For apparel entrepreneurs, owning and managing a business comes with its fair share of challenges, including finding the cheapest shipping for their clothing.
Shipping expenses can eat into profits, strain budgets, and disrupt logistics operations. From rising fuel prices to supply chain disruptions, businesses face an uphill battle to keep their shipping expenses in check. It’s a tricky balancing act between providing excellent customer service and managing the financial strain of shipping.
Luckily, this blog will help you understand what you need to know to boost your profits by spending less on logistics expenses. If you’re looking for a refresher on finding the cheapest shipping option for your clothing products, you’re on the right track.
Understanding the Pricing and Cost Comparison
Having a thorough comprehension of shipping expenses and their impact on profits is crucial for businesses. By meticulously analyzing factors like costs, carriers, services, and global reach, businesses can make well-informed choices regarding the shipment of clothing items, especially internationally. This enables businesses like yours to select the most economical option, guaranteeing maximum profits while successfully delivering products to customers worldwide.
With this in mind, it’s advisable to look into different shipping companies to assess the best course of action for the business. Some shipping companies offer cheaper shipping rates to your market location for the same or even better quality of service.
Explore these shipping calculators to look into your options:
By being well-informed about your different options and the factors affecting your business operations, you can navigate your markets more effectively and avoid unforeseen financial burdens.
Strategies to Reduce Shipping Costs
As more shops move online and offer shipping, finding a way to reduce shipping expenses and attract more customers is even more of a concern.
Here are several strategies for businesses to reduce shipping costs while maintaining efficient operations and customer satisfaction:
- Make sure the packaging is proportional to your product.
Unless they’re offering flat rate shipping, major shipping companies usually charge based on a package’s dim weight, which considers both the actual and dimensional weight. Because of this, weighing your package is crucial.
For this reason, consider investing in a postage scale to predict costs for your regular shipments better. Alternatively, you can use a bathroom scale for large parcels or a kitchen scale for small parcels.
To get the metric weight of your parcel, weigh yourself holding the parcel, then without it, before deducting the second weight from the first one for a more accurate finding.
To avoid excess weight, use “ships in own container” (SIOC) packaging or customize your packaging if you plan to use a box.
- Create a shipping account and try negotiating shipping rates.
When businesses place online orders or visit retail establishments, shipping companies may provide them with free shipping supplies. However, major shipping companies like UPS and FedEx require you to open an account with them before you can avail of their free shipping packaging.
While all shipping companies give volume-based discounts, building connections with them will help you be able to bargain for favorable shipping costs. For ongoing contracts, conducting a regular review can ensure ongoing cost benefits.
- Use Poly Mailers as your packaging.
When shipping apparel, you can opt for cardboard boxes or poly mailers—the latter being the better option since it would save you from paying a higher shipping fee whether or not it’s for flat-rate shipping.
- Look into marketplace or platform deals and features.
Check whether the marketplace you sell on or the e-commerce platform that powers your store has bulk discount shipping offers or initiatives. They may have built-in shipping management software for rate comparisons, carrier selection, and shipping label generation. Such software can streamline shipping processes and optimize carrier choices.
- Insure with third parties.
Reducing unnecessary services, such as shipping insurance, can help you save money on shipping charges. However, it ultimately depends on the value of the item you’re delivering. If shipment insurance is required for your orders, third-party package insurers are typically less expensive than using your shipping carrier. In certain situations, by almost half. This applies primarily to high-valued items.
- Choose Prepaid Shipping.
By only purchasing a specific quantity of mailing labels in advance, prepaid shipping can save you up to 20% on delivery charges from UPS and FedEx. They can be attached to a box once each order must be shipped. This reduces expenses and saves time.
TL;DR: This is only applicable if you often send items with the same weight and dimensions or know these details in advance to guarantee accurate shipping charges.
- Keep track of changes in shipping carriers’ prices.
As part of the annual general rate increase (GRI), the major shipping carriers raise their shipping costs annually. These increases range from roughly 5% on average and depend on several factors, including weight, carrier, service quality, etc.
In addition, carriers can impose surcharges during periods of high package volume, including holidays. They also charge additional costs yearly, such as taxes for bulky packages and surcharges requiring a signature.
Unfortunately, there is no way to lower the shipping cost for these rate increases and surcharges; therefore, you will need to absorb the expenses, find another way to offset them, or add them to the shipping fee you charge your consumers.
- Encourage your customers to place orders early.
As peak seasons (like summer and fall) for retail businesses and holidays approach, it’s good to be prepared to accommodate the surge of high-volume orders. You must notify customers about the best time for them to place their orders so you can consolidate the items and they can receive their packages on time. This reduces shipping frequency and can result in lower costs per shipment. Moreover, it ensures your products are delivered on time.
Likewise, carriers also set deadlines for each service throughout the holidays, so clients should place their orders as early as possible to avoid paying extra for expedited shipping.
If you outsource to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, consider their holiday turnarounds, specific carrier cutoffs, inventory receiving cutoffs, and SLA extensions. Outsourcing fulfillment and shipping to a 3PL provider can reduce shipping costs through their established networks, expertise, and volume discounts.
Boosting Profits through Efficient Shipping
Practicing efficient shipping goes a long way for businesses looking to boost their profits. By streamlining orders and ensuring everything is on track, packages can be delivered without wasting unnecessary time, resources, or expenses. Streamlining processes often leads to better inventory management, ensuring stock levels are closely aligned with demand.
This can be done by integrating advanced technologies such as warehouse management systems (WMS) and automation in picking, packing, and shipping operations. Such technologies expedite the fulfillment process and reduce the likelihood of errors, leading to more accurate orders and fewer returns.
Optimizing Clothing Shipments Through ShipBae
Efficient and cost-saving shipments can only be possible when you’ve done ample research and utilized all the possible means at your fingertips. In today’s interconnected world, online tools and platforms can be convenient means to compare prices and costs quickly, empowering businesses to make choices that align with their priorities and financial constraints.
You don’t have to do everything the hard way. Now, a tool can show you the cheapest rates for your clothing items. ShipBae’s multi-carrier shipping rate solution makes the process smoother and saves time from scouring carrier services that best fit your needs. Aside from that, ShipBae’s Address Verification API feature ensures that your package gets delivered to your desired location.
Reach out today and explore how Gori Company can be your partner in elevating your shipping solutions.
