SiftedAI Coming Soon - See What's New Watch Demo

Sifted logo

8 Best Practices for Reducing B2C Shipping Charges

by | Aug 14, 2020

5 min read

The pandemic has brought many changes to the shipping industry, but one of the biggest is the shift toward B2C shipping that has caught some retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers by surprise

With everyone at home for an extended period, suddenly shipments that used to head out on pallets to a warehouse or store need to be packaged individually and sent directly to a customer instead. It’s changed packaging needs, shipping methods, and much more. 

Now that your world has been turned upside down, how are you keeping shipping costs in check? You’ve likely received some shocking invoices in the last few months — it’s time to figure out how to reduce shipping charges in this new environment.

 

How to reduce B2C shipping costs

  • Stay informed about your shipment trends.
    If you don’t have good data about your shipping costs, you’ll never be able to get them under control. You need to know how your distribution center locations, your service types and your package dimensions and weights affect your spend.

    All this information is called your shipping profile and it’s the key to reducing your shipping spend. Your carrier knows everything about what and how you ship, and you should too if you want to lower costs. Once you understand your shipping profile, you can track the trends and target the fees and surcharges that affect you most often. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, though. What matters is your profile.
  • Stay in communication with your carrier rep.
    Those pandemic-related peak surcharges might not go away anytime soon, but you’ll never know until you ask. Both carriers are imposing an extra fee on packages to residential locations, which is a common destination for B2C shipments, of course. Contact your rep and find out when they expect these surcharges to lift.

    Staying in regular touch with your carrier rep is a good practice anyway, especially once you have a handle on the trends that have an impact on your shipping. When trends are affecting you negatively, talk with your rep about changes you can make in your shipping operations or in your contract. Speaking of…
  • Re-optimize your contract.
    Too many shippers let years go by before they revisit their carrier contracts. (Fifty-six percent of shippers in our recent survey hadn’t done it in at least a year. Even if you’ve optimized fairly recently, the pandemic has probably undone some of what you worked on with your rep. Get to know your data because there are more than 600 optimizable components in a carrier contract. You have to know which ones are hurting your spend the most right now to properly optimize.
  • Stay in contact with your vendors.
    How’s your supply chain looking? If you aren’t in close contact with your vendors, you might not have to worry about shipping because you won’t have the products you need in the first place! Contact your vendors and find out what plans they have in place to keep things moving — especially as the holiday season approaches. Ask if they anticipate any changes that will affect your particular business.
  • Should you still be offering expedited shipping or will standard services work?
    The shipping speed options you offer customers have grown more complex since the pandemic began. With carriers still prioritizing food and health shipments, shippers of non-essential items need to think strategically. UPS recently said it would be “selective in terms of what goes through the network” — making maintaining contact with your carrier rep even more important.

    Think through the shipping options you offer your customers. What will they tolerate? What can you reasonably offer? What will help you manage costs best?  Whatever you decide, make clearly communicating with your customers about shipping options a top priority.
  • Rethink your free shipping minimum.
    Along with shipping speed, consider your free shipping minimum. How do the common surcharges involved with B2C shipping — like Residential Delivery, Delivery Area Additional Handling and Oversize/Large Package — change the Cost of Goods Sold for your items from what they were before? It’s important to thoroughly understand your own costs before you can draw the line for free shipping.
  • Seek to expand your carrier base leveraging DHL, USPS or regional carriers.
    Given everything that’s changed, it might be time to crunch your numbers and look at leveraging DHL, USPS, regional carriers, or other last-mile delivery providers to supplement your UPS or FedEx volume. It’s also never a bad idea to have this information in your back pocket if you need to suddenly shift volumes because your carrier isn’t meeting your needs.
  • Eliminate controllable accessorial charges.
    There are many accessorial charges that are within your control — you just might not realize it. My colleague Morgan covered several in her recent post, in fact. Once again, the key to controlling these is knowing your own data inside and out.

 

Dig deep to find B2C shipping savings

So how do you get a handle on your data, its trends, and what you should optimize in your contract? You likely have almost all that information already, but it probably isn’t easy to gather, analyze and understand.

You can scoop up the last few months of carrier reports and dig into the data yourself, or you can seek out a tool that helps you get the visibility you need to make smart B2C shipping decisions. No matter what, the only way to control these costs is to understand them first.

