Running a small business means coordinating your efforts in organizing a vast number of moving parts. From managing your online presence, managing your product, marketing your brand, and providing the best in customer service, your time and energy can often be spread quite thin. The last thing you want to do is have issues with things that have the potential to be easy: shipping your product and making business-to-business payments. If at all possible, you will want to streamline these two processes, allowing you to focus on other things you may feel are more important or cumbersome.

What are shipping options that will make my job easier?

First of all, you need to remember that there are cost and quantity variables. Shipping costs are dependent on several things, including delivery time, product weight, box dimensions, and whether or not you need to opt for insurance, tracking, delivery confirmation, or other handling fees. But no matter what, know that you have options that can help save you time and money.

USPS. USPS is almost always the most economical for small businesses. USPS offers pricing tiers, depending on the volume of items you ship. USPS offers both retail rates and commercial rates, but only high volume shippers will benefit from commercial rates, which is available only for priority domestic mail and flat rate domestic boxes. Cubic pricing is a rate calculated on the size of boxes used and is reserved for enterprise-level, high-volume shippers, which is unlikely to apply to a small ecommerce business. USPS is a common choice for small businesses due to its wide range of cost-effective parcel shipping items, including ground, priority, and express services.

FedEx. FedEx Business is something you may want to consider if your company ships heavier items. The ground shipping of a 5-lb package is several dollars cheaper with FedEx, which will ship more than double the weight of USPS boxes. FedEx shipment is also faster with guaranteed delivery dates. While USPS Express Mail “guarantees” their delivery times for next day service, what this means is that they will refund your money if the package is not delivered on time. So if you need next day service, you may want to go with FedEx.

Dropshipping. If your business does not manufacture its own product, you might want to consider one of the many dropshipping options. Dropshipping is a customer fulfillment method in which your ecommerce business does not keep products in stock. If your ecommerce business wants to sell a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. The dropshipping suppliers shoulder the responsibility of warehousing the product, shipping it, and supervising the employees required to pick and pack your orders. As a result,  you can choose from thousands of products you can sell to potential customers with little to no effort on your part.

What are some digital payment options that will improve my efficiency?

Electronic payments are becoming a lot more common within the B2B world. Now, around 90 percent of companies are starting to recognize that paper checks are falling from favor and online payment solutions are on the rise. To accommodate the demand for this modern technology, there are now many payment processing services that promise to make online payments a lot speedier, simpler, and, above all, more secure.

Deluxe Echecks. Your business’ bill-paying process can be made faster and simpler with Deluxe eChecks. The use of paper checks has been on a steady decline for years, and, as a low-cost, highly secure payment solution that provides the benefits of paper checks with the speed and convenience of an online payment system, Deluxe eChecks provides the best of both worlds. You can take control of your cash flow and have the power to pay in seconds with nothing but the recipient’s email address. You can use your computer or mobile device to create, sign, and email payments, and with a system you can fully integrate with Quickbooks and other accounting systems, there is no need for double entries.

Aliant. Electronic credit cards, debit cards, and checks make it easy for your company to send and receive payments. As a result, you will see your payments process faster, allow yourself more flexibility and resources,  and improve security. You are also helping your company to go greener with eco-friendly options that allow you to send and receive electronic invoices without the need for hard copies. You will also cut down on wait times and postage fees. Aliant merchant processing accounts are not difficult to apply for.

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