How To Offer Free Shipping on Your Ecommerce Store & Still Make a Profit – Episode 6

Welcome to the sixth episode of the Ultimate Guide to Profitable Free Shipping. This week we will be talking about special carrier services. Beyond mainstream services provided by the three national carriers, there are a few other ways to ship your products profitably. Points 26 through 30 talk about five shipping services that might be perfect for any business with unique shipping needs. Number 26 use zone skipping for high Volume Zones Shipping rates for your parcels are mostly decided by the number of zones or regions they have to travel to reach the final destination. It can be brutal if a lot of your orders come from a farther zone. However, there is a workaround. In such a case you can use zone skipping. You bundle all your orders from one region and transport it to the destination zoned by ground transportation. Once there, you can arrange for it to be delivered by a shipping carrier. This can help you save around 10% of your shipping cost. In fact, if you drop your mails in bulk at USPS offices, you can save more by using Parcel select service which is cheaper than conventional last mile delivery. 27 ship directly from overseas using the Global Mail program. National postal services of leading nations deliver packages for each other in exchange for a terminal fee. Since this fee is decided on the basis of a nation's development scale, shipments from China to the USA are much cheaper than the other way around. In fact, for epackets, a shipping method for package is less than 4.4 pounds. It is cheaper than even delivering between the states and the USA. The service is slow and can take up to 20 days, but sellers on Wish.com Marketplace use it to target customers who prioritize free shipping of inexpensive imports over fast shipping. American sellers can also try this if they can set up sourcing from China with a reliable supplier. It can be tough due to physical and cultural distances, but the savings can be worth the effort. 28. Use international freight Forwarders to fulfill International orders International shipping from the US can be a costly and time consuming affair with many things to consider. International freight forwarders provide complete logistics solutions for international shipments to firms and luckily some of them such as DHL offer services geared towards e commerce businesses. They help online sellers by bundling less than container loads to get you the cheap container rates and provide support for calculating and paying different duties, taxes and cross border fees. This helps you provide a clear price with a reasonable shipping charge to international customers. They also coordinate the delivery of the items to warehouses or customers in the destination country. Number 29 sell internationally through Full Service Cross Border Solutions the obstacles to selling internationally are more than just logistical. International customers should also be able to navigate and pay on your online store with ease despite the cultural differences. Cross border solutions such as Pitney Bose Border Free Web Interpret and International Checkout provide a solution to these pain points. They customize the online store for all global markets. They make sure the site is translated to local languages during checkout, calculate a price inclusive of all tariffs and duties, and provide country specific payment options. All these services are provided in addition to supporting logistics and fulfillment services for international orders. Mostly used by luxury item sellers. It is a good solution for businesses aiming to target customers in unfamiliar countries. Number 30 use Amazon logistics Amazon Logistics is a relatively new shipping service which aims to replace national carriers for Amazon orders. It started out by catering to FBA orders, but Amazon is also making it available to other merchants with high volumes on Amazon. Amazon Logistics offers a variety of services from 7 day to next day at rates much lower than the national carriers. Amazon has been able to run a lean operation by using breakthrough technology in its fulfillment centers in addition to employing a contracted workforce. The last mile deliveries are handled by delivery service partners equipped with Amazon Tech. They are freelancers that deliver on behalf of Amazon, although cheaper sellers have had poor experiences with customer complaints of unsatisfactory service from the freelancers. To summarize the sixth episode 26 use zone skipping for high volume zones 27 ship directly from overseas using the global mail program, use international freight forwarders to fulfill international orders, 29 sell internationally through full service cross border solutions and 30 use Amazon logistics Thanks for watching the sixth episode of our series. If you enjoyed our content, please share this post with a friend or colleague who might benefit from this series. Subscribe for more such content and keep an eye out for episode seven next week in which we will talk about making free shipping profitable with supply chain alternatives. And lastly, sign up to our newsletter for even more awesome content delivered right to your inbox. See you next time.