5 Shipping Facts You Should Know For Running A Successful Magento Store

January 15 2019

Nothing makes online shopping more convenient than the fact that you get the goods delivered right at your doorstep. But this means a lot of work and any e-commerce merchant would know the challenges of logistics. Shipping, in fact, emerges as the mainstay of e-commerce strategy because it determines the level of customer satisfaction. High costs, poor packaging, late delivery, unfulfilled orders, wrong product being shipped, etc are only a few of challenges that you need to address to be on the top.

While some of these can cause increase in cart abandonment, others can result in lost customers. The idea is to know e-commerce shipping better and consider all these facts when you ideate a business strategy. Whether you are already running a store or planning to invest in Magento e-commerce development in the near future, here are some shipping basics that you should be aware of.

1. Understand the value of free shipping
Shipping charges are an integral element of e-commerce pricing, but they are also a key turn off for the shoppers and cause them to abandon their carts. Magento merchants can leverage free shipping as a promotional tool to entice customers and boost sales as well. For example, offering free shipping on a specific order value to increase the average cart value for the customers. Another good idea is to give it free of cost during holiday seasons or as a loyalty reward.

2. Know about different shipping rates

E-commerce shipping rates are calculated in different basis, such as flat rate and table rate shipping. While flat rate shipping refers to the calculation of costs irrespective of factors such as size, weight, destination, and value, table rate considers these factors as the basis of calculation. While choosing the apt method for your Magento store, you need to consider the kind of products you sell and the buyer persona.

3. Live rates are ideal for B2B sellers

Besides the aforementioned options, you can also charge at live rates. As the name suggests, the buyer is required to pay the exact shipping rates as charged by the carrier and the rates by different carriers are shared with the buyer in real time. The option of choosing one that works for them is with the buyer. The strategy is ideal for B2B merchants as it gives personalized rates for individual buyers on the basis of factors such as quantity, weight, size, and distance for the shipment. As a seller, you can add a surcharge over the shipping rate to recover your fulfillment costs.

4. Learn how international shipping works

As e-commerce businesses go global, it is essential to learn how international shipping works to get aligned with this massive opportunity. Shortlist the countries which you want to target and find out all about their trade regulations, restrictions, and the reliable carrier services in the areas. Also, do research about the taxes, custom duties, and documentation that you would need to comply with while shipping to these countries.

5. Get your Magento store ready

In addition to knowing the practical aspects of shipping, you will also need to get a Magento website design that is technically ready. The functional implementation includes integration of the relevant APIs that facilitate the shipping and order fulfillment as a part of the e-commerce experience. You will need to identify the apt modules as well as get them integrated into the store so that the user is able to carry out the essential steps to complete the purchase.

Conclusion

While an e-commerce expert can help you to understand all about shipping, you will need to hire Magento developer to look after the technical aspects. The idea is to craft a compelling shopping journey, with a seamless user experience and justified shipping costs at the core. When the buyers are provided the right set of shipping options in addition to optimal shipping charges, they are most likely to convert and fetch good revenues for your e-commerce store.