Business is not the same as it was twenty or even ten years ago. Today, more people than ever purchase the products they want online. If you want to compete in today’s marketplace, being able to efficiently ship products all over the country or even the world is absolutely essential.
There are times when the products you make do not fit into traditional shipping containers. This means that if you need to transport bulky and unusually big products, you need to opt for breakbulk services. Make sure that the shipping or freight company understands your specific requirements and takes care of your shipment in the safest possible manner.
Significant mistakes in your shipping processes can harm your bottom line dearly. With that in mind, below are five tips every new business owner should know about shipping.
Accurately Calculate Weight
If you want to keep a tab on your company’s shipping costs, you need to be aware of how much each shipment weights. Knowing what a product weighs is one thing. However, the actual shipment can weigh much more than that. Glass products, for example, require extra packing materials to protect them during transit. This can add to the weight.
Offer Shipment Tracking
In regards to ecommerce, customer satisfaction is the key to retaining long term business. One way to make sure customer satisfaction remains high is to offer free shipment tracking. This can be done by providing a tracking number or shipping updates via e-mail. If customers know where their packages are at all times, they will be less likely to get frustrated with the process.
Choose the Right Shipping Service
One very important part of setting up shipping processes for a new business is choosing the correct firms to partner with, like Associated Paper & Supply for packaging materials or UPS for actual transit. There are different options that may benefit certain businesses over others. One option you may want to consider is flat rate shipping. Flat rate shipping means the same price will be changed for packages regardless of differences in size or weight. If few of your products are the same size or weight, this may be the best option.
Test Packaging
One of the biggest expenses related to ecommerce is the cost of products sent back to the seller. These returns often occur after the product arrives to the customer damaged. Usually, poor packaging design or insufficient protective wrapping inside the box is to blame. To avoid incurring these expenses, you should perform extensive testing to spot problems before they become issues for paying customers.
Solicit Customer Feedback
Having good intelligence on the entire shipping process is very important. One way to get better information regarding how your shipping processes are doing is to solicit direct feedback from customers about their experiences receiving packages from your business. You can do this through follow-up e-mails that arrive after those packages are delivered.
Shipping and handling is one of the most complicated parts of doing business in an ecommerce landscape. Make sure you put in the work and research to do the job correctly and attempt to continually improve the effectiveness of your shipping processes.
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