Shipping

Best Practices and Ecommerce Shipping Solutions

The number of people who shop online will rise to over 2.14 billion in 2021. That’s a vast pool of consumers. If you haven’t taken your business online, this statistic should persuade you to do that. 

But as more people opt to buy online, the number of online businesses is rapidly increasing. This creates a fiercely competitive market environment. It’s the reason you need to find fresh creative ways to market your product.

A smart move is to provide attractive eCommerce shipping solutions to your potential clients. The vast majority of online shoppers cite shipping options as the most critical factor when it comes to their shopping experience.

Indeed, shipping is one of the top elements of your online store. Businesses that can effectively implement best practices for shipping stand a better chance to draw more clients, enhance customer satisfaction, and experience higher conversion rates. 

Online stores that fail to offer shipping solutions that meet their customer’s high expectations, on the other hand, will inevitably experience high rates of cart abandonment. 

In this article, we explain several best practices and shipping solutions for your eCommerce store. Read on to learn more.

Highlight Your Ecommerce Shipping Solutions  

When it comes to online shopping, good consumer experience is critical. Customers will hardly revisit a site after they’ve had a bad experience or two. 

Take the time to create customer awareness regarding your shipping policies. Highlight some of the strong points of your shipping strategy, including the shipping options, return policy, and fulfillment. Doing so reduces cart abandonments.

Try to provide flexible shipping plans that are based on the amount the customer spends, how frequently they shop, the season they buy, the area they live in, and so on. Customize your shipping solutions to suit your customers’ needs. Always visit relevant sites to find out more creative shipping solutions to adopt.

Provide Free Shipping

Free shipping is undoubtedly the most attractive factor for online shoppers. About two-thirds of customers recommend a retailer based on this factor alone. High shipping costs, on the other hand, are the biggest contributor to cart abandonment.

Of course, free shipping is never really free. Someone pays for it – either you or the client. This means you either accept lower profit margins or your consumers pay higher prices.

Today’s online shoppers expect free shipping, so don’t think twice about providing it. If you don’t, you’ll be missing out on potential sales. The main concern, of course, is how to ship products for free and still make a profit.

The smart move is to have a shipping system where customers can enjoy free shipping only after their order has met a certain amount. For instance, you can provide free shipping on orders over $30. Once you start to provide free shipping options, you’ll begin to see an increase in the average order volume.

Ensure Any Shipping Costs Are Clear At Checkout

In case you don’t provide free shipping or only do so on orders above a specific dollar value, it’s important to make the shipping costs clear at checkout. The customer should be able to see the shipping costs once they view the order summary screen. It’s one of shipping best practices that’ll keep cart abandonment low.

Why?

Well, many customers are willing to pay for shipping, but no one likes surprises. If potential buyers suddenly get blindsided by high shipping expenses, they’ll most likely abandon their cart.

Let Customers Know the Expected Delivery Date

Most customers consider shipping time a vital factor when making a purchasing decision. That’s why you need to give customers a delivery estimate for the item they’re purchasing during checkout. This estimate, of course, depends on the date and shipping method they select.

Where customers have no idea when their item will reach them, they’ll find it hard to make a purchasing decision. Find a suitable tool that provides a delivery estimate for potential clients. This will give potential customers the information they need and reduce the chances of cart abandonment.

Keep Customers Informed During Shipping

Now that a customer has placed an order on your store and you’ve sent the item, you may think that all is done. Nothing could be further from the truth. Customers expect to receive confirmation about their orders before the orders reach them.

Come up with a system of communication that keeps your customers informed while their items are in transit. This builds trust and contributes to a positive customer experience.

Deal With Problems Right Away

Your customer may have chosen the best way to ship their products, but sometimes the unexpected happens. Packages could get damaged lost. When that happens, the customer sees it as your responsibility, though that may not necessarily be the case.

Remember, you’re the one who chose the carrier who either damaged or lost the shipment. Therefore, you’ll need to do what’s necessary to make things right. As soon as you discover a problem with a client’s package, do the following:

• Find out the tracking details of the shipment online
• Verify whether the customer’s address and contact details were correctly recorded
• Call the carrier to find out the status of the package
• Follow up with the carrier till the issue is finally resolved
• Ship a replacement package to the client right away

Ultimately, the goal is to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction possible. Making your client wait until the carrier can locate a lost shipment is unacceptable. It’s best to replace the parcel and eventually recoup the loss after the carrier traces the item or compensates you for the item.

