You put in a lot of effort to ensure that your consumers have a positive shopping experience when they visit your eCommerce store. You review the photos, implement changes to your store’s navigation, and write emails, all to make your consumers happy.
eCommerce shipping is an essential aspect of any online business, and optimizing your shipping prices can have a significant impact on your bottom line.
To start any e-commerce business, there are a set of basic requirements: products to sell, a platform to sell on, and a delivery partner to ship your orders.
However, when it comes to delivery, it might feel as though you’re giving over your brand to a stranger.
However, with a little effort and strategy, it doesn’t have to feel that way—which is a good thing, because shipping is a core part of your business. It is the point at which a buyer first experiences your product in person, and it may also be a significant investment for your company, depending on your shipping strategy.
So shipping is a critical component of your brand’s success, and shipping costs are even more critical.
In 2022, the average cart abandonment rate was over 70%, with 48% of that owing to additional charges such as shipping and taxes.
This shows that one of the top causes of cart abandonment is the expense of delivery.
eCommerce brand owners use a variety of shipping strategies, all of which have one thing in common: they factor the cost of shipping into their business plans rather than paying for it out of pocket.
Now that we are aware of how important shipping strategy is, let’s study it in depth.
Core Elements Of eCommerce Shipping
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on e-commerce shipping, causing more demand, delays, and capacity issues.
Before you charge your customers for the shipping, it is important to know how the shipping cost is calculated and what the cost of shipping is that you are charged by the courier companies.
How is Shipping Calculated?
Shipping price is calculated by considering the following factors
1. Product Dimensions And Weight
The very basic step is to calculate your product’s weight and dimensions after the final packaging of your product. This determines your average order weight and shipping amount. Every shipping carrier will charge you depending on the product’s dimensions and weight.
2. Shipping Address
The second critical factor to consider is where your package is coming from. The distance is measured from the pickup location, area, or state to the desired destination state. Shipping companies have assigned multiple states and classified them into zones. Each zone has a different pricing structure to give you an estimate of the overall shipping cost. You can also ship your orders internationally. You get to decide your shipping zones, whether you wish to ship domestically or internationally.
3. Shipping Mode
Over 60% of online customers responded that when it comes to shipping, delivery time is more essential than cost, according to a MetaPack poll.
There are 2 modes of shipping: Air and Surface
The express shipping mode is air, and the standard shipping mode is surface, which usually takes longer than air mode. Depending on how quickly you wish to deliver your order to your customer, you can pick the shipping mode.
Shipping companies provide a pricing structure that changes over time based on the above three elements.
Now that we know how shipping prices are calculated, what happens when you ship orders through a print-on-demand service provider?
Print-on-demand service providers handle order fulfillment and shipping for your online orders.
This means you need to consider what you pay for shipping to your fulfillment provider and what you charge your customers for shipping their orders.
Now let’s see how shipping works with Qikink.
eCommerce Shipping with Qikink – Print on Demand, Dropshipping Service Provider
Qikink is a print-on-demand and dropshipping service provider. It prints your order only when you receive an order on your eCommerce store.
Qikink offers a flat shipping rate for products based on their weight. It is calculated in the weight slabs of 500 grams
Shipping Mode | Weight Slab | Shipping Price |
|---|---|---|
| Air | 500 grams | Rs. 60 (18% of tax inclusive) |
| Surface | 500 grams | Rs. 50 (18% of tax inclusive) |
Eg: A T-Shirt weighs approx. 240–300 grams (based on sizes too), and it is shipped under a 500-gram slab.
When combined with a hoodie, which weighs around 550–610 grams, shipping is calculated for a 1 kg slab.
As a result, shipping for one t-shirt in air mode costs Rs. 60. Shipping for one t-shirt and one hoodie costs Rs. 120 in air mode.
How You Can Save On eCommerce Shipping Costs?
1. Selling In Bundles
According to Forrester’s study, upselling and cross-selling account for between 10% to 30% of eCommerce sales.
Product bundling is a retail approach that involves curating and marketing a set of related products to attract both casual browsing and motivated buyers.
Product bundling enables you to increase sales, revenue, and average order value for your customers (AOV).
You can sell the below products with Qikink as a bundle and save on shipping costs. Here’s how
You can also combine multiple products in shipping slabs of 500 grams, or 1000 grams.
For instance,
Ship one T-Shirt and one face mask in 500 grams slab.
A bundle of one phone case and one AirPods case can be shipped in 500 grams shipping slab.
