How to set up Shipping for BigCommerce?? Guides & Apps
BigCommerce is a leading network that enables eCommerce companies to conveniently create and configure an online store while still offering comprehensive growth choices. You can create product profiles, upload items, configure checkout, and set up various delivery methods with its user-friendly functionality and completely customizable features.
The first step in starting a profitable eCommerce company is to have an aesthetically appealing and practical online shop. After you’ve created a BigCommerce shop, you’ll need to plan your shipping strategy. Offering affordable delivery alternatives, from 2-day shipping to free shipping, will help boost average order value (AOV), decrease cart abandonment, and enhance consumer satisfaction.
This article will show you how to set up various BigCommerce shipping choices for your website quickly and how to maximize shipping to offer more value to your customers.
Why fulfillment and shipping are important for eCommerce?
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands would have an order fulfillment and delivery plan in motion to satisfy customer needs. It would be challenging to deliver delivery solutions with affordable prices that do not chew into profit margins unless you prepare ahead of time how you will effectively meet and distribute orders.
Before you may create a delivery plan, you must consider if you can deliver and distribute orders in-house or outsource fulfillment, as well as where you will store and maintain your inventory. The eCommerce inventory’s regional location has an effect on shipping costs and the shipping methods you may deliver depending on where your consumers are situated.
Customers may pick the right delivery choice for them by offering a range of choices. Any consumers, for example, may be able to wait for their orders if it means spending less on shipping costs. If a consumer needs their order right now, they will need to pay a fee for expedited delivery.
You will offer better, more economical delivery solutions while reducing travel times and shipping costs by optimizing the supply chain.
How to set up BigCommerce shipping
To configure BigCommerce shipping, go to the Shipping Manager tab and follow the measures below:
- From the ‘Store Setup’ menu, select ‘Shipping’.
- Input your shipping origin address (the place from which you are shipping).
- Join the shipping zones (the areas within which the BigCommerce shop ships). If you provide foreign shipping, this may be a single or several nations or separate states/provinces.
- Choose the delivery methods, which are the various shipping solutions that exist in the cart of a consumer.
On the other hand, you also need to pay attention to 3 more factors when setting up BigCommerce shipping.
1. Shipping Origin: The place from which you are shipping
When determining shipping quotes, the Shipping Origin address is used to assess which real-time shipping carriers are available as shipping methods. For e.g, if your Shipping Origin is a Canadian address, you can only see the choice to set up Canada Post for real-time shipping quotes in your control panel.
This address also specifies the right sales tax to charge if you use Automatic Tax Setup. If you use BigCommerce Shipping, this knowledge would be retrieved to create your shipments.
The Shipment Origin address will not be shown on your storefront, but it will be displayed on shipping labels.
2. Shipping Zones: Where you’re shipping to
In BigCommerce, shipping zones are the geographical regions to which you have shipping service. A delivery error alert will be shown whenever a consumer reaches a shipping address that is not included with either of your shipping areas.
Shipping zones may be set to be a single nation, a community of nations, one or more states/provinces, or ZIP/postcodes. You may have several shipping areas, each with its own set of shipping services. E.g, a store might sell USPS for the contiguous United States in one zone and UPS and FedEx for Alaska and Hawaii in another.
3. Shipping methods: How are you shipping?
Shipping approaches are the various shipping solutions and prices that are provided to customers on the cart page (when calculating shipping costs) and at checkout. Most supermarkets have more than one to satisfy different shopper preferences. Some consumers enjoy low-cost delivery and can wait a few more days to save money, while others are happy to spend a bit more to get their order sooner.
Basic Shipping allows you to set up three separate categories of rates:
- flat/fixed fees, such as a $5 flat fee for all orders
- table rates, which may differ depending on order weight or importance
- real-time prices that use shipping carrier quote engines that take into consideration the order’s weight, dimensions, origin, destination, and carrier services
The best BigCommerce shipping apps
As previously said, BigCommerce Shipping is not the only software required for your shipping requirements. In reality, the BigCommerce Shipping software is actually only accessible for stores with a Shipping Origin in the United States, so you might be forced to look elsewhere. You may also be involved in shipping functionality that BigCommerce Shipping does not have.
EasyShip
EasyShip, like BigCommerce Distribution, has both in-cart shipping rates and label printing. It’s also completely secure.
