Shipping Strategies for Small Business: A Guide

Small businesses need to be very meticulous while managing their shipping because if you don’t manage it properly, there are chances you can lose your customers or get scammed by consumers, or end up paying more for shipping costs.

Consumers are demanding products the next day, with amazon being at the forefront of the following delivery and same-day shipping. Whereas, there are customers who prefer free delivery over fast.

As a small business, you might have a tough time competing with such huge giants and managing the needs of different types of customers, and maintaining transparency in the supply chain.

However, to help you manage your shipping, we at orderhive are going to share some awesome strategies.

Let’s go through the strategies for shipping for small businesses.

Multi-Carrier Shipping 

Mixing and matching your shipping carriers is the key to get shipping done cheaply. Different carriers have different pros and cons. You need to understand your needs for 

particular shipments and accordingly select the carriers who have strengths in the required area.

You can also segregate the carriers according to their service quality and rates. Select the cheapest one with the best services. 

Also, make sure your carriers are providing guaranteed delivery timelines along with the insurance to cover you from damages in unfortunate instances of damaged deliveries.

Manage Your Shipping Cost

Have a close look at these factors given below that affect your shipping cost.

• Service and speed – The more high-quality service you provide, the more it will cost you. If you are looking for a faster delivery service, then it’s obvious that you’ll have to pay more to your shipping vendor. 
• Dimension and Weight – The product’s dimension and weight are also directly proportional to your shipping cost. The more the weight, the more you’ll have to pay.
• Destination – Where your parcel goes is of utmost importance because it helps you determine whether you will be able to bear the shipping cost or not.
• Shipping volume.- The more products shipped, the cheaper it will be for you because the shipping carrier will have to give you a discount since you are giving more business to them.

After you have known the factors that affect your shipping cost, you can then keep a tab on the factors, cut unnecessary expenses, choose a cheaper shipping carrier with good quality delivery standards, minimize parcel dimensions and increase shipping volume.

Multi-Channel Selling

Selling multi-channel allows you to gather more orders, increasing your shipping volume, thus reducing your shipping cost because you can easily negotiate the shipping rate with the carrier.

It would help if you did a little bit of market research in gauging the strengths and pitfalls of every marketplace like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Magento, etc. to select the best ones for your products. 

Some marketplaces make their sellers follow strict guidelines to allow them to sell on their marketplaces. Make sure you are all prepared to follow these guidelines and make the most out of it. 

Being a small business, selling on one single channel, will leave you with decreased order numbers. It would be best if you widen your horizon to attract more customers when you are new.

Use Efficient Shipping Software For Shipping for Small Business

Shipping Software allows you to streamline the last section of your order fulfillment process. Finding a professional shipping software is like completing a difficult puzzle. Shipping software will enable you to create loyal customers by providing them a transparent 

view of the entire shipping process right from the time your consumer enters the products into the cart.

Shipping softwares simplifies the total shipping for small business processes, decreases human errors, and saves time on operations.

Most shipping softwares provides almost all the functionalities like printing orders in bulk, creating shipping labels, comparing shipping carriers, and managing returns and pickups.

A software with flexible 300+ on-demand integrations can be your lifesaver when it comes to shipping for small business.

Choose a Third-Party Fulfillment or Shipping Center

Many small business owners outsource their shipping and order fulfillment process to another company, commonly known as 3PLs, while only focusing on marketing and creating sales.

FBA(Fulfilled by Amazon) is also one of the most loved options for small business people looking to find a cheaper way to sell products. Amazon will keep your products in their warehouses and sell them. As soon as a sale is made, Amazon will notify you of the tracking number. The best thing with FBA is that it will take care of shipment and everything else. However, it will take a cut from your revenue.

Moreover, you can do DropShipping in which your products are kept with the supplier or manufacturer itself, and you have to manage the marketing and front- end. This is a very viable option for entrepreneurs who are starting their own small business.

The best part of being a small business owner is that you can experiment with your strategies. The strategies given above can also be used accordingly and experimented with. Do what’s right for your business and profits.

Shipping for small business is not an easy nut to crack, but with perseverance and great techniques, you can easily ace this aspect of your business.

• https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8499-ecommerce-shipping-guide.html
• https://www.shipbob.com/blog/small-business-shipping/
• https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/small-business-shipping-tips/#shipping-cost-101