Speedy, error-free shipping is one of the most important aspects of any ecommerce business. In addition to being crucial to your operation, it is critical to keeping up with your competition. If you’ve been looking to do just that, don’t worry; there are plenty of paths to pick from to elevate your shipping options without putting a crater in your profits. Read on to learn about the shipping options available to your ecommerce business and understand why 2-day shipping is the best amongst them! 

Speedy Shipping Overview

Can you believe there was ever a time when waiting weeks for a mail order was considered the norm? Those kooky 90s. It’s safe to say those days are long gone as we relish in the rapidity of speedy ecommerce shipping. Not only that, nowadays slow shipping can annoy your current customers, deter returning customers, and cost you new customers.

Fortunately, fulfillment center technology has evolved alongside customer expectations. There are several ways to offer fast, affordable shipping options in this new ecommerce era, starting with setting parameters around specific spend, items, and delivery destinations. More than that, it’s about finding a happy medium between what customers want and what is financially feasible for your ecommerce business.

While overnight shipping can be a difficult, costly model to uphold, and ground shipping is often not up to par with the quick turnarounds customers crave, 2-day shipping offers great benefits to the average ecommerce business. If you’re looking to offer 2-day shipping to your customers, consider the three main types of 2-day shipping options.

1.) Free 2-Day Shipping

With almost 80% of US buyers agreeing that free shipping increases the likelihood of a purchase, you can imagine the kind of conversions your ecommerce business could gain by offering this crowd-pleasing shipping option. Free 2-day shipping is like the syrup on top of pancakes. The pancakes can be fine without it, but the syrup gives the stack that extra umph.

However, while shipping that is both fast and free is ideal, it can be costly. If you’re thinking of offering free 2-day shipping for buyers who choose to spend their bucks at your ecommerce business, consider these tactics for ensuring that this avenue for your customers is still affordable to you:

• Only offer free shipping after an order exceeds a certain spend threshold

• Increase prices slightly so what your customers pay covers part of the shipping

• Make free shipping available only for certain SKUs, specifically those that are lightweight like mittens (so it costs less to ship them) or have big margins, like jewelry (so what you make more than covers the shipping costs)

• Visit ShipMonk’s “How to Reduce 2-Day Shipping Costs” for all the tools and tricks

Overall, free 2-day shipping is great, but it might not be the most viable option for some ecommerce businesses. If that’s the case for you, flat-rate and table-rate shipping options may be solid alternatives. They both provide fixed rates for your customers, but the approaches are a little different.

2.) Table-Rate 2-day Shipping

With table-rate shipping, you can set different rules for your orders so that rates are calculated, and adjust accordingly. For example, your shipping cost could be $5 for orders within 50 miles of your warehouse or fulfillment center, $10 within 100 miles, and so on. And you don’t have to just have rules based on distance. Rules based on any number of factors could form your 2-day shipping standards and practices, thus allowing you to create a personalized shipping strategy that works for your ecommerce business. 

Of course, because of all the different elements that may be taken into account, this option can be somewhat complex. As such, it might not be the best choice for those who are just starting out. When launching your ecommerce business, the less complex your systems the better; so if you want a 2-day shipping option, a more general route like a flat rate or free policy (with one of the above cost-saving tactics in place) will likely be a better friend to you. 

3.) Flat-Rate 2-day Shipping

Flat-rate shipping is when every order is charged the same for shipping, regardless of package weight or final destination. If you choose to offer this as your designated 2-day shipping option, you’ll need to do some math to figure out what rate works for your ecommerce business. Charge too little and you can damage your profits; charge too much and customers will be turned off. It’s all about balance.

Regardless of the 2-day shipping option you choose, make sure to thoroughly look over your calculations and continuously assess them so that your ecommerce business stays profitable no matter what, or how much, people are ordering.

Other Speedy Shipping Factors

Consider Live Rates

Live rates essentially allow you to transfer shipping carrier rates to your customers while also charging shipping costs proportionately to the destination. For example, if you’re sending a pair of mittens to Monica just a few zip codes over, then those rates will be different if you send mittens to Jimmy who lives across the country. 

