10 Shipping Strategies to Implement

The global supply chain and worldwide logistics networks are under heavy stress in 2025. Suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers depend on the shipping industry to deliver their products to customers, and many may need to rethink their methods to safeguard successful operations. Let’s dive into the factors at play and examine the shipping strategies businesses can use to stay ahead of the competition, keep customers happy, and grow.

What Is a Shipping Strategy?

A shipping strategy is a comprehensive plan that businesses use to efficiently manage the delivery of products. It involves selecting reliable shipping partners, determining delivery methods, setting competitive prices, and refining logistics operations to achieve accurate, on-time deliveries. The goal of a shipping strategy is to increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and preserve profitability as they adapt to market demands.

Key Takeaways

• Strong shipping strategies directly contribute to increased sales, revenue, and profitability.
• Effective strategies can boost efficiency, competitive differentiation, and the overall customer experience.
• Increased costs, geopolitical tensions, changing consumer behaviors, and growing environmental concerns mean shippers must adapt.
• Creative approaches, such as hybrid shipping and subscription models, can help companies capitalize on new growth opportunities.

Shipping Strategies Explained

Shipping strategies are a critical part of a company’s operations. Optimizing the movement of goods requires careful analysis of transit times, delivery accuracy, costs, and customer feedback. These insights help companies make smarter decisions about which carriers and shipping methods to use—and how much to charge for these services. Shipment volume, delivery distance, packaging, and insurance considerations also shape most strategies. However, implementing effective shipping strategies has become increasingly challenging in today’s business environment.

Rising costs, service disruptions, and limited carrier options complicate shipping, posing major challenges for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. The dominance of just a few parcel carriers makes it difficult to obtain competitive pricing—in fact, the major players increased their rates by 5.9% in 2025. Workforce shortages and labor disputes delay delivery schedules. Additional complications include blocked trade routes due to geopolitical discord that increases transit times, as well as tariffs that add extra costs.

Companies often face significant trade-offs when balancing their operational needs with customer expectations. Evolving consumer demand for fast, low- or no-cost shipping creates tension between profitability and customer satisfaction. To address this issue, businesses can employ tiered strategies that offer customers multiple delivery options based on speed and price preferences, or hybrid approaches that combine multiple shipping methods to lower costs without impacting service levels.

These are just some of the accommodations businesses must consider when developing a shipping strategy. Other common examples include choosing faster but higher-priced carriers to avoid negative reviews from customers disappointed by slow delivery times, and diversifying suppliers, which can hamper efficiency but improve supply chain resiliency. Automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and other technologies can help companies make data-driven decisions when developing shipping strategies that meet both their needs and their customers’.

Why Are Shipping Strategies Important?

Shipping strategies enable companies to increase sales and revenue by operating more efficiently, increasing their differentiation from their competition, and enhancing their customers’ experience. The average ecommerce company sees 8.7% of its annual expenses go toward shipping, so having a proper strategy ensures that the money is well spent—all while helping the business achieve its goals and manage complex supply chains.

Effective strategies improve fulfillment workflows, reduce errors, and provide the flexibility to adapt to supply chain disruptions, such as by rerouting shipments during shipping delays. They establish consistent processes and often use automation to support efficient scaling as demand grows. Companies that offer customer-friendly options, such as free or discounted shipping and expedited delivery, can stand out from competitors, build brand loyalty, and encourage repeat purchases.

Smart shipping strategies can also augment profitability. Selecting the right carriers, minimizing packaging waste, and taking advantage of economies of scale can cut shipping costs to boost margins. Promotional tactics, such as offering free shipping on orders over a certain dollar amount, can increase average order value (AOV) and overall revenue.

Conversely, poor shipping strategies can harm a company. High shipping fees can send customers away; indeed, exorbitant extra costs are a major reason why online shoppers abandon their carts. Consumers may also decide to turn to competitors if delivery schedules are too slow. Speed, cost, and reliability can make or break the customer experience.

10 Shipping Strategies to Explore in 2025

Changes in consumer behavior, disruptive global events, and growing environmental concerns are forcing the shipping industry to adapt. Suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers need strategies that not only address these challenges but also support sales growth and profitability. This section explores 10 popular strategic approaches, outlining their benefits, ideal use cases, and potential pitfalls to avoid.

