Shift4Shop eCommerce Blog | Shipping & Fulfillment (5)

International eCommerce has been a steadily growing portion of retail, even throughout the global economic downturn. Economic figures have stated that international eCommerce surpassed $1 trillion in 2012. For this reason, many U.S. Retailers are considering international expansion.

U.S. eCommerce retailers who aren’t currently shipping internationally should consider taking international orders. The growth rate for international e-Commerce exceeds domestic growth figures exponentially. U.S.[...]

Shipping is key to running a successful online store. Customers expect a seamless end-to-end online shopping experience and you need efficient and automated tools to fulfill orders.

There is no greater time then in this year of 2014 to jump on the e-commerce business trail.  eMarketer recently announced that global B2C ecommerce sales will hit $1.5 Trillion this year and ecommerce sales will increase by 20.1%, a 2.1% rise from 2013.

Internet businesses can be faced with many challenges as the e-commerce arena broadens with more players and competition from traditional brick and mortar retailers, such as Kohl’s, enter the cyber market. Kohl’s have put their new store[...]

When customers purchase a product from an eCommerce business, they often have to pay for more than the product itself. Shipping is necessary for transporting the product from its storage location to the customer’s doorstep. However, this service is rarely, if ever, free for store owners. As a result, they have to add a shipping rate to the purchase.

The question that emerges here is how much to charge a customer for shipping. The answer can be trickier to reach than one might believe. This is[...]

Why Merchants Should Act Now To Stop Shipping Errors

Today's customers aren't only shopping on the go, they're checking out in a hurry, too. As an increasing number of shoppers opt for the convenience of their mobile phones, more and more online merchants are discovering inane typos are to blame for their costly, carrier-imposed penalty fees.

Our friends at ShipStation have created a useful guide for remembering all of the important holiday shipping dates coming up in the next couple months. Their infographic reminds merchants that FedEx, UPS, and USPS all have some special closures and rules for shipping over the next few weeks and even provides a super useful “ship by” calendar so that you can get all your packages get to customers on time.

As online consumers, we’ve all seen free shipping offers from our favorite stores and brands. And, while we love these offers as consumers, as business owners it’s hard to imagine being able to offer shipping for free.

Does packing boxes and printing shipping labels feel like it’s getting in the way of running your business?

It happens to nearly every company as they scale, facing a challenge of trying to hire more staff to handle a warehouse or potentially turning those operations over to a partner that focuses specifically on fulfillment operations.

It’s a critical juncture and one that can make a major difference for today’s costs and tomorrow’s growth. There are challenges to deciding to keep fulfillment[...]