An effective sales force manages to bring the product to the customer or the customer to the product only virtually, and although it is enough to make one party in the transaction, then necessarily comes the other and more tangible side of product delivery to the customer, which requires much more real and tangible expenses. Actively minimizing shipping expenses is a smart and effective way to increase your profit margin, and this is how you can do it:
Optimize the size and weight of your packaging
Proper packaging of a product before shipment is perhaps the highest art in the world of logistics that accompanies the world of online sales, as every inch or extra gram of packaging leads to larger dimensions of a package, leading to a decrease in the potential quantity of each package and an increase in the shipping cost of each package.
Therefore, the first step in an economical and smart shipping process is to be able to minimize your packaging as much as possible, using of course the packaging materials that you can buy at the best price in bulk. Here is also the time to point out that shipping materials are an important investment in the long run and it may be worthwhile for you to invest more in them than you planned, in order to earn more in the long run from smart and efficient shipping.
Plan in advance the size and weight of the packages – uniformity leads to a better price
Planning and knowing in advance the dimensions of the packages you send, after optimizing them, saving any non-essential packaging material and choosing the smallest packaging, will allow you to get a better long-term quote, assuming there is no change in these dimensions. Once everything is uniform and regular, you will always know in advance how much you are going to pay and you can even get a better price in advance if you can commit in advance to a large amount of orders.
Weigh the price of shipping into the price of the product – more familiar "free" shipping
Sales figures from leading sites like Amazon and eBay show that more than any other figure, free shipping offered by some sellers is probably the most significant figure (other than product price) that contributes to a particular customer eventually purchasing a particular product from one seller and not another seller. Those sellers who offer free shipping often weigh the average shipping price in advance into the price of the product and so they can offer "free" shipping that will occasionally catch the eye of a customer who has not done a comprehensive review of the price without shipping at competitors. Using this strategy wisely and while maintaining a minimal profit margin and customer benefit, will usually bring sweeping success even in cases of less sought after products, which will also allow you to save money through shipping in larger quantities.
Look for shipping discounts through sales platforms – bargains can only be found if you search
In quite a few cases a seller can find discounts on shipping products or special prices for using the shipping services of the sales platforms themselves. Such discounts can come in various configurations such as a practical discount on payment for shipping through a particular shipping service or a reduction in the profit margin charged by the seller by the platform for certain products, but in any case it is always worth looking for and hunting them at the right time to save your shipping costs.
Have you expanded successfully? Consider hiring an outside entity to handle shipping
There are small and large businesses alike that specialize in shipping and inventory management of other businesses, and if you have reached a point where your business and brand sell "too much" in terms of the amount of orders you are able to handle shipping efficiently, you should probably consider using the services of such a business. In large quantities, using such a service can save you hundreds and even thousands of dollars over time, depending on the weight and size of the packages you sell, so this is an element that is considered almost a mandatory step after a certain expansion of your sales network.