How to Ship Products to Customers from Your Home-Based Business
If you run a small home-based business selling things you make, whether it is handcrafted items or baked goods, you should have a shipping strategy in place to ensure that orders arrive as smoothly and quickly as possible, leaving your customers satisfied. Here are some tips for shipping products to customers from your home business.
Understand Shipping Costs and Try to Get Shipping Discounts
Shipping can be quite expensive, so it’s definitely a good idea to get shipping discounts, whether or not you offer free shipping to your customers. An established business may be able to negotiate rates with a shipping service. However, if you are just starting out and your shipping volume is not particularly high, this option is probably off the table for now.
A shipping label service is a great alternative; these services typically secure discounts from multiple carriers and share those discounts with their customers. For example, PostageMaker offers discounts of up to 50% off USPS and UPS retail rates, whether you need to ship one package or two dozen. Plus, creating shipping labels online and printing them at home is the most convenient option for home-based businesses.
Monitor Shipping Rate Changes
Most major carriers review their shipping rates once a year; these annual general rate increases usually go into effect in January. However, shipping rates can also fluctuate throughout the year due to peak season surcharges that carriers apply to offset increased costs associated with high demand and large shipping volumes. If you want to maximize your profits, you should be aware of and prepared for changes in shipping costs.
Stock Up on Packing Supplies
Make sure you always have enough packaging supplies on hand so you don’t run out at the worst possible moment. Depending on the products you sell, you may need boxes, tubes, or padded envelopes. You will also need packing materials (tissue paper, bubble wrap, packing peanuts, etc.), tape, possibly warning labels such as “Fragile”, “This Side Up”, “Perishable”, etc., scissors, staplers and staples, and other materials and tools depending on your products.
Some businesses use branded packaging materials that make them stand out. If you can’t afford custom packaging yet and prefer to get free supplies from the carrier or buy packaging in bulk, you should still add a personal touch to your orders such as customized thank you notes or cards, stickers, business cards, flyers, free samples, etc.
Keep Your Orders as Light and Small as Possible
Shipping rates are usually based on the size and/or weight of a package, so the larger and/or heavier your packages are, the more expensive they are to ship. Unless you opt for flat-rate shipping (which has its pros and cons for online merchants), you should keep your orders as light and small as possible under the circumstances. But don’t do this at the expense of their safety: leaving enough space for cushioning material is crucial if you want your orders to arrive intact.
Consider Scheduling a Package Pickup
You can drop off your prepaid packages at your local post office or another drop-off location, but if you want to save gas money, time and hassle, consider scheduling a package pickup. Most major carriers, such as USPS, UPS and FedEx, offer free package pickup services and make it easy to schedule a pickup online.
Be Prepared to Handle Returns and Refunds
Returns are an inevitable part of running a retail business, and it is critical that you have a solid strategy for handling them. Some merchants include prepaid, pre-addressed return labels with all orders and then void the label if not needed. However, there are drawbacks to this approach that can cost you money. Another option is to generate a prepaid shipping label online at the customer’s request and email it to them.