Costs of shipping are complex and ever changing. Apart from the standard shipping and handling best practices, Direct Sellers often require more customization and flexibility when it comes to MLM shipping and handling. Having a back-office software for MLM with shipping that can keep up with these changes and enables you to leverage these changes to offer competitive shipping prices is essential. Watch in the video below as Jerry Reynolds, President of Trinity Software, gives a detailed MLM shipping definition and discusses the specific needs for MLM shipping management systems.
How to Calculate MLM Shipping & Handling
Shipping can be calculated many different way – by weight, by value of an order, by size or by a set amount of your choosing. No matter how you decide to assign shipping rates, having an MLM shipping management software that is configurable is key. Click here for a quick refresher on How MLM Software Works for Logistics. If you choose to assign shipping value based on the weight of the product ordered, then a product that is a liquid like shampoo, though inexpensive, can carry a hefty shipping rate because of its weight. Your back-office software for MLM with shipping has to have the capability to be configured in a way that you are able to adjust the shipping price for that one specific product on a case by case basis. It’s important that your system can determine which of the best rates you can qualify for so you can keep your shipping prices reasonable.
How Do You Calculate MLM Handling Fees?
Another advanced capability that you should look for with regards to MLM shipping management is the ability to assign handling fees. Your system should be able to assess the handling needed for each product and automatically add the handling charge to each order. This can include fees for boxes, warehouse fees or any extra handling cost your business incurs during the shipping process. Thanks to our Firestorm system, our customers can enjoy streamlining and automating all of the shipping and handling calculations that slow most direct selling companies down.
Making sure that your MLM shipping management system is configurable can save you a lot of programming headaches down the road. When MLM shipping issues come up or shipping and handling prices change, your system should be able to go with the flow without the need for custom coding or programming. Making changes to your shipping software on MLM sales should be simple and easy to change as needed.
Contact Trinity Software today to learn more about our MLM shipping management capabilities!
Video Transcription
Ok, as we’re coming to the end of our list, I wanted to address the subject of shipping and handling and how your system should be able to handle it. Depending on the products you offer, your shipping charges are going to be calculated by weight. They can be calculated on the value of the order. They can be a set amount. Any of those could also be threshold based – so from like zero to ten dollars the shipping charge is X. From eleven to twenty-five dollars the shipping charge is X. That can also be capped. So, like anything over twenty-five dollars it’s a flat five-dollar rate. You can also need to be able to define flat rates.
You need to be able to define per product shipping rates. So, if you have a product that is a liquid, so it weighs a lot more. It may not be super expensive, but it weighs a lot more than most products do. So, if you’re using weight-based shipping, that one product could make your shipping rate go way up. So, what we do is we give you the ability to override the shipping charge for that one product and only charge, hey if they buy this bottle of shampoo, it’s two dollars. Where a normal weight-based shipping, it would have been four or five. So that allows you to keep your shipping prices competitive. You can always have the ability to cap out, so the shipping charge would never be more than your defined dollar amount.
Ok, any of these methodologies should be configurable in your software system, so you don’t have to do any programming. You just set it up and you can run it the way you have it configured for a while. And if you figure out the shipping rates have gone up or it’s not quite working, very easy to change and implement new.
You can also do handling fees. Those also need to be configurable on a case by case basis where they’re automatically added to the order. So maybe you have a warehouse fee or like a box fee of like a dollar. No matter what it’s going to take a box and we’re going to charge a dollar for that. So you can definitely, if you have the right system, you can configure that and that will all be calculated automatically allowing you to recoup your cost, your actual shipping cost for shipping that product out of your warehouse.