Shipping Guide For
eCommerce success

Marketing Agency working on strategy for a client.

As a Shopify agency, you have two unique superpowers: delivering online stores that showcase your clients’ products in their best light, and creating ads that drive traffic to their stores.

Your team is a well-oiled machine and continuously knocks it out of the park. You have managed to not only build successful brands for others, but have accomplished this same feat for your agency.

As a leader in your industry, you are constantly looking to expand your toolset and provide intentional value for your clients. The problem is that most of the shipping-related content out there is focused on the store owner, instead of how you, as an agency, can help your clients leverage shipping as a marketing and customer care tool as opposed to an operational one.

Our hope is that this guide will become your bookmarked reference for when your clients face shipping-related problems. This isn’t a deep dive into the shipping world, but instead, a series of conversation prompts that you can use to make shipping feel less daunting for your clients.

The Three Stages of ecommerce Shipping

Shipping is a reality on every order and is important in every stage of the buyer’s journey. At Intuitive Shipping, we like to break the journey down into three main stages:

  1. Storefront
  2. Checkout
  3. Fulfillment

Storefront

Think about the last time you shopped at a new-to-you online store. Before checking out, did you know:
 
  • If they ship to your country?
  • The cost to ship?
  • How long delivery takes?

 

It’s highly unlikely. Each store’s shipping experience is unique, which is why a detailed Shipping and Delivery Options page is crucial to a store’s success. Every client you work with will have a different shipping mix, but there is a baseline of information that every customer wants to know:

  • Where your client does and doesn’t ship to
  • What to expect for cost
  • If ‘free’ shipping is available
  • When orders are dispatched
  • If upgraded shipping is available
  • Estimated transit times
  • Who your client ships with
  • If duties & taxes are included
  • If shipping insurance is available
  • What the lost/stolen package policy is

 

After working with thousands of clients at Intuitive Shipping, we can confidently state that your clients’ shipping strategy will be unique. Remember: you’re incredibly skilled at discovery sessions. In these sessions, you can work with your clients to gather additional information about their shipping needs.

Consider asking your clients, “What are the most common shipping questions your customer service team receives?”

Common questions could include:

  • Adult toys: Is the ‘Ship From’ non-descriptive of what’s ordered?
  • Alcohol: How can I ensure that a signature is required by a legal drinking-age person?
  • Jewelry: Is there an option for a specific person to sign upon delivery to keep the gift a surprise?
  • International orders: Are duties and taxes prepaid?
  • Perishable goods: How does the store keep items fresh in transit and after delivery?
  • Toys: Does the store ship in unbranded boxes so parents can keep their gift a surprise?

Checkout

Did you know that 69% of carts are abandoned at checkout, primarily due to shipping and delivery obstacles?

Setting the proper expectations on the Shipping and Delivery Options page is the first step to mitigating these losses. Still, the shipping step of the checkout experience is where shoppers decide to complete their purchase or abandon their cart.

As a Shopify agency, you’re aware of the limited options Shopify offers to control the shipping costs and options during checkout. You’ve been there plenty of times: you work hard with your clients to create a beautiful storefront and high-converting ads that attract shoppers, and then it all falls apart at shipping.

Here’s an example of how: 

Raise your hand if you have ever realized that a birthday, holiday, or anniversary was less than a week away and you’d forgotten to buy a gift. Us, too. If you found your gift but were only given a ‘standard’ shipping option with a delivery range of 3-7 days, you’d choose to shop elsewhere with a guaranteed delivery day.

There are two easy fixes for this, ideally used in tandem. Using Intuitive Shipping for accurate delivery estimates, even on flat or free shipping, would pull the exact delivery estimate from the carrier. 

The second is if your client also leveraged Intuitive’s dimensional shipping feature for accurate real-time rates for express and expedited options, their customers would be given access to faster shipping speeds if ‘standard’ shipping won’t arrive in time.

While data has proven that free or flat-rate shipping converts better, it also shows that shoppers will upgrade their shipping speed for time-sensitive purchases. More shipping options mean more opportunities to convert.

There are many possible reasons that your client’s shipping options might be causing customers to abandon their carts, but the good news is that you can rely on our team to help you help your clients. There’s a reason Shopify’s leading brands, including Magnolia, Purina, and Twinings, trust our team: we know our ship. Check out our Partner Page to learn more about how we can work together.

Fulfillment

If the checkout shipping experience is where shoppers are converted into buyers, then the fulfillment experience is where repeat customers are won.

It’s imperative that your clients are able to fulfill their orders quickly, accurately, and in packaging that is appropriate for what’s in the order.

These variables are all within the control of your clients, but the experience is mostly likely to fall apart after the order is picked up by the shipping carrier. Broken items, delivery delays, and worst of all, lost packages all impact a customer’s desire to buy from your clients again.

Balancing Speed with Quality

Your clients’ customers will be comparing their fulfillment experience with that of other stores, and in a lot of cases, their previous experiences with your clients themselves. Fast fulfillment is great, but what’s not great is an oversized package filled with padding to protect the small item inside. 

