The online automotive aftermarket retail industry is highly competitive and getting more so every day. How can you gain a strategic advantage in this environment? One way is to reduce your expenses, which gives you more capital for everything from expanding your product line to doing more marketing.

A great way to grow your automotive aftermarket business — or any business — is to deliver an exceptional customer experience. In fact, as Forbes notes, it may be the best way to expand your business.

Whether your company ships a few packages every week or hundreds each day, packing and shipping costs impact your bottom line. Implementing changes to your packaging and delivery practices that save time and money can ultimately have a very positive impact on your shipping ROI. Plus, these cost-control measures are relatively easy to make.

You’ve worked hard to create products that appeal to the marketplace, and your efforts are paying off in sales. The last thing you need as you strive to maintain your positive reputation, is for customers to be disappointed by damaged goods. Unfortunately, packages do get damaged and products are broken while in the shipping stream. In fact, according to a widely reported study by analysts at customer service software and data provider StellaService, as many as 1 in 10 packages sustains damage in-transit. While you cannot control whether a shipper handles a package properly, you can control how you respond to an incident.

According to the government’s U.S. Census Bureau, there are an estimated 72.2 million fathers across the U.S. This equates to a huge number of packages being shipped by e-commerce companies to deserving dads in the coming weeks. In fact, the National Retail Federation estimates that 77 percent of Americans will celebrate Father’s Day, with an average per-person spend of $133 per person driving overall spending up to a near-record $15.3 billion. Early summer is also graduation season. How many students will receive gifts to commemorate their achievement? With all the high schools, colleges and universities, and other kinds of educational programs in our country, it’s hard to say for sure. But you can bet it is a number in the millions. Will your company be looking to capture a portion of these sales? If so, you will want to be sure that your shipped products arrive undamaged and with a visual presentation that impresses the recipient and the purchaser. Doing so not only makes them happy about this purchase, it can plant the seed for future purchases.

Yes, “time is money.” For e-commerce companies shipping packages to customers, weight is money as well. Generally, the heavier the carton, the more it costs to ship. Digging a bit deeper, this is commonly known in the transportation industry as Dimensional Weight or DIM weight. DIM weight is a pricing technique used by shippers in which the SIZE of the box is correlated to its WEIGHT or conversely, the WEIGHT of the box is correlated to its SIZE. In either case, the carrier has pricing algorithms that allow for heavier boxes to be priced one way and bigger boxes to be priced another. To avoid higher shipping costs, you should strive to reduce your package’s weight and size as much as possible.

In today’s competitive business environment, it is critical that the products you ship to customers arrive in excellent condition. Fail to meet a person’s expectations, and not only will they be disappointed and expect a replacement, they are likely to share criticism on social media and then find another provider. So, not only do you lose their business, it is likely that prospective customers in their social circle will be reluctant to shop with you as well. One of the many shipping challenges e-commerce businesses face are the weather conditions packages are exposed to while in transit. Precipitation can wreak havoc on a package and its contents. You can’t stop the rain, but there are ways to minimize the risk of water damage to the items you ship.

According to the National Retail Federation, Mother’s Day spending is expected to reach $23.1 billion this year. More than 85 percent of Americans surveyed said they will be celebrating Mother’s Day. If your e-commerce business is shipping packages to moms, here’s an excellent opportunity to contribute to this joyous occasion by adding the “wow” factor to your packaging. You’ll create potentially profitable goodwill not only with the recipient, but, as a bonus, with the sender as well.

Some people believe that any tape will do when it comes to sealing a carton. “If you use enough of this tape, the package will stay closed,” or so the thinking goes. However, the reality is that in a company’s shipping department, the decision on what kind of tape to use is critically important. Why?

Items that fit into a standard carton are relatively easy to prepare for shipping. First, you place the item in the carton and fill any excess interior space with appropriate padding such as air pillows to prevent shifting of the contents. Then you securely seal the carton with water-activated tape (WAT), which outperforms pressure-sensitive tape. Finally, you label it and it is ready for transport. Odd shaped items that don’t fit well into a standard carton are much more challenging to ship. But like they say, where there’s a will there’s a way!