If your company’s shipping rates are too high, you are going to lose customers – it is that simple. Many companies are offering free shipping and in doing so, they attract customers. Even when a customer can pay $10 for an item and $2 for shipping, they are more likely to choose a $13 that comes with free shipping. Why? Because of the psychological need to avoid paying shipping costs.
The good news is that there are options for your company. You can offer “free” shipping by following some of the advice below. This can allow you to keep your prices the same, charge less for shipping, and still make the same profit. Be sure to reach out to Square One Business Machines at (972) 370-3664 for help with postage machines and other postage solutions.
Use a Single Flat-Rate Shipping Price Calculated Based on Average Delivery Cost
One way to get around a customer’s innate dislike for paying for shipping is to offer a flat rate no matter what they buy. This encourages them to buy more to make shipping “worth it,” and it allows you to heavily advertise your low shipping rates so that you do not have to deal with cart bounce when the customer is surprised by shipping at the end.
Of course, shipping costs vary from order to order, so how can you offer flat rates and still make money? Averages. Use a blended average delivery cost across all your orders. This might mean that for some orders, you will be paying part of the shipping out of pocket, but for others, you will actually be making more than shipping costs.
Bake the Price into the Product
If you have relatively expensive products, then you can likely increase the price by a few dollars and then call shipping “free.” Once again, it’s not that customers really object to paying for shipping, they just don’t want to see it. Include it in the price, and you will avoid having people leave their cart behind at checkout.
Require Certain Elements for Free Shipping
You can also do what many companies do and offer free shipping if the order is above a certain dollar amount. Make sure that the dollar amount you set is above the average cost of an order. Why? Because you will encourage customers to purchase more to get the satisfaction of “free” shipping.
Reduce Your Mailing Costs
Of course, one of the first things you should do is to get together with Square One Business Machines and find out how we can reduce your actual mailing and shipping costs. From great prices on mailing supplies to reduced costs on mailing machines, we can help. Call us now at (972) 370-3664 to get started
