Profitable businesses implement the best shipping strategies to keep their enterprise shipping costs low. As an eCommerce business owner, you are familiar with how costly shipping can be. More so, you understand how important shipping operations are for business success. If your customers do not receive their packages safely and on time, they will likely avoid buying your products again. Fortunately, you can keep your sales up and stop spending so much on shipping at the same time. In this post, you will learn the top ways to reduce enterprise shipping costs.

Ship Regionally:

One way to reduce enterprise shipping costs is to ship regionally when possible. While national shipping often seems like the best option, many regional shipping carriers provide better rates. They can offer lower rates because they ship to smaller areas and, therefore, have a shorter list of shipment stops. Companies that mainly ship to consumers in one particular area can utilize this option. If the majority of your customers live in California and Arizona, you can benefit from using regional shipping carriers. Find a carrier that delivers specifically to the West Coast of the United States. Then, you can save money on domestic enterprise shipping.

Automate Packaging:

Another way to reduce enterprise shipping costs is by automating your packaging processes. As with most business purchases, labor costs are added into total shipping payments. Automated packaging reduces labor costs. It, therefore, decreases total shipping costs. Look into the best automated onsite packaging technology options for enterprises. Such options minimize manual labor by utilizing robotic technology in the packaging process. The technology guarantees professional packaging with better customer service due to less errors. Hence, you can satisfy your customers’ needs and stick to your shipping budget by automating your packaging.

Negotiate Shipping Rates:

To decrease your enterprise shipping costs further, negotiate shipping rates. As a business owner, you know how to negotiate. You may have negotiated prices with a manufacturer during your startup. However, negotiating with carriers like UPS or Fedex is much more difficult. According to Reveel Group, “You should have the pricing that your carriers are offering to similar companies, giving you valuable industry and regional benchmarks.”If you have comparable data, they will offer various incentives and discounts to match your competitors. If they disagree to the price drop, move onto another shipping carrier and negotiate prices with them. Eventually, you will find a carrier that will agree to reduce your enterprise shipping costs.

Avoid Air Delivery:

Additionally, avoid air delivery in order to minimize your enterprise shipping costs. Many company owners assume that air delivery is necessary to deliver packages on time. They overpay for the service without even checking to see how quickly their packages could be delivered via ground shipping. They fail to realize that ground shipping services can usually transport products in the necessary time frame. Some carriers will save themselves additional costs and send packages through ground shipping if they can be delivered on time. If you already paid for air delivery, you will not receive your money back. To lower your shipping costs, keep your packages on the ground when possible.

Audit Payments:

Finally, you can lower your enterprise shipping costs by auditing your payments. In the business world, automation is usually favored. After all, it saves business owners, managers, and employees all time and energy. Thus, their productivity and profits usually rise with automated functions. Unfortunately, this is not true when it comes to shipping. If you automate your shipping payments, you might not notice when a mistake occurs. More so, you will spend a decent amount of time trying to obtain the refund you deserve if you do notice that you were incorrectly billed. After all, the money will have already come out of your business account. If you do get your money back, you will have wasted time that you could have spent selling your products. To ensure that you do not get wrongfully charged for shipping, audit your payments.

To increase your company’s profits, implement the top strategies for lowering enterprise shipping costs. If you ship mainly to one region, opt for regional shipping over national shipping. Automate your packaging to decrease manual labor and the costs associated with it. Put your negotiation skills to the test and request a price reduction from your carrier. Unless absolutely necessary, avoid air delivery and use ground delivery instead. Additionally, audit your payments to prevent getting wrongfully billed at a higher price. If you follow these ways to reduce enterprise shipping costs, you can increase your company’s profits and expand successfully.

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