Shipping product from your warehouse to customers or third-party retailers can become costly over time. If you are looking for a simple way to make your company more profitable, then reducing your shipping costs can be beneficial.

Here are three tips that you can use to make your business deliveries more affordable without compromising speed and quality in the future.

1. Work with your carrier to create a customized shipping plan.

When you ship large numbers of packages on a daily basis, it can be beneficial to work directly with your chosen mail carrier to create a customized shipping plan. This shipping plan will take into account the size and quantity of your company's sent packages as well as the areas to which you frequently ship.

A customized plan will help you save a significant amount of money when it comes to the fees that you pay for your shipping in the future.

2. Make sure your customers pay for return shipping.

Another simple way to reduce the total cost of your company's shipping activities is to put the responsibility of paying for the shipping on returned packages on your customers. If a customer needs to return your product for any reason, that customer should cover the shipping costs associated with sending the package back.

Although offering to pay for return shipping can seem like a good business tactic, you will end up significantly increasing your shipping budget when you pay for all return packages to be mailed back to your warehouse.

3. Purchase a postage meter.

Many companies lose money by paying too much for postage on each package they send out. Estimating the total weight of a package prior to shipping can result in significant postage overages. Invest in a postage meter from your shipping carrier.

These meters weigh packages and dole out postage based on the actual shipping weight, helping you reduce superfluous spending and trim your shipping budget significantly over time.

Shipping plays a critical role in the day-to-day activity of most modern companies. If you are hoping to increase your company's profitability in the coming year, reducing shipping costs can be an effective way of reaching this goal.

Ensure that you are creating a custom shipping plan with your mail carrier, that you are requiring customers to pay for return shipping, and that you invest in a postage meter to avoid overspending if you want to keep your shipping costs low in the future.