eCommerce Shipping Best Practices [Priceless Tips For 2022]

eCommerce shipping directly impacts the success of your business. Being aware and applying the eCommerce shipping best practices is one of the main pillars of a successful eCommerce strategy. It is also crucial to ensure that you provide the best online shopping experience for your customers.

BONUS: If you wonder how to create the best eCommerce customer experience here is your golden guide!

Did you know that 60% of shoppers abandon their carts just because of unexpected costs? And the prime contributor of extra cost here is the shipping. Shoppers are willing to spend more to benefit from the free shipping. 55% of online shoppers consider free or discounted shipping as one of the best checkout options. This makes it very clear that eCommerce businesses need to have a solid and a transparent shipping strategy in place. Online revenues are absolutely linked to conversions. Given that shipping plays a huge role during the purchase decision, there is no denying that it needs a perfect attention.

Did you know that 60% of shoppers abandon their carts just because of unexpected costs? –   Tweet This!

As a storeowner, you want to make sure that your online shoppers have the best eCommerce customer experience while they visit your online store. You design your product pages, you try to offer the best products with the perfect pricing, you send out newsletters on a regular basis. Your main aim is to make every customer more than happy.

When it comes to shipping, everything suddenly changes. You start searching for logistics companies and dropshipping options, wondering how to ship products to customers.

The ability to shop online easily and receive the product during the promised time period, is the main reason that influence shoppers, increase sales, and create returning visitors.

With so many online retailers, it is important to make sure your business stands out among your competitors, and you need to make sure that you constantly follow up the needs of your consumers. So, to achieve success in eCommerce, applying the eCommerce shipping best practices is a must have.

 

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A recent study from Pitney Bowes says that 56% of consumers are facing some difficulties with shipping. The main reasons that are listed by the online shoppers are late shipment, expensive shipping costs, poor packaging, unfulfilled orders, unclear return policies and poor packaging.

What does eCommerce shipping mean and how does it affect your eCommerce business?

There is no denying that eCommerce shipping is one of the most significant aspects of online shopping. We can easily say that it can make or break your eCommerce business as it is crucial in satisfying your customers. To be able to create one of the eCommerce shipping best practices, you need to make the whole delivery process more affordable and manageable.

From the giants to small and medium ones, every online business strives to provide one of the eCommerce shipping best practices.

As an eCommerce entrepreneur, you need to utilize the best strategy to create outstanding brand awareness. If one of your customers gets the products late or damaged, this can really harm your brand.

Implementing the best eCommerce shipping solutions or working with a successful shipping agency can have a large impact on your online business. The main idea while collaborating with a shipping agency and setting up your strategy is to have the maximum reach and reception in a cost-effective manner. You need to have an advanced system to be able to track your shipments in every single step.

Are you convinced that achieving success in shipping is one of the key metrics of your eCommerce business? If you’re saying YES, then let’s jump into the eCommerce shipping best practices that will absolutely help you to build up the best strategy to satisfy each and every single shopper’s needs.

eCommerce Shipping Best Practices to Take into Consideration

The best eCommerce shipping solution for your online business really depends on many things. These could be your products’ size, the weight, your average order value, the shipping destinations and your shipping routes that you have in your availability to reach your customers.

Here are the eCommerce shipping best practices that you would like to take into consideration before setting up your strategy.

1- Clear Order Fulfilment, eCommerce Shipping Policy and Highlighting Shipping Options

Abandoning the shopping cart after having spent some time discovering those products can certainly be the reason for a bad customer experience.

Convenience is very important in eCommerce. Focusing on convenience and creating a store with a great navigation is very crucial. You have to create customer awareness about your shipping policies by highlighting the strong points of the shipping strategy. Also, putting up shipping options as well as fulfilment and return policies can reduce the number of abandoned carts. Your order fulfilment policies and information shall be displayed in the most visible parts of your website to attract the most attention. Make sure that all the information is very easy to find.

If you offer a free shipping option, this has to be the first thing that every visitor sees every single time she visits your online store. This, for sure, influences her decision to make that purchase.

The key for every shipping strategy is the flexibility. You can offer different shipping strategies based on the amount, the frequency, the area to be shipped, certain categories of purchases and so on. This means that you need to be ready to regularly update your shipping policies.

