Knowing how to ship is imperative to save business costs

If you sell products online or regularly ship goods and services to customers- how can you be sure you have the best shipping deal for you and your customers?

Unless you have examined a full range of options, shipping can be a real nightmare and have a deep impact on your business’s bottom line. Costly shipping errors include, not checking shipment before dispatch, or confused about the shipping method to use. Also, international shipping and custom laws can also bring challenges to the un-informed business owner.

With rapid growth of technology, today, there are many resources available to help business owners understand their options, save business costs, and help them navigate international shipping regulations.

The wrong mode of transportation can be extremely costly and damaging, however knowing how to ship can lead to quick and efficient shipping and delivery as well as imperative to save business costs.

Ways to improve shipping efficiently to save business cost

Automate your system

Have you ever imagined entering customer and product information once and then it automatically appears on all of the necessary form can ease your back-end operations. Automation in your shipping management will give you an ability to increase accuracy and reduce the costs of getting the products out the door.

Today, there are many business software solutions that provides easy integration with leading carriers like FedEx or UPS, which makes it easy to print shipping labels for your orders. These carriers offer a rich-set of features to help business owners manage the shipping process end-to-end.

Having a shipping management software solution in place can help you reduce different cost streams, that includes reduces processing charge from shippers, lower overhead when processing orders for shipment, save labor-cost, and efficient use of shipping materials.

Use flat rate pricing can sometimes increase your cost

Using flat rate deal can surely be a money-saver but have you ever imagined that you’ll land up paying more than you need to when a parcel is lightweight. Flat rate shipping is convenient, but not always cost-effective.

Having your store integrated with a shipping management software solution will help you to determine whether it is more efficient and cost-effective to ship any given packages via other means.

Consider ground service

They are different delivery turn-around time offered to the customers. You may either have to rush the package to the customer or you may not. Figuring out the difference between different kinds of delivery turn-around time can have a huge impact on your business’s bottom line.

Therefore, it is suggested to consider ground service for short destinations – within 400 or 700 miles. This service will often cost less and even deliver products soon than shipments going by air. Also, recommended to experiment different ways to figure out which delivery service to opt in any given circumstances. This way you not only save your business costs but also make for a happy customer.

Plan well before shipping internationally

Shipping products internationally can be complex than just sending the product to the right address. So, it is crucial for you to plan well before shipping internationally as products must meet different packaging and labeling requirements and have different tax rates and insurance than domestic shipments. Leading carriers like FedEx and UPS can be quick and most reliable at getting packages through than the postal service, but not always as there may arise a situation when your package is help up in customs.

Therefore, it is always suggested to allow you customers choose what method shipment is right for their location, this way you can charge accordingly and save business costs.

Use Post meters

Post meters give an accurate weight of packages or adding on additional postage. This meter will also help business keep track on when products are packed and shipped.

Your system should adapt changes

To make your order processing easy and cost-effective, it is crucial and important for you to indulge with an appropriate shipping management software that can adapt changes quickly.

Your shipping management system should be up-to-date, including preferred carriers, level of service, and the costs you pass along to your customers. It should give you the ability to track your actual shipments and calculate when it would be smart to spend more and when to spend less.

Every business owner should understand that every penny saved for shipping affects a business’s bottom line. Following the above cost-effective shipping tips will help save business costs which can be used for other important tasks.