 

Surcharge costs creeping up? Find out why with the help of our ebook, 5 Budget-Busting Surcharges & How to Lower Them

Topics: Carrier Optimization, Contract Optimization, Shipping Profile, Shipping Trends, Surcharges
Topics

Check out related resources at Sifted.

PARCEL Forum 2024: Key Takeaways and Insights

PARCEL Forum 2024: Key Takeaways and Insights

In September, PARCEL Forum ‘24 brought top professionals from the small-package industry to Dallas. They discussed ...
Read More
Unpacking the (True) Impact: 2025 FedEx GRI Analysis

Unpacking the (True) Impact: 2025 FedEx GRI Analysis

As the summer temperatures start to cool down, the shipping world heats up. Peak season looms. Demand surcharges ...
Read More
Supply Chain Contingency Planning: Using Logistics Intelligence To Mitigate Risks

Supply Chain Contingency Planning: Using Logistics Intelligence To Mitigate Risks

Globalization is slowing down, and the world is doing everything to fix it and reduce modern-day supply chain ...
Read More
2024 FedEx & UPS Demand (Peak Season) Surcharge Guide

2024 FedEx & UPS Demand (Peak Season) Surcharge Guide

Please note: This article focuses on Ground and Express charges. For a full breakdown of international and other ...
Read More
The 2025 General Rate Increase (GRI) is Coming… What We Expect and How to Prepare

The 2025 General Rate Increase (GRI) is Coming… What We Expect and How to Prepare

As the 2025 General Rate Increase (GRI) approaches, businesses across industries are bracing for the potential ...
Read More
Invoice Auditing 101: How to Audit FedEx & UPS Invoices Accurately

Invoice Auditing 101: How to Audit FedEx & UPS Invoices Accurately

Did you know that on select days annually, both FedEx and UPS pause their money-back guarantees? These blackout ...
Read More
PARCEL Forum ’24 – Sifted’s Roundup

PARCEL Forum ’24 – Sifted’s Roundup

This September, the supply chain’s leading experts will converge in Texas for PARCEL Forum ‘24, the premier ...
Read More
Network Optimization 101: The Impact of Carrier Diversification on Supply Chain Resilience

Network Optimization 101: The Impact of Carrier Diversification on Supply Chain Resilience

FedEx and UPS had the same GRI for 2024 at 5.9%. Down 1% from 2023’s 6.9% increase. American businesses are facing ...
Read More
How To Implement Artificial Intelligence To Boost Your Supply Chain Operations

How To Implement Artificial Intelligence To Boost Your Supply Chain Operations

By 2027, the global last-mile delivery market is expected to soar past $200 billion, up from $108.1 billion in ...
Read More
How Amazon Is Using AI To Become the Fastest Supply Chain in the World

How Amazon Is Using AI To Become the Fastest Supply Chain in the World

Did you know that Amazon has been using machine learning and AI for more than 25 years? Yes, 25 years! That’s ...
Read More
Survey: Consumer Home Delivery Preferences

Survey: Consumer Home Delivery Preferences

In the eCommerce landscape, the way brands interact with their customers is evolving. While optimized store ...
Read More
How to Evaluate Carrier Performance Across Diverse Networks

How to Evaluate Carrier Performance Across Diverse Networks

Carrier Diversification allows businesses to: 1.  Compare and choose the most cost-effective shipping rates. 2.  ...
Read More

How Sifted Works

Connect to
your account

Sync
your data

Power your
dashboards

Get Your Logistics
Intelligence Demo

Strategic ways to prevent loss down the line

Services you could be utilizing right now for savings

Ways to cut material costs without cutting quality

Shipping Insights & Alerts
Get updates and track the things impacting your business most

Decision Support
See how supply chain adjustments pay off before you pay out

Carrier Management
Streamline how you manage your carrier operations and contracts

Business Automation
Let software do what it does better than people can

Blog
Discover news, tips, and industry best practices

DIM Weight Calculator
See how DIM is impacting you

Podcast
Hear from industry experts on LeaderShipping

Case Studies
Learn how other brands use
Logistics Intelligence

Carbon Calculator
Calculate your CO2 Emissions

Guides
Download free reports and
expert how-tos

Demo
Get a personalized tour of our software

About Sifted
Get to know Logistics Intelligence

Unboxed Newsletter
Subscribe for parcel news, predictions & tips

Logistics Intelligence
For parcel shippers

Let's get you to the right place!

SIFTED DASHBOARDS
For parcel shippers

AMAZON
Redirect to Valence Intelligence Login

Not sure if you have an account? Email [email protected].