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.

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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Is Five-Day USPS Delivery Coming?

February 12, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Many online retailers depend on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to reliably deliver merchandise to customers, since the service is often less expensive than UPS (United Parcel Service) and delivers six days a week, something that UPS charges a significant premium for. But the USPS lost ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Ecommerce Know-How: The Free Shipping Equation

January 13, 2009 • Armando Roggio

In 2009, every major carrier in the United States will be raising shipping rates. Profit conscience online shopkeepers, therefore, should take pause and reevaluate whether or not offering "free shipping" is really a good idea. There is, of course, really no such thing as free shipping...
Shipping & Fulfillment
The PeC Review: Stamps.com is A Helpful Tool for Many Merchants

December 22, 2008 • Armando Roggio

Stamps.com provides online retailers with a simple-to-use, software-based service that calculates official U. S. Postal Service postage from any PC, formatting printing labels and any required shipping documents. The Stamps.com software, which was developed in conjunction with the Pos...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Shipping Charges: Compromises Required

March 28, 2007 • Pamela Hazelton

You would think online stores would have found it easier by now to calculate and charge accurate shipping fees, let alone set up uninterrupted checkout processes that flow smoothly. Yet I see more and more questions and requests for customizations and fixes than ever before. What makes...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Order Management Software Saves Time, Reduces Errors

January 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” When Charles Dickens opened his classic A Tale of Two Cities with those words he was thinking only about the French Revolution. But his words strike equally apropos in the entrepreneurial revolution of the 21st century. It is the ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
The Shipping News: Plenty of Carriers for eCommerce Companies

December 1, 2005 • Michael A. Cox

When you ship one package through the FedEx system it becomes one of more than 6 million that the company formerly known as Federal Express moves about the globe every day.
Shipping & Fulfillment
International Shipments Worth the Effort

December 1, 2005 • Brian Getting

One of the greatest attractions of an online business is the vast number of customers that the Internet allows a retailer to reach. Web surfers from all over the world can navigate beyond the boundaries and borders that exist in the physical world to find the products and services that ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Fulfillment Help: Try Order Management Software

December 1, 2005 • Brian Getting

Online retailers know that there are many steps required from receiving a sales order to actually shipping it. For many retailers, these steps are separate and distinct: Print the order, enter it into accounting software, produce a shipping label, generate an inventory slip, email the c...
Shipping & Fulfillment
A Primer in Shipping Calculations

August 1, 2005 • Pamela Hazelton

Set aside all the cool features you’d love your MIVA Merchant store to have, and those you aren’t sure how to accomplish. The most difficult yet necessary task is tackling the proper means of calculating shipping. It sounds so simple – after all, we can hit UPS.com, USPS.com, FedEx.com...