An eCommerce store is a land of infinite possibilities. You’re not restricted to a specific location or product type. You can venture outside the box with marketing materials. Plus, most importantly for many, running an online store typically has significantly fewer fixed costs attached compared to its physical counterpart.
Although even with the latter in mind, expenses can seriously cut into your margins – to the point that your eCommerce store isn’t viable. Everything from rising marketing costs to hosting fees is putting the squeeze on online companies.
Add in the fact you have to remain competitive with your pricing to avoid falling behind your rivals, and there’s not much you can do to counterbalance against rising expenses.
Fortunately, there are ways to substantially reduce your eCommerce store costs. By lowering these operating rates, you can acquire competitive advantages, gain more sales, and ultimately increase your profits.
If you’re unclear on where to begin, below are four effective tactics to instantly drop your eCommerce running costs.
Table of Contents
1. Save on shipping
Whether you’re based in your home or running a warehouse-sized operation, shipping costs are typically one of an eCommerce store’s biggest expenses.
With more and more customers expecting free shipping with their purchases, this element can dramatically cut into a company’s profit margins.
The good news: there are methods to save on these shipping costs while still meeting customer expectations. One way is to utilize free shipping supplies while optimizing your packaging. Another is to print your own shipping labels. The best tactic, however, is to reduce how much you pay on shipping costs.
It sounds easy on the surface but difficult to execute, right? Well, there’s one particular approach that can make it straightforward: courier auction.
As the name alludes to, courier auctions involve different delivery companies bidding for your planned shipment. Then it’s a case of selecting the best one – aka the one with the lowest quote – and instantly saving on shipping costs.
You can receive courier auction quotes within minutes by posting your shipping job via the following link: https://www.shiply.com/courier-auction/.
Also Read: Tech Tips For Small Business Owners
2. Reduce product returns
No business enjoys a product return. If a customer returns a faulty item or product that fails to meet their demands, you could be in line to lose a lot of money.
Not only has this incurred labor and shipping costs, but there’s the possibility you also have to pay to repair the product. Oh, and attempting to sell a returned product is obviously harder than a new one.
With this in mind, you can save a lot of money if you reduce product returns. There’s just one question: How do you achieve that goal?
One way of doing so is by creating more detailed product pages. Supplying your audience with more images and videos of your products gives them a more accurate, reliable idea about what they are planning to purchase.
Added details like scales and sizing charts are also key when selling certain products like clothing, electrical appliances, jewelry, and furniture.
If you’re noticing a certain customer segment that is returning products more than others, you could also decide to isolate them from your marketing efforts. While this might mean fewer sales in the short term, it will also result in fewer headaches caused by returns.
3. Be more creative with your marketing
Marketing is an integral element of any eCommerce store’s success. Whether you are utilizing search engine optimization (SEO), social media, or any other form of promotional tool, this is necessary to get the word out about your business.
Due to its importance, many dedicate a large portion of their budget to marketing.
However, it is possible for an online store to significantly reduce its marketing expenditure while maintaining – or even improving – its current visibility. All it takes is to be a little bit savvier and more creative with your marketing efforts.
Referral programs, samples to influencers, guerilla marketing – there are many routes you can take that are either free or cost a minimal amount of money to set into motion.
Also Read: 4 Theses on B2B Marketing in 2021
4. Outsource
Outsourcing is a great way for your business to save money and time and expand your resources. Admittedly, at first, it may seem like outsourcing is just adding to your expenses bill. After all, nobody is going to do any work for you without expecting payment in return.
Yet think about it. By outsourcing, you are limiting the need to hire any permanent employees for your business – something which is much more expensive than enlisting the services of a third-party service every now and then.
Outsourcing can also save money because it’s possible to gain access to software, hardware, and expertise that would otherwise blow a hole through your budget. Furthermore, you don’t have to think about spending money on equipment repairs or software upgrades.