What is E-commerce Logistics?

Время на прочтение

Эта статья наиболее интересна для представителей сферы e-commerce так как в ней говорится о последних инновациях в таких узко специализированных вещах как: доставка день в день, пункты выдачи заказов и постаматы итд.

Склад в качестве шоурума и пункты выдачи заказа.

Склады в будущем могут стать розничными шоурумами. Концепция слияния магазина и склада не нова. IKEA, например, успешно использует эту модель для очень экономичной цепочки поставок. Склады могут быть так же использованы в качестве места получения онлайн-заказов. Отчеты по исследованиям данного вопроса показывают, что Amazon может запустить сервис по доставке заказов в течение часа.

Увеличение скорости, гибкости и удобства в доставке на ее последнем этапе

Последний этап доставки важен для всех. Для клиента- это тот самый момент, когда он впервые держат свою новую покупку в руках. Для компании же это самое дорогое звено всего процесса доставки. Так что не удивительно найти новшества в последнем этапе доставки традиционной и омниканальной логистики. Ниже рассмотрим эти новшества.

Эффективное использование магазинами сервиса забора и доставки онлайн- заказов в офлайн магазин

Традиционные оффлайновые магазины остаются одним из важнейших компонентов мирового опыта продаж, но их роль меняется в омниканальной бизнес-модели. Магазины становятся фулфилмент-центрами, выступающими в качестве места забора онлайн заказов (покупка в интернете, а затем забор заказа в магазине) и выполняют местные поставки в городе (отгрузка из магазина). Скорее всего, все больше новых предприятий примут данную модель, чтобы получить максимальную выгоду из своих традиционных инвестиций.
Покупка онлайн, а затем забор заказа в магазине имеет много преимуществ. При данной операции и клиент и компания экономят деньги. А еще при заборе онлайн заказа на месте, клиент часто совершает дополнительные покупки. Walmart начали использовать данную стратегию около шести лет назад, позволяя клиентам приобрести товары на сайте, а забрать – в любом удобном для покупателя офлайн магазине на свой вкус. После введения данной услуги, продавец расширил их добавил центры по возврату онлайн заказов и дополнительные пункты забора заказов для повышения онлайн-продаж и удовлетворения ожиданий клиентов. Эта стратегия стала успешной — 50% онлайн-заказов в Walmart в настоящее время забирается в офлайн магазинах, что приводит к значительной экономии материально-технических ресурсов и транспортировки.
Несколько впервые применивших данную стратегию продавцов предлагают программы по отгрузке из магазина. Увеличивая объемы реализации интернет-заказов, компания Nordstrom увидела ежегодный рост оборота с 4,8 до 5,41. Ретейлеры только выигрывают от возможности увеличения объемов маржи. Один из крупнейших универмагов сообщил о значительном увеличении темпов роста продаж, увеличив маржу на 200 миллионов долларов.

Модели по доставки в любое место и любое время

Потребители хотят иметь возможность доставки их заказа в любое время и в любое место назначения. Мы больше не можем терпеть ограничение по часам работы магазинов. Современные покупатели имеют все большее число сервисных опций, многие из которых завязаны на новых технологиях.
Автоматизированные закрывающиеся шкафы для получения заказа (так называемые постаматы) упрощают процесс забора посылки и предоставляет возможность сделать это покупателю 24/7. Например, DHL изобрел специальную автоматизированную почтовую станцию в Германии. Это удобное решение теперь доступно в более чем 2000 точках по всей стране. В будущем торговые компании Германии могли бы использовать эту сеть постаматов для получения заказов для превращения их в автомат по продаже товаров. Так же данная сеть может использоваться для возврата заказов покупателями.
Эта инновационная концепция с постаматами достигла более персонализированного уровня, и теперь такой ящик каждый покупатель может иметь у себя дома. Расположенный рядом с домом покупателя, постамат удобен для доставки и забора посылок.