When compared to acquiring new customers, using an upsell product, a bundling strategy can be 68% more successful.
2. Custom Branded Order Tracking Portal
Here’s what it looks like – Qiknk’s Courier Updates Tracking Portal
Qikink values your brand and your customers. Hence, keeping your customers in mind, we’ve designed a custom tracking portal to live track your order shipping and to enhance your customer’s shopping experience.
3. Manage Your Return (RTO) Orders Efficiently
Read more: Managing replacements and return orders using Qikink
Qikink stores all your returned orders in its facility for 100 days to help you utilise them efficiently. They are stored product-wise so that you can re-ship them to your customers within 100 days, after which they are all packed together and shipped to your address at a bulk shipping price.
4. Packaging Materials
Damage to products during shipping is a common issue in e-commerce businesses, with an average damage rate of 2-5%.
Products could be damaged during delivery for several reasons, including poor packing, rough handling by carriers, and exposure to temperature variations.
To minimise such damages, Qikink uses appropriate packaging materials, properly securing and cushioning items. All accessories are bubble-wrapped and cling-wrapped to ensure the safe delivery of orders to your customers. We also use fragile stickers on products to inform the courier companies about the safe handling of orders.
5. Ship As A Gift
Gift wrapping can add an element of surprise and delight to the gift-giving experience, making it more special and memorable with Qikink’s gift-wrapping service.
It can add value to the product, enhance the customer’s experience, and increase the chances of repeat purchases.
Read more about how to gift wrap an order with Qikink here.
Add this service to your eCommerce website now and leave the rest on Qikink.
Why Affordable Print-On-Demand Shipping Costs Are Crucial
Attractive print-on-demand shipping costs are crucial since they might affect a company’s capacity to draw in and keep clients.
If a company’s shipping costs are higher than those of its competitors, potential buyers may find the business less inviting and opt to make their purchase from a competitor with cheaper shipping costs.
Additionally, shipping charges are very important to consider when making a selection in e-commerce because many buyers do so while comparing pricing from various stores. As a result, providing affordable shipping rates can help a company stand out in a crowded market and boost its chances of closing deals.
However, if the company uses a print-on-demand approach, transportation costs also influence the price of the product, which in turn influences the price the company may charge for the product. Therefore, if the delivery costs are excessively high, buyers will find the goods to be less inexpensive and may be discouraged from making purchases.
If there are significant shipment delays, as long as you’re trying to keep your customers informed, they’ll probably be understanding.
Here are some actions you might want to do going forward to notify customers and have some control over the delivery process:
- To understand carrier performance and communicate it to your clients, look at shipping carrier transit status.
- Eliminate specific carriers or services that aren’t up to par or not meeting expectations.
- On your eCommerce website, purchase confirmation page, confirmation email, and other crucial touchpoints, mention potential shipment delays that are beyond your control.
In conclusion, having competitive print-on-demand shipping costs may aid a company in boosting sales by making its goods more appealing to clients and more accessible to buy.
4 eCommerce Shipping Strategies That Work Wonders
Not all strategies will be effective for you. But you can try and test them, then incorporate the ones that suit your eCommerce business well.
Now that we know how shipping is calculated, let’s dive into a shipping pricing strategy that may work wonders for you. But before that, let’s understand that this may vary from brand to brand.
1. Offer Free Shipping
Based on the statistics, it appears that 75% of customers love the idea of free shipping and 68% are influenced by fast delivery when making a purchase. 62% of customers would hesitate to make a repeat purchase if their order is delayed.
Offer free shipping by including the cost of shipping in the product price. Consider the average shipping cost that you are charged by your drop shipper and include that in your product price.
Considering the competition, customers’ expectations are high and your brand’s value is at stake with the delivery service.
It is now obvious that providing free delivery is not just a necessary price strategy, but also a preferred one.
Now let’s look at 4 ways to incorporate free shipping for your orders.
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Free Shipping On All Orders:
Since many customers are driven to buy by the chance to get free delivery, this tactic is used to encourage them to do so. Retailers may use this tactic to set themselves apart from competitors and win over more loyal customers.
For small products with a higher profit margin, you can add the shipping cost to the product price as the customers wouldn’t mind paying for the product if they are offered free shipping.
Read more: 8 Psychological marketing techniques to increase your eCommerce sales
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Free Shipping On Specific Products:
This strategy works well to run promotional campaigns or launch a new product or a high-value product with seasonal demand. This creates an urgency to purchase the product creating as it is a time-based offer.
