Online shopping has risen very quickly over the past decade. Becoming a successful online retailer isn’t an easy task by any means. They have to make many decisions and an important one is getting postage right. Thought will have been placed into calculating how much postage and packaging will cost to customers.
It is essential for business owners to carefully calculate the costs associated with packaging and posting your items to make sure you do not end up with an overall loss.
Calculate your packaging costs
The cost of packaging your item can quickly become too much if unmanaged. Today, customers expect the very best when it comes to online shopping and delivery. There are so many brands that appear to have exceptional delivery leaving those that trail behind in the dust.
For most items a cardboard box would be a suitable packaging choice. For clothing, a high-quality plastic bag is a good option as it is waterproof. Note that there should be at least two layers of packaging for adequate security. Fragile items should be protected with extra packaging material like bubble wrap or polystyrene.
Factoring in shipping costs will enable a business to decipher how much they should be charging for delivery.
Free delivery
Some retailers will charge for delivery and others will choose to offer free postage and packaging to their customers. When free delivery is provided, this is often because a premium has been added to the cost of the actual product to cover this. Therefore, the item’s displayed price is final and there will be no additional costs shown at the checkout.
To make offering free delivery more feasible, you could offer it after a certain amount has been spent by the customer. This is a good way to driving up average sale value. Determining whether to offer free shipping or apply a threshold will depend on a business’s margins.
Offering a flat rate price
Offering a flat rate for delivery will take a bit of preparatory work. By offering a flat rate price for delivery you will need to work out how much, on average, it will cost to send an item. The average will help to ensure that customers are not under or overcharged. Testing will need to be conducted to figure out which flat rate works and if organising these rates by order totals or weight ranges will help.
Charging the real cost
The option is pretty self-explanatory and is an option that many retailers opt for. Customers will be paying the amount it really costs to ship. This strategy is not as compelling as free delivery; however, it is a way to ensure shipping costs don’t taint profits without overcharging people.
Get a shipping quote
Shipping costs will depend on the size and weight of your parcel. The time frame of delivery will also affect pricing. At Speed Couriers, we aim to simplify shipping processes and our pricing is fair. We do our best to ensure that any consignment is handled and transported with care.