Adopt E-Commerce Best Practices Today

Adopting efficient shipping best practices is one of the guaranteed ways to enhance the online shopping experience. Keep in mind that the consumer’s journey does not end the moment they make a purchase. Instead, it ends after they receive their package in good condition and on time.

It’s the reason you need to implement reliable eCommerce shipping solutions to ensure that you’re meeting your customers’ expectations.

Would you like to read more great content like this? Please keep visiting our blog.

The Ultimate Guide on How to Buy a Shipping Container

Getting things from Point A to Point B isn’t always as simple as it sounds. If you’re a business owner of any sort, you’re probably familiar with this line of thinking. Running a business of almost any size requires moving goods over long distances, and the unfortunate truth is this can get complicated– and expensive.

That’s the reason a lot of business owners decide to buy a shipping container. These large, metal cases are incredibly resistant against wind, rain, and other elements. They last forever and retain their value over years and years of use. Most importantly, they are cheaper to ship and send off around the country. 

But how do you purchase one (or more) for your business? If you’ve never looked into the topic before, it might feel difficult to figure out. Read on, and we’ll walk you through what you need to know about buying a shipping container.

Decide On Your Personal Needs

Before you start looking outward, it’s important to look inward. What needs are you trying to fill by purchasing a shipping container? Make sure you have a really solid answer lined up to this. 

Answering this question will require you to look into what kind of goods you’re hoping to pack into the container. How large are they, and what quantity are you planning on sending out per shipment? 

Metal shipping containers come in a variety of sizes and in a wide range. That being said, most standard shipping containers are either 20 or 40 feet long. If you can go with one of these common-sized shipping containers, it should make your search a lot easier. 

These containers are quite strong and are capable of carrying a great deal of weight. That being said, it’s still a good idea to have a sense of the total weight you’ll be planning on shipping.

It’s also recommended that you decide on a budget ahead of time too. The last thing you want to do is spend all your money on getting a shipping container and then have no money left over to actually send it out. 

Last but not least, you’ll need to know what grade of shipping container you’ll want to purchase. This will depend on your budget. Containers usually come in one of four grades: brand new, certified, WTW (wind-and-water tight), and as-is. 

An as-is container is heavily used and might not be sealed against weather or the elements. If you’re on a budget, you’ll still likely want to go for a WTW graded container. It’s best to learn more about shipping containers ahead of your purchase.

Who Can Sell You A Shipping Container? 

Now that you have a rough sense of what you’re looking for, you can start to search for who will be willing to sell it to you. Finding a seller with a deal that will work for you can be a long and involved process. You need to square your shoulders and keep yourself committed to the end goal. 

The easiest place to start may be with a cursory google search. Look around and see who has listed themselves as shipping container sellers in your area. These local dealers usually have large inventories, which means finding a container that you like might be easy. 

Unfortunately, these dealers also tend to charge the most as compared to any other kind of seller. Depending on your budget you may be forced to look elsewhere. 

If you’re looking for a bargain, it might be more worth it to go through an auction process. That can mean in-person somewhere, but more often these days it can mean online on a website like eBay or Shipped. It’s much easier to get an amazing price on a shipping container this way, though you might not always win. 

Getting The Shipping Container To You

Once you’ve made the purchase on your new shipping container, you’ll need to make one more hurdle: you’ll need to get your new shipping container home. Given the size and weight of your average container, this is easier said than done.

Ideally, the place you’re purchasing from will have included delivery in their asking price. But more often than not, sellers will leave that up to you to handle yourself.

You’ll need to rent or hire a flatbed trailer to bring that shipping container to where it needs to go. The cost of moving will likely depend on the current cost of gas and fuel since that’s the biggest expense that trucking companies have to make.

Currently, gas prices are fairly low, so it’s a good time to need a container moved.

The distance between you and the shipping container you purchased will also pay into the price of moving it. If you got a great deal on a shipping container three states over but it will cost you an arm and a leg to ship it home… it might not have been so great a deal after all.

It’s key to keep this in mind when searching and purchasing. 

How To Buy A Shipping Container

If you’re unfamiliar with how to buy a shipping container the above information should help you get oriented.

Shipping containers can be hugely helpful to businesses and corporations looking to move large quantities (or just large products) across the country and world. Buying one isn’t always simple, but it can be well worth the trouble.

Need more business advice? Check out our blog for more.