Shipping & Fulfillment
Our shipping and fulfillment coverage reflects the expectations of many consumers for free and fast delivery. We address topics that help ecommerce merchants meet those goals, including analyses of carriers, free shipping strategies, fulfillment efficiencies (including the use of third-party fulfillment companies), returns and refunds, multichannel integration, drop shipping issues, and much more.
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Amazon Prime, ShopRunner Forcing Faster Free Shipping
November 22, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Amazon Prime and ShopRunner, which both offer online shoppers free two-day shipping with an annual membership, are changing customer expectations and forcing small and mid-sized online retailers to consider faster ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
5 Things to Put in the Shipping Box
October 29, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Online retailers have a powerful tool for marketing to existing customers, potentially increasing sales, average order size, and profit. That tool is the shipping box merchants send to customers with ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
5 Ways to Save Money on Retail Shipping
October 10, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Free or low-cost shipping is a mainstay in the online retail business. It motivates shoppers to buy more. But carriers like UPS, FedEx, and even the United States Postal Service ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
6 Order Fulfillment Extras your Customers Will Love
July 8, 2013 • Jerry Jao
Order fulfillment is a critical part of the ecommerce customer experience. As ecommerce operators, we need to ensure that our customers are taken care of even when the merchandise lands in their hands. Here are six examples of extra services to offer customers when you ship their orde...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Shipping: Understanding Time in Transit and Dimensional Weight
June 13, 2013 • Mike Sowa
In my 25 years of experience in fulfillment and operations, I've managed warehousing, order management, and shipping for large merchants, such as Wine.com. I currently am co-founder of ShipJunction, a carrier management platform for ecommerce companies. I've learned over the years that...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
3 Tips for Starting a Drop-ship Online Store
June 7, 2013 • Armando Roggio
An ecommerce entrepreneur with passion and great supplier relationships can earn good profits without making large investments or holding lots of product inventory. Drop shipping allows retailers to sell products without holding actual inventory. When a customer places an online order ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
The Perfect Return Merchandise Authorization System
June 6, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Sometimes the shoe just doesn’t fit. Or maybe it was the wrong color. Most every ecommerce business deals with product returns and exchanges, and the ecommerce platform processing those returns often dictates how smoothly the exchange or return goes. A return merchandise authorization ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
7 Ways to Improve a Customer’s Shipping Experience
April 30, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Shipping can be one of the most stressful parts of an online transaction. The customer has already paid for a product, but does not actually have it in hand. And the retailer — devoted to excellent customer service — has no control over the carrier. In spite of this, there are some co...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
10 Drop Shipping Resources
December 24, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Drop shipping is an order fulfillment technique in which merchandise is shipped to the customer directly from the warehouse or supplier, rather than from the retailer. The merchant can offer a greater selection of products and test new markets, without the cost and risk of excessive inv...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
30 Shipping Resources for Small Businesses
December 17, 2012 • Sig Ueland
The major shipping organizations in the U.S. — UPS, DHL, FedEx and U.S. Postal Service — provide many easy-to-use online tools and resources to help small businesses meet their shipping needs. In addition to shipping-management tools, the carriers also provide educational resources, and...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
3 Tips for Holiday Returns and Exchanges
November 28, 2012 • Armando Roggio
When the giddy days of holiday sales end, online retailers frequently need to deal with the inevitable returns and exchanges barrage. But when customer contacts are seen as opportunities, even returns can be a tool to improve an ecommerce business. Online returns and exchanges are a po...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
How to Reduce Picking and Packing Errors
July 23, 2012 • James Hyde
The picking and packing of ecommerce orders can be repetitive, mistake-prone work. But a well-designed workflow, using complementary software, can help reduce mistakes, provided that it supports the employees doing the work — not frustrate or hinder them. This article will explain how...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Changes at the USPS
April 20, 2012 • PEC Staff
