1. Overview of Magento Shipping in eCommerce
Magento is a leading digital storefront that allows you to create your own eCommerce website. This platform enables online businesses such as yours to control several aspects of online shopping as well as customer experience.
Shipping of products is one such domain. Magento makes it easy for you and enables your online business to use integrated carriers. This facility helps create shipments and deliver products to customers around the world.
Magento Shipping also helps eCommerce businesses streamline their shipping processes. It provides a broader array of options in terms of integrations and extensions. Magento also furnishes you with pre-negotiated rates with partner shipping companies.
This is beneficial and ideal for eCommerce businesses such as yours. In this article, we discuss how Magento Shipping works. We will also look at how it can help your eCommerce business deliver products to your customers.
2. What is Magento Shipping?
When it comes to shipping your products, you no longer have to switch over to different solution providers. Magento Shipping is essentially a solution provided by the Magento digital storefront. It allows eCommerce businesses to ship their products to customers directly from the platform.
The platform is integrated with leading shipping service providers. Using Magento, creating shipments, managing orders, rates, delivery modes and reverse logistics is ridiculously simple.
3. How Does Magento Shipping Work in the eCommerce Industry?
Magento Shipping is a multi-carrier shipping solution for eCommerce businesses. It opens up the global market and allows online retailers to ship products to multiple locations. You can choose your desired shipping partner for the route and pick a delivery mode listed by the partner carrier.
Magento can also help you with shipping costs. It offers businesses with shipment rating models. This gives sellers the flexibility of choosing a suitable pricing strategy for each shipment. This decision can be made depending on the size, weight, type and destination of the order.
This handy platform is powered by artificial intelligence. Using AI-driven tech, you are automatically recommended the ideal shipping partner for an order depending on any predetermined parameters.
When formulating options, Magento Shipping also uses the performance, track history & capabilities of different carriers to draw up the shortlist.
4. Which pricing options does Magento Shipping offer?
Magento Shipping allows you to ship your products using three different pricing models. Some online businesses prefer to charge a flat rate for shipping products. Others refer and use table rates to export their products worldwide. Some eCommerce stores that can afford free shipping provide it for their customers.
4.1) Flat Rate
A flat rate refers to a fixed amount that businesses can charge for shipping their products to the customer. It is the most commonly used pricing model by eCommerce businesses. This practice allows them to maintain an uncomplicated pricing strategy.
This pricing method is most suitable for eCommerce businesses that have a homogenous inventory. This means that there are only a little variation in the size and shape of their various products.
It is generally ideal for small businesses with lower order volumes. Flat shipping can be both a fixed amount or a fixed percentage of the order value. This depends wholly on the preference of the eCommerce company.
4.2) Table Rate
A table rate model can be used by businesses to decide the cost of shipping a product on a case-to-case basis. The method uses different parameters to calculate the cost of shipping. This can include the price of the product, size, shape, type, and destination of the shipment.
Businesses can also choose to define their own parameters. They can use different permutations and combinations of these criteria to automatically calculate the cost of shipping. This prevents the necessity to manually check each individual order.
4.3) Free Shipping
Finally, online retailers can choose to provide their customers with free shipping. In most cases, eCommerce businesses choose to have a threshold for offering free shipping to their customers. For example, retailers can choose to waive the cost of shipping only if the customers were to shop above a certain amount.
Free shipping acts as a marketing strategy for eCommerce businesses that provide it. It also works as an incentive for customers to shop more in order to avail free shipping.
Generally, businesses use a combination of these shipping methods to decide the cost of shipping for their orders. Ideally, free shipping is used for shipping products when the total cart value crosses a certain threshold.
Flat rate shipping is used to ship items within a fixed portfolio or geography. And table rate shipping is used to ship products when the shipping of products is not feasible via either of the previous models.
5. How does Magento calculate the cost of shipping an item?
Magento Shipping can be used to calculate the cost of shipping an item and presenting it to customers. This is a user-facing facility and allows businesses to calculate the cost for customers in two different ways.
5.1) Calculating shipping costs using Flat Rate
If online businesses use the flat rate method, they can choose to have a fixed amount as their shipping fee. They can also opt to define a fixed percentage of the order value as the cost.
When a percentage amount is chosen, the Magento platform automatically calculates the percentage of the total order value. This is then presented to customers when they reach the checkout window.
To deploy this method, you will need to go to the Flat Rate module on the Magento platform. You will then have to enter the desired value in the “Calculate Handling Fee” section.
5.2) Calculating shipping costs using Table Rate
Businesses that use the Table Rate need to create different parameters and combinations. This helps to determine the cost of shipping on a per order basis. If you would like to pursue this option, you will need to open the Table Rate module on the Magento platform.
You will then be able to create formulas using the “Condition” section. Here, you can define what aspects of the product and order you would like to use to determine the cost of shipping.
Once the conditions are set, Magento will automatically calculate the cost of shipping for different products and present it on the checkout window.
6. List of Carriers Supported by Magento
Magento allows online businesses to ship their orders with multiple partners. This feature gives store owners such as yourself the flexibility to choose the ideal shipping partner. Magento Shipping is integrated with four carriers that can be used to ship products directly through the Magento Platform.
