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Shipping & Fulfillment
How to Reduce Parcel DIM Weights
April 26, 2023 • John Lindberg
Dimensional weight is a pricing method used by shipping carriers. It's a way to charge for the space your package takes up in their trucks and planes regardless of its actual weight.
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Notable Views: Fulfillment Outsourcing, Pros and Cons
December 23, 2011 • John Lindberg
Editor’s Note:”Notable Views” is a series where we ask leading experts to address critical, ecommerce-related topics. For this installment, we corresponded with John Lindberg, president of eFulfillment Service, a Michigan-based ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Shipping and Fulfillment: How to Get the Best Bang for Your Buck
December 1, 2010 • John Lindberg
UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service all do a good job of getting orders to your customers, but there are some simple things you can do to lower the costs involved. Understand How Delivery Costs Are Calculated When you start shipping in volume it is vital to understand how each carr...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Ten Ways To Reduce Your Shipping Costs
August 10, 2010 • John Lindberg
Online merchants are often caught between the increasing demand for free delivery and rising shipping and fulfillment costs. Thankfully, there are some simple ways to reduce the cost of shipping and order fulfillment. Here are ten of them. 1. Rate Shop Rate shop your parcels among al...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
How To Buy Shipping Supplies
June 30, 2010 • John Lindberg
Shipping supplies, such as corrugated cartons and bubble wrap, are the third highest overhead cost (after labor and facilities expense) in most order fulfillment operations. No matter if you outsource your order fulfillment or do it in-house, keeping shipping supplies affordable is a t...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
How To Rate-Shop International Shipping
June 3, 2010 • John Lindberg
U.S. export sales are increasing, which makes international rate shopping more important than ever. For example, here are published rates for a typical 10-pound parcel sent from my fulfillment company located in Traverse City, Mich. to a client’s customer located in London, England. U...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Order Fulfillment: ‘Kitting’ Can Dramatically Slash Your Costs
March 4, 2010 • John Lindberg
The term “kitting” is order fulfillment jargon for preassembly of individual items into ready-to-ship kits instead of picking and packing those individual items as orders are received. If you ship similar orders in quantity, the savings potential of fulfillment kitting can be huge. A ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Truck-freight Shipping: How to Lower Your Costs
February 3, 2010 • John Lindberg
If you use truck freight to receive merchandise from your suppliers or to ship to your customers, and you suspect you are paying too much, this how-to guide is for you. There Are Some Basics You Need To Know Truck-freight pricing is based on negotiation, and the starting point is prov...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Free Shipping: The How-to Economic Model
December 29, 2009 • John Lindberg
Free shipping is a growing trend in the ecommerce industry. As the owner of an ecommerce fulfillment company, I work with hundreds of successful webstore merchants and am in a unique position to see both the threats and opportunities posed by free shipping strategies. Different Type...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Fulfillment: Guidelines for Outsourcing
October 27, 2009 • John Lindberg
As the owner of a fulfillment company, I’ve gathered a number of tips and discovered an assortment of traps over the years. If you’re thinking about outsourcing your warehousing, shipping, and returns processing, let me suggest that you follow these guidelines. They will help you find a...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Shipping Rates: Flat Rate Boxes Usually Save Money
August 31, 2009 • John Lindberg
U.S. Postal Service flat rate envelopes and boxes can be a big money saver under the right circumstances. But you have to be careful. That's because there are now seven domestic USPS flat rate size and rate combinations, and potential cost savings depend on a fairly complicated comparis...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Shipping: Dimensional Weight Errors Can Cost Big Bucks
July 29, 2009 • John Lindberg
There are mistakes that can cost you when calculating shipping and handling fees. A big one is missing a UPS, FedEx or U.S. Postal Service DIM (dimensional) or oversize rule for large or lightweight packages. The term “DIM” refers to package shipping density, meaning the weight of th...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Shipping Rates: Comparison Shopping Saves Money
June 25, 2009 • John Lindberg
Miscalculating your shipping rates can cost you some big bucks. No matter your shipping volume, it is a good idea to comparison shop between package carriers and the various carrier-shipping options. For example, a package weighing less than one pound shipped via U.S. Postal Service P...