Although live rates naturally grant a lot of transparency, it’s important to note that you don’t necessarily have to display those rates exactly as they are. It’s up to you if you want to offer a little something extra in terms of a discount, or if you want to hike up the shipping costs slightly to cover fulfillment center fees. 

Implement In-Store Pickup

If you sell directly through your ecommerce business website and through brick-and-mortar store(s) then free in-store pickup is a fantastic way to build a bridge between both fast and free shipping. This path offers customers a chance to get to know you online and offline, and you can potentially save on the cost of shipping to yourself because you have stock at said physical location(s).

According to Business Insider, 70% of US consumers are big fans of BOPIS — “Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store.” You can understand why; they don’t have to pay for shipping, you don’t have to increase prices to cover shipping costs, and there are minimal wait times for buyers to get their hands on what they ordered, depending on how well-stocked your stores are, and how many stores you have. 

Inventory Split

If you have your inventory split across multiple fulfillment centers, your ecommerce business has the potential to use both 2-day and non-2-day-branded services to get orders to customers in under a couple of days. As a result, great shipping services become way more affordable. ShipMonk has 11 state-of-the-art fulfillment centers strategically located across the world to offer our ecommerce clients a means to bring inventory closer to end-customers, and thus reduce shipping costs and minimize shipping times. Our newer international fulfillment centers, for example, offer ecommerce businesses the chance to get packages to international markets with domestic-like delivery prices and windows.

Save with ShipMonk’s Virtual Carrier Network

Our 3PL does more than provide your ecommerce business a means to offer 2-day shipping. We have the systems in place to make sure whatever type of shipping option you offer, you are always getting the best rates and delivery times. 

At a glance, our 2-day shipping options include a 2-day ground shipping option and (non-guaranteed) 2nd Day Air services. There are many factors working behind the scenes for these options, and the amount of shipping zones a package travels through affects speed and rate. For example, we have a list of zip codes for each of our fulfillment centers that automatically triggers a 2-day package to be routed through ground shipping because it could get to its final destination even faster (1 – 2 days vs. flat 2-days). Air shipping will never be less than 2 days. In addition to near-zone packages being received more quickly, the cost for 2-day ground shipping  is significantly less expensive than the near-zone 2-day Air shipping costs once you start crossing into Zone 4+. 

There are plenty more elements to consider here, but the key takeaway is that our 2-day shipping services are dramatically cheaper compared to big-carrier, non-branded shipping options. We achieve this by utilizing our shipping carrier relationships for the best deals on rates and unceasingly calculating if a less expensive or more standard service will get orders to customers faster or at a lower cost. In sum, we’re always looking to see if there is a way you can save money and time on getting out your orders. The daily operations for how we do this comes down to three letters: VCN.

Our first-of-its-kind Virtual Carrier Network was designed to combine the benefits of rate shopping and transportation management with an always-adapting network of shipping options. You can check out the full scoop on the Virtual Carrier Network now! At a glance, here are just some benefits:

• Reduced shipping costs
• More stable spend across the board
• In-depth analysis capabilities
• Flexibility in the face of supply chain issues
• Easily-accessible performance metrics
• Transparency on charges and changes 
• Simplified shipping zone mapping

The Virtual Carrier Network is fully-integrated with our 3PL operation, and we are proud to offer it to all ecommerce businesses we work with, so if they do offer 2-day shipping, or any shipping guarantee to buyers, we have their back on all fronts.

Shipping Option Summation

In order to find the shipping option that’s right for your ecommerce business, you’ll probably have to try different strategies, then regularly experiment and analyze results. The important thing to remember is that you should be testing different strategies that work toward giving the people what they want i.e. fast and inexpensive shipping options. In terms of today’s buyer expectations, 5-day shipping is on the cheaper, longer end and 1 – 2-day shipping is on the more expensive, speedy end. So one could make the case that priority 3-day shipping is the happy medium. Whatever shipping option makes you and your budget happy, though, do research to ensure you’re taking all factors into account regarding how much you do (or don’t) charge for it.

Just know that whatever tactics you pursue to provide that 2-day shipping option, or any other shipping option, ShipMonk’s international array of fulfillment centers, ecommerce experts, and Virtual Carrier Network are here to help you achieve your goals! For a free quote or to get started with us, feel free to contact us 2-day . . . or any other day that you decide it’s time to level up your shipping game!