Magento Shipping supports the following carriers:
6.1) UPS
UPS is an international shipping company that is an industry leader in terms of revenue. It allows businesses to ship items to customers in over 220 countries. This logistics giant processes around 4.7 packages every year.
This impressive performance is supported by their 500,000+ employees who are spread throughout the world. Using UPS, businesses can generate shipping labels.
They can also schedule pickups, facilitate cross-border shipping and track orders. Additionally, UPS allows you to send transit notifications to your customers.
6.2) USPS
USPS is a large international shipping and postal company employing over 600,000 people. It provides dedicated shipping services to eCommerce businesses and allows them to ship directly via the Magento platform.
USPS allows businesses to print labels. It also facilitates real-time order tracking of shipments worldwide. Moreover, it also offers customs clearance services for international shipments.
6.3) FedEx
FedEx is one of the largest shipping companies in the world, shipping over 12.5 million packages every day. It helps businesses reach 220 countries around the world. It employs over 600,000 people worldwide.
FedEx provides several shipping solutions. These include freight forwarding, international shipping, delivery for specialized items and more. FedEx is also a popular provider of distribution and last-mile delivery services.
6.4) DHL
DHL is part of Deutsche Post and is a popular shipping company with global operations. It has a reach of over 200 countries and processes approximately 1.8 billion packages every year.
DHL has been offering shipping services for over 50 years and employs a total of 380,000 people. It offers freight and international shipping. DHL also offers special services such as sensitive item shipping and scheduled pickups. It also allows tracking of shipments.
7. Benefits of Shipping with Magento
7.1) Multi-carrier shipping
Magento Shipping is a multi-carrier shipping service. This means that eCommerce stores can ship products from within the Magento platform. It removes the need for eCommerce businesses to install any extensions or use a third-party service to fulfill the requirements.
It automatically keeps the system information and new features up to date. With Magento, there is no need to install extension updates or maintain the carrier management systems.
7.2) Faster Shipping
Since Magento is pre-integrated with several shipping companies the shipping process is faster & smoother. It allows businesses to quickly create shipments, generate quotes, book orders and generate shipping labels.
7.3) Reducing cart abandonment rates
Magento Shipping allows eCommerce businesses to check shipping rates for an item immediately. The same can be extended to the customers on the checkout window. Therefore, customers can get information about how much shipping for a product will cost.
It will also inform them regarding the time it will take to deliver the item they are interested in purchasing. This feature improves the chances of a completed purchase significantly.
7.4) Safety
Businesses who use Magento Shipping can rest assured about the quality of the platform. There is no need to worry about the compatibility of shipping services with their eCommerce store.
This allows businesses to save time as well as costs that may be incurred should risk associated with shipping materialize. Magento Shipping is also capable of automatically checking any conflicts with other extensions that may be installed on the platform.
8. What are the features of Magento Shipping?
Magento Shipping allows businesses to perform a variety of shipping-related activities right from the platform. It eliminates the need to avail of another service. Here are some of the features that Magento Shipping offers its customers:-
8.1) Multi-carrier integration
The platform allows eCommerce merchants to directly integrate with leading shipping companies. This results in a seamless shopping experience. Through Magento Shipping the platform is easily able to generate quotes, shipping labels and book orders.
8.2) Automatic eCommerce fulfillment
Magento Shipping allows online store owners to automate the process of order fulfillment through its several carrier integrations. The business owner is at liberty to create several shipping rules.
These can be based on conditions which can range from anything such as the value of the product to the destination, and more. Once defined, these conditions will consistently be used by Magento Shipping to fulfill orders without the need to constantly monitor the process.
8.3) Reduced shipping costs
Magento Shipping helps online retailers save on shipping costs owing to its multi-carrier integrations. It also helps save money through advanced packaging rules. Its accurate carrier billing prevents eCommerce businesses from spending more than they need to. The platform provides an insight into spending on shipping to assess performance.
9. How Can Online Businesses use Magento for shipping?
Businesses can use Magento Shipping to make out-of-the-box as well as general shipments to several countries throughout the world. The platform is integrated with 4 shipping companies, which are FedEx, USPS, UPS, DHL. This means that businesses are able to receive the best-in-class shipping solutions.
9.1) Generate labels
eCommerce businesses can seamlessly generate compliant shipping labels from within the platform.
9.2) Manage orders
It helps online stores manage all their orders from a single platform. It removes the need to enroll a different provider or switch between multiple carrier platforms.
9.3) Track orders
Through Magento businesses can easily track all their orders from within the platform. This makes the process faster. It also helps prevent shipping exceptions while simultaneously improving visibility for customers.
10. Final thoughts
Magento Shipping is an intuitive solution. It allows businesses to ship products directly from their service platform. It also manages orders and tracks them.
Magento is a great multi-carrier management tool. It allows businesses to perform a variety of actions through a single dashboard. Ecommerce businesses such as yours can leverage the capabilities of Magento Shipping. It can help you reduce the cost of shipping, increase efficiency and improve customer conversions.
11. FAQ
1) What is shipping method in Magento?
Shipping method in Magento comes under the order management process. It is the price and mode in which you will be shipping products to your customers.
2) Is Magento free to use?
Magento is free to download. However, you will need to pay for web hosting and development, additional integration costs, and site maintenance.
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