When customers visit your ecommerce website in order to shop their desired products, they may eventually add it to the cart if they find it at the reasonable cost. However, when they go to the checkout page, where the delivery and handling charges are displayed, customers start to reconsider at this point as what earlier seemed as a reasonable cost has turned costly after adding shipping. Customers either go on with the shopping notwithstanding the raised price or they simply leave their cart disappointedly and head towards another website.
But there are ways through which you can impact the decision of customers. Given below are some shipping strategies and the way they can be incorporated into your business to reach new heights.
Shipping Rates and Abandoned Carts
While devising your shipping strategy, the actual trial is discovering a resolution that by not just stays engaging for customers but also casts into your margins as limited as possible. As per various research reports, handling and delivery charges are the primary reason why the shopping cart gets abandoned. Thus, it is very important to talk about this issue and solve it.
Option 1: Offer Free Shipping
You catch the attention of customers when you provide free of cost delivery, normally for orders that are domestic. But depending on your margins, it can also possibly dig into the profits you make. Compared to other competitors who do not display ‘Free Shipping’ on their website, the ones who do display this potent marketing tool gain an immense influence over customers, thus having the upper hand. However, when you plan to provide free shipping, you will need to either increase the prices of your products a bit or bear the extra cost. Yet, another option is that providing the free shipping with either a minimum order amount or a minimum number of items. This step will increase the value of your average order and also assist you to gain more profit dollars to apply the delivery cost.
Another method through which you can boost your conversion rates is by letting everyone know through advertising extravagantly everywhere that you offer free shipping. For instance, Chubbies provide free delivery on all their shorts (including return shipments) and they never hesitate to put this up on their website so that people who are purchasing are aware that the price that is displayed is the final price of payment.
Deciding if you want to provide free delivery or need a minimum amount of handling generally comes down to your margins and the expertise you work in.
If you provide leisure or handcrafted, one-of-a-kind goods, then having a few delivery charges is not a problem. But if the market you are in is very competitive, then this will not be the best course of action. In such cases, you will either have to bear the cost of delivery or devise a new idea for shipment.
Shipping Matters to Online Shoppers – An Infographics
Source: PitneyBowes
Option 2: Charge What You Get Charged
In some shopping carts, it’s plausible to structure rates of real-time delivery. This means that customers will give precisely the amount you would spend in order to get your goods delivered.
For example, Simple Sugars is a store that was on Shark Tank lately, incorporates this strategy where at checkout they provide real-time delivery prices to the buyers. Once the buyer lands on the checkout and chose the place of their desired delivery, the rest of the estimation is performed by the calculator. The trust of a customer can be build by having a real-time calculator because it will transparently display that you are neither changing your said delivery fees nor increasing your item cost in order to cover the charges.
When compared to free shipping, this method does not hold that amount of persuasion, however; it’s a simple method to ensure that your shipping costs are not taking a toll on you and that your buyers are receiving the best and greatest deals that are present. This is a good choice to use for products that are big or weigh more, the ones that you cannot or do not want to allow delivering beneath the promotions of free of cost delivery.
Option 3: Offer Flat Rates
The third option is by providing a flat rate for each product, or flat rates for weight ranges and order totals. However one needs to have some preparation while considering this particular method of for cost of delivery as it is essential to estimate the average cost of delivering a product. This is the best method to be performed in every situation in order to ensure that one isn’t considerably undercharging or overcharging the buyers.
The moment the correct price is achieved, you’ll perhaps be over – or under – the real delivery charges by a little, though it will be cleared out but the end. Truly’s Natural Deodorant applies the flat rate method, and for the order of one product has a simple $2.99 charge.
The essential point regarding the nature of flat rate shipping is knowing what flat rate is suitable for you and the nature of flat rate shipping. USPS provides some various sizes of flat rates boxes, and if you have objects that are small, but heavy then using the cost savings from cubic shipping prices can assist to get your flat rates into the right range.
You must understand that each business is distinct and it is only by testing that one figures out the best course of action. You’ll be required to get the statistics on your goods and the optimum methods to deliver them to be able to take the best strategic decision available. At this stage, additional apps like SumAll, StitchLabs, ShipStation, and others can assist you to obtain data and information regarding shipping carriers and methods you were not aware of before and suits your needs.
Zahoor Bhat has over 10+ years of experience as an online editor and media manager. He has worked with major online news and content sites as a media manager. He is well versed with major content management systems and web platforms such as WordPress and social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google Business, Yelp, Instagram & Linkedin. He is an expert in content creation, proofreading and finally making it live. Being a social media expert, he is able to make relations with social media influencers and make sure to generate leads and grow business via different social media platforms.