Одним из последних новшеств является доставка посылок в багажник легкового автомобиля. С помощью мобильного приложения агент получает точное местонахождение автомобиля вместе с кодом доступа к багажнику покупателя. CarDrops.sg уже предлагает эту услугу в Сингапуре, DHL, Amazon, а так же Audi и Volvo запустили пилотные проекты по доставке заказов до багажника автомобиля в Германии и Швеции соответственно. Кроме того, отдельные заказы (в частности, тяжелые товары) могут быть доставлены непосредственно в дом или гараж клиента. Это требует установки приложения Internet of Things, которое дает доступ к открыванию замков и дверей.

Uber-стиль доставки «по требованию» использует существующее движение автомобилей и такси для доставки посылок. Заказы доставляются водителями либо в течение следующего часа после заказа, либо в выбранное клиентом время. Пилотные проекты, обеспечивающие этот вид услуг, были недавно запущены в Гонконге и Сингапуре, а так же такие компании, как EasyVan (Lalamove в Бангкоке) и GoGoVan предлагают услуги по запросу доставки тоже через смартфон -приложение. MyTaxi предлагает доставку продукции немецкой розничной торговли (например, Media Markt).

Такие компании, как Amazon, Google, и DHL теститруют использование беспилотных летательных аппаратов. В будущем беспилотные летательные аппараты смогут использоваться как в первом, так и в последнем звене доставки посылок. Скорость беспилотника может помогать в достижении новых уровней обслуживания для срочных поставок.

Динамически развивающийся сервис «последней мили» логистики

Потребители не заинтересованы в жестких сроках поставки заказа. Клиенты могут легко изменить свое мнение о сроках поставки и местах доставки с помощью одной персонализированной онлайновой платформы. В Интернете или с помощью мобильного приложения они могут создавать и изменять свои предпочтения по доставке.
Потребители также требуют гибкости в коммуникации за пределами Интернета и мобильных приложений. Они требуют такого же доступа материально-технического обеспечения и взаимодействия через WhatsApp, Vchat и другие неструктурированные каналы. Для логистических провайдеров и предприятий торговли задача состоит в том, чтобы создать и поддерживать единое качество обслуживания клиентов и предоставить бесперебойную и модернизированную связь. Тот факт, что цена за транзакцию для этих каналов значительно ниже, чем традиционные каналы обслуживания клиентов, обеспечивает дополнительный стимул для внедрения таких платформ.

Доставка в день заказа и досрочная логистика

Сроки поставки снижаются. Многие компании -Shutl (eBay), Amazon, Google Express и DHL — теперь предлагают доставку в день заказа и даже доставку в течение часа после заказа в нескольких городах. Компании так же должны сбалансировать требования клиентов о скорости со стоимостью выполнения сервиса. Вместо того, чтобы устанавливать свои собственные центры доставки, многие компании экономят деньги за счет использования Postmates, Deliv, Uber и других поставщиков услуг для доставки заказов по требованию.

Столкнувшись с потребностью получать товар в день заказа, от компаний требуется выйти за рамки традиционного подхода оптимизации маршрута. Точно так же, как розничные торговцы предлагают в режиме реального времени рекламные скидки, чтобы продать по акции, онлайн компании могут стимулировать клиентов к выбору наиболее выгодных услуг по доставке путем предоставления бесплатных дополнительных функций, снижений сборов, а так же других специальных предложений.

Прогностическая аналитика позволяет компаниям смотреть в будущие структуры спроса и находить товары, которые находятся территориально ближе к клиенту, чтобы позволить быструю и экономичную доставку. Смотря на шаг вперед, существует даже возможность отгрузить покупателю товар перед его заказом, основываясь на его предыдущих заказах, поисковые запросы, списки пожеланий, содержимое корзины. Такой подход называется упреждающей логистикой.

