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A smooth shipping process should be at the core of any online store.
When you set up shipping for your online business, your three main priorities are:
Cost-effectiveness
Streamlined operations
Positive customer experience
It’s important to establish shipping solutions that support those priorities and work for your business. Your strategy should include plans for order fulfillment, costs and pricing, branded packaging, shipping and returns, and customer communication.
1. Choose an order fulfillment method
There are two primary order fulfillment methods for online businesses: self-fulfillment and drop-shipping.
Self-fulfillment
With self-fulfillment, you handle or oversee the entire order fulfillment and shipping process on your own. Self-fulfillment gives you the most flexibility in how you package and process orders. It also gives you the most visibility into your inventory.
Self-fulfillment is most manageable if you run a smaller business. You can also hire someone to help with fulfillment or rent a storage or studio space where you can process orders outside of your home.
Dropshipping
With dropshipping, you outsource all of the inventory management, order fulfillment, and shipping operations to an off-site third-party partner. These are also known as third-party logistics (3PL) providers.
If you expect to sell a lot of orders or sell print-on-demand products, dropshipping could help to scale your business. Squarespace even has shipping extensions that seamlessly link your online store and a dropshipping partner. Dropshipping simplifies the fulfillment process for you, but can make it harder to personalize and oversee your orders.
Learn more about Squarespace extensions plugins
2. Calculate shipping costs
Shipping costs will vary depending on the carrier, the speed of shipping you choose, and whether you’re shipping domestically or internationally.
To calculate your shipping costs you’ll need to know:
Package destination: The further your packages are traveling, the more shipping will cost.
Number of packages: Some carriers offer discounts if you ship more packages in a certain period.
Package dimensions: Depending on your carrier, you may be charged based on the dimensional weight of your package. This number is based on the amount of space your package takes up in relation to its actual weight. Many shipping extensions will help you calculate this automatically.
Package weight: If your dimensional weight is less than your package’s actual weight, then you’re usually charged based on the actual weight.
Shipping speed: Delivering faster usually means paying more for expedited shipping.
Once you have an understanding of your shipping cost factors you can choose the best shipping carriers for you. Simplify the process by choosing a shipping extension for your online shop that compares shipping prices and services for you.
See more tips for choosing a shipping carrier
How much to charge for shipping
Choose how much you charge for shipping based on the cost to you and convenience for your customers. The three common shipping options to offer your customers are:
Free shipping: This option is the most appealing to customers. Build the cost into product prices or set a minimum purchase amount to support the shipping costs.
Standard shipping: With standard shipping, you’ll either charge every customer the same shipping rate or charge them for shipping at cost.
Expedited shipping: Customers may want an option for two-day or next-day delivery. Like standard shipping, you can charge one expedited rate or the exact cost.
Your shipping prices shouldn’t cut into your profit margins. If you can’t offer free shipping yet, offer standard and expedited shipping. Make sure any flat rate shipping you set accounts for the costs of sending heavier packages or shipping over longer distances.
If you’re self-fulfilling orders, you can set shipping rules to streamline your workflow on Squarespace. For example, you can set a flat shipping rate or country availability for a specific item to avoid any customer confusion.
Learn more about shipping rates and fees
Save with integrated shipping labels
If you’re going the self-fulfillment route, Squarespace makes shipping labels simple. You can purchase UPS® shipping labels and USPS shipping labels directly from a Squarespace Business or Commerce account. You can even purchase and print shipping labels directly through the Squarespace mobile app on iOS or Android.
Squarespace shipping labels automatically populate customer addresses and tracking numbers in your account. Shipping rates are also typically lower than retail pricing for post office shipping options.
You still have the option to add third-party extensions for dropshipping, international shipping, or other shipping methods, if that supports your business needs.
3. Brand your product packaging
Adding a branded touch to your product packaging is a great way to make your shipments memorable. The moment when a customer opens the package you sent them is known as “the unboxing experience”—a key touchpoint in your customer relationships. Unboxing is a prime moment for surprise and delight.
