Benefits Disadvantages Is dropshipping for you?

10. Growing Your Dropshipping Business
208
Shipping issues
Speaking of shipping costs, there can be many complications 
with shipping. Most dropshippers have trouble with rates. 
Depending on which carrier you choose, you’ll have any number 
of rate options to choose from, and it can be daunting.
Here are three shipping rates you’ll commonly encounter:
Real-time rates.
‘Real-time’ simply means that a custom shipping quote is 
generated for each order. The weight of the products and the destination factor 
in to give you the final quote. This is highly accurate, but it can be difficult to 
implement.
Per type rates.
Per type shipping uses flat fees for different sizes of products. For 
example, all products under five pounds might ship for $5.
Flat rate shipping.
This is one of the most popular shipping options because it’s 
super easy. You just charge one flat rate for all shipments. This means you’ll lose 
money on some orders but make it back on others. While it’s not a very accurate 
method, it is simple and direct.
Many merchants who use flat rate shipping choose to offer free shipping sitewide 
and build the shipping costs into the product prices. This isn’t a universal solution; 
free shipping works great for some situations but not all of them
. But if you can do 
it, offering free shipping is a nice way to appeal even more to your customers.

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10. Growing Your Dropshipping Business
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So which one of these should you go with? Flat rate shipping is what many 
dropshippers use, so you should definitely consider it. It’s also the easiest rate to 
implement when you’re first starting out. I recommend using flat rate at first and 
seeing how it goes. If you feel you could benefit more from another rate type, by all 
means look into it.
What about international shipping? Since most niches have a global market, this is 
something you’ll need to face sooner or later. Be ready to think about the additional 
costs of international shipping, and browse your carrier options to see which one 
has the best rates for you. You can offer domestic shipping only, but depending on 
your niche, this could harm your sales.
While we’re on the subject of carrier, I’ll talk briefly about the options you have. In 
the US, you’re basically choosing between UPS/FedEx and the United States Postal 
Service (USPS).
UPS/FedEx
– If you’re regularly shipping large packages, UPS and FedEx will give 
you better rates. Unfortunately their international rates are somewhat pricey.
USPS
– If you’re mainly shipping small packages, USPS is the way to go. You can 
usually ship small packages for under $5. USPS also has much better international 
rates than UPS or FedEx.