Sweeter Profit Margins: 5 Ways To Reduce The Bottom Line At Your Ecommerce Store

You’ve got your ecommerce store up and running. Check. You’ve got the inventory all in place. Check. You’ve got your marketing plan steamrolling ahead. Check. You even have an awesome customer service platform and support platform in place. Double-check. But what about a simple way to save money on the shipping and fulfillment costs that you know will eat into your bottom. Uncheck.
Shipping and the packaging costs can really dig into your profits, eating them away like termites on wood. But it doesn’t have to be like this. To the contrary, there are several things that you can consider doing that will reduce your overhead costs and help you increase your profits. We’ll cover them for you in order from getting a postage discount to reducing packaging costs. So keep reading to learn how.

Buy Your Packaging in Bulk

The first step that you will want to take is with your packaging. Simply put: buy this in bulk. A number of online stores offer discount packaging for ecommerce operations. The more you buy, the more you save. Factor how many shipments you are sending each month and stock the shelves of your fulfillment department adequately. Spoiler alert: USPS will deliver free Priority Mail boxes and mailer to your house; you can order them online.

Expedite the Fulfillment Process

The longer it takes for orders to go out the door, the more money you are wasting in employee hours, plain and simple. Many ecommerce stores use a two-system method, where they generate shipping labels from one-system and packing lists from another. This contributes to shipping errors and costs you more time.
Instead, convert your fulfillment to a one-system method. This involves using all-in-one invoices, a one-system method, as opposed to the latter. These invoices print from your office laser or inkjet printer and contain your packing list/invoice and a peel-off shipping label for faster, more accurate fulfillment.

Offer Discounts on Shipping to the 48 Lower States

If you are offering a postage discount to customers to encourage more sales, congratulations – that’s a great way to get more conversions. But you could be eating it big-time if you are offering this discount to states like Hawaii and Alaska. Instead, limit any discounts to the lower 48 states and you can reduce your shipping costs exponentially; Alaska and Hawaii cost a lot more to ship to.

Integrate Shipping Cost into Price to Offer Free Shipping

If you really want to supercharge sales, eat the cost of shipping. Instead, view it as a marketing cost. Over 70% of consumers want free shipping or they won’t close the sale. Sure, you will make less money off each sale, but you will be rewarded with more sales as a result. In the end, it works out in your favor. Consider setting a minimum order value to offer free shipping and you will be sitting pretty.

Use a Postage Discount Service to Reduce Cost

Lastly, look for a postage discount service provider to reduce your shipping cost. There are ample ones that you can easily find online with a quick Google search. Most charge a small monthly account fee and then require that you only tender monies for the postage that you use as you use it. Boy that was easy.
By integrating these five simple methods, you’ll be shaving off drastic portions of your bottom line in no time at all. Use all the money you’re saving to increase your marketing budget. Or stash it for a rainy day or take a vacation. The choice is yours.