What Is Flat Rate Shipping?

Small and medium-sized businesses need to find the optimal shipping strategy that will not only allow them to meet their business goals while also remaining cost-efficient. On top of that, in order to meet - or even exceed - customer expectations, businesses should ensure that their shipping strategy is not only fast and reliable but also sustainable. 

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Luckily, that’s where flat rate shipping comes in. But, what is flat rate shipping?

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Flat rate or flat-rate shipping is a type of shipping where the price of the shipment is determined by the type of packaging used instead of the dimensions or the weight of the parcel. With this approach, it’s easy to standardise shipping costs, which can greatly improve customer experience and satisfaction. 

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How Does Flat Rate Shipping Work?

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As mentioned, with flat rate shipping, the cost of the shipment is not tied to the size, type, weight or shape of the shipment. Instead, it’s tied to the type of standardised packaging the sender decides to use. So, the final cost of the flat rate shipment will be determined based on how many of these standardised packaging containers were used. 

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Some flat rate companies will offer packaging of different sizes, such as small, medium or large, and some of them will even have a fixed maximum weight limit.

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What this means is that, when using flat rate services, you’ll want to ensure that you choose the right type of standardised packaging so that you don’t end up paying more than you realistically need to.

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Therefore, make sure you precisely measure the size of your shipment so you know exactly what size of packaging you need and ensure that you inquire about the weight limit, so that you know exactly how heavy your parcel is. 

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It’s also worth noting that although flat rate shipping may seem like a great option regardless of what you’re sending, there are some items that no flat rate shipping companies will accept. These include:

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• Dangerous and explosive materials
• Alcohol 
• Firearms and ammunition
• Gasoline
• Drugs and other opioids

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So, when shipping items, make sure you’re compliant with the flat rate provider’s terms of service to avoid accidentally making a mistake that could prevent your parcel from being shipped and arriving on time.

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What Are the Benefits of Flat Rate Shipping?

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Flat rate shipping offers numerous benefits to many businesses, as it allows them to more accurately determine the cost of their shipment, among other things. Here are just some of the advantages of this type of shipping.

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Simplified fulfilment and shipping

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Both businesses and customers can greatly benefit from flat rate shipping, as this type of logistics management promises a much more straightforward approach to both sending and receiving parcels. By eliminating the need to do elaborate price calculations based on the size of the parcel, businesses can more quickly and easily fulfil their orders.

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Additionally, flat rate shipping offers the best way to ship heavy items - provided that they are within the weight limit - as customers won’t need to cover any additional weight costs other types of shipment may require.

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More consistent delivery

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Flat rate shipping can also help businesses improve their delivery times, as the majority of flat rate shipping providers offer a clear delivery window for all of their shipments. Usually, flat rate delivery takes between 1 to 3 days, which allows your customers to know exactly how long it will take for their order to arrive. 

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This way, they can more accurately plan and place their orders and not worry about their parcels arriving too late. 

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Better time management

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Since flat rate deliveries offer set delivery times and eliminate the need for various calculations, they also offer businesses a chance to use the time they’d otherwise spend on assessing and meeting these requirements more efficiently. 

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What’s more, some flat rate shipping companies, such as USPS, offer free package pick up services and have numerous offices where you can drop off your packages once they are ready to be shipped.

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Greater business-to-customer transparency

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Most flat rate shipping companies will assign a new SKU number to your packages once they receive them and will then enable customers to track their order’s transit progress. Of course, this additional layer of transparency will enable your customers to check the status of their delivery at any given moment, reducing the need to contact you to check what’s going on with their order. Needless to say, this greatly improves customer satisfaction and can even increase customer loyalty. 

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Cost savings

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When it comes to shipping costs, every business - no matter how big or small - should look for ways to keep them as low as possible without compromising the quality of the delivery and customer satisfaction.

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What’s great is that flat rate shipping offers fixed costs, no matter when and where you need to deliver your products. An additional perk that’s especially important to small businesses is the fact that flat rate shipping offers predictable costs, which means there won’t be any unpleasant surprises that could potentially put your business at risk.

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For instance, the standard cost of USPS Flat Rate Boxes for international shipping is:

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• $36.45 for small flat rate boxes that are up to 4 lbs
• $77.50 for medium flat rate boxes that are up to 20 lbs
• $102.50 for large flat rate boxes that are over 20 lbs

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Potential Disadvantages of Flat Rate Shipping

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Since we’ve already mentioned the advantages of flat rate shipping, it’s only fair to mention some of the potential disadvantages as well. But it’s also important to note that these disadvantages can easily be remedied if properly addressed.