Единичные экземпляры

Повышение потребительского спроса на персонализацию может привести к массовому производству товаров индивидуального дизайна с учетом особенностей отдельного человека, что в свою очередь может привести к производству децентрализованного объема партии единичных экземпляров. Это требует цепочки поставок, чтобы быстро адаптироваться к изменениям во времени и месте производства, а так же открывает новые возможности для возможности отсрочки услуг сервиса логистических провайдеров.

Ключевые моменты развития и последствия

В отличие от общей практики вывода производства за рубеж, в такие страны, как Китай, тенденция «единичных экземпляров» предполагает, что компании создадут микро-производственные площадки ближе к требуемому месту запроса товара (например, вблизи или внутри мегаполисов). Отвечая на потребность в персонализации товара и все более быстрой доставки, эти высокоавтоматизированные «скоростные» фабрики будут использовать передовую робототехнику, автоматизацию и технологии 3D-печати для быстрого производства индивидуализированных товаров. Производители смогут немедленно реагировать на меняющиеся тренды в определенных локациях и поставлять товары в более короткие сроки. Первопроходцы уже тестируют данную теорию. Логистические провайдеры должны разрабатывать гибкие и цифровые процессы, пересмотреть складские операции, а так же использовать новые концепции гибкой доставки.

Основные возможности

• Предложение расширенных складских возможностей и услуг (например, 3D-печать)
• Достижение индивидуализации продуктов и услуг для конечного потребителя
• Обеспечение лояльности клиентов за счет более тесных и близких отношений покупатель – продавец

Основные проблемы

• Финансовая выгода производства единичных, персонализированных экземпляров товаров еще не подтверждена
• Трудность в планировании и реализации логистических процессов в быстро меняющейся среде
• Увеличение цепочки поставок и гибкости рабочей силы, вероятно, увеличит стоимость доставки

Illustration by Diego Blanco

Unless you have the bandwidth to focus on ecommerce logistics, this essential but complicated element can be a painful drain on your team’s resources.

Ecommerce business owners don’t always have the luxury of housing stock in brick-and-mortar locations.

That means you’ll need to figure out the logistics behind how an online order gets picked, packed, and shipped to the person buying it—regardless of where they (and your products) are.

Table of contents

What is ecommerce logistics?

Ecommerce logistics is the process an ecommerce business uses to get products to customers. Once a customer has made a purchase, the order is packed, shipped, and delivered to the individual.

Having a well-thought-out logistics process isn’t just a nice-to-have. Ecommerce brands are seeing fast and efficient logistics as a competitive advantage. Some even report huge risk to their business if their logistics process doesn’t meet customer expectations.

Components of the ecommerce logistics process

Order fulfillment refers to receiving, processing, and delivering customer orders. Quality, order accuracy, and getting orders out of a fulfillment center in a timely fashion are the most important capabilities you need to look at when you’re talking to potential vendors.

It’s a critical component of ecommerce logistics because it directly affects the customer experience and your reputation. If you can’t fulfill orders on time, you’ll struggle to meet the demands of online shoppers.

Nothing disappoints the consumer more than screwing up the basics. No amount of wow factor, and no amount of marketing buzz will ever overcome logistical nightmares in an ecommerce supply chain. Customers want confidence in the fact their order will arrive as and when intended.

Example: You receive an order through your ecommerce platform, pick and pack the items in your warehouse, and then ship them to the customer.

Inventory management

Inventory management is exceptionally important and also, frankly, a science. How much buffer to have and how much of a given product to have in stock varies based on the retailer’s situation, what they sell, and where they find themselves financially.

Excess inventory is bad, right? It ties up cash you could use more productively in other areas of your business. But on the flip side, we’ve all been in situations where we’ve been shopping online and find the thing we want to buy but, unfortunately, there are no units on hand.

There’s a lot of information online about how to evaluate how much inventory to hold, how to calculate and analyze your inventory turn rates and turnover days, and so forth. But it boils down to a few variables:

• How much does your inventory cost?
• How much do you typically have on hand at any one time?
• How predictable is your demand?
• How do you replenish your inventory?

