Shipping is ideally the last interaction we have with customers. Therefore, it’s crucial to get it right. There are a lot of options out there to create a more fine-tuned shipping strategy, while also saving money. Here’s five ways from ShipStation Australia to help you save money (and time) when it comes to shipping.
1. Automate your shipping process
Your shipping strategy directly impacts consumer satisfaction and their decision to purchase again in the future. In fact, 70 per cent of consumers say a poor delivery experience negatively impacts their impression of the retailer, rather than the carrier.
ShipStation provides easy to set up automation and access to pre-integrated carriers with shipping rate discounts that are usually reserved for ASX top 100 companies. ShipStation offers everything under one main software platform that can automate and synchronise all the monotonous shipping tasks.
The time saved when you automate means that you can decrease staffing costs and spend that money and those resources elsewhere. An employee who would spend most of their time processing shipping labels can now focus on customer service, marketing, or other business activities.
2. Take advantage of shipping discounts
ShipStation now offers discounted rates, so there’s more added value and convenience for the merchants. Instead of purchasing the labels and managing payments through multiple different carriers’ accounts, customers can use the discounted rates that ShipStation has negotiated rates on the user’s behalf, saving more money and time.
Merchants no longer need to set up individual accounts with each carrier, connecting their selling channel instead to ShipStation’s base platform. In addition to reduced shipping rates, ShipStation users also avoid certain surcharges, saving you even more money!
3. Calculate and compare rates
Finding the cheapest way to ship a package doesn’t have to mean using the slowest service. ShipStation’s Rate Calculator lets you quickly view all estimated rates across multiple services and carriers in real time so you can determine which service is best for different shipments.
ShipStation offers powerful integrations with carriers such as Australia Post, Aramex, CouriersPlease, Sendle, and StarTrack. For international orders, Australia Post, UPS, and DHL make it easy to send and receive shipments from all over the world.
4. Apply multiple-carrier shipping options
Multiple-carrier shipping options allow you to switch between carriers as and when needed, to get around potential delivery bottlenecks not only nationally, but also globally. When you have multiple carrier accounts to choose from, it not only saves money through ShipStation’s shipping discounts, but it also gives you leverage for negotiating further discounts with carriers in the future.
As your shipping volume increases, you may find that different package sizes and destinations make different services more affordable. To keep you using their carrier more, it can become possible to get volume-based discounts through a carrier.
5. Assess size and weight
The size of a parcel is going to greatly determine your shipping rate. The more space a package takes in the back of a truck, the fewer parcels the carrier can transport at once. Packaging dimensions have a significant impact on shipping costs, with most shipping options based on size and weight.
The ShipStation platform allows users to clearly see how much these different dimensions affect the cost, helping them to better manage their packaging processes and save money with every shipment.
Try it for yourself!
Every business coming on board with ShipStation starts with a 30-day trial. Signing up is an easy four-step process involving connecting your store, choosing the carrier accounts you want to use, deciding how you’ll print the shipping labels, and selecting a pick-up location.
Following sign-up, you’ll be ready to print labels within minutes and be allocated a dedicated account manager who will then configure your account and answer any questions you may have.
Start your 30-day free trial with ShipStation today.
