Selecting Shipping Services as Part of your Internet Marketing Plan
Web Marketing Today, June 1, 2000
Most Internet merchants have two main choices for shipping products to end users. These are:
- Postal Service -- US Postal Service, Royal Mail, etc.
- Courier Service -- FedEx, UPS, Airborne, etc.
In order to stay competitive you need to balance two customer needs against each other:
- Speedy delivery
- Inexpensive delivery
One of the mistakes that some Internet merchants have made is to assume that all customers would rather pay more for courier delivery than to accept less expensive, but slower, postal delivery. In the US, Delivery Confirmation enables merchants to prove that packages have been delivered, making postal service much more attractive for order fulfillment than before. My recommendation: offer your customers the choice of overnight, second day, ground, or postal delivery. That way you can stay competitive on price AND let your customers decide how important shipping costs are to them.
Exercise: Write down your shipping strategy as part of the "place" portion of your Internet Marketing Plan.
