Last week, we proudly announced our selection into the Shopify Plus Certified App Program, as the first solution focused on the pre-purchase shipping experience. It’s great news for Shopify Plus merchants, and even better news for their customers.
One of the most ubiquitous ecommerce platforms, Shopify has seen thousands of popular retailers through to high levels of success. Its enterprise solution, Shopify Plus, is a full-featured platform that has helped millions of retailers scale into household names names like Heinz, Staples, Lindt, and Tecovas.
By partnering with Shopify Plus, we’re bringing merchants the best of both worlds: the powerful features of a ready-made enterprise ecommerce solution with the powerful shipping automation provided by ShipperHQ shipping app. Our comprehensive solution will help Shopify Plus customers capture higher conversion rates and create more effective shipping rates with direct integration with more than 50 carriers.
Our COO, Quentin Montalto, weighed in on the importance of the shipping phase of checkout:
“Once a customer is ready to make a purchase, one of the last impressions they have of you is your shipping. It’s a make or break experience for most people.”
How Shopify Plus Merchants Can Use ShipperHQ’s Shipping App
As a true full-featured shipping solution, ShipperHQ’s Shopify Plus shipping app allows merchants to create automated shipping rules based on virtually limitless factors. ShipperHQ gives you the tools you need to offer the shipping options your customers want. These powerful tools allow you to customize rates based on the dimensions of your product, origin and destination, and many other elements. With these rules in place, retailers can effectively tailor the information that appears at checkout to a buyer’s exact purchasing scenario.
Popular shipping strategies used by successful Shopify Plus retailers often include:
1. Free Shipping Thresholds
Customize shipping prices or methods based on customer spend. Set dynamic shipping thresholds and adjust them in real-time. Create rules that allow free, discounted, or overnight shipping when customers reach a threshold on specific product categories, within a specific timeframe, or other factors.
Putting it in action:
GardenPros lawn and garden shop always offers free shipping for non-perishable orders over $100. However, for orders that include fresh plants or sod, paid overnight shipping is required to keep products alive. During spring sales events, GardenPros offers free overnight shipping for sod orders, and creates a $50 threshold for fresh plant orders. With ShipperHQ, the company is easily able to configure
2. Multi-origin Shipping
Customize shipping logic to create the most efficient possible shipments, no matter where products are located. Integrate with your WMS to automatically ship every order from the closest location to customers. Split shipments into groups to get orders to customers faster, even when shipped from separate locations.
Putting it in action:
GardenPros has nurseries across the southern United States, and fulfills orders from each of them. A customer from South Carolina places an order that includes garden shears, a work bench and 10 square feet of sod. The warehouse in Atlanta is closest to them, but it’s out of stock on the shears and bench. It does, however, have the sod in stock.
With multi-origin shipping enabled, GardenPros is able to ship the sod from Atlanta to arrive the next day. At the same time, they ship the other items from the Dallas warehouse, which means they arrive much sooner than it would have taken if they’d waited for a restock in Atlanta.
3. Delivery Dates + Shipping Zones
Show exact delivery dates, and optional delivery timeslots on every order to create clarity and minimize “where is my order” inquiries. Create custom or use pre-made shipping zones to determine rules and pricing based on the location of your customers. This lets merchants offer location-specific specials and delivery options, such as in-store pickup, same-day delivery. It also allows customers to see more accurate shipping times and rates.
Putting it in action:
Our lawn and garden store has enabled shipping zones to better strategize its shipping to customers regardless of location. Each warehouse has a separate shipping zone in its surrounding area. This means that when a customer who’s close to a warehouse checks out, they see the option for “curbside pickup” within their shipping options. This eliminates shipping costs and waiting times. Customers outside these areas are in separate zones, for which GardenPros has established shipping rates and methods.
A customer in Raleigh would not see the curbside delivery option at checkout, but could select two-day shipping because of its proximity to the Charleston warehouse. GardenPros continuously updates its shipping zones and rates to keep up with changing customer demand and carrier offerings. With Delivery Dates enabled, customers in every shipping zone know exactly when orders will arrive, ensuring they’ll be home to receive timely deliveries such as sod, which needs to be stored carefully.
But That’s Not All
These are just a few of the many ways retailers can customize their shipping strategy with ShipperHQ. From intelligent box picking to backup carrier enablement, the platform allows all the customization retailers need to break even – or even make a profit – on shipping.
Additional ShipperHQ features include:
- Full delivery information within checkout including delivery date and time slots
- Integration with LTL freight carriers
- Dimensional packing, showing the most accurate possible live shipping rates
- Address validation, eliminating unexpected fees or delays on residential or commercial deliveries
- Backup carrier enablement to mitigate delays and complications
Shopify Plus + ShipperHQ
Our CEO, Karen Baker, said it best. “To be successful during this pivotal time, online retailers must partner with technology solutions that can take their changing requirements and scale with them. That’s why being named the first shipping app into the Shopify Plus Certified App Program is so exciting.”
The old adage about “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” just doesn’t apply here. With the integration of two powerful ecommerce solutions, it’s a solution that just, simply works.
Ready to see how you can amplify conversions on your Shopify Plus store with a powerful, streamlined shipping solution?
