Shipping speed is a key factor to consider when selling products online. Many of us have abandoned online purchases after realising that they won’t arrive in time. By speeding up your shipping service, you could generate more sales.
Of course, the downside of promising faster shipping is that it puts more demand on you to dispatch products quickly. Faster shipping is also more expensive, which means adding a higher shipping fee to all purchases or being prepared to pay for it yourself. This itself can lead to a loss of customers or reduce profits, depending on how you decide to factor in this additional cost.
Just how speedy should your shipping be? It depends on the products you sell and the types of customers you want to serve. This post takes a deeper look into the different levels of shipping speed and weighs up the pros and cons of fast vs slow shipping.
The 5 levels of shipping speed
Shipping speed is typically available at five different levels. These include:
Economy (5-7 business days)
Economy shipping is so-called because it’s the cheapest option. But it’s also the slowest. Domestic economy shipping may take 5 to 7 business days, while international economy shipping can take even longer (sometimes up to 18 business days). It is typically not suitable for items like food with a short expiry date.
Standard (3-4 business days)
Standard shipping is usually about twice as fast as economy shipping. It comes at a higher price, but is not drastically more expensive. Standard shipping may come with perks such as package tracking.
Express (1-3 business days)
Also known as expedited shipping, this is a much faster shipping option. Products can often reach their destination in as little as 1 to 3 days. This makes it better suited to food items and products typically bought as last-minute gifts. It comes at a higher cost.
Next day (1 day)
Next day delivery may be necessary to provide for items that are typically required urgently (like car parts). It may be limited to customers in a certain area of the dispatch location. Reliance on drop-shipping is often required to provide next day delivery over a larger area. This type of shipping costs a lot more.
Same-day
Some fulfilment services can provide same-day shipping – which can sometimes mean same-day delivery if ordered before a certain time. However, this is much harder to promise and is typically only possible to provide when shipping items to customers in the immediate local area. It costs a lot more, but is a perk that some people are willing to pay for in an emergency.
How speedy should your shipping be?
Fast shipping is worth offering if you sell time-sensitive goods like flowers, fresh foods, pharmaceuticals or legal documents. It may also be worth providing if you are a local company.
Slower shipping methods are better suited to items that customers are likely to order in advance, or in instances where lowering costs is a priority. Books and physical music copies are some of the most common items that customers ship economically or standard shipping for, especially when shipping them internationally.
Giving customers the option of both shipping options could lead to the most sales. Using drop-shipping or taking special measures to preserve perishable items in transit may be necessary.
