The shipping industry is huge. The size of it makes it extremely hard to understand how major carriers in this industry handle their synergy and logistics. According to UPS reports, they shipped 4.3 billion packages and documents in 2013. This leads us to question how many such items were shipped by the USPS, FedEx, or other players in the industry like DHL. A 2009 North American Technographics Retail Online Survey conducted on behalf of USP indicated that over 60% of customers who shopped online wanted affordable shipping and handling charges.
While most of this population wants free shipping, most are quite willing to settle for alternative, low-cost shipping. This leads to the biggest question—what are the best ways to secure low flat-rate shipping prices for your online store without needing big volume contracts? Most of these eCommerce stores are not eligible to get this volume contract.
Stamps.com
Stamps.com is one of the leading discounted USPS postage providers, allowing you to retain a basic membership for about $15 a month. Users can access discounted shipping rates through USPS and shipping insurance using this membership. This is a great way to get lower prices on packages shipped out from your online stores daily. There are no necessary contracts, and the interface is relatively easy and simple. It is also designed to facilitate most eCommerce shopping carts and order management systems.
Endicia
This is Stamps.com’s biggest rival and is owned by Tupperware maker Rubbermaid. Like its rival, Endicia offers customers access to discounted UPS postage, stealth postage, and easy label printing. They also offer great insurance deals—$0.65 per $100. Again, like Stamps.com, it is contract-free and has about the same membership cost.
Express 1
Express 1 represents absolute genius in the area of discount postages. By establishing relationships with different USPS, they have made a revolution. They secured commercial plus pricing on Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express packages using their strategies. This is mainly used for businesses that ship over 150,000 packages a year. Using this company, subscribers can ship packages weighing up to 20 pounds anywhere in the US at meager rates with fast delivery of one to three days. Membership rates differ depending on the membership type.
Postage for this can be purchased digitally whenever needed. Any of the above three mentioned places can give you some of the best flat-rate shipping prices. Even if you save half a dollar on every package you ship, you could save phenomenally over just one year. Imagine what you could do with your business and your life if you saved this much regularly!
