Today’s consumers shop online for the convenience and ease of being able to purchase goods at the click of a button and have them delivered straight to their door. Convenient delivery options are a significant factor in a consumers’ decision to buy from a seller. Fast and free shipping of their online order is the top incentive that drives consumers to make a purchase. If a seller cannot offer fast, low cost or ideally free shipping, it can result in lost business and negative brand perception.
2-day
Shipping – What Does It Mean For Your Business?
Most
big players now offer 2-day delivery, next day delivery, and same-day shipping
and delivery as standard. For small to medium-size retailers, it’s imperative
they can offer 2-day shipping if they want to survive and thrive in the
competitive e-commerce industry.
Small to medium-sized businesses may believe that the logistics and cost of offering two 2-day shipping are unattainable. The good news is, affordable 2-day shipping is achievable.
One Warehouse or Multiple Warehouse?
Having products in multiple warehouses across the country in order to ship your online orders from the closest location makes sense. Multi-location warehousing and distribution not only proves efficient in terms of making shipping faster and keeping distribution costs down but also plays a significant role in being able to offer 2-day shipping.
However,
multi-location warehousing and distribution is not a suitable or viable option
for a large proportion of industries and products. Brands with lesser SKUs
might be able to afford to have inventory in multiple locations, but what if
your product has hundreds of SKUs?
For example, fashion retailers generally have multiple product lines, with each line being available in a range of sizes and colors. This type of retailer has a massive job on their hands tracking multiple inventories.
For
these types of businesses, having a unique warehouse, like ours, is a better
fit.
We are and always have been in the fulfillment and distribution industry, which means that we have the infrastructure, systems, and experience with all the big players and can satisfy their requirements. We specialize in fulfilling orders received electronically; e-commerce, B2B, B2C, retailers, e-tailers, own stores, own website, 3rd party websites, drop-shipment, subscriptions – you name it, we do it.
Our experience and reach allow us to offer affordable fast shipping for online orders to all of our clients.
What Are Shipping Zones?
Shipping
zones are the geographical areas that carriers ship to. In the US shipping
zones span from zone 1 to 8 for domestic shipments. Shipping carriers use
shipping zones to determine the distance a package travels with zip codes
rather than miles – with the distance a parcel travels being calculated from
the first three digits of your origin and destination zip code.
USPS then uses the calculated shipping distance to determine the price. Zone 1 would represent the closest and cheapest areas to ship to from your zip, while zone 8 would be the furthest and most costly.
What Is Dimensional Weight?
Dimensional
weight is used by shipping and freight companies to ensure they don’t lose
money on lightweight packages. Airfreight companies have successfully used
dimensional weight or ‘dim’ weight for many years. Then around five years ago,
the system was adopted by the big couriers, FedEx and UPS for their shipping
and ground services.
Dimensional weight is calculated by multiplying the length, width, and height of a package in inches using the longest point on each side and taking into account any bulges or irregularities in the shape of the package. You then multiply those dimensions to get the cubic size of the package. In some circumstances, the dimensional weight is compared to the actual weight, and the larger of the two is used to determine the packages billable weight.
Can You Afford Not To Offer Free Shipping?
Nearly
90%
of customers say free shipping is the primary incentive to shop online and orders with free
shipping average around 30% higher in value. Furthermore, 61% of consumers are
more likely to cancel their purchase if free shipping is not offered.
Free
shipping has the potential to be one of your most reliable marketing
tools.
In reality, there is no such thing as free shipping – someone has to pay for it. Unless you are selling high-value products, offering free shipping is generally not a profitable option.
How
to Can I Offer Free Shipping?
The
most common method for moderate to high-value products is to give the illusion
of free shipping by blending the cost of shipping into the product price.
Alternatively, you could foot part of the shipping cost yourself if you find
the increase in orders from free shipping makes waiving the shipping fee worth
it. Another option is to put a minimum order requirement in place in exchange
for free shipping.
Free
shipping can come at a cost to your business, but as the statistics show, it is
one of the most reliable ways to generate more sales.
Need a 3PL with e-Commerce expertise? Ameriworld Fulfillment is experienced in high volume and complex e-commerce and drop shipping operations. We make shipping online orders the easiest part of your process!