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Flat rate shipping may not always be the cheapest option. This is particularly true if you’re shipping very small and light products. With its fixed rate, flat rate shipping may end up being more costly than regular shipping. 

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Flat rate shipping is sensitive to unforeseen circumstances, just like any other type of shipping. However, in case something unexpected comes up, you will be notified, which will then allow you to notify the recipient. 

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This way, although your customers may still end up not being completely satisfied with the delivery, you will have the option to try and remedy the situation however you see fit. For example, you can offer a freebie with the next purchase or send your customers a simple “thank you for understanding” note that will still show them you care.

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How Can Flat Rate Shipping Improve Logistics Operations?

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We’ve mentioned earlier that flat rate shipping offers businesses greater convenience when it comes to shipping their goods in terms of not having to worry about calculating the costs. But that’s not the only advantage. 

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With flat rate shipping, businesses also don’t need to worry about the distance their shipments need to cover - this is up to the shipping provider to worry about as well. 

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So, by eliminating so many time-consuming steps from the overall process of shipping goods, it becomes clear how flat rate shipping can easily streamline businesses’s logistics operations by making them less complex, allowing them to use this time more efficiently.

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Is Flat Rate Shipping Faster than Regular Shipping?

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It’s safe to say that flat rate shipping is generally faster than standard shipping. 

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With flat rate shipping, the usual delivery time is between one and three days, even with international or line haul shipping. Standard international shipping, on the other hand, usually takes a bit more time than that.

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But even if we’re talking locally, standard shipping will generally take between three to seven business days, which is still longer than what flat rate shipping offers.

Flat Rate Shipping - Yes or No

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Up until this point, we’ve established that flat rate shipping is a great option for businesses that are looking to offer more fixed prices of shipping to their customers. This type of shipping particularly works well for businesses that sell products of more or less the same size and weight, as it allows them to choose the right type of packaging more easily.

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On the other hand, if the products you’re selling are not as standardised, you may not be able to offer fixed shipping prices to your customers, as the price may vary depending on the size and the type of standardised packaging you may end up needing to go with.

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Flat rate shipping may also be a great choice if you’re distributing numerous orders from a single location. However, same-day delivery services or even express shipping may be better choices if you’re shipping products only a short distance, as these generally tend to be faster.

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Therefore, in order to determine if flat rate shipping is the right option for you, you will need to give some of these considerations a second thought before you decide.

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Improve Your Logistics Operations with Bezos

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If you sign up with Bezos, you’ll get access to innovative AI-driven solutions that can help you enhance your logistics operations by:

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• Offering you access to data-driven demand forecasting - which will help your business reduce excess stock and optimise inventory
• Creating optimised delivery routes in real-time using AI tools - which will improve the efficiency of the delivery process
• Offering warehouse management services - that will help reduce pick-and-pack times and improve space utilisation
• Running cost analysis - to ensure that your business chooses the best rates and the most cost-effective shipping options
• Providing in-depth and data-driven performance analytics - that will help identify bottlenecks and potential areas for improvement

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With the help of our cutting-edge technology, we enable businesses to make smarter logistics decisions, which ultimately drives growth and customer satisfaction. So, if this sounds like a solution you’ve been looking for, get a quote today and let us help you improve your logistics operations and streamline your delivery costs.

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Conclusión

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So, what is flat rate shipping? In short, flat rate shipping is a shipping strategy that allows businesses to streamline their delivery processes and manage shipping costs more efficiently. By allowing businesses to offer fixed shipping prices to their customers, flat rate shipping can not only enhance customer satisfaction but also simplify budgeting. That said, every business must first determine if flat rate shipping is the best choice for them to ensure that they can - in fact - use it to improve efficiency and profitability.

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Preguntas frecuentes

What is the meaning of flat rate shipping?

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Flat rate shipping is a shipping method where the price of the shipment is determined by the type of standardised packaging used, instead of the size or the weight of the parcel. As such, it sometimes provides the cheapest shipping option, especially when heavier shipments are concerned.

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How long does flat rate shipping take?

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Flat rate shipping usually takes one to three days no matter where the parcel is being shipped to. Sundays and major holidays may still affect this but, generally speaking, one to three days is the estimated delivery time.

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Is flat rate shipping better?

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Flat rate shipping offers businesses a great way to accurately calculate shipping costs and, thus, gain better control over their logistics expenses. Small and medium businesses, in particular, can greatly benefit from this, as flat rate shipping eliminates the possibility of any unexpected costs.

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