--- title: Do You Get Shipping Intelligence with Your Marketing Portal? description: The effect shipping costs have on online shopping along with how it effects your company's marketing portal. image: https://www.onfulfillment.com/hubfs/blog/desk-computer.jpg --- [![On Fulfillment](https://www.onfulfillment.com/hs-fs/hubfs/onf_logo_2020-2.png?width=162&height=100&name=onf_logo_2020-2.png "On Fulfillment")](https://www.onfulfillment.com) Digital Asset Management, Print on Demand, Global Fulfillment | OnFulfillment Blog # Do You Get Shipping Intelligence with Your Marketing Portal? by [Steve Friar](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/author/steve-friar), on Tue, Jun 23, 2015 @ 11:49 AM As a marketer, you may feel like you’re at the mercy of the major freight delivery companies. And yet, while you can’t negotiate their pricing, you can indeed have some control over how your materials get shipped. When it comes to online shopping, the more options you’re given about shipping, the more cost-effective your decisions will be.![desk-computer](https://www.onfulfillment.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog/desk-computer.jpg?width=583&name=desk-computer.jpg) This is a huge deal with marketing portals. Picture your national – ***or global – ***sales team ordering welcome kits, promotional items, training booklets, and trade show materials from your portal. They’re placing orders for potentially heavy shipments 7 days a week, and while some are date sensitive and MUST be delivered ASAP, most have a more relaxed delivery timeline. Now consider this: **shipping costs often constitute the largest part of a shopping cart experience.**  According to Ryan Goodrich in his piece entitled, ***“****5 Ways to Prevent eCommerce Shopping Cart* *Abandonment,**” *of the 65 percent of shoppers who abandon their cart, a Forrester study indicates that 44 percent of those instances are because of **high shipping costs.”** Now, your sales team and others who shop from your portal aren’t necessarily going to abandon their cart due to **high shipping costs**, but those three words should ring in every marketers’ ears. Your company is going to bear the expense. Maybe it will be charged back to a specific cost center/department, or maybe the individual will be charged. Either way, freight costs are a bear to be wrestled with. In a [survey conducted by Pitney Bowes](http://news.pb.com/press-releases/pitney-bowes-survey-shoppers-shipping-really-matters-purchase.htm), they found that “80 percent of American consumers consider shipping options, including free shipping, to be an important factor in their overall shopping experience.” People take shipping costs seriously. Marketers do, too. **The solution for controlling freight costs associated with purchases from your marketing portal lies in**** a real-time**** shipping calculator.** A real-time shipping calculator integrated with your portal’s shopping cart means that every item added to the cart has its weight tracked – down to the sheet of paper in a training manual. Once all of the items are in this virtual cart, the system then estimates the  projected total weight per ship-to address. Your marketing portal should be connected to tables hosted by a major freight company, like FedEx, so that each order’s data (dimension and weight) is sent to them in the background. The system should have multiple shipping options built in (i.e., ground, 2nd day, 3rd day, same day), so that FedEx can come back and offer fairly accurate pricing for each shipping option.  There’s another feature your portal should have in the shopping cart section: a calendar on the check-out page that shows the date/s on which the shipments will be delivered based on the specific shipping method. When your shopper determines when materials should be delivered, the system will then update the shipping cost. **This is truly “shipping Intelligence” at your fingertips. **This important feature of a marketing portal gives you the opportunity to shop freight and pick the best method. It also allows you to allocate costs and shop smart. Shipping is often where the real cost lies when ordering materials off a portal, and this feature built into a portal helps marketers manage it. So look for a [marketing portal](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/can-we-get-a-marketing-portal-please) that offers a real-time shipping calculator. It means you can minimize, track, itemize, and, as needed, pass on all freight costs. [![View an example of OnFulfillment's Marketing Asset Management system](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/233400/0a7970a0-f682-4c6b-a081-04ffb9b30842.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/233400/0a7970a0-f682-4c6b-a081-04ffb9b30842) Topics: [Event Marketing Materials](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/event-marketing-materials) [Courseware](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/courseware) [Global Fulfillment](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/global-fulfillment) [Marketing Asset Management](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/marketing-asset-management) [Kit Assembly](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/kit-assembly) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) Related Posts [Managing your courseware as you mature from start-up to enterprise](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/managing-your-courseware-as-you-mature-from-start-up-to-enterprise) [Here’s How to Slash Printing Costs for Your Global Training Materials](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/heres-how-to-slash-printing-costs-for-your-global-training-materials) [How