More and more businesses are now offering a shipping service to meet the rise in customers shopping online. While this may help increase the number of orders you receive, it does not mean that it will automatically be a success. Considering this, we will be looking at a few common shipping mistakes that many businesses make to help you sidestep them.
Poor Packaging
If your packaging is not suitable to contain and protect your products adequately, this can easily lead to them becoming damaged somewhere along the way during their transit. As a result, you can end up having to issue refunds, and you could also develop a poor reputation. When choosing the proper packaging, it may be worth consulting with a professional to help you get it right. If you can get this right straight away, you can continue using this packaging time and time again.
Bad Delivery Partners
While you can control a lot of what you are doing in packing the products quickly and effectively, this is still only half of the battle. If your delivery partners are not doing a good job, this can ruin your reputation. Therefore, if you are only going to be using a single delivery partner, you need to make a special effort to check the online reviews and get a personalized recommendation if possible. Alternatively, if you’re looking for delivery driver jobs, you can find driving work on a load board and post opportunities on there, too, if you would like to go down the path of hiring freelancers and the self-employed.
Inaccurate Shipping Addresses
If you do not get the shipping address down properly, this will lead to a problem as you will never be able to deliver packages to the right places. This is going to lead to long delays and additional costs for you. Many websites now ask customers to select their address from a drop-down menu rather than asking them to input it manually, as this is where mistakes can quickly start to occur.
Poor Shipping Date Estimates
While some customers do not worry about waiting for a while to get their package, they cannot deal with getting an inaccurate date estimate. People like to plan and look forward to when they receive their items. Therefore, it is better to offer a date range when the product can be accepted. Some companies provide the option of real-time tracking of customer packages as this allows them to check out what is going on at every step of the journey.
Avoiding all of these common shipping mistakes can make a big difference in ensuring that all of your products are shipping on time and in a good state, helping your business reputation improve and prosper, which can help you attract even more customers in the future.
