Shipping is an elementary aspect of doing wholesale - because somehow, shops need to receive your products after ordering. When offering your products to shops via shipping, both your shipping conditions and packaging should be considered.
Shipping Conditions
Your shipping conditions define all the rules that your shipping follows. It is really important to communicate your shipping conditions clearly to potential customers so that you can avoid misunderstandings. Here are the most important questions that you should answer in regard to shipping before offering your products to resellers:
Which carrier will you use for shipping?
What are your shipping costs? Are the costs variable or fixed?
Who will pay for shipping? Will the costs be split?
Do you offer free shipping (e.g. starting from a particular minimum order amount)?
Do you ship internationally? Are there any countries that you cannot cover with your shipping?
How long will shipping take? Are the products ready to be shipped or do they need to be produced beforehand?
Who pays for the shipping of a potential return of goods (if offered)?
Is there anything that you should consider when it comes to customs duty?
Please keep in mind that if you want to offer free shipping, this should already be included in your general pricing. Otherwise, the shipping costs can take away a lot of profit. Therefore, it makes sense to work with flexible shipping conditions or to set minimum orders for specific shipping prices (e.g. free shipping from orders above 350 Euros). This will also help you to receive orders with bigger order quantities (because shops want to receive free shipping). On the other hand, if you work with fixed shipping prices, make sure that they cover your costs throughout the orders. Therefore, it is really important that you communicate the costs transparently so that there will be no confusion.
Here is a list of things that you should consider when calculating the exact shipping costs for an order:
How many items shall be shipped?
Are there any handling costs (for the packaging, etc.)?
Do you have any costs in reaching your shipping carrier (e.g. it is far away)?
How long shall shipping take (e.g. express delivery)?
How much will the package weigh?
Are you including insurance/tracking?
Which shipping carrier is chosen?
Shipping Packaging
Shipping does not only include the way your products are transported to your customers, it also includes how it appears to them. To make sure that your items don’t appear broken, it is really important to make sure that you work with high-quality packaging and filling material.
Keep in mind that it can always happen that your package falls down when being loaded into a truck and that this should not damage your items. This will not only be the reason for dissatisfaction, but it will also cause complicated discussions between you and your customer (e.g. who pays for the damage if it is not covered by insurance). Therefore, make sure that the package you choose is not too big and includes too much space for your items to get broken. Also, make sure that your items are padded with bubble wrap or paper wrap.
By the way: Good packaging can also be an interesting marketing tool. Keep in mind that unpacking a package can also be a great experience if the packaging is done nicely. The packaging and how your products are being shipped is, therefore, an important part of the marketing mix and should not be overlooked when it comes to your branding strategy.