The simpler those variables are, the more feasible it is for you to manage your inventory. The more complicated they are, the more difficult it will be—which means it might make sense to consult with experts.

Example: An inventory management system integrates with your ecommerce store. It automatically updates stock levels when orders are placed and can trigger reorders at certain levels.

Warehousing

Warehouse management is how and where you store products before they are shipped to customers. Online retailers use warehouses to scale fulfillment and take on more orders, without sacrificing delivery speed and accuracy.

Example: A warehouse management system helps plan, organize, staff, and control available resources in your warehouses. It integrates with your ERP and can provide advanced reporting capabilities to optimize workflows. Many retailers partner with a 3PL and use its warehouse to make supply chain management easier.

Returns and reverse logistics

Ecommerce returns and reverse logistics involve handling and processing returned products, either due to customer dissatisfaction or damage during transit.

Ecommerce logistics is more than getting your product to an end consumer. You’ll need a process in place to handle movement of products in the opposite direction, known as reverse logistics.

Returns plague ecommerce retailers—often through no fault of their own. Customers are honest with the fact they buy variations of a product with the intent of returning them.

A popular reverse logistics strategy is allowing customers to return things they bought online, in-store. “It’s a far better consumer experience, because it doesn’t involve printing labels, cardboard boxes, and, most importantly for shoppers, it doesn’t involve waiting to get your money back,” says David Sobie, CEO and co-founder of Happy Returns.

Example: A customer initiates a return through your ecommerce store. You seamlessly receive and inspect the returned product, then process a refund or restock the product for resale.

Types of logistics management

Third-party logistics (3PL) providers act as the intermediary between a completely hands-on and hands-off approach. In this case, you’re still in control of the products you’re selling through your ecommerce site. The only difference is that your products are stored, labeled, and packed in a third-party distribution hub and fulfillment center.

One of those is Shopify’s Fulfillment Network. These centers are dotted all over the country and act as the home for your unsold stock.

When it’s purchased by a customer online, staff (and their robotic support) in the fulfillment centers pick, pack, and ship your products to your customers. It’s a time- and cost-saving way to take the logistical nightmare out of selling online.

And if you’re wondering how you can find the perfect 3PL partner for your business and customer needs, we have a checklist that can help. You’ll find a set of questions to ask 3PLs to ensure you’re choosing the best possible provider for your needs:

In-house logistics

Companies with brick-and-mortar stores or warehouses can opt to do their own logistics in-house.

In this case, you have a dedicated team that welcomes incoming goods, stores them, and picks them out when an online order is made. You’ll need to partner with a shipping carrier—like FedEx, USPS, or DHL—that collects the orders and delivers them to a customer.

Dropshipping

The logistical process for retailers using a dropshipping business model is much less complex. They don’t touch the items they’re selling through their online stores. As soon as an online order comes through, it’s sent to a third-party provider who picks, packs, and ships it.

Ecommerce logistics companies

Don’t want to deal with the logistics process of shipping products to end customers? Shopify Fulfillment Network will pick, pack, and ship orders as soon as they’re generated through your ecommerce platform or point-of-sale (POS) system.

Retailers can see real-time analytics on their inventory right from their Shopify dashboard. Simply ship stock to a distribution center if you see it running low and you’ll always have stock ready to fulfill new orders.

Each fulfillment center uses collaborative robots that help maintain fast fulfillment speeds and 99.5% order accuracy. Plus, staff working in each distribution center are bound by social and ethical codes of conduct that cover safe working conditions and fair pay.

ShipBob

ShipBob is another ecommerce platform that helps direct-to-consumer brands manage their logistics process. It has a global fulfillment network for ecommerce companies to rely on when they’re promising fast shipping to global customers.

