You put a lot of effort into getting relevant traffic to your online store. You spend on marketing and site optimization so that your customers get a great experience in your store. But what if your customers abandon their cart just because you were offering a higher shipping rate?
This is not the only aspect of shipping that impacts customer behavior on the cart/checkout page. Factors like free shipping, flat rate, and return policy also decide if customers are going to complete a transaction or not. So you require a well-tested shipping strategy that converts your leads into sales.
Let’s discover the results of a sample survey conducted among online buyers and explore strategies that can help you refine your shipping strategy.
Best Shipping Strategies for your WooCommerce Store
Understanding Customer and Market
Customer surveys are the major source of business decisions. Let’s go through the outcome of the survey and explore possibilities. We’ll also discuss different aspects of the survey and the steps you can take to get the maximum benefits.
As a result of the competition among the e-commerce companies, online buyers are the ones who have benefited the most. Their expectation has risen for slashed prices for products. But around 25% want a fast, flexible, and safe delivery ,and 23% want the return policy to be easy. To help you further, the survey says that around 66% of online buyers long for a free return service.
The survey indicates that:
- of consumers are willing to pay for same-day or faster delivery
- Older consumers (ages 65 or older) place a greater premium on being able to choose their delivery times.
- Buyers care more about delivery method and speed than about who’s doing the actual delivering.
Customers also want comfort with the interface. So you need to go for shipping companies that provide you with a fully automated shipping solution for your online store. This means your carrier should provide real-time shipping rates, a list of services to choose from on the cart page, efficient packing methods, and a delivery that matches customers’ expectations.
Setting Up Shipping Zones
Shipping zones help you categorize different kinds of shipping options and rates based on geographical locations. You can define the shipping zones according to your business preferences.
Shipping zones will help customize options based on product size, weight, total order value, etc. This will help in the effective categorization of customers and build trust.
Key Shipping Strategy Options
Some of the basic shipping strategies are:
- Free Shipping
- Using Real-time rates from carriers
- Flat Rate
- Table Rates
- A sound return policy
- Local Pickup
Let’s explore these in detail.
Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping is an eye-catcher, and any e-commerce store offering free shipping attracts more customers than one not offer it. You can avoid around 60% of cart abandonment by offering free shipping to your customers. Plus, it attracts more customers to your online store. You can offer free shipping:
- For Certain Items- You can consider giving free shipping on items that are small in size and are not costly. For more strategies on offering free shipping, you can follow e-commerce giants like Amazon.
- For Domestic Customers- You can offer free shipping for buyers who are in areas where your shipping expenses are not high.
- When the Cart Total crosses a minimum order amount –This is the best way to offer free shipping. In this, you offer free shipping to all your customers if their order amount crosses a minimum value. This helps in increasing the ‘Average Order Value’ of your store and covers the shipping costs with ease. You can make it more profitable by restricting free shipping to selected categories like accessories, merchandise, etc.
But doing so is not the most profitable thing for an online business. This often makes you raise product costs, giving an edge to your competitors. So offering free shipping requires extensive research of your inventory, customer base, location, and your shipping expenses. You packing efforts can also help you reduce your shipping expenses.
Setting Free Shipping in WooCommerce
Use Real-Time Rates
Real-time shipping rates are a great relief for online store owners. This helps you charge your customers for shipping just what you are getting charged by shipping carriers. Major shipping carriers offer their API to different e-commerce platforms, which calculate real-time shipping rates based on the product attributes and the customer location. It is also the best way to offer transparency, which is good for your brand.
With these plugins, each time your customers move to the cart page, they get a quote from the shipping carrier based on product quantity, dimensions, weight, and the destination. Shipping rates are highly affected by the packing methods present in the plugins. For instance, if you go for individual packing of products, total shipping costs are higher per order, whereas in the case of box-packing and weight-based packing, the shipping rates are reduced per order.
ReachShip Multi-Carrier Shipping Plugin helps you with real-time shipping rates from the top shipping carriers. You can save time as there will be no need to consider each shipping carrier’s API to determine the right shipping rate for your shipment.