Unlike BigCommerce Shipping, EasyShip accepts orders from Amazon, eBay, and Etsy (BigCommerce Shipping supports Amazon and eBay, but not Etsy). Another distinction is that EasyShip has labeled monitoring pages and obligation measurement throughout the checkout phase. EasyShip is now open to BigCommerce consumers in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States.
ShipperHQ
ShipperHQ - an abbreviation for ShipperHQ, provides in-cart delivery prices but does not have label printing. It allows you complete leverage of your shipping activities. Within orders, you can determine package sizes, allocate different items to the same box, identify product combos that can stack together, and many more.
This app would cost you between $50 and $300 a month, depending on the payment package you want, and it is accessible worldwide.
ShipStation
ShipStation does label printing and order processing but does not have in-cart delivery prices. One of ShipStation’s most distinguishing characteristics is its branding capability, which allows you to apply your name to your labels and create a branded returns portal.
ShipStation pays $9 a month after a 60-day free trial. It is available in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. ShipStation also works for more than 20 marketplaces, including Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, and Jet.com.
ShipSaver
ShipSaver enables you to bulk print stickers on your packages, but the most appealing aspect is that it also allows you to bulk insure your packages. Claims usually take around a week to process, and funds should be deposited directly into the PayPal account. The best part is that this BigCommerce shipping insurance app is entirely free to download.
Ordoro
Ordoro is primarily a delivery app that has evolved to provide increasingly sophisticated order processing features over time. Ordoro provides sellers with all of the equipment they need in one location. Pricing is determined by the number of transactions each month, the number of channels, the number of customers, and the services that are available. If you just need delivery (no warehouse management), Ordoro is more than economical with what they do.
ShipBob
ShipBob is a full-stack distribution service that integrates directly with BigCommerce. You can conveniently outsource delivery by syncing your BigCommerce website with ShipBob, which will instantly deliver orders on your store to one or more ShipBob’s fulfillment center locations. ShipBob then collects, loads, and ships orders for you. ShipBob negotiates rates with freight companies such as FedEx, DHL, UPS, and USPS and has algorithms to refine shipping paths.
ShipBob also includes print shipping labels, packing slips, and native shipping apps that interact with your BigCommerce shop to satisfy all of your shipping requirements.
Shippo
If you just need shipping features to streamline the shipping method and print labels, Shippo is a fantastic app. You won’t notice any insane sophisticated features online, which is sometimes a positive thing. Shippo provides personalized monitoring and returns, and the ability to generate shipment labels and arrange carrier pickups with USPS or DHL.
Shippo works perfectly for Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, GoDaddy, and Weebly.
Shippo registration is secure, and you pay the cost of delivery plus $.05 per box. Many of the big shipping firms are sponsored.
3 BigCommerce shipping options
To set up various delivery methods on your BigCommerce store, you must first consider how you can execute and distribute orders. There are a few different shipping choices to pick from, depending on your company’s scale and requirements.
Self-delivery
When eCommerce companies first start, they often ship orders themselves. This includes devoting precious hours to sorting shipments and standing in line at the post office. Although shipping orders yourself allows you total control over the operation, it can be challenging to keep up with shipping orders effectively as your company expands. When you ship orders yourself, you must often consider how you can handle the product in order to prevent stockouts.
Applications and integrations for shipping
BigCommerce allows retailers to configure simple delivery solutions for their shop. If you need a more comprehensive approach, the BigCommerce Apps Marketplace has a variety of integrations and tools designed especially for distribution and delivery, such as options for label printing (shipping labels and return labels), drop shipping, inventory control, order management and monitoring, and fulfillment.
Have a fulfillment partner to handle distribution
When an eCommerce company begins to receive a substantial number of monthly orders, it is standard best practice to outsource delivery to dependable and flexible third-party logistics (3PL). Fulfillment is a time-consuming task that may divert attention away from more critical projects like company growth, eCommerce customer support, and promotion.
A tech-enabled 3PL will deliver and distribute orders for you and have the logistics infrastructure and services required to provide affordable delivery, such as numerous fulfillment center sites, built-in inventory tracking tools, data and analytics, and more.
Final thought
BigCommerce is a great platform for creating an eCommerce shop. It provides a plethora of solutions, such as headless eCommerce features, that are intended to help the brand extend and flourish. One of the most important step that you spend more time and efforts to improve must be BigCommerce shipping. Since the better you distribute the product, the higher the profit you gain.