Editor's Note: We welcome John Haber as our newest contributor. A shipping and supply-chain authority, he is the founder and CEO of Spend Management Experts, a global shipping and supply-chain consulting firm. His first piece, below, addresses changes at the USPS and how those changes c...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
The Future of Regulated Mail, and Ecommerce Shipping
April 11, 2012 • James Hyde
People don’t write letters these days. They send emails. In the U.K., this has produced big changes in the state-owned Royal Mail. These changes have huge consequences for online retailers there. In the U.S., the Postal Service is starting to follow suit. In this article, I'll explain ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
How to Monitor and Manage Your Wholesale Suppliers
March 8, 2012 • James Hyde
In the beginning, you might be content that your inventory suppliers have simply delivered your goods on time. But as you grow and take on more lines, more staff, or outsource to a fulfillment company, you’ll quickly find that the arrival of poorly marked goods can waste time. In this ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
How to Pack and Protect an Ecommerce Shipment
February 9, 2012 • James Hyde
There are three main aspects to packaging for ecommerce shipments. Protection. Helps prevent damage to the items during transit. Presentation. Gives perceived value to the customer. Cost. Often a limiting factor. In this article, I will address "protection" matters: How to...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
How to Expand to the U.K. Market
January 25, 2012 • James Hyde
Editor's Note: We welcome James Hyde as our newest contributor. He's a U.K.-based shipping and fulfillment expert with Six Works, a fulfillment firm. Hyde's first article, below, explains money-saving strategies for U.S.-based merchants to sell to U.K. consumers. While the U.S. online ...
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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
38 Fees and Surcharges from FedEx and UPS
December 16, 2011 • Sig Ueland
When comparing shipping rates from FedEx and UPS, don’t forget to include fees and surcharges. Each shipper has an extensive list of additional costs. So rather than just comparing ‘standard rates,’ determine your shipping needs and then calculate the fees. Here is a list of 2012 fees...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
5 Reasons to Consider Drop Shipping
November 21, 2011 • Armando Roggio
Drop shipping is an order fulfillment strategy where the retailer does not keep products in inventory, but relies on wholesalers or manufacturers to actually ship orders to customers. This arrangement has several advantages that make it attractive to online merchants. When a customer p...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Comparing UPS, FedEx, and USPS: Which is Best Now?
November 8, 2011 • Armando Roggio
Shipping costs are an ongoing challenge for ecommerce merchants, who compete head-to-head over free shipping and seek to avoid shopping cart abandonment. Given this competitive environment, knowing which carrier is best can be a huge advantage. In March, L.L. Bean announced that it wou...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
5 Reasons to Consider Fulfillment Services
November 4, 2011 • Armando Roggio
Accounting, purchasing, marketing, and operations are all areas that online and multi-channel merchants must manage. Fortunately there is a growing class of service companies that allows sellers to outsource product receiving, inventorying, packing, and shipping. Fulfillment services a...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
The New USPS.com: 5 Sections, Free Stuff
August 26, 2011 • Sig Ueland
The U.S. Postal Service has redesigned USPS.com to make it faster and easier to do business. The site is organized into five sections: Ship a Package, Send Mail, Manage Your Mail, Shop, and Business Solutions. Each section is organized by what you want to do and features a Quick Tools m...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Using the Return Policy to Convert Shoppers into Customers
May 19, 2011 • Pamela Hazelton
It’s common practice to focus on trends, design and shopability to (hopefully) increase and maintain sales. For the most part, these topics play a major role in a site’s sell-through rate. Let’s not, however, overlook the less obvious reasons shoppers may be abandoning your online store...
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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
Tips for Improving Drop Shipping and Inventory Management
October 21, 2010 • PEC Staff
Autumn provides a not-so-subtle reminder that the holiday season is in swing. I recently moderated "Manage Inventory and Drop Shipping for the Holiday Rush," a Practical eCommerce webinar, on this very subject. It featured Anne Pingree, senior sales engineer with Infopia, the hosted s...
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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
The PEC Review: Shipwire Fulfillment Services
March 29, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Starting an ecommerce business is no small endeavor. A would-be online entrepreneur must manage every aspect of the business, from selecting products and vendors to marketing. What's more, there is significant competition. As marketing and business guru Seth Godin says, "You can't out...
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