Veeqo

Veeqo makes it easy for retailers to sell across several channels. Its omnichannel inventory and fulfillment services help retailers manage logistics for orders made through their Shopify website and marketplaces like eBay and Etsy.

It acts as a single source of truth for your entire logistics process—regardless of where, what, or how you sell.

6 best practices for ecommerce logistics

• Find an ecommerce logistics partner early
• Balance value-add logistics with profit
• Prioritize free (and fast) shipping
• Automate what you can
• Regionalize inventory to reduce cost
• Diversify your supply chain

Find an ecommerce logistics partner early

There are issues to deal with in warehouses, dedicating store space toward housing your inventory, and the complexities in selling to new countries.

Keeping on top of this as a retailer can be extremely difficult. You need an honest dialogue about when logistics is really interfering with the success of the business.

The most obvious advantage is access to capabilities you don’t have. Whether that’s technology, resources, expertise, or new geographies, outsourcing gives you the power to buy-in specialists who do it 24/7.

There are also advantages from a cost perspective. Typically, 3PLs have economies of scale to give you a better cost per unit than what you’re able to achieve yourself. You’ll also have access to infrastructure that you would not be able to deploy by yourself.

Before signing a contract with a larger logistics company, talk with any 3PLs that you could work with to see if they give you a better rate on deliveries. Contracting with two companies can help if one is better at local deliveries and the other is better with long distance.

—Chelsea Cohen, co-founder of SoStocked

Balance value-add logistics with profit

Making sure your products are perfectly packaged can increase customer satisfaction, but it’s important to know when these value-added services cause more trouble than they’re worth.

It’s always a good idea to ask about what value-added service capabilities a 3PL has. For example:

• What kind of experience and capabilities do they have with kitting?
• Are they able to handle custom packaging?
• Can they do gift bags?
• Can they do custom messages?
• Can they work with fancy tissue paper?
• Can they work with samples?
• Can they personalize the package?

These points are all becoming increasingly important for consumers and retailers. A 3PL provider that can manage these; ask the questions above when you’re questioning potential vendors.

Retailers need to make sure they have the appropriate return on that investment. You always need to balance the operational implications with the marketing wow factor. If the fulfillment process is too expensive or takes too long, it won’t matter how pretty the package is.

Prioritize free (and fast) shipping

Offering a no-cost delivery can encourage people to move forward with their shopping. Free delivery is the top reason people shop online.

There are ways to manage free shipping costs, such as having a minimum order size to qualify for it, or offering it only with promotions or select items. Yet with any free shipping option, retailers need an ecommerce logistic solution that is affordable.

Ask your potential 3PL vendors about last-mile delivery—an item’s final journey to the customer. After all, you’ve got the hard task of preventing customers from being incentivized to use Amazon’s same-day shipping.

Automate what you can

While you’re investigating the technology a 3PL has to offer, consider whether you can automate any part of the logistics process.

One way to do that is to find an ecommerce fulfillment center that uses robots. According to McKinsey, some companies’ automated pallet-handling systems can halve average shipment-processing times.

It’s estimated that by 2030, many logistics operations performed by third-party service providers can be automated. Examples include product inventory management for stock forecasting and replenishment, picking robots, and multishuttle systems.

Logistics automation doesn’t have to be that complex, though. Fashion retailer GoudronBlanc uses a logistics partner that integrates with its Shopify store. All online orders are synced with the logistics software, but their team manually confirms which orders should be picked, packed, and shipped.

My tip would be to find a way to amend orders, so customers have room to change their mind or correct a mistake they may have made. Though it sounds like an unnecessary step in the world of automation, this allows us to control the flow of orders and change any order based on last-minute requests from a customer.

—Guerric de Ternay, founder of GoudronBlanc

Regionalize inventory to reduce cost

Distance equals time and money, and cutting distance down can save a lot of dollars, while maintaining or even improving service levels.

