Ground shipping is an ideal way to get your products to arrive on time to your customers. It is one of the best options when it comes to domestic deliveries. These deliveries are made using trucks by road, and hence the name. Though the deliveries may take a longer time, this is one of the popular means of shipping in the US.
What is Ground Shipping?
Any kind of shipping that is meant to be involving parcels sent by road or even rail is Ground shipping. If you are looking for the cheapest option to ship your items domestically, then Ground shipping is the best option you would find. Since these services are made usually by road, this service is named so. Again these deliveries take time, as it is by road, nevertheless, this is one among the best choices when you are shipping domestically. When you consider Ground Shipping, the cost is comparatively lesser, hence you can even consider free shipping for your customers, which in turn propels conversions.
Being the cheaper alternative to sending via air or sea shipping, ground shipping even though takes a longer time, is the preferable one to a lot of customers. Moreover, you can make use of the ground shipping to even offer free shipping on your store to your customers. And if you see the average number of customers who are interested in free shipping offers, are likely to buy from you.
How Does it Work?
If you want to figure out how Ground shipping is gonna work for you, you need to work around a lot of things. Like you need to find out how far is the shipping destination you want to ship items? Does it really work for your domestic shipping in every way? Is it ideal for your last-mile delivery for international shipping too? And finally how to get the ground shipping option integrated to your store? Once you find the answers to these questions you can work on the ground shipping using popular shipping carriers.
Once you conclude, you can go for FedEx, UPS and USPS etc. You can find out more about their shipping options from their pages.
What is the Difference Between Standard Shipping and Ground Shipping?
Standard shipping is just regular shipping, there are no immediate deliveries or even overnight shipping. These do not offer any special offer to get your shipments delivered quickly. And most of the shipping is done via surface carriers and is cheaper.
Ground shipping, on the other hand, is majorly forwarded via freight services and does take more time. These are cheaper and mostly conducted using road transport options. And again it does take much longer to deliver.
How Long Does Ground Shipping Take?
If you do not have packages that must be delivered overnight or the next day or way more urgent then do not go for Ground shipping. If you are not in a hurry to send the package, and have an ample amount of time, then go for Ground shipping. The time cannot be decided upon your parcel arrival, as so many factors do contribute to its delay such as the distance, climatic conditions, etc. Again if you consider UPS and FedEx, their ground shipping services take 1-5 business days to deliver and USPS takes at least 2-8 business days.
What are the Rates for Shipping by Road?
If you want to look for the rates for ground shipping, it differs from one carrier to another. The shipping rates depend on the packaging you choose and the distance as well. You can also make use of a shipping calculator to get it done right to find an estimate of your shipping costs.
What Are the Benefits of This Service?
If you consider low cost or cheaper options to ship, then this is for you. Precisely there are several benefits of ground shipping:
- You can send anything from furniture to letters as long as it is not illegal via ground shipping.
- No size limitations, you can either send heavier ones or even too low ones.
- Ideally, not many delays, if the weather conditions are perfect.
- Easiest option to send across the country.
- You can get pick up and drop off options.
- Most of the shipping carriers offer tracking systems to keep the customers well informed about the package in transit.
Which Couriers Offer This Service?
If you see most of the domestic and international couriers services offer Ground shipping services, a few popular ones are:
UPS Ground Shipping
UPS offers cost-effective ground shipping services.
- The minimum package rate is US$7.57/1 lb, with a residential surcharge of US$3.60 and US$0.67 fuel surcharge; the total minimum rate is US$11.84.
- The estimated delivery time is 1-5 business days.
- Live tracking is offered by UPS with proper time and date for the arrival of the package.
USPS Retail Ground
USPS Retail Ground was initially called a standard post, but it’s now the road shipping service for USPS.
- Shipping Prices start from US$7.35.
- USPS takes an estimated delivery of 2-8 business days to deliver but can take up to 14 days.
- Tracking is included in this service for all packages.
FedEx Ground
This FedEx Ground service is the most affordable, convenient, and fast ground shipping service.
- The minimum base shipping rate is US$36.
- FedEx takes an estimated delivery of 1-5 business days to deliver, depending on the destination.
- You can easily track your package through your mobile or even using efficient tracking options on your store.
How to integrate UPS, USPS and FedEx services into your WooCommerce store?
To integrate the UPS, USPS and FedEx shipping services to your WooCommerce store, you can make use of the ELEX EasyPost (FedEx, UPS, Canada Post & USPS) Shipping & Label Printing Plugin for WooCommerce.
The plugin can easily let you make use of these popular shipping options on your WooCommerce store and effortlessly offer several features that will ease your shipping process.
- Access real-time rates from FedEx, UPS and USPS and display it on your WooCommerce store.
- Print WooCommerce FedEx, UPS and USPs shipping labels as well as return labels for the orders.
- Display the estimated delivery date for all shipping options.
- The plugin helps to track FedEx, UPS and USPS shipments efficiently.
- Using the plugin, you can apply price adjustments on shipping options for the chosen carriers.
- Offer exclusive customized Parcel packing options for shipping.
- Choose different shipping options for packages when multiple packages are present.
- Added security options for the packages using the EasyPost Shipping insurance.
- There are add-ons to help generate bulk shipment and labels for the same.
- Automate the process of generating labels and email your shipping labels also possible for all shipping options available.
Deliver Better With The Affordable Ground Shipping Service
Offering your customers the cheapest yet reliable option of shipping could be made possible with Ground shipping services. It is indeed a great option for shipping domestically. Being a cost-effective one, you can even offer free shipping to your customers, augmenting the sales of your store diligently.
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