8 Useful Shipping Tips for Online Business

One big problem that every dropshippers will face is shipping. You can do pretty well with other activities like sales, marketing, product sourcing. But you don’t have a good shipping process, you cannot stand long in the industry. If your customers feel exhausted and angry because they have to wait too long without any notice, they will not come back to you. So, that’s why shipping is a critically important part of your dropshipping business.

Today, we will help you by suggesting 8 powerful shipping tips to make shipping easier for you and improve your customers’ buying experience. So let’s explore!

8 Shipping tips to improve your customers’ experience

1. Test your shipping process by yourself

The first shipping tip we would like to recommend to you is that you should verify the shipping process. And one way to check your shipping process is that you need to experience it yourself. That means you can place a test order, then see how your parcels are delivered to you. By doing so, you will know how long the shipping process normally takes, how the package is handled when you receive it, how the packaging looks like, and so on. Once you have a clear idea of how good is the shipping process, you can find ways to improve it.

2. Notify your customers about shipping time

It’s so important that you have clear and transparent communication with your customers about the shipping process. You can write a shipping policy. You can put the shipping information on your website, on your social media pages.

Even your shipping will be really long, your customers will know in advance what they should expect. And that will save you from many troubles. You should also set a reasonable expectation over the delivery time. So that when you can do better than what you promise, your customers will feel much happier.

You can also notify your customers about the shipping process by sending them messages or emails right after they order. In that way, they will know where their parcels are going and feel more impressed by your customer care and professional manner. So, communicating cleary with your customers about the shipping time is the next shipping tip we would like to advise.

3. Be fully aware of your shipping time and process

But before you communicate the shipping process with your customers, you should know it like the palm of your hand. So, it’s necessary to work with your supplier or your dropshipping agent carefully about how they handle shipping.

4. Choose a dropshipping agent or supplier with good shipping services

The next shipping tip to offer a good shipping service to your customers is choosing your shipping partners. Of course, if you want a good shipping service, you’d better choose a good dropshipping agent or supplier. You cannot watch your agent or supplier all the time. So you should choose the one that you can trust. Many dropshipping agents can offer many shipping methods and excellent services that you can choose from. Also, choose the one that you can reach their customer service team 24/7 and get responses very quickly so that they can help solve urgent issues for you.

5. Make your customers happier with free shipping

Free shipping will have a big impact on your customers’ behaviors, and also their experience when they shop with you. Most people will expect to pay for the products only and they don’t want to spend extra money for shipping. So, offering free shipping will encourage them to buy and make them happier when they purchase something from you. Even when your delivery time is long, they tend to mind less. So, we would recommend free shipping offer as the next shipping tip on our list.

6. If free shipping is impossible, set flat shipping rates

If you cannot offer free shipping to your customers, you can set flat shipping rates to a particular country or region instead. This will save both sides a lot of time to calculate the shipping rate. Your customers might feel unsure about the shipping fee, then might abandon their carts. But when you set shipping rates, they know what to expect. And if they can accept the fee, there’s no reason that they would leave. Experience from other dropshippers how that this is a very useful shipping tip that any entrepreneur can use, especially small businesses.

7. Use location targeting

Up next on our list is a small but very effective shipping tip for your business. When you run ads, you can decide which countries or regions you want to target your audiences. So, you should take this chance to target the ones you can use many shipping methods there, and the ones with the best shipping fee and time.

8. Target local customers

The last shipping tip we recommend to you today is local targeting. If you don’t want to ship to other regions or countries, you can also target your local customers. Within your local area, shipping will be much easier and faster. Furthermore, this will make you different from the rest and gain you a loyal customer base when you can offer them the best shipping service in the area.