If you’re shipping large volumes to San Francisco, for example, it makes sense to have a warehouse or 3PL partner that can store items in that area. Customers can get free (or same-day) shipping if the product they’re buying is already closeby.

We used decentralized warehouses to disperse stock into high-density areas. This reduces our response time and allows us to react faster to customer demands, without having to double our workforce to keep up with demand.

—Chris Campbell, partner of The Charming Bench Company

Diversify your supply chain

While many 3PL vendors have backup plans in place, some issues in an ecommerce supply chain are unavoidable. Employee strikes at a logistics provider, or issues with their own supply chain, can wreak havoc on how fast (and accurate) your online orders are processed.

Parker Russell, owner and CEO of Black Ink Coffee, has experienced issues with his company’s supply chain due to the nature of the business: “Since coffee beans are a traded commodity with their own harvesting seasons, we have found that you need to have many avenues open when it comes to your logistics,” he says.

“That’s why you need a backup plan for your backup plan, to practice proper risk management, and to always keep your employees and staff trained so that they can handle diversities.”

Scaling online orders doesn’t have to be a logistical nightmare

There’s no doubt that the logistics process for online businesses gets more complex as you grow.

Whether you’re handling reverse logistics cross-border or finding logistics services to regionalize your inventory, there are three overarching themes that make your logistics process a success: accuracy, cost, and speed.

What is meant by ecommerce logistics?

Ecommerce logistics is the process of transporting goods for online retailers and customers, from when the order is placed to its final delivery. It involves managing inventory and transportation from the online store to the customer’s doorstep.

What is the general model for ecommerce logistics?

The general model for ecommerce logistics is integrating physical and IT processes, such as warehousing, inventory management, and order fulfillment, to ensure efficient delivery of goods to customers. This model also includes customer support, feedback, and analytics to ensure customer satisfaction.

What is the main purpose of logistics?

The primary purpose of logistics is to plan and manage the efficient, adequate flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption to meet customer requirements.

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You put a lot of effort into making sure your customers have a great experience. You approve the images, you tweak your store, and you write the emails, all with the goal of leaving your customers happy.

But you’re probably still asking yourself, «how to ship my products to customers». Ecommerce shipping is a key part of your business. It’s the point where a customer finally experiences your product in person, and it can also represent a major expense in your business, depending on your ecommerce shipping strategy.

In this guide, we’ll go over shipping strategy, product packaging, using popular carriers, tracking and insurance, reducing your shipping costs, and delivery options for ecommerce shipping integrations.

Streamline and save with Shopify Shipping

When you ship with Shopify Shipping, you get access to pre-negotiated rates with carriers in the US, Canada, and Australia and you can manage your entire shipping and delivery process in one place.

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Ecommerce shipping strategy 101

Are you going to pass the full cost of shipping on to your customers or will you offer free or flat-rate shipping to absorb some or all of the cost? How will you get orders to your local customers? By the end of this post, you’ll have more information on how to make this choice for your business.

Product weights

To streamline the process of shipping ecommerce orders, measure and update the weight of each product you sell. Having this information about your ecommerce shipments set up will help you get a good sense of your total costs, and pass along accurate prices to your customers.

Choose your preferred packaging

While there’s more to be said about what kind of packaging is right for your products, once you’ve selected it, you can add that information to Shopify so you can calculate accurate shipping prices.

Source your packaging

You can order free packaging from some carriers such as USPS, UPS, or DHL, or invest in branded packaging if that’s part of your strategy.

Set your ecommerce shipping rates and methods

Before you can start shipping ecommerce orders, you’ll first need to decide your pricing strategy for shipping. There are several common methods, but your choice should always be informed by the underlying financials of your business.

Offer Free Shipping

Offering your customers free shipping is one of the best ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment. However, as you might suspect, shipping is never free. Someone always has to pay. To make free shipping work, you have a few options.

