07.24.07
Save a Little on Shipping
Many businesses find that a large part of their annual budget is eaten up by shipping charges. Unfortunately, shipping is not one of those things that you can stop doing, particularly if you are selling products from anywhere other than the traditional store-front.
Here are three ideas for cutting shipping costs:
- Reevaluate. Generally, ground carriers charge less than air carriers; however, some people are often concerned about the speed of deliver. Alot of times ground carriers can deliver just as quickly as air carriers because of the extensive operations and logistics network they’ve created so put that concern aside.
- Consolidate. It may seem like common sense, but it doesn’t always happen. You may get rushed and just process orders quickly not looking for orders to more than one place, or you may have a client that calls in an order piece-meal style and you process as you receive the order to stay ahead. If at all possible, hold off processing orders until a specific time and ship orders together. You could potentially save hundres of dollars.
- Negotiate. If you send eight or more packages a week, you have bargaining power. Tell your carrier that you’re shopping around, and negotiate with them to get a better deal.