1. Flat-rate shipping: This strategy lets companies charge a consistent rate for all orders or, perhaps, for all orders within the same size, weight, or price range. For example, a home goods store might charge a $10 shipping rate on all orders weighing up to 20 pounds, or a boutique clothing shop might charge $5 shipping on any order under $100. A business should use its average shipping costs to determine flat rates so that expenses are covered without significantly overcharging or undercharging individual customers. Flat-rate shipping also simplifies the checkout process, potentially reducing cart abandonment rates. It’s best suited for companies that ship products of similar size and weight, especially if those items fit within carriers’ flat-rate envelopes or boxes.
2. Free shipping: Businesses that offer free shipping absorb delivery costs instead of passing them directly to customers. They may offer it across the board, use it as an incentive for consumers who meet minimum-order thresholds, or include it as a perk in loyalty programs. This strategy increases customer lifetime value, drives more sales, and lowers cart abandonment rates—82% of shoppers say they’re more likely to complete purchases when they don’t have to pay for delivery. But companies need a deep understanding of their shipping costs and AOV to be sure the strategy won’t hurt profitability. Free shipping works best in industries with high profit margins, such as electronics and fashion, where businesses can bake shipping costs into product prices while remaining competitive.
3. Real-time carrier rates: This strategy integrates major carriers’ live shipping prices into the checkout process, typically through an embedded calculator that displays multiple delivery options and their exact costs. It works best for oversized orders, where shipping is too expensive for a business to fully absorb. Being transparent and giving customers a choice can build trust and increase the likelihood of completed purchases. Real-time carrier rates also protect companies from price increases that would otherwise eat into their profits—but they come with other risks. If a company subsidizes or absorbs part of the shipping costs, for example, sudden rate hikes can hurt profitability. Unexpected spikes may also turn customers away. Companies can mitigate these risks by negotiating discounted rates with carriers, when possible.
4. Expedited shipping: Same-day, next-day, and two-day delivery options benefit companies whose customers prioritize speed and reliability, such as in the ecommerce and healthcare industries. These options help businesses differentiate themselves from competitors that don’t offer expedited shipping and, in some cases, can support leaner inventory strategies by enabling faster turnover. Although this strategy has high up-front costs—faster shipping requires extra resources and premium methods, such as air freight and overnight couriers—companies often recoup those costs through greater customer satisfaction and retention: 70% of online shoppers say fast delivery is very or extremely important, and most are willing to pay extra for it.
5. Local delivery and pickup: This strategy avoids the costs associated with third-party carriers by offering same-day, local drop-off, and store-pickup options, and is well suited for businesses with local footprints (grocery stores, florists, restaurants, big-box retailers, among others). Local drop-off involves using company staff, gig workers, or local couriers to deliver orders directly from a nearby store or warehouse to customers, instead of relying on national carriers and their broader networks. In-store pickup allows consumers to collect their purchases at a retail location. Local drop-off still incurs costs, such as vehicles, fuel, and labor, whereas in-store pickup is typically less expensive since it relies on existing staff and infrastructure. Pickup also encourages customers to enter the store, where they may make additional purchases, increasing AOV. Both options reduce the carbon footprint associated with long-distance shipping, making this a more eco-friendly strategy.
6. Dropshipping: Retailers use this strategy to avoid managing order fulfillment, especially in ecommerce niches such as fashion, health and beauty, and electronics, where they can quickly scale by offering a wide product range. Instead of stocking goods in warehouses and shipping them to buyers, retailers partner with third-party suppliers that hold inventory and ship products directly to customers after an order is placed. Dropshipping eliminates inventory, warehousing, and logistics costs, which can improve profitability. It also has low up-front and overhead costs, lowering the barrier to entry—but that accessibility also gives rise to heavy competition. Sellers may struggle to differentiate themselves when another company controls product sourcing and delivery. Furthermore, dropshippers can’t directly manage product quality or shipping speed, potentially breeding unhappy customers.