• Increase product prices to cover costs for shipping (customer pays).
• You pay the full price of shipping out of your margins (you pay).
• Increase prices of products slightly to cover partial costs of shipping (you and your customer pays).
• Offer a discount code to certain customers for free shipping.

Additionally, you can also try offering free shipping on a minimum order amount. This strategy can help offset the costs of shipping by helping to increase your average order size, but you’re still the one paying for it out of your margins. Therefore, it’s not always the best shipping solution for online sellers.

Charge real-time carrier rates

Another effective shipping strategy is to charge real-time carrier rates for shipping. If you’re using Shopify as your ecommerce platform, you can use Shopify’s ecommerce shipping integrations that work in real-time with various carriers like USPS and Canada Post (among others) to generate shipping options and live pricing from various carriers. This allows your customers to choose and pay for the exact service they want.

Charge a flat rate

A popular option is to offer flat rate shipping. The best practice for this option is to try and make sure that you don’t drastically undercharge or overcharge your customers. Flat rate shipping works best when you have a fairly standard product line of items that have similar sizes and weights. Flat rate shipping tends to become complicated and less effective if you sell a wide variety of products with different sizes and weights.

Offer local delivery

Another method to consider is local delivery. This is a great option for small businesses looking to offer a simple and reliable next-day delivery method to their local customers. When you set up local delivery, you can customize your delivery area using a radius or a list of zip/postal codes. Customers who are within your defined delivery area will be able to select “local delivery” as a shipping method at checkout. Offering local delivery for free over a certain order amount, or offering it for a low cost can help you cut down on shipping costs and get more local customers. In some cases, you can do it all yourself without using an ecommerce shipping provider.

Get your free Shipping Policy Template

Earn your customers’ trust by ensuring essential shipping details are clear and easy to find with our Shipping Policy Template.

Calculating ecommerce shipping rates

All shipping couriers base shipping rates on a variety of factors including:

• Package size
• Package weight
• Origin address
• Destination address

Plus additional shipping options like tracking numbers and insurance.

It can be difficult to compare services exactly as they all offer slightly different options, and every business will have their own unique variables.

Below we have compiled a list of shipping calculators with ecommerce shipping rates for some of the largest and most popular shipping couriers so that you can begin comparing pricing and options. If you’re based in the US or Canada, you can pay for USPS, UPS, DHL Express, Canada Post, and Sendle Shopify shipping options and receive pre-negotiated rates. See example rates here.

Consider your margins

To be successful at ecommerce, you always need to keep an eye on your profit margins. Because shipping for ecommerce represents a significant expense for merchants, if you don’t do your research, you could end up losing money on shipping.

Before you finalize your pricing and strategy for your ecommerce store, you should use a chart like the one below to map out all ecommerce shipping solutions and costs associated with getting your products into your customers’ hands. Many of the best ecommerce entrepreneurs are shocked by how quickly the little charges add up for shipping ecommerce orders. Don’t get caught in the same trap.

Here’s a quick example of how you could calculate your total price to include the cost of ecommerce shipments.

Packaging and marketing

As the world of ecommerce develops so do the expectations of customers who buy online. Years ago, packaging and shipping was simply a way to receive a product purchased online, but more and more people are looking for shipping, packaging and presentation as part of the ecommerce experience.

This expectation means that for many businesses, outside of selling commodities, competing effectively means going above and beyond to impress customers and exceed their expectations by delivering an experience, not just a product.

Packaging inserts and presentation can be an effective way to set yourself apart. In a world where sealed factory bags and a black-and-white order receipt are considered standard, it’s the small details that go a long way in making an exceptional impression on customers.

Consider how you can provide a better customer experience through your packaging, and how you can use packaging as an extension of your brand.

Packaging options

Before you can ship your products, you’ll need to package them for safe transport. So what ecommerce shipping options do you have in this regard? There are a few common options for packaging including boxes or envelopes (padded or unpadded). For example, Arka and its Shopify app offer blank and custom packaging materials including boxes, mailers, package tissues, tape, and stickers.

