Turn Shipping Into a Revenue Driver: 4 Factors E-Commerce Merchants Need to Know

With 34 years of experience in the shipping industry, Vince DeAngelis — Shippo’s Senior Vice President of Carrier Partnerships — is unsurprisingly one of the top go-to experts around here. Presenting at Fishbowl’s Inventory Management + Growth Summit last week, Vince shared some of his in-depth knowledge with attendees during a short-but-sweet session on how to turn e-commerce shipping from a cost center into a revenue generator.

If you’re building your carrier strategy to stay ahead of this year’s peak while driving revenue with your shipping operations, we encourage you to check out the full recording below (and if you’re not, we suggest getting on it ASAP). Here our top four takeaways from the session:

The shipping space is not as straightforward as it used to be

A lot has changed since Vince first started working in the shipping space 34 years ago. While there used to be well-known rules about when, how, and where to ship, the world has shifted — and the shipping ecosystem has shifted with it. The way to get ahead of the constant change is to learn about the current landscape, make a plan to stay ahead of shipping challenges, and then measure and adjust accordingly.

There’s no one-size-fits-all carrier strategy

It used to be that carrier options were quite limited, but these days, there are myriad national, regional, and international carriers to fit a variety of shipping use cases. Vince recommends educating yourself on all options available in the market — there are probably a lot more than you think — and evaluating whether your current stable of carriers is best suited to get you through peak, and beyond.

You can simplify that evaluation process with a multi-carrier shipping solution such as Shippo, which allows you to compare options across a large network of carriers in real-time so you can consistently make the best fulfillment decisions for your business needs.

Have a shipping plan — and a shipping back-up plan

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the global supply chain and carrier operations in ways we haven’t seen before. The changes have been swift, dramatic, and in some cases, quite costly. It’s important to not only have a plan for how to get orders fulfilled and packages shipped from Point A to Point B, but to also have a back-up plan in place if things go awry (and we all know what they say about the best laid plans).

Make the effort to stay in the know (especially during peak)

Service disturbances and delays not only impact your fulfillment operations, but also your customer’s experience. In order to proactively make adjustments and communicate disruptions, it’s important to stay informed yourself. Look out for updates on social media and subscribe to trade news to ensure you know how current events will impact your end-to-end operations, especially during this busiest time of the year.

You can glean even more shipping insights from Vince and other industry executives from Loop Returns, ShipHero, Gorgias, Malomo, and Passport during this upcoming BFCM roundtable event on Thursday, October 14th. The panel discussion will cover a range of topics to help brands prepare their e-commerce operations for the impending holiday rush. We hope to see you there!