Shipping Strategies for Every Stage of Your Ecommerce Business
Shipping is one of the most overlooked yet critical components of an ecommerce business. It directly affects customer satisfaction, operating costs, and ultimately, your bottom line. But the right shipping strategy depends heavily on the stage your business is in. At Operating Crew, we’ve worked with brands ranging from early-stage startups to large-scale enterprises—and we’ve seen firsthand how shipping decisions shape financial outcomes and customer loyalty.
Here’s a guide to help ecommerce businesses at every stage optimize their logistics, cut unnecessary costs, and deliver a better experience for their customers.
Early-Stage Ecommerce (<500 Orders/Month): Keep It Simple, Focus on Growth
At the early stage, brands aren’t made by margin—they’re made by momentum. The real value lies in getting orders to customers, getting feedback, and growing your community. Operational costs matter, but they pale in comparison to customer acquisition costs (which are often $30–40 per order). At this stage, it’s more important to work with great partners and tools that help you scale fast, not just save pennies.
Key strategies:
Use software platforms like ShipStation, Pirate Ship, Shippo, or EasyPost to unlock discounted carrier rates without needing high volumes.
Choose USPS Ground Advantage or DHL eCommerce for low-cost domestic shipping under 4lbs. FedEx and UPS become more competitive above that weight.
Offer free or flat-rate shipping based on your competitive landscape to reduce cart abandonment.
Use lightweight, standard packaging to avoid dimensional weight pricing and keep costs predictable.
Scaling Up (500–5,000+ Orders/Month): Start Thinking Strategically
As you grow, your shipping spend starts to balloon—and complexity increases. You’re likely too big for DIY platforms to be efficient, but not yet big enough to negotiate directly with carriers. At this stage, brands face a fork in the road: continue self-fulfillment or shift to a 3PL.
We generally advise brands to start exploring 3PLs around this point—unless you have unique needs like in-house manufacturing, extensive product customization, or refurbishment.
If fulfilling in-house:
Use a hybrid carrier mix (e.g., USPS + FedEx) to balance cost and speed.
Use automation tools like ShipStation or EasyShip for efficiency and integration.
Consider platforms (like ours at Operating Crew) that offer aggregated carrier rates—our pooled volume helps brands get better pricing, often up to 50,000 orders/month.
If working with a 3PL:
Pick a fulfillment partner that uses real-time delivery analytics to recommend the most reliable and cost-effective services.
Take advantage of their multi-carrier setup and national warehouse network to reduce delays and enable zone-skipping.
Ensure they’re using a transportation management system (TMS) that routes based on actual delivery time—not just the shipping method selected by the customer.
Example: If a customer in San Francisco selects $18 overnight shipping, but your product is stored nearby, a smart system can ship it via Ground for $8 and still deliver next-day. Same experience for the customer—$10 in extra margin for you.
Universal tactics:
Offer expedited shipping for a fee—some customers will pay for speed, and you can make margin on those options if you’ve got good rates.
Monitor your carrier performance and delivery SLAs. Tools like Wonderment (owned by Loop) can help.
Enterprise Ecommerce (High Volume): Optimize Relentlessly
At this level, you’re likely shipping tens of thousands of orders monthly—and it’s time to dial in the details. You can negotiate directly with carriers, integrate more sophisticated routing systems, and leverage analytics to make shipping a strategic advantage.
Key strategies:
Use your volume to negotiate rates with FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Discounts become meaningful at $5M+ annual spend, and even more so at $10M+.
Integrate regional carriers like OnTrac, Veho, or Better Trucks to optimize last-mile delivery and diversify risk.
Consider multi-warehouse fulfillment—but weigh this against additional inventory, freight, and coordination costs. We often recommend using a single 3PL group across warehouses for easier ops.
Use predictive software like Shipium to make smart carrier and warehouse decisions.
Build relationships with your local dispatch teams—sometimes a good rapport gets you priority access for pickups or trailer delivery options.
Consider sustainable shipping options—many enterprise brands are investing in recyclable packaging and carbon offsetting.
The Operating Crew Approach
We built Operating Crew to help DTC brands unlock instant cost savings across shipping, packaging, and fulfillment. By aggregating volume and applying deep operational experience from brands like Warby Parker, Weee!, and Atomic’s venture studio, we’ve built a platform that delivers results from day one.
Our tools and partners help early-stage brands move fast and stay nimble. And for growing and enterprise brands, we optimize cost structures, streamline fulfillment strategies, and bring clarity to shipping decisions that impact the bottom line.
Final Thoughts: Your Shipping Strategy Should Evolve
Shipping isn’t set-it-and-forget-it. As you scale, your needs shift. Staying ahead means reevaluating your strategy regularly—what worked at 500 orders/month won’t work at 50,000. Whether you’re launching your first product or managing multi-channel logistics, the smartest brands are the ones who treat shipping as a strategic function—not just a cost center.
If you’d like to talk through your current shipping setup, we’re always happy to chat. That’s what we do.
This article was originally written as a guest post by our founder Yan L. Sim for DCL Logistics, and was first published on 12 May 2025.