Beyond negotiating with carriers for the best rates and tracking your packages to get those late delivery refunds, here are some insights that can deliver bottom line dollars and generate strong savings for your business.
1. Combining Your Packaging
Over 70% of high-volume shippers still use separate packing and shipping stations in their warehouses which can be redundant and bring no added efficiency to the shipping system. By using an integrated multi-carrier shipping system, this system can run in the background and produce a shipping label right on the box at the packaging station.
2. Vary Your Standardized Packaging Options
Carriers have switched to broader dimensional rating so using the wrong size box can be an unnecessary extra cost. Consider a one square foot box (13-pound carrier rate), if you fill this box with only 7 pounds of products, you’re potentially paying $5 more to ship that box than you need to. Look at your average order size, get a selection of boxes to match and include 3 to 5 sizes larger and smaller than average to handle outlier packages.
3. Use Address Verification to Avoid Address Errors and Correction Fees
In 2018, UPS raised their address correction charge meaning you could pay up to $91.00 per shipment to make an address correction. Just 10 incorrect addresses a week could result in an additional and unnecessary expense of over $10,000 per year.Implement address validation software at the point of order to eliminate address errors before shipments are processed.