7. Freight shipping: Efficiently moving large volumes of cargo is essential for suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors that rely on full-truckload (FTL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) freight shipping strategies for bulk orders. FTL is typically used for larger shipments or time-sensitive deliveries, such as a furniture maker shipping full truckloads of chairs from its factory to a regional warehouse. LTL is better for smaller loads, such as 200-pound pallets of T-shirts that a clothing company ships to multiple retail partners while sharing truck space with other businesses. To avoid unexpected costs, businesses must understand how freight carriers classify cargo—by density, stowability, liability, and other factors. For example, light but bulky items, such as storage containers, may fall into a higher freight class than exercise dumbbells, which are heavier but more compact. Freight and transportation management systems help companies evaluate costs, plan efficient routes, and track shipments for both FTL and LTL operations.
8. Hybrid shipping: Companies often rely on hybrid shipping strategies, using multiple carriers and delivery methods to manage costs and shorten delivery times. Combining freight and parcel shipping approaches across air, sea, rail, and truck transportation modes provides the flexibility to navigate increasingly complex supply chains and global logistics networks. For instance, a manufacturer might use freight shipping to move bulk goods to regional distribution centers, then switch to parcel delivery to fulfill retailer orders. Or, for long-haul shipments, an ecommerce company may use private carriers for transport and the postal service for last-mile delivery. Hybrid shipping is especially common in electronics, pharmaceuticals, and other industries where bulk transport and precise last-mile delivery are critical. Depending on volume, route length, and other factors, this approach can reduce shipping expenses by 20% to 30%.
9. Eco-friendly shipping: Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Americans say they’re willing to pay more for environmentally friendly delivery option, creating a growing opportunity for companies across the supply chain. Trucking and maritime shipping providers are adopting electric vehicles and alternative fuels, respectively, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. AI-powered tools can identify the most fuel-efficient routes, and last-mile delivery increasingly relies on electric vehicles, bikes, and scooters. Eco-friendly shipping also goes beyond transportation: Manufacturers and retailers can reduce waste by using recyclable and compostable packaging materials, and they can cut down on carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy projects.
10. Subscription-based shipping: This strategy involves regularly fulfilling customer orders on a scheduled basis, often in exchange for lower prices, free or discounted shipping, or other perks. It’s especially popular in industries where customers frequently reorder consumable items. Subscriptions may deliver the same product at a set interval—for example, a new refrigerator water filter every three months—or a curated selection based on a theme, such as a “chocolate of the month” box. This model creates consistent, predictable revenue and can build customer loyalty through convenience. However, subscriptions can pose pricing challenges for manufacturers and retailers that must ensure that the discounts offered to customers are offset by increased sales or lower fulfillment costs to maintain profitability.

Optimize Your Shipping Strategy with NetSuite

Shipping delays, rising costs, and inefficient processes can disrupt supply chains and frustrate customers. Long transit times, the complexity of managing multiple carrier relationships, and limited visibility further complicate operations, causing missed deadlines and increased expenses. Businesses need solutions that address these pain points while improving fulfillment workflows.

NetSuite Pick, Pack & Ship can help suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers streamline key order fulfillment tasks. Businesses can define picking strategies, release waves of orders for more efficient picking, and reduce errors by guiding warehouse staff via mobile devices. With features such as multi-order picking, packing support, and integrated shipping label generation, teams can fulfill orders more quickly and accurately while minimizing costly mis-picks and duplicate trips. For any company managing bulk freight or last-mile parcel delivery, NetSuite supports more accurate, efficient, and cost-effective fulfillment—helping businesses maintain control over labor and shipping expenses while meeting customer expectations.

NetSuite Ship Central

As the shipping industry evolves and external pressures mount, businesses must adopt flexible, cost-effective strategies to meet customer expectations. The right approaches can help companies achieve their goals, whether that goal is to reduce complexity with flat-rate shipping or increase efficiency using hybrid models. Advancements in automation, AI-driven logistics, and sustainable shipping practices will continue to reshape the industry, necessitating strategies that enhance agility, streamline fulfillment, and generate long-term growth.

Shipping Strategy FAQs

What is the most efficient shipping method?

The most efficient shipping method depends on cost, timeliness, the type of goods being shipped, supply chain complexity, and the specific needs of each business. Ground shipping and ocean freight are often the most efficient for non-urgent bulk shipments. For speed, air freight is often ideal—but comes at a higher price point.

What are the three types of shipping?

The three types of shipping are ground shipping, air shipping, and ocean shipping. Ground shipping is most common for shorter to medium-distance deliveries within a country because it’s so cost-effective. Air shipping, the fastest and most expensive method, is popular for time-sensitive deliveries over distances that require rapid transit, such as intercontinental routes. And ocean shipping, while slower, is less costly and typically used for bulk shipping over vast distances, such as international trade across oceans.

What is the direct shipping strategy?

The direct shipping strategy is when a manufacturer sends goods straight to customers without involving distributors, wholesalers, or retailers. Direct shipping is most commonly used in ecommerce to streamline logistics and reduce costs.