The age of online shopping has been expanding more than ever. With the increased reliance on the comforts of online shopping, business owners have also needed to come up with reliable and affordable shipping options.
What is Ecommerce Shipping?
Ecommerce Shipping refers to the method by which you ship products to your customers. It involves any and all kinds of shipping options for the purchases made in your online store.
Nowadays, how you are shipping products and how it arrives in the customers’ hands also play an essential role in fulfilling your customers’ satisfaction. This means that shipping options also involve securing your product with aesthetically pleasing and firmly sealed packaging. This also means that you have to make sure that your shipping partner maintains your product and packaging integrity. Opening up the product packaging is part of the product and customer experience you are selling. How you ship products would also be an essential and valuable part of your marketing strategy when sending PR packages to influencers or social media brand ambassadors.
Strikingly, a reliable website builder offers you the option to set up your Simple Store. It helps you set up quick and secure payment options, a seamless checkout process, flexible order management, and simple shipping options, as well as coupons. All customizable according to your needs and preferences.
8 Ecommerce Shipping Solutions For Your Online Store
1. Store Pick-up
The store pick-up option is only viable if you have a physical store that your customers can get to. This method of fulfilling the ordered products involves you preparing your customer’s order/s and making sure they are ready for pick-up. Then, as the transactions and payments have already been completed online, all that’s left is for your customers to receive their orders. Store pick-up benefits include:
- No shipping cost
- Decreased shipping time
- Increase for more buy/s or order/s
- Fewer checkout hesitations
Strikingly allows you to add store pick-up as one of your online store’s shipping options, making it a suitable choice. With this shipping and fulfillment method, you can add your store location and the time that your customers can pick up their orders. Upon checkout, this will also eliminate any ecommerce shipping costs.
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2. Same-day shipping
As the name suggests, same-day shipping is an ecommerce shipping and fulfillment option that allows customers to receive their orders within the day on which it was ordered and paid for. This shipping policy requires you to have your products always ready to go and a fast and reliable shipping service partner. This also means that your physical inventory and your online store are always in sync. With this shipping option, you can also offer cash-on-delivery payment. Same-day shipping advantages include:
- Door-to-door service
- Higher customer satisfaction
- Costs to ship products can be passed on to customers
- Increase customer loyalty
3. Free Shipping
The Free shipping option is a fan-favorite ecommerce shipping option, and it is one of the strategies that have proven to improve customer turnout and satisfaction. Customers enjoy the idea of not paying for any costs for shipping products. You can set free shipping based on a specified amount threshold, or particular products or on a limited time. The benefits of the free shipping option are:
- Higher sales
- Increased product orders
- Less abandoned checkout carts
- Boosting customer satisfaction
Strikingly also offers this free shipping option to be added to your store. This allows you to set a certain amount of orders that your customers would have to accumulate to avail of the free shipping option. Upon checkout, your customers would see a note telling them the price threshold of this ecommerce shipping option. Free shipping would increase the chance of them going back to the store and ordering more to reach it.
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4. Shipping with Live Rates
This shipping option is where you charge your customers based on your courier’s rates in real-time. This means that what your courier charges for delivering each of your products will also be what you will charge your customers with. Your courier charges will be your base costs, but you can add a small amount of surcharge to it to cover your packaging and other costs. This ecommerce shipping option is not very popular because retailers usually find difficulty in its marketing benefits. However, shipping with live rates still has its advantages:
- Shipping costs at their lowest
- Your customers get charged the cheapest fee
- Easy to calculate
- Local orders are shipped at less costs
5. Flat-rate Shipping
Flat-rate shipping is a usual ecommerce shipping option. This method involves one specified rate when shipping products. This means that regardless of the size and weight, the shipping rate stays the same. But you can also add additional shipping flat rates for additional products. Flat-rate shipping benefits include:
- Fixed shipping rates
- Steady shipping time
- Affordable, especially for local shipments
- No need to constantly measure the weight and size of the shipment
Strikingly allows flat-rate shipping option for your online store. You can set flat rates for every first order and every additional item on the order list. In addition, Strikingly also gives you the option to set varying flat rates according to the location it is to be sent to. This would also help you in setting specific locations that you can deliver to.
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6. Expedited Shipping
This ecommerce shipping option involves less time than the standard shipping option that takes about 3-5 days when domestic, and up to a couple of weeks for international shipping. With this shipping option, your customers can choose to get their products earlier or within a faster time frame. While this shipping option costs more than the standard, it is worth it for some customers if it means getting their orders when they need it. Offering expedited shipping has the following advantages:
- Improved customer service and satisfaction
- Guaranteed product safety
- Build-up customer loyalty
- Reduced checkout carts abandonment
Strikingly has multiple shipping options which include expedited shipping. This allows you to set the rate for both standard and expedited shipping options. In addition, it helps you set up easy checkout rates that your customers would be charged with upon checkout.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
7. International Shipping
One of the many benefits of online shopping is that business people like you can reach a far wider audience. This means that they can order your products wherever your customers are and expect them to be shipped to them. As a competent business owner, you have to cater to their needs. Otherwise, you might lose many of your customers. International shipping should be one of your ecommerce shipping options because your products might also have an international market. Shipping products locally might be easier and cheaper, but it doesn't mean that international shipping doesn’t have its perks:
- Increased revenue
- Wider customer reach and market
- International brand awareness
- Decreased seasonal slowdowns
Strikingly offers you an international shipping option to be added to your store. This means that you can set what countries you cater for your products to be shipped to any part of the globe. In addition, you can set your international shipping option to charge with a flat rate or add a shipping fee based on the weight of your products for each specific country.
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8. Eco-friendly Shipping
This ecommerce shipping option isn’t as popular or as common as the previous shipping options. However, with the growing awareness and advocacy for Mother Earth, this option is also gaining appeal. Eco-friendly shipping involves the use of biodegradable and recyclable materials for packaging and shipping products. In addition, eco-friendly shipping has advantages like:
- Reduced carbon footprint
- Improved brand identity
- Expanded customer base
- Reduced Shipping Costs
- Easily disposable
Set-up Ecommerce Shipping Solutions with Strikingly
1. Sign-up or log in with Strikingly.
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2. Go to your site editor and add the “Simple Store” section.
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3. Add your products
Strikingly offers you different options of the type of products you can sell. You can also add images and descriptions and simplify the product name and price of your products. You can also modify the stock quantity for each of your products.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
4. Set-up options for shipping products
In customizing your Simple Store, Strikingly helps you set up different shipping options. For example, you can set shipping rules to flat rate per item, shipping fee based on weight, and store pickup. In addition, for each option, you can add different regions and fees for which each shipping option is available.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
Ecommerce shipping and fulfillment have been made easier for you by website builders, like Strikingly. As a business person, you deserve all the help you can get in bringing your high-quality products into the homes of your customers at a reasonable cost and without compromising the quality. Your products deserve the same care and concern you have for them throughout their journey to their new homes. And with a good ecommerce website and the correct shipping partner, you don’t have to worry too much when you ship products. So easily set up shop with Strikingly! Sign-up now and get access to all the available e-commerce shipping solutions Strikingly has for you!
