Shipping cost a major factor for consumers

The growth of online shopping has created an atmosphere where businesses are trying to enter the shipping and logistics landscape for the first time, while others that already have a system in place are looking for the best way to optimize it. In many cases, this can lead to increased pricing that consumers need to deal with.

According to a recent article from the International Business Times, companies like UPS and FedEx have recently started focusing on both the box size and weight when figuring out the price to ship a package. This will lead companies to increase prices to meet the higher cost of operations, something that may end up getting passed on to consumers.

The fortunate thing is that many businesses realize that the price of online shopping is a major concern for companies. A Forrester Research study found that 59 percent of consumers consider the shipping cost when they are making a purchase through a website. By raising the shipping cost for customers, any organization runs the risk of alienating customers and sending them looking for an alternate merchant.

"I would be very surprised if very much gets passed on to customers," said Sucharita Mulpuru, a retail analyst at Forrester Research. "I think that most retailers will probably just eat the margin."

Larger companies will be able to run trial and error to find the right shipping solution. Smaller businesses do not have the resources for these systems to fail, which is why partnering with a third party logistics firm can be the smartest decision to make.