Shipping is crucial for running a Multi-Vendor Marketplace. Its setup, speed, and quality can significantly affect both customer and seller experiences.

Several factors influence shipping decisions, including your Marketplace's maturity, vendors' skills, customer behavior, warehouse locations, and commercial viability.

Here are the key aspects to consider:

1. What shipping methods will you offer customers?

2. How will you calculate and charge shipping fees at checkout?

3. Who will pay for shipping and whose shipper account will create the labels?

4. Will vendors process orders on your dashboard or their backend?

5. How will you handle shipping charges during payouts, considering both customer charges and shipper fees?

At Shipturtle, we offer many customizable workflow options that go beyond standard website platforms like Shopify. Let's explore these questions and the available solutions.

What shipping methods will you offer your customers?

There are three main shipping options you can offer your customers:

1. Standard or Expedited Shipping

Customers can choose between surface or air shipping, with charges based on their choice. This can usually be set up using Shopify’s Shipping Profile feature.

2. Preferred Carrier Shipping

Customers select their preferred carrier, such as FedEx or UPS, often for time-sensitive or expensive parcels. This requires the "Carrier calculated shipping rate" or "3rd party live shipping rate" feature, available only on advanced Shopify plans with a custom app.

3. Warehouse Pickup

Customers can pick up their orders directly from the warehouse, typically for free. This option is complex to set up and needs custom development. Shopify requires pickup settings to be configured at the Location level, and this feature does not work with checkout baskets containing products from different sellers. It often needs a Split Cart feature and a 3rd party rate calculator.

How do you determine and calculate shipping charges at checkout?

Deciding how much to charge customers for shipping at checkout is crucial. Customers often care more about shipping costs than product costs because shipping feels like an extra expense.

Here are common strategies:

1. Include Shipping in Product Price: Offer flat or free shipping at checkout.

• How to configure: Use Shopify’s Shipping Profile feature.

2. Tiered Shipping Prices: Base shipping costs on the order value or total weight.

• How to configure: Use Shopify’s Shipping Profile feature. In a Marketplace, set vendor-specific rates with the Marketplace Shipping Profile feature.

3. Actual Shipping Prices: Charge the actual shipping rate from the shipper at checkout

• How to configure: Requires "Carrier calculated shipping rate" or "3rd party live shipping rate" feature, available on advanced Shopify plans with a custom app.

Who pays for shipping and whose shipper account is used to create labels?

This decision affects both costs and operations. There are two options:

1. Shipping Paid by Merchant: Common for new marketplaces with small vendors.

2. Shipping Paid by Vendors: Used by mature marketplaces with large, reliable vendors or those with their own websites, utilizing the Vendor sync feature.

Shipturtle integrates with over 200 carriers. For more details, see our article on configuring shippers and access.

Where do vendors prefer to process orders: on your dashboard or their website backend?

Shipturtle provides Vendors with two options for managing orders:

1. Cloud Dashboard: Vendors can access all outlined options through the cloud dashboard, including integrating their accounts or using labels created by the merchant.

2. Vendor Website Sync: In this scenario, it's typically best for vendors to fulfill orders through their website admin. Shipturtle automatically syncs tracking information with your marketplace. While it's possible for the marketplace to create shipping labels in this case, it adds complexity and isn't recommended.

How do you handle shipping charges during a payout?

When it's time to pay vendors for fulfilled orders, the marketplace needs to account for the shipping charges compared to what was collected from customers at checkout.

1. Transfer Shipping Charges to Vendor:

• Used when the vendor pays for shipping.

• Configuration: Manage Product Commissions.

2. Retain Collected Shipping Charges:

• Used when the marketplace pays for shipping.

• Configuration: Manage Product Commissions.

3. Charge Vendor for Actual Shipping Cost:

• In cases where the marketplace doesn't charge customers for shipping or charges a small amount, they may pass the actual shipping cost to the vendor.

• Configuration: Shipturtle supports this as a custom development due to its complexity.

Summary

Shipping is a vast and complex setup in D2C and Marketplace and Dropshipping. Choose your approach carefully and remember that you can change it as your business progresses! Take simple approaches first to avoid complexity and build your Sales.

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