Nearly 80% of respondents stated they would frequent stores that provide free delivery, according to a poll by Accenture.
Offering free shipping has proven to:
Increase average order volume (AOV) by 97%.
Reduce cart abandonment by 18%.
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Free Shipping Over An Average Order Value:
This is a great way to upsell and cross-sell products on your eCommerce store. Adding products from average to high value along with this shipping strategy increases your average order value.
It is also tested over time as one of the most successful eCommerce shipping strategies. Adding products of different values helps customers add more products to match the order value and also increases your sales making it profitable for your business.
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Free Shipping To Some Areas:
If you’ve never provided free delivery on your website, limit it to specific towns, states, or nations. To promote even more orders, you might, for instance, provide free delivery to locations where the majority of your present customers are located.
You might also provide free delivery to any potential new markets for your niche to attract more buyers. Expand to new areas if the plan is successful and your sales increase.
2. Boost Product Prices Partially & Add A Minimum Shipping Fee At Checkout
An effective way to boost sales is to charge customers a small fee for shipping high-quality products. Additionally, ensuring that your products meet customer demand is a crucial step toward achieving business success.
Without demand, no business or shipping strategies would ever work. Do you market research thoroughly before starting any business?
Read more: 20 Profitable Best Dropshipping niches in 2023
3. Request Full Payment From Buyers For Shipping
If you want to handle product shipping charges without any fuss, charge your clients what your shipping (or fulfilment) service will cost you. But keep in mind that recent trends in e-commerce shipping and consumer behaviour work against this plan.
If the following applies to your store make sure to offer inexpensive delivery on light items.
Also, know that gaining the confidence of your customer’s honesty includes charging the entire delivery cost. Create unique items, for which buyers are ready to pay a higher delivery cost in full.
4. Combine Various Shipping Pricing Techniques
Sometimes using a single delivery pricing plan won’t be enough to satisfy client expectations. You may need to mix many tactics and let your customer decide on one.
Clothing, accessory, and home décor retailer does precisely that.
It takes effort to put together a shipping price structure like this, but it may alter the game if you want to satisfy customer demands while managing shipment speed and price expectations.
Conclusion
Its shipping pricing strategy can also impact a company’s ability to compete in the market. A well-planned shipping pricing strategy may help a company maintain profitability while attracting and retaining consumers.
The effectiveness of a company’s shipping price strategy can affect the company’s overall profitability. Overpriced delivery costs may discourage buyers from making purchases. On the other side, if shipping costs are set too low, they could not be enough to pay handling and shipping expenses, which would reduce profits.
Please share your experience in the comments section if you have put any of the above strategies into practice and how they have positively affected your eCommerce business.
It may take some time to choose shipping costs that will satisfy both you and your consumers, just as with everything else in e-commerce. Always be prepared to make the required modifications. Exercise caution, pay attention to what your customers want, and keep an eye out for what competing businesses are up to.
Key Takeaways
The eCommerce sector is dynamic, however, based on current market developments and compiled data from the last few years, the following shipping and delivery best practices remain valuable to adopt:
- It is essential to provide quick and inexpensive delivery choices. You may simply lower shipping costs and delivery times to satisfy consumer expectations.
- It has been proven that finding strategies to provide free delivery enhances sales interactions and lowers cart abandonment.
- Our experience with COVID-19 has shown us how important it is to monitor carrier patterns going forward as a recommended practice to keep consumers informed.
- As the global eCommerce market expands, there are several opportunities for you to expand your eCommerce business internationally.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the three types of shipping?
Surface, Air, and Sea shipping is available to ship our products to the customers.
- Surface shipping: This is the most common and affordable type of shipping, which involves transporting packages by truck or train.
- Air shipping: This type of shipping is faster than ground shipping and typically takes one to three business days. It involves transporting packages by air and is often used for time-sensitive packages.
- Sea shipping: This is the slowest and most affordable type of shipping, which involves transporting packages by sea. It is often used for international shipments of bulk goods.
What is shipping in eCommerce?
eCommerce Shipping refers to delivering products purchased online to the customer’s location. It involves creating a shipping label, selecting a carrier, and transporting the product. Direct-to-consumer brands rely on online sales, so managing and handling the delivery logistics is an essential part of them.
How do ecommerce sites offer free shipping?
One of the methods is E-commerce sites offer free shipping requiring customers to meet a minimum order amount. That means customers must spend a certain amount, such as Rs.1000, to qualify for free shipping. This strategy encourages customers to add more items to their cart to meet the minimum order amount, which can increase sales for the site.