Thanks to Amazon, shipping and delivery are newfound priorities for shoppers. Your customer has always been right, of course. But Ecwid merchants today are faced with always-inflating expectations for faster and cheaper delivery.

To stay competitive, it's best to offer a set of timely and affordable shipping options that appeal to your choosy buyers. This is because more and more research confirms that customer experience is now the key differentiator for most online brands (66%).

At Easyship, we understand that keeping up with customers is a full-time job. (Even if eCommerce isn’t your actual job!). This is why Easyship gives Ecwid merchants a suite of directly integrated features that help you to level-up your shopping experience in ways that boost the bottom line.

You’ll get direct access to shipping rates discounted up to 70% off retail, store checkout automation, and features that increase sales.

Ready to optimize your Ecwid store for sales and customer experience? Let’s explore.

#1 Be Transparent About Shipping Costs

We all expect a variety of shipping options from online stores. Our favorite retailers offer shipping at several price points, plus options for expedited shipping, insurance, and tracking.

Your challenge as an Ecwid merchant is to offer affordable yet appealing shipping options. After all, free shipping isn’t free for you. Meanwhile, more than 6 in 10 shoppers say they abandon carts due to unexpectedly high costs at checkout.

With Easyship, you have access to shipping automation that finds you the lowest rates in real-time then displays these rock-bottom rates right in your checkout. Introducing...

Dynamic Rates at Checkout

With Dynamic Rates at Checkout, your customers arrive at checkout to see the cheapest, pre-calculated shipping rates from top couriers. Rates are calculated in real-time based on order specifics such as delivery destination and package size.

The following screenshot shows a cart page equipped with Dynamic Rates at Checkout.

From USPS to FedEx to DHL,  we see three shipping automatically sourced shipping options with accurate rates. Rates at Checkout always populates three shipping choices for shoppers:

  • The cheapest
  • The fastest
  • The best-value

You also save up to 70% off retail on all rates. This is because Easyship has partnered with all top courier services to provide you direct access to the guaranteed-cheapest rates anywhere.

For smaller merchants, options for affordable shipping are the cure for curb cart abandonment. When you offer more options, you clinch more sales with price-sensitive  customers.

2. Gain Loyal Customers Post-Purchase

Making the sale is your top priority as a merchant. Once you’ve gained a customer, the next step is retaining them. This is beneficial because it's about 50% easier to sell to an existing customer than a new customer. Plus, repeat customers spend more per order than new customers.

How do you retain customers? Just take a few steps to create a rewarding post-purchase experience. From checkout until delivery, you want to make it as easy on buyers as possible.

These Easyship features help you retain and resell to customers on Ecwid, including:

  • Global package tracking: Being able to track packages to their doorstep brings customers peace of mind, especially since porch piracy on the rise.
  • Branded packaging: Add your logo and marketing materials to tracking emails, landing pages, and packing slips. Branding helps to reinforce loyalty and keep you top of mind until the next purchase.
  • Automated email notifications: Send triggered emails about delivery status to reduce ‘where’s my package?” anxiety.
  • Extra insurance: Shipping insurance is available from all top couriers via Easyship but these amounts can come in a little low for precious items. Easyship will insure any package up to $5,000.

The screenshot below is a triggered email announcing the delivery status of a package, plus a branded advertisement.

Receiving email updates like these puts shoppers at ease. Use this as an opportunity to promote discounts, a referral program, or solicit user-generated content for social or other marketing initiatives. Triggered email is a low-effort, high-return touchpoint that customers appreciate that requires little effort from you.

Aim to create a post-purchase experience that keeps people satisfied so they’ll come back.

3. Save Time on Shipping Processes

As an Ecwid merchant, you’re familiar with saving time on eCommerce with technology. Easyship’s shipping automation goes the extra mile to make shipping as fast and effortless as humanly possible.

Linking your store to Easyship allows you to automate your shipping processes.

With Easyship as the go-between, your store can source and display real-time rates from your favorite shipping companies. This means you’ll be able to access shipping rates at up to a 70% discount, thanks to Easyship’s direct partnership with top couriers.

Linking Easyship to your favorite shipping companies carries another big benefit: fully centralized shipping management. In other words, you’ll be able to see all your shipments are in one easy-to-use dashboard.

