8 Types of Shipping Methods for Ecommerce in 2024

If you are searching for the appropriate type of shipping for your ecommerce business, you are on the right way. The competition in the market is severe today. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, global online ecommerce sales have increased from 3.354 billion USD in 2019 to 5.908 billion USD in 2023, and the forecast predicts it to grow. 

However, businesses need help in choosing efficient strategies for attracting shoppers.

According to statistics, one of the most frequent reasons why customers leave online shopping carts is poorly organized shipping methods. Customers may pay extra fees, experience slow delivery times, inappropriate tracking methods, and more.

A badly structured shipping process and high delivery prices may cost you potential customers, while a suitable shipping method will help you avoid possible issues and improve your income.

You will learn about the most suitable shipping methods for your ecommerce business according to time of delivery, types and rates, and top shipping carriers in 2024 from this article.

Table of Contents:

8 types of ecommerce shipping methods in 2024
Top 3 US ecommerce delivery companies in 2024
9 factors to consider when choosing shipping services
Conclusion

8 Types of Ecommerce Shipping Methods in 2024

According to McKinsey research, more than 75% of US customers shop online and in brick-and-mortar channels. This year, this percentage and customer expectations have grown more. So, to succeed, you need to find a balance between affordable options for your company, your customers’ needs, and possibilities for your logistics.

A good shipping strategy for your business is a solution, as the role of ecommerce delivery is vital. Before choosing the appropriate delivery model, it is better to analyze different shipping methods first.

Let’s have a look at all types of shipping that are frequently used in 2024.

Free Shipping

Free shipping is still widely used in online shopping and is attractive for customers. It is free for them but not for you. This shipping method also has expenses that need to be covered. It is possible to include them in the product rates and increase the prices. But this decision decreases your competitiveness.

Still, there are several solutions how to use free shipping successfully for business:

• use it as a promotional tool to increase sales
• make accents on upsells and cross-sells
• suggest this shipping method exclusively to loyalty club members
• offer it as an option for slower shipping

Same-Day Delivery

This ecommerce delivery method guarantees that the customers receive their purchase on the same day they pay for it.

Same-day delivery is possible to arrange if your company owns a local inventory in the same city, streamlined courier service, and partnership with delivery services that can offer quick order processing and shipping.

Overnight Shipping

This shipping method means that the customer receives the order on the next business day, and most customers pay an extra fee for this service. It’s an exceptional option for delivery of parcels that are critical to receiving as soon as possible: medicines, important documents, and more.

Two-Day Shipping

This type of shipping is one of the best ecommerce shipping solutions. 42% of customers expect to receive their purchases normally in 2 days after ordering. 2-day shipping is a practical solution to reduce cart abandonment, increase conversion rates, and improve customer satisfaction. It gives a competitive advantage to the company that provides it.  And it’s also convenient, as it’s not necessary to have a warehouse in every locality, but in every region.

Magento Integration

Get customized tools for your Magento store

Learn more

Expedited Shipping

It’s one of the fastest ecommerce shipping models offering delivery of purchases that are in priority. It includes all shipping types with duration less than 3 business days or those, which take in whole less time than usual deliveries.

Local Delivery

Another convenient shipping method provides delivering the purchase made online by a customer to his doorstep on the same.

It is possible to arrange a local delivery with the help of your couriers or to prepare the order for the customer to pick it up from the store himself.

Delivering directly to the customers reduces any added shipping costs.

International Shipping

It’s a brilliant chance to spread your brand abroad in other countries. This ecommerce shipping delivers goods by air, sea, and road. An essential point here is to find a reliable partner and sharply examine the details of additional taxes, regulations, and costs.

Shipping rates

As for the rates of different ecommerce shipping services, they directly depend on four factors:

1. Packing cost
2. Labor cost
3. Fees by the courier company to deliver the order
4. Import/export, government fees, and extra costs

Flat-Rate Shipping

Flat-rate shipping is a popular option in ecommerce. Here the shipping price doesn’t depend on the weight, shape, or size of the package but on how much you can pack into a flat-rate shipping box. This point makes it suitable for small businesses or those with a standard product line that includes similar products or the same size and weight.

