While nearly every rate for every service is going up, there are plenty of ways to help you mitigate the impact on your shipping costs. In fact, in one study, almost half of the participants had opportunities to actually reduce shipping costs by simply re-evaluating their carrier and service selection process.
This is an excerpt, a teaser, if you will, from a full article found here.
You may find opportunities to reduce the impact of the changes in shipping costs in the following areas:
Carriers
Now is definitely the time of year to re-evaluate—and potentially re-negotiate—your carrier relationships.
Customers care more about getting their packages on time and intact—metrics on which all three carriers perform relatively evenly – then which carrier is used. If cost is the only differentiator, other issues being equal, the winner is usually…
Delivery Timeframes
While some of your packages may take three days to arrive via Priority Mail, a similar number will probably arrive overnight. The USPS mapping tool makes it easy to estimate the delivery time. Given that Priority Mail rates are typically 50-75% lower than Fedex and UPS second-day service rates, it’s worth considering the USPS option. If you decide to switch, update your website to show the 2-3 day delivery change. While you’re at it, this is the perfect time to add 4x Buyer Protection services for your online visitors. Besides price matching and identity theft protection, 4x also provides shipping insurance.
As an added bonus, USPS will deliver free…
Packaging
An often overlooked opportunity to lower shipping costs lies in optimizing packaging.
Priority Mail Regional Rate boxes come in four styles and sizes and allow shipment of contents up to 15 pounds (Box A). You can also choose box B (20 pounds) for a rate that varies only according to destination zone. This often has lower shipping costs than the same rate for a similar custom-boxed package.
In one study, it was found that packaging selection played a role in the cost savings for almost two-thirds of the potential 2017 shipments. In one case, switching to a flat-rate box would save the company shipping the product more than…
There are significant changes in 2017 regarding shipping costs. Optimizing shipping operations is more important than ever. Carriers have been forthcoming with information, but…
Read the complete article on Trust Guard’s Blog:
http://www.4xbuyerprotection.info/shipping-costs-increase-2017/
Which online business services do you need?
Protection from Hackers & More Sales? Trust Guard
Customer Ratings & Reviews? Shopper Approved
Live Chat & Customer Support Software? Rhino Support
A Significant Increase in Conversions? 4x Buyer Protection
Free Privacy Policy? FreePrivacyPolicy.com
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Special thanks to Katie May, CEO of ShippingEasy for her article found here.
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