2- Free Shipping

 Considering free shipping as an option could bring extra revenues. It is a major influencer for many shoppers so you can’t ignore it. A recent study from Pitney Bowes demonstrates that almost 91% of customers will leave an online store if fast and free shipping is not offered.

In order to successfully offer a free shipping option, you must understand its effects on your profit margins. Even though free shipping may mean additional income for your business, its benefits may not outweigh the cost of covering the shipping expenses.

You need to offer a conditional free shipping strategy to strategically utilize free shipping. One option could be to include free shipping if a shopper spends a specific amount on your products. Studies show that the desirable amount for the shopper is approximately 25$. This is a major advancement that will increase your average order value, too. Another option is to offer the free shipping at a certain time of the year for some specific products.

There are many combinations that you can utilize for the success of your online store. Just make sure that these moves don’t affect your bottom line.

3- Flat Rate & Table Rate Shipping

The term of flat rate shipping is when the cost of shipping is assigned to any purchase. Setting a $10 shipping fee regardless of the order value can be an example to flat rate shipping. Orderstock.com charges $2,95 to most locations inside the United States. At this point, it is important to be aware of the average shipping costs for online shopping.

With this shipping option, the size, the weight and the value of the products are not considered while calculating the total shipping costs. When a flat shipping rate is displayed on the online store, the customer will know what to expect as the total cost of her order.

Also, this gives you the opportunity to create a shipping total that will help you cover your shipping and even the packaging costs. This option is not as popular as the free shipping option but a lot of shoppers can benefit from it.

Table rate shipping is almost the opposite of flat rate shipping. This allows companies to customize their shipping solutions. You can set up a cost based on a variety of factors such as delivery destination, product weight, product size and number of ordered items.

For example, a merchant might charge $5 for the shipments near the fulfilment centre and increase its price, as the distance gets larger.

You might also charge according to the order subtotal. For example, $10 for orders up to $60, $5 for orders up to $150 and free for orders over $150. There is an option to develop a pricing for a group of products or their weights, too. Being aware of the general eCommerce shipping costs will be very helpful, here.

4- Live Shipping Rates

If the most important thing for you is to offer the best possible shipping rate and cover all of your costs, you might choose to get real time rates from different carriers. This is very hard to be used as a promotional tool, but it can help you to offer the cheapest shipping option by charging the shoppers exactly the amount that you will be charged by the carrier.

With this strategy, you can still cover your order fulfilment and packing costs by adding surcharges.

5- Take Care of Packing Very Seriously

Many years ago, packing was not so important. People were just impatient to receive the item that they had ordered. But today, we can easily say that the expectations of customers have developed along with the advancements in eCommerce.

If you have ordered online, you may well appreciate the importance of packing. It is an important aspect of the whole shipping strategy. This means that you need to deliver a coherent experience if you want to impress your customers and beat the competition. You can use packing as a marketing tool and create personalized experiences. If you can bring smiles to your customers’ faces, then you can be the ultimate winner!

Below is a great example of Trunk Club. A monthly subscription service which sends men a selection of men’s clothes and accessories.

People make unboxing videos for the packages of Trunk. We are sure that this explains the importance of the eCommerce shipping best practices.

6- Shipping Tools

Almost every store owner is in the search for the best eCommerce shipping software to plan the perfect shipping experience for their customers. The eCommerce shipping solutions below will for sure help you with your shipping and inventory management. Many eCommerce store owners invest to these eCommerce shipping companies as they think that they are important for the best eCommerce customer experience.

Here you go:

– Ordoro

– FedEx Fulfilment

– Shippingeasy

– ShipBop

– InFlow

– Shippo

These are among the best shipping partners for eCommerce businesses.

7- Build up the right team

You need to treat your shipping partner as a part of your organization to ensure that your customers live the same pleasant experience until the product reaches them.

If you are big enough, you might like to put a team in play for marketing, fulfilment and customer service. This will make sure that the customers see the best shipping options during their purchase decision.

The customer service team need to be in a position to manage all the calls and the demands very effectively. They will be the first contact after each purchase.

Final Words

Shipping is definitely a challenging aspect for any eCommerce business and every business has its own unique obstacles.

We summarized the eCommerce shipping best practices.

With this handy guide about the best shipping options for eCommerce, we believe that you will easily set up a successful strategy, which will increase your online sales.

If you think that an important point is missed, tell us! We will be more than happy to include it in our guide. 🙂

 

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