Table Rate Shipping

This type of ecommerce delivery implies shipping rates based on different criteria like delivery location, shipping zone, weight, item numbers, and price. This method is suitable for businesses with a wide variety of products requiring different shipping options.

Real-Time Carrier Rates

The rates here are formed by real-time calculation based on the product and delivery address. This method is a good option to handle costs for delivery directly to the customer.

The variety of ecommerce shipping services is wide. A proper delivery strategy helps you to make your business more efficient, stay strong in the competition, and improve your customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Top 3 US ecommerce delivery companies in 2024

Ecommerce delivery companies play a crucial role in when and how a customer receives the order. The carrier’s responsibility starts with moving an order from an online store and ends by delivering it to the customer’s doorstep.

Handling an ecommerce business is hardly possible without the shipping companies. Let’s have a look and compare the leaders of ecommerce shipping.

UPS (United Parcel Service)

According to Forbes GLOBAL 2000, UPS takes 95 places in the world’s top 2000 companies. The company, which also serves Amazon, made sales of $98.55 billion in 2022 while its biggest competitor FedEx made 92.62 billion which takes 167 place on the list.

UPS is a multinational shipping services company with 24 million packages per day in 220+ countries.

The company provides services in logistics, package delivery, and supply chain. UPS operates through U.S. Domestic Packages, International Packages, and Supply Chain and Freight.

• The U.S. Domestic Package segment includes all types of ground and air shipping services.
• The International Package segment offers ecommerce shipping models of small packages worldwide.
• The Supply Chain and Freight segment provides such services as transportation, distribution, and International trade and brokerage services.

The Services:

• UPS Ground: The service takes up to five days for delivery.
• UPS 3-day Select: This service is best for less time-sensitive couriers and will use either ground or air service depending upon the demand and weather conditions. It can take up to three days for delivery.
• UPS Next-day Air: This service provides overnight delivery with morning or afternoon arrival.
• UPS Express Critical: This is their fastest service that delivers to all 50 states including DC and Puerto Rico by the end of the day.

Key additional services:

• • Declared value package

It is possible to declare the value of the package and to be secured in case the package is lost or damaged.

• • UPS Carbon Neutral

Customers who care about the environment can cover the carbon emissions caused by the transportation process of the shipment.

• • Proof of Delivery (P.O.D.)

The company sends delivery details by email, fax, or mail as an optional method apart from tracking the shipment on UPS.com.

FedEx

Another world ecommerce delivery company with headquarters in the USA. In 2022 FedEx was the leading North American carrier with a revenue of $ 78 billion while UPS was in second place.

FedEx offers transportation, ecommerce, and business shipping services worldwide.

They include the following segments:

• FedEx Express segment provides domestic and multinational delivery of packages and freight.
• FedEx Ground segment ships small-package ground deliveries.
• The FedEx Freight segment focuses on less-than-truckload freight services.

The FedEx Services segment provides marketing, sales, technical support, helps with billing and collection services, and more.

The Services

• FedEx International Priority Express includes shipping in 1-3 business days to special destinations in Canada, Asia, Europe, and the United States.
• FedEx International Priority is used for the delivery of important documents or boxes to over 220 countries by the end of the same business day.
• FedEx International First offers express shipping services of documents and boxes in the early morning in special destination countries or territories.

Key additional services:

• Customs made easier offers the resources and tools to find out whether the shipment answers the importing country’s regulations.
• FedEx Delivery Manager means carrying the packages into the recipient’s hands 100%. The manager sends an e-mail or a text message and specifies the time and day of the delivery. The recipient can change the delivery date or even delegate receiving the box to a neighbor.

USPS (United States Postal Service)

USPS has been the most visited mail and package delivery website in 2024 worldwide with an average of 292 million visits per month.

