Running a business is very different today than it has been in the past.
This is all thanks to the advent of the Internet. Since the Internet is now widely available to almost everyone, businesses can cater to a far bigger audience.
4 proven eCommerce tips: avoiding pitfalls with shipping your product
A small business in one area doesn’t have to remain content with servicing that local community. Instead, it can ship its products all over the world.
Online retail is growing at an almost unbelievable rate.
By the year 2020, eCommerce will reach a staggering $4 trillion in sales.
If you want to benefit from this trend, you need to create an online presence and start shipping your products out to customers.
Shipping isn’t easy.
However, there are things you can do to make the process run much more smoothly even on a massive scale.
1. Cut costs by getting free boxes
If you want to ship out a lot of products, you need to find ways to slash costs without hurting quality.
Thankfully, if you work with a third party shipper, there are certain perks you can take advantage of.
One of these is having the shipper pay for the boxes used to ship your products.
If you are selling products in high volume, the price of all that cardboard can certainly add up.
However, many shippers are willing to incur this cost in exchange for your long-term business.
2. Accurately weigh packages
One big cost incurred by many companies that don’t put enough effort into their shipping processes is paying more to ship their products than they should.
This happens when a package is not accurately weighed and a flat rate is paid instead.
Many times, this rate is higher than what would be paid if you made the extra effort to weigh that package.
Passing on the extra cost to customers can also result in fewer sales. Weighing packages by hand takes a lot of time and effort.
However, you can greatly expedite the process by investing in a checkweigher that can weigh a high volume of packages in a very short amount of time.
3. Test your packaging
However, putting your product in a box and mailing it out is only part of the shipping process.
That product also has to make it safely all the way from your warehouse to the customer’s front door.
Sadly, it doesn’t always work out perfectly.
Quite often, products are damaged while in transit. The culprit in many cases is poor packaging design.
Products that are damaged during the shipping process will be returned. Returns cost businesses $270 billion a year.
If you want to avoid these costs, you need to do extensive testing on your shipping processes before you launch them on a wider scale.
This includes testing different kinds of packaging.
Certain products may be damaged by certain kinds of packaging. You need to find packaging that works.
Take great care to ensure that your products are protected while being shipped to customers. If you don’t, you’ll surely be paying for it.
4. Provide shipment tracking
If you want to be competitive in today’s eCommerce environment, providing customers with the ability to track their packages is an absolute must.
Statistics suggest that customers are happier with an online retail experience when online tracking for their package is available.
It increases satisfaction and also lowers the frustration customers feel when they don’t know where their package is.
Thankfully, many shipping partners give companies an access to online tracking for free.
Tracking updates can be sent directly to the customer via email or even text message. Certainly, take advantage of this if you can.
Conclusion
Today’s business environment is increasingly digital.
Competing in the online retail market requires shipping products to customers.
Make sure you place a strong emphasis on providing excellent yet efficient shipping.
It can help to produce satisfied customers that will continue to supply your website with revenue for the long term.
What do you think? Do you run an eCommerce business? How do you organize shipping of your product? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!
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