If you are an online seller, you probably know how important it is to find discount shipping rates. Even if you don’t offer free shipping, your customers will be turned off to your product if your cost of shipping is too high. And many times, you need discount shipping rates just to get the product created at all.
If your shipping costs are killing your business, check out our list of tricks to get discount shipping rates, below.
Five Tricks to Get Discount Shipping Rates and Lower Your Shipping Costs
- Get on a shipping schedule.
Some of the greatest shipping costs aren’t for postage at all. If you have to collect and package your orders every single day, and then drive them down to the post office, you might be spending quite a bit of time and money on handling costs. Instead, get in a routine of shipping your products twice a week… maybe on Mondays and Thursdays for example. Make your shipping policy clear and stick to it.
Getting into a shipping routine will save you time since you won’t be bogged down with processing shipping orders every day, and it will save you the gas and effort of making a trip to the post office every day. - Think small.
You might already know that box shipping rates are based on size and weight. The smaller your shipping boxes are the less you’ll pay to ship them. Additionally, small package insurance often costs less than larger parcel insurance. It’s a waste to spend extra on shipping and insurance just for empty box.
You might be able to save on shipping costs just by getting creative with making the packaging smaller. For example, maybe instead of shipping in boxes at all, you can buy manila envelopes on the cheap if you buy them in bulk. If your product is small enough, you can cut and fold the envelop over to create a small and safe cocoon for it. Maybe add in a piece of heavy card stock to make it a little more rigid and protective. Suddenly your shipping costs are pennies on the dollar. - Get Creative With Your Packaging Suppliers
The cost of new packing supplies ain’t cheap. It’s a real shame to waste so much money on packing bubbles or peanuts or boxes, when they don’t serve any function to your actually product and will just be discarded when it arrives. Instead, look for creative ways to save an arm and a leg on these products. For example, you could work with a professional mover to offer people who have relocated to your area to take their boxes and packaging material off their hands for them. This is mutually beneficial since it can be a real hassle to figure out what to do with those moving supplies after the fact, and will save you big bucks on your packaging costs. - Offer Multiple Options to Your Buyers
You want to provide excellent service to your customers, and you might feel like getting the product to your customer as quickly and efficiently as possible is a matter of good customer service. However, it costs you more to use the shipping options that get the product to the customer quickly. Maybe some customers want that, but some customers might prefer to save a little money even if it takes longer to get the product. You can both provide good customer service and save on shipping costs by giving the customer the choice to pay a little more for faster delivery, or save some money and wait a little longer. This is what we call two birds, one stone my friend! - Shop Bulk Suppliers for Packaging Materials.
Your packaging is a representation of your business, and you might not want to use recycled packaging since it doesn’t send a professional message to your clients. If you want to stick to new packaging, you might be able to save yourself some serious mula by using a bulk provider. Check out those big box bulk sales places like Costco or Sams Club, or look online for wholesale packaging suppliers. You might even be able to take advantage of the free packaging that USPS offers, if you use their flat rate service.
Do you have any other tips or tricks for saving on shipping? Please share below!