8 Tips to Drastically Improve Shipping for Small E-Commerce Business Stores
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You shouldn’t be surprised as factors like customer loyalty and buying decision are directly related to your shipping policy. Earlier people were happy with free delivery, whereas delivery time was considered secondary. These days everything is important. Customers not only look for free delivery, they also want quick delivery.
The E-Commerce vendors should also wake up to this new market demand and plan their shipping strategy accordingly.
- Understand your business objectives
In order to offer a better delivery experience, first of all, you need to understand your business objectives. For example, if you are selling a product which is uncommon customers may not want one-day or two-day delivery. They must rather be looking for safety and certainty.
- Offer value
Offering value to your customer is extremely important and it shouldn’t be compromised at any stage of the buying process. Always put customer expectations on top.
- Don’t minimize cost at the cost of customer loyalty
Some of the E-Commerce companies make a grave mistake of finding cheaper delivery options, but at the same time they forget that it might affect customer loyalty in the long term. They may lose the customer base as result. Customers do not want poor services especially in this competitive marketplace, even if you offer free delivery.
- Offer the combo of both low price and high speed delivery
The concept of low price and high speed delivery is not new. With the competition heating up across the E-commerce market, more and more customers are now looking for cheaper delivery and at the same time they also want same day, one-day or two day delivery. With plethora of options available in the market, if you are not providing the combo of both these benefits, the customer might switch to some other product or E-Commerce store.
- Go for multi-step and multi-vendor shipping arrangement
In order to optimize delivery, go for multi-step and multi-vendor arrangement, where in you will be able to reduce costs as well as delivery time. Finding a strategic mix of both will lead you to success. With plenty of opportunities available in the market, finding the right mix is not difficult.
You can find many local delivery partners, who can help you avail the best local delivery solutions as well as large shipping companies like FedEx and UPS, which will help you in rapid delivery across major cities.
Choosing a single shipping partner is not an ideal solution in today’s business conditions. For example, if your customer is in a remote location, you can break the shipping into two or three parts. You can send the product to the city nearest to them utilizing the services of your major shipping partner, whereas you can find a local shipping partner, who would leverage his local shipping capabilities to transfer the shipment from the nearest city to the door step of the customer.
- Optimize and plan delivery options
With increasing competition, you can find many delivery partners, who would help you in achieving one day or two day delivery targets. Their delivery vehicles run day and night in some areas and you can leverage their strength for local deliveries.
- Minimize cost using technology
In order to minimize cost, you can go for different options such as shrink-wrap pallets. You can also adjust prices with your shipping partner according to weight and volume factors. Proper tracking of consignment will also help you reduce cost.
Sometimes customers make false claims of receiving broken items or not receiving a product at all. Modern technology helps you track your shipment in real time using video surveillance that reduces the chances of any goof up by the delivery guys and also customers making false claims.
It will also help in improving customer service as the customer would be able to track the shipment online. It will also help them to make sure that they are available at the mentioned address at the time of delivery. Tracking can be enabled across the entire supply chain. The technology also helps the customer in receiving automatic updates about shipment.
- Review your policy every six months
You should review your shipping policy every 6 months in order to minimize costs and make your delivery even more efficient. This way you will not only be able to reduce cost but would also be able to improve customer loyalty.
Make sure to consider and implement these steps so that your delivery improves drastically. It will improve your customer base and sales.
