So you’ve got your eCommerce store up and running. Or you’ve had it for some time and want to save costs and improve your workflow. In either case, there’s a simple way to reduce your costs and increase profits at the same time.

To improve your store, you’ll need to brush up on your shipping knowledge. It will save you a lot of stress and allow the business to grow. This is especially important if you see your store expanding in the future.

Once you’ve conquered shipping, you can focus on other things like product development and marketing.

Want to find out if you’re shipping your orders the right way? Keep reading to find out the five eCommerce shipping solutions that you need to implement today.

1. Use a Fulfillment Service

Shopify recommends outsourcing fulfillment as well as warehousing. Here’s how it works.

Your inventory is stored at one of the service’s warehouses. You can use automation to send each order as it comes to the fulfillment service. They will pack the item(s) for you, label them and ship them to the customer.

Compare this to the alternative of having to pack each order yourself. Even if you hire employees, it’s going to be a slow and clunky process. For fulfillment service providers, this is literally all they do, so they are much more streamlined.

This brings us to another advantage: cheaper shipping rates overall. Due to the amount of business they do with logistics companies, they have access to great rates. Another advantage is that their warehouse could be closer to your customers.

This means they get the items faster, a win-win situation all around.

2. Strategic Free Shipping

Every customer loves free shipping. As a business owner though, to ship orders you incur a cost. There are ways that you can give customers what they want, while not putting your balance book in the red.

The first instance is where your items are high value but don’t weigh much. If you sell jewelry, which has a high profit margin, shipping will not cost you much. It will, however, be a great incentive to buy in the customer’s eyes.

The other tactic you can use is to only offer free over a certain order value. Your average order size will increase, so you end up selling more.

Finally, you can offer free shipping to valued customers. Say they have ordered from you a number of times, or consistently spent a lot. A free shipping code, in this case, works well to inspire loyalty.

3. Choose the Right Shipping Vendor

One of the first steps in your shipping plan should be to identify which vendor and service to use.

It can be helpful to look at what other retailers are doing to get an idea about your choices. Ask yourself what eCommerce shipping solutions are the major sites like Amazon offering? Other stores in your niche are your competition, so also check out their shipping options as well.

You should then check out the major shipping providers and compare. These include couriers like UPS and FedEx, as well as USPS. Some sites like iShip will even compare rates and services for you.

Also, don’t be afraid to negotiate or ask for specials. Many providers will allow for special tariffs for small business shipping.

Call a meeting with the shipping service’s representative. They could put you on to options that you didn’t even know were available. No matter the size of your business, there is always a deal to be had.

4. Streamline Your Shipping Labels

When it comes to product shipment, a lot of eCommerce entrepreneurs overlook labeling. It may seem like a small issue, but with labels, the devil is in the details.

Going to the post office for a label is inefficient. You have to actually spend money on transport. Then once you get there you have to stand in line and fill out forms.

A certified mail label service that you can use to print your labels saves both time and money. With a service like this, you can print the label and then stick it to your envelope or package. There’s even the possibility to buy envelopes where you can print directly onto them for automated mailings.

5. Optimize Your Packaging Strategy

Packaging can be one of your biggest costs. The packaging market is going to exceed $21 million soon. At the same time, it can be a great marketing tool.

There’s a common concept that different carriers use called dimensional weight. Regardless of your box size, their price will be determined by the volume. This means even a small item like jewelry can cost a lot if you put it in larger packing material.

A great way to minimize your costs, then, is to optimize your packaging. Make sure you are using the best materials, sizes and your internal filler is optimal. Ditch the massive amount of paper padding and use foam inserts instead, for example.

Another tactic is to use Priority Mail and Express Mail flat rate boxes. They don’t calculate based on dimension and instead charge a – you guessed it – flat rate.

This only applies to USPS, so if you are using another carrier you’ll still need to be careful about size.

You can also use your packaging as a delivery method for marketing material like flyers. Create a fun unboxing experience by adding a coupon or a catalog. You can also include a free gift by using old stock you can’t get rid of.

eCommerce Shipping Solutions

The value of a great shipping policy can’t be underestimated. This is often the last step in a transaction. You want a customer to go away feeling good about the process.

In addition to using eCommerce shipping solutions, there’s plenty you can do to grow your online business. One thing you can try is to put unique marketing tactics in place. We explore this strategy further in our article on using marketing stickers for your business.