From this dashboard, you can access a handful of time-saving features, including:

  • Touchless returns: Generate return labels for your customers in a click. Easyship can even email the documents to customers on your behalf.
  • Automated email notifications: Update and follow up with customers without lifting a finger.
  • Automatic inventory updates: All orders update automatically in inventory. Accurate inventory reduces count time and enables optimal business decisions – without any manual effort.
  • Generate shipping documentation: With Easyship, you can batch-print all shipping labels, packing slips, and customs declarations.
  • Shipping rules: Customize your shipping preferences to avoid repetitive processes like sourcing shipping rates. Set automation based on your go-to couriers, delivery preferences, typical package sizes, and more. Use your best-value shipping courier while offering customers the shipping options they prefer – without lifting a finger.

Below is a screenshot that shows Shipping rules set to display only shipping options with excellent package tracking. Additionally, all shipments to France will automatically use DHL to remain cost-effective.

When you save time on shipping, customers get faster delivery and fulfillment. It’s a win-win.

4. Increase Sales With Global Commerce

You’re not alone if you’re interested in international shipping but intimidated. With Easyship, it’s just as easy to ship globally as it to ship domestically.

Dynamic Duties and Taxes at Checkout is a new feature that shows accurate duties and taxes on your cart page – no matter where your customers are.

Just like our Rates at Checkout feature, this automated cart plugin helps to curb abandonment by giving shoppers fully transparent shipping costs on international orders. This feature also lets you decide who pays for duties and taxes.

Dynamic Duties and Taxes at Checkout

Dynamic Duties and Taxes at Checkout is a store optimization that activates when someone enters an international delivery address. It auto-calculates any duty and tax due on international orders and includes this amount with the shipping rates.

Seen here is a cart checkout for an international order with Dynamic Duties and Taxes at Checkout.

All duties and taxes have been calculated automatically based on the order specifics and destination country, shown here in the Singapore dollar. Shoppers see accurate, fully landed costs for their order so they can purchase with total confidence.

Dynamic Duties at Taxes offers some big benefits for international merchants, including:

  • Increase conversions: Shoppers abandon carts because of unexpected shipping costs. Conversely, you’ll see sales increase by presenting customers will all shipping costs upfront.
  • Clear customs with confidence: Unpaid duty and tax are the main reason shipments get delayed at customs. Shipping delays are also a leading reason shoppers say they’ll avoid a brand in the future. Ensuring duty and tax are paid helps you ensure a timely delivery that contributes to the growth and happy customers.
  • Gain visibility of costs: Predicting duty and taxes is a key step in creating a cost-effective shipping strategy. Our dynamic duty and tax calculator plugin gives you 100% visibility on these costs so you profit on every order.
  • Gain trust: People expect their favorite brands to be transparent about all shipping costs. With Dynamic Checkout, you win the trust of your customers and secure them as future customers.
  • Reduce returns: Dealing with returns is time-intensive and therefore costly for eCommerce merchants. When customers pick the right delivery option for them, returns are less frequent.

5. Save Up To 70% on Shipping Rates

Integrating Easyship with your Ecwid store is the fastest and easiest way to save guaranteed money on shipping. Why? Because no other shipping service or cart software has direct partnerships with top courier companies like USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and more.

This means that – even though you might be able to get a rate quote from these other sources – only Easyship can give you the lowest rates. To demonstrate, here are rate quotes from our free shipping calculator that show the discount amounts in yellow.

Simply integrate your store with Easyship for direct access to the lowest shipping rates anywhere in the world. Yes, up to 70% off retail. Every rate you and your customers will see is guaranteed the lowest rate anywhere.

All the extra features mentioned above – shipping automation, dynamic rates at checkout, instant duty and tax calculations – all that’s just gravy.

Need help integrating your Ecwid store with Easyship? Read this helper guide.

Maximizing Your Ecwid Store with Easyship

Thanks to Amazon, shipping and delivery are newfound priorities for shoppers. Now more than ever it’s important for online merchants to offer affordable, flexible shipping options. Appealing shipping options are the gateway to higher sales conversions and reduced cart abandonment, plus happier customers overall.

All Ecwid merchants have access to the features listed above. Need help integrating your Ecwid store with Easyship? Read this step-by-step for help integrating your store with Easyship. It only takes a few clicks – and no coding.

Ready to create an Easyship account? It’s free! Sign up here to get started with shipping savings of up to 70% off retail!