Receiving the wrong item, and in some cases, no item at all (yes, this happens) is a side effect of an overworked warehouse with unrealistic expectations. Whether your clients own their warehouses or use a 3PL, encourage them to ensure their warehouse is focused on quality as much as speed.

Packing Peanut Allergies

Did you know that in 2019 alone, eCommerce activities produced more than 1B pounds of plastic packaging waste? The main contributor to this excess waste is warehouses prioritizing speed over selecting the proper box size for an order. Intuitive Shipping is committed to reducing this number, which is where our SmartBoxingTM feature saves the day (and the planet!).

This proprietary feature virtually packs what is in a shopper’s cart and determines the most efficient packaging for an order. Beyond calculating accurate, dimensional shipping rates at checkout, SmartBoxingTM can help your clients make better packaging decisions. The data produced by SmartBoxingTM is accessible in their Intuitive Shipping dashboard’s Order Notes or Order Details, so your clients know the proper boxes to use during fulfillment. This “set it and forget it” feature is a simple way for your clients to reduce their carbon footprint.

Damages & Theft

A common topic in Shopify forums is package damage and theft and the best practices for prevention moving forward. This is a tricky situation because once a package is delivered, the shipping provider has fulfilled their end of the deal. Neither the carrier nor your client can control what happens after delivery.

Fortunately, apps like Route can give buyers the choice of opting into shipping insurance and a little peace of mind. Instead of your clients being inundated with customer service complaints or working directly with a shipping carrier, Route handles it.

Tracking & Delivery Notifications

We live in an age where information is at our fingertips, and order tracking should be no exception. Easily accessible tracking reduces customer service inquiries and provides assurance to customers, giving them 24/7 access to the status of their delivery.

  • When their order is dispatched
  • The estimated delivery date
  • Delivery updates (if the delivery date changes)
  • When an order is out for delivery
  • When an order has arrived

 

Final Thoughts

Shipping can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! With the right tools and a rational, service-focused approach, it can be easy to manage and ultimately have a positive impact on your clients’ reputations with their customers.

We hope this guide has provided some helpful insights into how you can start talking to your clients about streamlining their shipping processes. If you have questions about how Intuitive Shipping can help your clients succeed at shipping, please let us know!

 

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Fulfillment

If the checkout shipping experience is where shoppers are converted into buyers, then the fulfillment experience is where repeat customers are won.

It’s imperative that your clients are able to fulfill their orders quickly, accurately, and in packaging that is appropriate for what’s in the order.

These variables are all within the control of your clients, but the experience is mostly likely to fall apart after the order is picked up by the shipping carrier. Broken items, delivery delays, and worst of all, lost packages all impact a customer’s desire to buy from your clients again.

Balancing Speed with Quality

Your clients’ customers will be comparing their fulfillment experience with that of other stores, and in a lot of cases, their previous experiences with your clients themselves. Fast fulfillment is great, but what’s not great is an oversized package filled with padding to protect the small item inside. 

Receiving the wrong item, and in some cases, no item at all (yes, this happens) is a side effect of an overworked warehouse with unrealistic expectations. Whether your clients own their warehouses or use a 3PL, encourage them to take steps to ensure their warehouse is prioritizing quality over speed.

Packing Peanut Allergies

Did you know that in 2019 alone, eCommerce activities produced an estimated 2.1B pounds of plastic packaging waste? The main contributor to this excess waste is warehouses prioritizing speed over selecting the proper box size for an order. Intuitive Shipping is committed to reducing this number, which is where our SmartBoxing feature saves the day (and the planet!).

 

This proprietary feature virtually packs what is in a shopper’s cart and determines the most efficient packaging for an order. Beyond calculating accurate, dimensional shipping rates at checkout, SmartBoxing can help your clients make better packaging decisions. The data produced by SmartBoxing is accessible in their Intuitive Shipping dashboard, Order Notes, and Order Details, so your clients know the proper boxes to use during fulfillment. This “set it and forget it” feature is a simple way for your clients to reduce their carbon footprint.

 

Damages & Theft

A common topic in Shopify forums is package damage and theft, and the best practices for prevention moving forward. This is a tricky situation because once a package is delivered, the shipping provider has fulfilled their end of the deal. Neither the carrier nor your client can control what happens after delivery.

 

Fortunately, apps like Route can give buyers the option of opting into shipping insurance and a little peace of mind. Instead of your clients being inundated with customer service complaints or working directly with a shipping carrier, Route handles it.

 

Tracking & Delivery Notifications

We live in an age where information is at our fingertips, and order tracking should be no exception. Easily accessible tracking reduces customer service inquiries and provides assurance to customers, giving them 24/7 access to the status of their delivery.

 

1)         When their order is dispatched

2)         The estimated delivery date

3)         Delivery updates (if the delivery date changes)

4)         When an order is out for delivery

5)         When an order has arrived

 

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