on how you are creating your return services.

Keep it efficient, friendly, and straightforward so the customers have a clear idea of what they are dealing with.

Make sure it’s clear and easy to find on your website.

Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs)

How good delivery can boost sales?

Offering good delivery not just boosts sales but also improves repeat buyers. It offers hassle-free services which help in building a pleasant customer experience and trust in the brand.

How to offer free shipping without losing money?

If you have extra sales or high AOV, you can offer minimum spend over a certain level of purchase to the customer. Or you can increase the value of your product enough to cover free shipping.

Why does shipping improvement require eCommerce?

With better and hassle-free shipping, you are building your brand and offering the experience to your customer. This helps in getting the attention, which improves the sales and repeats purchase.