So real-time rates increase the trust customers have in your store. It shows that you are not trying to come up with shipping rates on your own or charging more than they should be. This is also the best way to ensure that your customers are getting the best available shipping rates. This is equally suitable for all types of products you sell, as rates are calculated by the shipping calculator by the carrier itself.
Customers usually don’t look at the name of the carrier as long as they get the cheapest shipping rates and packages reach safely in their hands. So you can associate with different carriers for cheaper shipping rates.
You can show live shipping rates with the following shipping plugins built by ELEXtensions:
- ELEX EasyPost Shipping Method Plugin for WooCommerce for store owners in the US.
- ELEX Stamps.com Shipping Plugin with USPS Postage for WooCommerce for store owners in the US.
- ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking for store owners in Australia.
- ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin with Print Label for store owners all around the world.
- ELEX WooCommerce USPS Shipping Plugin with Print Label for store owners in the US.
- ReachShip Multi Carrier Shipping Plugin
Offer Flat Rates
Finally, you can go for a flat rate for shipping. First, divide the products in your store into different categories based on weight and dimensions of the products. And then come up with a median value for all shipping rates of the product in the category. You must consider the dimensional weights of the products while deciding the shipping rates. This will help you get a precise estimation of shipping rates. You should make the necessary changes to the median value so that you don’t overcharge or undercharge for a particular product.
USPS flat-rate boxes come in different sizes and fixed prices. You can use these boxes to ship objects that fit in these boxes and are heavier. These are a great alternative to the dimensional weight charges by carriers.
On WooCommerce, you can charge a flat rate per category or charge shipping for the most expensive shipping class.
Offer Table Rates
Table rates are shipping rates set on different criteria, like weights, shipping classes, order total, etc. You can add the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping extension to make different rules.
Table rates can help customize rates and make them reasonable for customers all over the world.
Local Pickup
As the name suggests, if you want customers to come directly to pick up the shipment from your store, warehouse, or any such outlet, you can offer them Local Pickup.
Usually local pickup does not require a fee but can be charged as per the business’s perspective. The disadvantage of having local pickup as your shipping option is that WooCommerce doesn’t agree on keeping multiple pickup locations.
Labelling and Automation
Generating the labels directly from the WooCommerce store can help save time. Choosing the right plugin or API integration will help you choose the most affordable shipping carrier for your shipments.
The plugins, along with obtaining the real-time rates, can also help in printing bulk labels. To make sure of the seamless process, you can choose to embed the ReachShip plugin for your labelling needs.
Offer an Easy Return Policy
Your shipping strategy should have a simple return policy. As most buyers prefer a free return of defective or unwanted products, offering one will leave a positive impact on customers. You should also specify the terms and conditions, as customers do look for these before completing a purchase.
Tracking and Communication
It is essential to ensure that customers are always informed about the shipping details. If not, there will be constant enquiries on “Where is my order?”.
Correct intimation of notifications regarding the delivery of the products can help in creating trust and reducing anxiety in customers.
Conclusion
What we discussed here are the options you can include in your shipping strategy. You should finalize your shipping strategy after a good statistical analysis of your products and the available shipping options. It should also include global trends in customer behavior and wishes. And once you execute a strategy, come back to the drawing board in the next few months and restructure the strategy.
You can visit our plugins section for more information about our shipping plugins and contact our online support for any technical assistance or pre-sales queries.
FAQs
- What is the best shipping strategy for a WooCommerce store?
There’s no one-size-fits-all. The best strategy depends on your products, target market, margins, and customer expectations. Many stores use a mix of free shipping, flat rates, and real-time carrier rates. - How can I offer free shipping without losing profit?
Set a minimum order threshold, adjust product pricing to absorb shipping costs, or offer free shipping only on select items or within certain zones. - Do I need multiple shipping options at checkout?
Yes. Offering choices—like free standard shipping, express delivery, or local pickup—can reduce cart abandonment by catering to different customer preferences. - How important is packaging in a shipping strategy?
Very important. Proper packaging controls costs (by reducing dimensional weight), prevents damage, and can enhance customer experience with eco-friendly or branded unboxing. - What role do plugins play in WooCommerce shipping?
Plugins streamline tasks like real-time carrier rate calculation, label printing, tracking notifications, and return management, saving time and reducing errors.
