I’ll be honest: “what’s the cheapest way to ship?” is the question I get most from small business owners, and my answer usually disappoints them.
There’s no single cheapest carrier.
The cheapest way for a small business to ship is to get off retail rates, buy discounted carrier rates through one platform, and match each package to the carrier that already runs that route well. And shipping rarely gets expensive because of the sticker price on any one label. It gets expensive because of the defaults nobody goes back to change: the one carrier you set up on day one, the retail pricing you never renegotiated, the box with too much air in it.
So let’s get into how the options really compare and where the money tends to hide.
| Shipping option | Best for | How a small business gets it | Cost signal |
| USPS Ground Advantage | Light, small parcels under a few pounds | Carrier account or a shipping platform | Lowest for small/light |
| USPS Priority Mail | 1–3 day needs, flat-rate-friendly items | Carrier account or platform | Mid |
| UPS / FedEx Ground | Heavier or larger boxes, dimensional items | Carrier account or platform | Varies by weight/zone |
| Regional & Edge carriers (Amazon Shipping, UniUni, Roadie) | Regional ground, same-day, big-and-bulky, 7-day residential | Usually a platform with Edge access | Competitive on served routes |
| Retail / counter rates | Nothing. This is the baseline you want to move off of | Walking into the carrier | Highest |
How to calculate shipping costs for small business
Start with what your invoice says, not what you were quoted. Those two numbers are rarely the same, and the gap is where your real cost lives. A shipping cost is the base rate for the weight and zone, plus surcharges, plus whatever your packaging adds. The surcharges are where I see small businesses get blindsided. Residential delivery fees apply to almost everything you send to a house. Fuel surcharges ride on top of the base rate. And dimensional weight means a half-empty box can get billed for the room it takes up instead of what it weighs. You don’t have to take my word for any of this — USPS, UPS, and FedEx all publish their surcharge and dimensional-weight schedules, so you can check exactly what applies to your packages.
To find your real per-order cost, take a typical month, add up the carrier charges plus any platform or label fees, and divide by orders shipped. Then group similar shipments together, so you’re comparing packages of the same rough weight and zone, and see how the cost varies by destination, service level, and carrier. Comparing like with like is what surfaces a fixable default: usually a box that’s bigger than it needs to be, or a service level faster than the order ever called for.
How to reduce shipping costs for small business
The fastest way to reduce your shipping costs is to buy carrier rates at a discount instead of retail, ship across more than one carrier, and right-size your packaging. In practice, that’s four moves:
- Get off retail rates. Discounted carrier rates through a shipping platform can run up to 88% off retail, and you don’t need enterprise volume to qualify for them.
- Go multi-carrier. If Shopify picked your carrier for you, you’re shipping every order the same way no matter what it is or where it’s going. Put USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and more in one place and you can send each package the cheaper way.
- Right-size your packaging. Dimensional weight punishes empty space. I have seven kids, so I know exactly how much nothing you can cram into a box that’s too big, and the carriers will happily bill you for all of it. Matching the box to the product is often the highest-return change a small shipper can make.
- Use regional and Edge carriers where they win. Edge carriers are the regional and specialty players outside the big national names, like Amazon Shipping, UniUni, and Roadie. They’re often your cheapest option on residential, regional, same-day, or bulky deliveries — the routes the national carriers handle worst.
If you run your store on Shopify, this is where EasyPost Nexus comes in.
Shopify can already get you discounted labels, but you’re working from a limited set of carriers and services on every order. Nexus widens the pool. It connects your Shopify store, imports your orders, and lets you buy and print labels from one dashboard, with pre-negotiated Wallet carrier rates (USPS, FedEx, UPS, DHL, and more) plus regional and last-mile Edge carriers like Amazon Shipping, UniUni, and Roadie.
So instead of sending every order the same way, you can see the cheaper option and take it. It’s all on one invoice, with no subscription fee on Wallet carriers up to 3,000 labels a month so you only pay for what you ship. See what your Shopify labels would cost on Nexus.
The cheapest shipping options for small business
So which one is actually cheapest? It depends on the package, and the decision usually breaks down like this. Light, small parcels under a pound or two are typically cheapest on USPS Ground Advantage. Once a package climbs past a few pounds or ships into a farther zone, UPS or FedEx Ground often pulls ahead. Time-sensitive 1–3 day items tend to fit USPS Priority. And for regional, residential, or big-and-bulky deliveries, an Edge carrier frequently wins outright. Running more than one carrier isn’t about collecting logins. It’s about not overpaying on the orders your default carrier handles worst.
If most of what you ship is light domestic parcels, compare USPS against a regional carrier on your top three destinations and see what happens, or let a shipping platform for small business run that comparison for you at the moment you buy the label.
Small business shipping tips
A few things that reliably help small shippers spend less without hiring anyone:
- Weigh and measure your five best-selling products once, then build presets so you’re not eyeballing every label at 9 p.m.
- Pass real-time rates to your checkout so customers pick their own speed. That keeps you from quietly eating the cost of expedited shipping you never charged for.
- Actually look at one month of shipping data every quarter. The cost review you’ve rescheduled three times is usually sitting right on top of the easiest savings (no judgment, okay, a little judgment).
FAQ
How do I get cheap shipping rates for a small business?
Access discounted carrier rates through a shipping platform instead of paying retail. You don’t have to negotiate your own carrier contracts or hit volume minimums to get pricing below counter rates.
How does small business shipping work without a big shipping team?
A no-code platform handles the parts that used to require engineers or an ops hire. It connects to your store, brings in your orders, and lets you buy and print labels in one place, so shipping runs without a dedicated team.
Do I need a separate account with each carrier?
No. A platform with consolidated carrier access gives you several carriers and one invoice instead of a separate login and bill for each.
