There are a lot of factors affecting shipping costs. If you're shipping your products out, you may need to use an international shipping rate calculator to help you estimate your prices. This is a custom practice, especially for business owners, since this tool has been very helpful in advertising what their customers have to pay for shipping.
But have you ever wondered what the things included in the costs for shipping are? Understanding what the costs are would also be helpful for you. At least this way, you will know exactly what you are paying for.
Before getting into factors that can affect shipping rates, there are two definitions that you must first understand: the shipping and the handling. You must know the differences as these are also included in the rate.
Handling and shipping are two different processes, even if these are interconnected with each other. Handling is the process of preparing and packing your orders while transporting the item to the customer that falls under shipping. The costs associated with handling are the packaging materials, space for inventory, delivery, manpower, and other resources.
Shipping, on the other hand, are the costs associated when the products leave the warehouse. That includes postage, fuel, drivers or any additional manpower needed, tolls, and transportation fees. You may use an international shipping rate calculator to estimate shipping costs.
If you're a seller from Canada, it's good for your business if you cater to other countries as well. The wider your market reach, the better it is for your sales! These costs may or may not be factored in when you use an international shipping rate calculator. With that, here are the factors that may affect its rates.
The costs associated with handling parcels are sorting, labeling, packaging, and loading them to the truck or shipping vessel. The more steps it is needed to handle the product, the higher the labor and other related costs will be, and all of these will be charged with the shipping costs. So if you are going to send out a parcel and it will have to go through numerous handling because of the receiver's far destination, you can expect that shipping costs are higher than those with nearer destinations.
These charges start once the parcel leaves your warehouse and end until the customer receives the product. Errors, such as mislabelling the parcels and having them shipped to the wrong address, are also classified under shipping charges.
Once the parcel's been shipped, you have no control over what will happen to it. You also don't want to be liable for possible damages that will occur during transit. While most sellers who ship internationally don't think it's necessary to get shipping insurance, it's quite beneficial because you are guaranteed that the courier will be the one liable for the damage. This way, you will not be burdened by the additional costs you will have to shell out for its replacements or possible refunds. Although this part of the fee adds up to a huge portion of the cost, this added cost will be beneficial, especially if you're shipping expensive or breakable items.
When shipping to other countries, the other costs that should be factored in are duties and taxes. These are the costs that take up almost 10-25% of the shipping costs. These depend on the country's rates of where it's shipped to and the value of goods to be sent. There are two ways to pay for these costs: Delivery Duty Unpaid (the recipient of the package will pay for it) or Delivery Duty Paid (the shipper will pay). Since duties and taxes vary.
Generally, couriers offer two types of shipping. Those are standard and express shipping. These are applicable both for shipping domestically or internationally. The difference between these two is the time it takes for your parcels to be shipped from when you hand it over to the courier until the recipient gets it. Suppose you want the parcel's shipping to be expedited.
In that case, you can choose the express option and pay an additional cost for it on top of the usual shipping rates. But if you're good with how long the standard shipping times are, then you can just opt for that. In the e-commerce business, your customers would be very much delighted if they were to receive their orders right away.
Now that you're familiar with the breakdown of shipping costs, you're at least getting some sense of understanding of what the costs are for. As a business owner, you would want your business to be profitable, and that's why it's only logical for you to choose a courier that offers the cheapest international shipping.
Stallion Express offers the cheapest international shipping from Canada. Furthermore, we are looking forward to adding more services to our portfolio like express international shipping for those who would want to expedite the parcel's movement. Choose a courier service you can trust, as you would want your products to arrive to your customers safely and on time. We are more than just a shipping service - we understand how we can help your business succeed through reliable shipment of your goods.
Want to learn more about how you can use Stallion Express as your primary courier? E-mail us at [email protected], and let's talk about it!
Diana leads the growth marketing initiatives at Stallion Express. As a personal trainer turned digital marketer, Diana is obsessed with equipping eCommerce entrepreneurs with everything they need to scale their online businesses. You can catch her doing yoga or hitting the tennis courts in her spare time.
Read all posts written by Diana Zheng
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