You can get branded shipping supplies like tissue paper, stickers, boxes, or tape. Other cost-effective options include printed postcards, branded packing slips, or personalized notes. Squarespace offers business extensions to help you design and order these branded touches.
The goal for branded packaging is not only to encourage customer loyalty, but word of mouth marketing. The unboxing experience is a common social media video trend, which brings you more brand awareness.
4. Establish your order fulfillment process
Set up an order fulfillment process before your orders start rolling in. There are two main elements to this process: an organized fulfillment setup and dedicated fulfillment time.
Set up your home fulfillment center
Prep a space in your home or studio that can be your dedicated fulfillment workspace. This is where you’ll stock:
Postal scale, so you won’t be reliant on shipping centers
Printer, backup ink, paper, and self-adhesive shipping labels
Materials like tissue paper, crinkle-cut shredded paper, bubble wrap, and packing tape
Shipping boxes or padded mailers
Other items to drop into packages, such as printed postcards or free samples
Your fulfillment workspace should be set up close to where you stock your inventory. Manage your physical inventory by keeping it tidy and organized with a system that makes sense to you.
Schedule time for fulfillment and shipping
Set aside time each business day for packaging and shipping products. This way you can quickly fulfill orders in bulk. A consistent fulfillment schedule also keeps you on schedule to process and ship orders within one business day, which is best practice.
Make sure to schedule a time each business day to ship out all of your packaged orders too.
5. Create your small business shipping and return policies
Create shipping and return policies for your business before you start shipping orders. This protects your business and builds trust with customers. Keep each policy concise, clear, and straightforward. Make sure each is easy to find on your ecommerce website.
What to include in an ecommerce shipping policy
A shipping policy sets expectations around when and where you ship your products. It helps customers understand when to expect their packages and whether you ship to their location.
Your shipping policy should include the following information:
When you ship and how often: It’s best practice to ship within one business day of order placement, and typical to only ship on business days.
Shipping tiers: State the different shipping options you offer, pricing, and delivery time for each.
Where you do and don’t ship: Specify whether you ship domestically and/or internationally. Note any exceptions, like if you only ship to certain countries.
Your shipping carriers and tracking details: Name the shippers you use and whether customers can expect to have tracking information for their orders.
Local pick-up options: If you offer in-person pick-up, share some details about how that works.
Return policy: Give some basic information about returns and refunds, like whether returns are free. Then link to your full return policy or share it on the same page.
See an example shipping policy
What to include in an ecommerce return policy
A return policy sets expectations around customer returns and refunds. Customers often look at return policies before buying so they know how easily they can make a return if needed.
Your return policy should answer the following questions:
Do you offer returns on all products? Name any products you don’t offer refunds on. Name any items you only offer store credit or exchanges for too.
Are returns free? Share whether customers are responsible for return shipping or whether you’ll cover or reimburse it.
Do you refund shipping costs? Clarify whether refunds include the original shipping charge.
When do refunds appear? Give an estimate for how long it takes to process and refund after receiving a return.
Are there any return deadlines? Name a return window that seems reasonable to you. Many ecommerce businesses offer a 30-day window.
What condition do you expect returns to be in? This depends on what you sell. Specify how used you expect items to look after they’ve been returned.
What is the return procedure? Give a quick summary of your process. Do customers need to fill out a form or send an email? Or do you have an extension that helps you streamline the returns process?
Make both of your policies easy to find by linking them at the bottom of your online store’s homepage and the checkout page.
See our small business return policy example
6. Communicate with your customers
A crucial piece of your shipping strategy is your customer communications plan. Communicating with customers from the point of purchase through delivery builds brand trust.
With Squarespace, you can automate the purchase confirmation email and use third-party extensions to automate tracking notifications. You can even use Squarespace Email Campaigns to follow up with customers after delivery to ask for feedback or testimonials.
Reach out personally if any unexpected delays come up. It’s always a better experience for customers to know what to expect, even if there’s a delay.
This post was updated on March 20, 2023.