It is a US governmental postal service agency. The company offers shipping services not only in the USA but also all over the world, delivering both mail and packages. The segments of USPS include:

• USPS Connect Local delivery is a local shipping strategy where the businesses start partnering with the local Post Office and receive their deliveries at fixed low prices and on the Same Day and Next Day.
• USPS Connect ecommerce works especially with ecommerce platforms. It offers the opportunity to work with the USPS directly, and the business gets the advantages of obtaining an accelerated agreement process, discounted rates for the platform and sellers, and no minimum volume requirements.

Services:

• Priority Mail Express: fast air delivery for urgent mail and is available without weekends and holidays.
• Priority Mail: also fast air delivery that sends packages within 1-3 days, including free delivery boxes and envelopes.
• First Class Mail: This service sends regular mail within 5 business days such as postcards, and letters in small envelopes.
• USPS Ground Advantage: the service offers to save money by low rates for packages delivered by ground with expected delivery in 2-5 business days.

9 factors to consider when choosing shipping services

The shipping method is the last touchpoint between a customer and your online store in the purchasing process.

So, to minimize the risks of customers’ cart abandonment and to be in high demand, it is crucially important to have reliable ecommerce delivery companies as partners.

Badly organized shipping might hurt your reputation.

The best way to avoid that is to choose the right partner by considering the following factors.

Your customers, product line, and competitors

1. The customers

Consider the location of your customers and figure out their expectations in shipping and how long they are ready to wait for the orders.

2. The product line

Note the cost, size, and weight of your products, as well as the number of items you expect to ship each week, your margin, and average order value. This will help regulate the pricing.

3. The competition

Learn what shipping options the competitors use and what the pros and cons of those shipping methods are. It can be done by placing an order in the competitor’s online store and discovering what you can do better.

Delivery Speed

Customers are interested in fast shipping options. Some of them are even ready to overpay for the delivery to receive the order as soon as possible. On the other hand, there are still shoppers who prefer the free shipping method.

The best solution here is to give the customers two options: free delivery and premium shipping for a faster delivery.

This choice can even bring a higher conversion and customer satisfaction. But if you have a possibility to make the proposition wider with more delivery options at different prices, you can offer customers a more significant choice.

Tracking

Shipping with the possibility of tracking brings transparency to the delivery process and is preferable both for the customers and businesses. It gives the effect of security about the orders.

Before choosing ecommerce shipping services, it’s important to understand the tracking experience for customers and the level of detail they can observe regarding their package location.

Ability to Scale with Your Business

At the start of an ecommerce business, you handle all the aspects of the operation yourself. But it’s essential to have a reliable partner with years of experience. Such a shipping company will help you with managing a supply chain at the beginning and will provide you with the future scale by handling all the shipping processes in the future.

Multiple Shipping Options

Options are always a good thing.

If you make partnerships with multiple ecommerce delivery companies and provide your shoppers with different shipping methods, you will be in better demand. By having more options with couriers, you can negotiate better rates, expand your audience size, and reach areas that your current single carrier might not reach.

Safety

Always beware of the shipping companies with cheaper rates but strange reputations and give your priority to the carriers with transparent work, and good ratings even if the rates they offer are higher. Safe shipping is highly essential both for you and for your customers.

They pay attention to the company’s safety rating and tend to ship with companies that have a safe reputation.

Carrier stability

Choose an ecommerce delivery company taking into account the following points:

• how long the company has been working
• what fleet does it own for shipping
• how they stand out from other carriers
• what their offer is – rates, options, and more

Check that the shipping company is stable and make sure it will not force you to restart your carrier selection process.

When choosing a shipping partner, take your time to collect as much information about ecommerce shipping companies as possible. Have a look at the couriers and how they work – it is possible to arrange by ordering a delivery by a particular company.

Negotiate with several companies and get several quotes. Compare and analyze them and after that make a decision.

Conclusion

In the article, we have discovered the 8 most popular shipping methods frequently used by delivery companies, showing what services are offered by top leading delivery companies in the USA.

Thanks to the advantages that shipping companies provide, you will successfully solve the problem of cart abandonment and improve customer experience and satisfaction.