There are many ways to reduce the cost of shipping your products to customers, especially if your customer base is still tiny. Some of the common ways you can reduce shipping costs for any eCommerce order fulfillment service provider include reducing package weight, selecting the proper size packaging, and using flat rate shipping options.
How to Get Discounted Shipping On Shopify
According to Transaction Heroes for Shopify order shipping, reducing your package weights, using flat rate shipping options, and choosing the suitable package sizes will get you discounted shipping from most order fulfillment service providers. However, Shopify works differently because most of its features differ from other providers. To get discounted shipping on Shopify, undertake the following steps:
Buy Shipping Labels Directly on Shopify
Purchasing shipping labels postages directly on Shopify saves you about 88% on your postal service rates as compared to buying the labels outside of the platform. When fulfilling orders on Shopify, head to the option to purchase shipping labels directly. The best part is that if you come from the United States, Australia, or Canada, this option helps you save more money. Once you’ve bought your shipping labels, you can also print or void them from the order page before completing your transactions.
Prepare Orders in Advance
According to the Shopify shipping guidelines, preparing your product orders in advance is called skipping the line. Skipping helps you drop customer orders at their respective post offices quickly, thus reducing the cost of doing everything on the platform. Moreover, packaging products in advance saves you time and costs, especially if you’ll use Shopify for shipping orders with close delivery deadlines. Additionally, post offices reduce costs for orders scheduled earlier, thus still saves you more and helps you get discounted shipping on Shopify.
Track Your Orders
Staying on top of your products shipments with package tracking helps you know when rates change. This offers you a chance for discounts, especially when you notify available online agents on time before your goods are delivered.
Offer Your Customers Competitive Rates
Shopify offers unique treatments to merchants with recurring business with them. To enjoy such special treatments, including discounted shipping, offer your customers the chance for repeat business with you by offering such competitive rates that they can’t help but buy more and more from you. Also, ensure Shopify approves your competitive rates via their checkouts.
Expand Your Business to an International Level
Shopify gives special offers and treatments to businesses of different levels. Ensure your company has an international presence by establishing a considerable customer base globally to qualify for built-in customs forms and discounts for international order shipping. Additionally, while expanding your business internationally, be sure to utilize insurance coverage for any international orders, which is also a consideration Shopify uses to offer merchants discounted shipping.
Use Flat-rate Shipping
Since shipping pricing is constantly changing, it’s complex to know when changes happen. Flat-rate shipping is the only option for reducing shipping costs or getting discounted offers. It means Shopify treats your shipping costs as a single rate regardless of your order weight, size, or shape. The immediate advantage of using flat–rate shipping is that you can reduce hidden variable costs to fixed costs meaning if you’re planning to ship about fifteen items within a certain weight.
You’ll know the exact amount to pay, and Shopify may sometimes offer discounts based on specific weight or number of items. Also, when your goods are shipped based on weights, size, or shape, Shopify sets standard costs for such orders. Significantly, if your collective products raise the price, reducing them into small units helps reduces it significantly.
Reduce the weight of Your Order Packages
Most shipping companies offer discounts based on the weight of your packages, including Shopify. This means the lighter your package, the less you’ll pay. In the same manner, the heavier the parcel, the more the shipping cost. To take advantage of Shopify’s discounts on the package weight limit, pack your orders on packages like:
Corrugated Boxes
Corrugated boxes are the most common type of eCommerce packaging. They are strong and light. These boxes will increase your odds of getting discounts based on weight limits.
Designing Own Custom Shipping Packages
With Shopify and other shipping platforms, the closer your shipping packages match with the shapes and sizes of items, the less the materials you’ve packed. This also means you’ll enjoy discounts given on package shapes and sizes.
In summary, discounted shipping rates on Shopify and other shipping platforms will help you save more. It will also help you invest more in your business’s productivity and other marketing channels.