For many businesses and products, you’ll use a box as well as some other packaging materials to safely ship your products.

You may also want to try thinking outside of the box (no pun intended) and look at other packaging options. For example, some ecommerce shipping providers offer poly mailers as a way to mail products that don’t need a lot of structure or cushioning, like clothing.

Poly mailers offer multiple benefits. They’re lightweight, which reduces your shipping costs, and they can adjust to different volumes and weights depending on what’s included in the order. For example, the same size of poly mailer could accommodate one pair of socks, or five, and you wouldn’t be overpaying on packaging weight or dimensions for the single pair.

Some other large packaging suppliers you may want to consider are ValueMailers, Fast-Pack and eSupplyStore. Additionally, many carriers like USPS, DHL, and UPS offer free packaging in different types and sizes.

Keep it light and small

Because the cost of most shipping options is based on size and/or weight, do your best to keep your packaging as small as possible. This will not only help you save on your ecommerce shipping rates and what your customer paid for shipping, but will also keep packaging costs from eating away your profit margin.

Depending on your business and product line, you may want to consider carrying a variety of package sizes and packaging materials.

Most people would consider the packaging for the product above to be excessive. This is exactly what you’re trying to avoid as it inflates shipping costs dramatically.

The Shopify guide to shipping and fulfillment

Boost customer satisfaction while driving sales growth for your ecommerce business with an effective shipping and fulfillment strategy. Use this guide to create a plan that covers all aspects of shipping and fulfillment, from how much to charge your customers to choosing the right fulfillment method.

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Insurance and tracking

Depending on what you’re selling and its value, shipping insurance and tracking can offer a great deal of security. With most ecommerce shipping companies, insurance and tracking is relatively inexpensive and provides you recourse should one of your packages get lost or damaged. Some shipping services like UPS and USPS Priority Mail include complimentary coverage for up to $100, and that coverage can be up to $200 in some cases.

Consider purchasing insurance on big-ticket items so that, in the rare cases when a package does get lost, you’ll be covered. Keep in mind that some shipping services have insurance already built into the price, so consider this when you are comparing various courier prices.

Customs declaration and forms

For international shipping, you’ll need to include the proper customs documentation. These are available online through Shopify shipping options or at your local post office or shipping retail location. These forms tell the customs officers at the country of import what is in the package, how much it costs, and whether it is a gift or merchandise.

Check with your country’s postal service to find out exactly which forms you’ll need to attach to your package. These forms should be completed honestly and clearly to prevent your package from getting held up in Customs.

Tariffs, taxes and duties

If there are any additional customs fees due when a package reaches its destination, your customer will be responsible for them at the time of delivery. It’s always a good idea to make sure to include this information in your shipping policy page so customers aren’t surprised by unexpected fees.

Here’s an example of how one store prominently displays information regarding additional charges on their ecommerce shipping policy page to ensure customers are aware of possible charges:

Customs declaration information

Once you have decided on the carriers you want to use, consider setting up business accounts. Business accounts offer a variety of services including discounts, better expense tracking, and a whole host of online tools to more efficiently manage the shipping aspects of your business.

For USPS, UPS, DHL Express services in the United States and Canada Post services in Canada, sign up through Shopify Shipping for preferred rates and discounts.

Labeling your packages

Once you have figured out your presentation, packaging, return policy, carrier, and costs, you’ll need to determine how you want to label your packages. Many new ecommerce entrepreneurs start off by writing the ship-to and return addresses on the package by hand. Although this can be a great way to start, it tends to be time consuming, tedious, and not scalable as your business grows.

That’s where Shopify Shipping comes in. You can print and pay for multiple shipping labels directly when you use Shopify shipping options.

You can print your labels on plain paper using any printer, or to save even more time, you can upgrade to a thermal label printer to print directly on self-stick labels.