3 Cheapest shipping options for small business- from overnight to slower

If you have been looking for a cheaper shipping option for your small business, and you found this blog, my friend, you are at the right place. From the cheapest overnight shipping option to the slower shipping mode, we have reviewed them all to find the cheapest shipping options that would transport your products safely and economically.

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Without much ado, let’s take a look at them.

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    1. USPS Priority Mail Express

The USPS priority mail express is your best bet if you want to ship your products urgently but don’t want to incur high shipping costs. The USPS Priority Mail Express offers two shipping options. If you go with the first option, your product will be shipped overnight and will reach the consignee by the next day. For the second option, the shipping and delivery time together would take around 48 hours or 2 days, but the package would make it before 6 pm of the day.

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The best part about USPS is that your shipments will be picked up right from your doorstep. Furthermore, while sending the shipments through USPS, you don’t have to wait for the shipments to be individually scanned. The local postal worker will scan one form of the shipment and then proceed with the shipping process.

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The prices for this shipping option depend on the weight and dimension of your goods and start at $8.25.

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    2. FedEx Flat rate shipping

With FedEx flat rate shipping, you can easily know the shipping cost beforehand. This way, you won’t have to guess or weigh your packages or incure surprise costs during their processing.

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The whole process is simplified and saves you a lot of time. Choose one of the 12 flat-rate boxes provided by FedEx. See if your item perfectly fits in any one of them. Pay for that box, and your item will reach the destination in 1 to 3 days. The pricing is also transparent and fixed. FedEx doesn’t add any extra delivery charges based on the location or additional fuel costs.

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The prices vary for the 12 different boxes that they offer, and it starts from as low as $10.80.

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    3. UPS Simple Rate

The UPS Simple rate shipping is based on your package size and the speed of shipping and delivery process. So if you wish to reduce the budget, go for a slower shipping option. This way, you can easily transport your large-sized packages without spending a huge chunk of profit for shipping and delivery.

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The packages are categorized into 5 different categories: extra small, small, medium, large, or extra large. The maximum weight that can be transported is capped at 50 lbs, and the maximum size at 1728 cubic inches.

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The extra small package, when shipped at the slowest speed possible, ie. five days, is only $9.45. If the package is urgent, then it can be delivered the next day itself, but the pricing would go to $27.35. 

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The dimensions allowed for each category are:

• Extra small packet (4 x 4 x 4 inches or 6 x 4 x4 inches or 8 x 6 x 2 inches)

•Small packets (6 x 6 x 6 inches or 8 x 6 x 5 inches or 12 x 9 x 2 inches)

• Medium packet (8 x 8 x 8 inches or 12 x 9 x 6 inches or 13 x 11 x 2 inches)

• Large packet (10 x 10 x 10 inches or 12 x 12 x 7 inches or 15 x 11 x 6 inches)

• Extra large packet (12 x 12 x 12 inches or 16 x 12 x 9 inches or 18 x 12 x 6 inches)

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Conclusion

The e-commerce giants like Amazon have really raised the bar for on-time shipping and delivery. Therefore, customers expect the same from small businesses. While it's possible to send the goods on time, it may not be an affordable option for small business owners as they may not have a large godown with 100s of workers to carry out the inventory, packaging, and a well-built shipping network. Thus, see if your product is perishable; if not, go for slower shipping options. 

Most slower shipping options are also the cheapest shipping options out there. When opting for such shipping methods, make sure you inform the customers about the estimated delivery date. Once this communication is transparent, you have nothing to worry about.