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Running an e-commerce store? Then you are probably aware of the fact that in order to operate a successful e-commerce company, you not only need a user-friendly website and an efficient online marketing strategy but also the right e-commerce shipping solutions to smoothly operate the business. Creating an effective shipping strategy for your e-commerce is one of the most impactful steps you can take to grow your business online.

Most e-commerce companies in India struggle to compete with bigger players offering features like “free shipping” and “same day delivery”. However, with strategic shipping solutions, any company can differentiate themselves from their competition and increase margins. With a rich experience in handling logistics services for several e-commerce companies in India, ShipKaro has efficiently managed to create enhanced e-commerce shipping solutions for our clients across different industry verticals.

We understand that choosing a shipping partner for your e-commerce business is an important decision and requires careful detailing and planning. So, we have compiled here a few pointers to help you create a failproof shipping strategy and thereby choose a logistics service provider that helps you streamline your entire business.

• Go for a technology-based shipping solution

This is one of the most important and the most crucial factor to be looked at while choosing your e-commerce shipping solutions. It goes without saying – your business is online, so how can your shipping be far behind? Let technology ease your logistics process through automation and tracking facilities. With a logistics aggregator like ShipKaro, you can take your logistics to the next level. You can compare shipping rates for different products, find the fastest delivery options and assign the most convenient shipping option for each individual order. Additionally, ShipKaro works seamlessly with all types of e-commerce platforms where you can easily sync your orders automatically without any manual intervention. Therefore, no need to manually copy-paste your bulk orders – ShipKaro will easily do this work for you without any errors.

Overall, a technology-based e-commerce shipping solution like ShipKaro will automate most of your shipping process for you. This way you can spend less time on your logistics and more time on growing your business.

• Offer cheaper shipping rates or ‘free shipping’ to your customers

We know – it is easier said than done. However, with an affordable logistics service provider like ShipKaro, you can easily reduce your shipping rates and offer cheaper shipping rates to your customers. Here are different shipping rates you can offer through your e-commerce shipping solution:

Fixed rate: this is one of the most commonly used shipping strategies. In this case, you choose a fixed rate for shipping and charge every customer the same amount – irrespective of the type or number of items in the shopping cart. While this ensures that you recover your shipping charges, it may cause your customer to abandon the cart. Especially if the customer is opting for only a few items and the shipping charge seems to be quite high. However, if the shipping rate is low, it may encourage your customer to increase their order value, thus increasing your overall sales.

Variable rate: Through this option, you can charge your customer shipping rates depending on their order value. For instance, you can either offer shipping charges like “Rs 50 for one product and Rs 25 for two of them”. You can even have a threshold value and offer free shipping after that. This encourages your customer to buy more and also increase your sales.

Free shipping: one of the most effective shipping strategies is to offer free shipping for all the purchases. However, it is not always practical for the retailers as they would not be able to mitigate the losses due to the shipping charges they pay. However, there are many ways you can offer free shipping if you are able to make those shipping costs in some other way. This is where relying on a logistics aggregator like ShipKaro can really help your business. The option to choose the cheapest e-commerce shipping solution for your individual product can certainly reduce your overall shipping budget. This can consequently help you in offering free shipping to your customers.

If you feel that offering free shipping for all your products is not a reliable option for your business, you can always opt for promotional offers like purchase value threshold, free shipping for featured products and one-day free shipping offers. These promotional sales will increase the traffic to your site and create potential customers.

• Ensure real-time tracking

As mentioned earlier, a technology-based e-commerce shipping solution does not only automate your logistics process but also ensure real-time tracking for all your orders. This is necessary not only for keeping track of your orders, but also to inform customers of their presence. With every e-commerce company now offering transit details of the orders to their customers, it has become almost imperative for smaller e-commerce companies to follow the suit. With ShipKaro it is now extremely easy to track your orders. The platform can automatically generate shipping labels for your orders and keep you informed of the order transportation. You can pass on this information to the customer and keep them in the loop. This way, you can reduce those worried calls from your customers regarding their parcels and keep them happy.

• Look for COD cycle support

As long as you are planning to do business in the e-commerce market of India, you have to provide cash on delivery as a payment option. This is because a majority of online shoppers in India still rely on COD option for payment. Therefore, your courier e-commerce shipping solution should be able to handle a COD payment cycle. With ShipKaro, you no longer need to worry about this as our platform offers you end-to-end support for cash on delivery payment option.

With ShipKaro, be the master of creating efficient shipping strategy – automate the whole logistics process, compare prices for individual products, choose the most convenient shipping option, automatically generate shipping labels and keep track of all your orders. So, what are you waiting for? Partner up with ShipKaro and streamline your business with enhanced logistics process.