Much Tech Support Comes with Your Marketing Portal?](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/how-much-tech-support-comes-with-your-marketing-portal) [Digital Courseware Can Save You Money](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/digital-courseware-saves-you-money) [How to Solve Your Shipping and Fulfillment Challenges](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/the-secret-to-solving-your-fulfillment-challenges) About OnFulfillment Blog Gain insights into print fulfillment and other strategies for marketing teams, training organizations, and HR departments. Subscribe to Email Updates Recent Posts - [How the Promotional Industry Really Works](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/how-the-promotional-industry-really-works) - [AI-Assisted Search is Changing How Companies Find Vendors](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/ai-assisted-search-is-changing-how-companies-find-vendors) - [Branded Corporate Apparel Trends for 2026](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/branded-corporate-apparel-trends-for-2026) - [7 Ways Marketing Fulfillment Streamlines Kitting and Assembly](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/7-ways-streamline-kitting-and-assembly) - [How to Conduct an Effective Corporate Rebrand](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/how-to-conduct-a-corporate-rebrand) Posts by Topic - [Marketing Asset Management (86)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/marketing-asset-management) - [Promotional Swag (84)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/promotional-swag) - [Global Fulfillment (78)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/global-fulfillment) - [Event Marketing Materials (76)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/event-marketing-materials) - [Direct Mail (49)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/direct-mail) - [Marketing Fulfillment (44)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/marketing-fulfillment) - [Company Store (36)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/company-store) - [Print Fulfillment (36)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/print-fulfillment) - [Corporate Gifting (35)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/corporate-gifting) - [Courseware (31)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/courseware) - [Kit Assembly (27)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/kit-assembly) - [Riley's Picks (26)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/rileys-picks) - [Print Marketing (25)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/print-marketing) - [Commercial Print (22)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/commercial-print) - [Print On Demand (21)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/print-on-demand) - [Event Support (18)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/event-support) - [Custom Developments & Integrations (9)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/custom-developments-integrations) - [Employee Engagement (9)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/employee-engagement) - [Rewards Program (7)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/rewards-program) - [Customer Success (5)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/customer-success) - [Onboarding (4)](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/topic/onboarding) [see all](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog/do-you-get-shipping-intelligence-with-your-marketing-portal#) ![onf_logo_white_2020](https://www.onfulfillment.com/hs-fs/hubfs/onf_logo_white_2020.png?width=155&name=onf_logo_white_2020.png "onf_logo_white_2020") OnFulfillment uniquely combines technological innovation with years of expertise in marketing fulfillment, web to print, print on demand, promotional items, apparel, tradeshow collateral, event management, gifting, reward, and redemption programs to deliver full-service solutions that meet your specific marketing, training, HR, and channel partner needs. Our corporate portal and company store software supports your most complex internal and external global requirements. One solution, one company, with more than one million users. Let our team of experts help build an online platform for your business. SOFTWARE [Corporate Portal](https://www.onfulfillment.com/software/corporate-portal) [Digital Asset Management](https://www.onfulfillment.com/software/digital-asset-management) [Custom Development, Integrations, & Compliance](https://www.onfulfillment.com/software/integrations) SERVICES [Fulfillment](https://www.onfulfillment.com/services/fulfillment) [Print Services](https://www.onfulfillment.com/services/print) [Branded Promotional Items](https://www.onfulfillment.com/services/branded-promotional-items) [Event Support](https://www.onfulfillment.com/services/event-support) [Rewards and Redemption Programs](https://www.onfulfillment.com/services/rewards-redemption-programs) SOLUTIONS [Marketing](https://www.onfulfillment.com/solutions/marketing) [Human Resources](https://www.onfulfillment.com/solutions/human-resources) [Training](https://www.onfulfillment.com/solutions/training) [Channel Marketing](https://www.onfulfillment.com/solutions/channel-partner) ABOUT US [Blog](https://www.onfulfillment.com/blog) [Customers](https://www.onfulfillment.com/about-us/customers) [Global Locations](https://www.onfulfillment.com/about-us/global-locations) [Contact Us](https://www.onfulfillment.com/contact-us) Subscribe to Our Blog Connect With Us 39899 Balentine Drive, Suite 365 Newark, CA 94560 (510)-793-3009 [info@onfulfillment.com](mailto:info@onfulfillment.com)