You can do everything in your power to make sure your customers get the best experience from your online store: develop a great product, spend countless hours interacting with them on social media., and always hunt down or any new integrations that’ll simplify their shopping experience. But when it comes to e-commerce shipping, it can feel like you don’t have much control.

Shipping, however, is an integral part of the whole e-commerce business experience. And with some careful thought and planning, you can remain in control of your customer’s shipping experience.

e-commerce shipping: getting started

Decide shipping rates and methods.

Remember, you’re in control here. And you do have options to consider when it comes to your customer’s e-commerce shipping experience. You’ll want to decide if…

• your customers will pay the full, calculated shipping amount
• you’ll offer free shipping and absorb the full cost
• you’ll offer a flat-rate for shipping, absorbing part of the cost

A few things to note:

• Offering free shipping is the best way to reduce abandoned carts, however, you have to consider the cost of shipping vs. the retention of the customer.
• If free shipping is something you really want to offer, consider either raising your prices to cover the cost or offering free shipping on a minimum order amount to balance things out.

Get to know your product

It’s important to know the exact measurements and weight of each product you sell so that Shopify can do its job when it comes to properly calculating shipping costs. You’ll also need to know the origin location and the destination location to properly calculate costs.

Decide on & source your packaging

Did you know that you can order free packing materials from UPS, USPS or DHL? If you’d prefer, you can also invest in brand-specific packaging.

Ready to tackle the e-commerce world but don’t know where to start? Get in touch. We ensure your e-commerce site is set up for success right from the start!