Every business that is shipping items out to customers should pay special attention to the protection they are giving items as well as the branding of the products you are selling, whether you are shipping small custom face masks or huge pieces of furniture.
Risk Awareness
Before we discuss best practice areas of shipping, we want to include a word of warning about the shipping scams that are out there. It’s vital to protect the customer and make sure they safely receive the purchase, but you shouldn’t forget your own business needs. You need to be wary too.
Business owners can face scams and fraud, especially if you are a new business. Some people might ask you to send the items they have purchased using a specific courier or a service that they prefer or can get a discount to, but actually they are using the company to reroute to another address having stolen money from a work account or ordered with a stolen card. According to cybersecurity statistics, similar scams involve rerouting packages and customers asking if they can send you prepaid labels.
This list of common scams is very useful. If you’ve not seen people get conned before then you might not even know the scams exist.
Use a reliable shipping company and one that lets you block buyers from rerouting. Also, verify as much about your customer and target market as you can. Take advantage of phone lookup services to validate addresses to protect the customer and yourself from online scams involving shipping.
Understanding Your Target Market
You can research publicly available information about customers and buying habits to help you to understand more about your target market and their needs. This can tell you more about who is buying your product, and in which locations.
Shipping Strategy Basics
The number of options for exactly how to pick, pack, and ship an item that has been sold might surprise you. For example, packaging items and protective sleeves to send things in and whether or not shipping needs to have rigid (one price) or flexible pricing on your site.
Calculating shipping costs
Many couriers have a calculator you get access to when you sign up. You can work out what something costs to ship, usually depending on the size, what is in the package and the weight. Bigger and bulker items are going to take up more space and therefore they will normally cost more to get sent to their destination. This can be tough as different items are different sizes and will, therefore, vary a lot in terms of their price to send out.
It is fairly normal for an e-commerce store to build shipping costs into the actual price of the item that they are selling, allowing them to then offer free delivery, and this can allow each product to have a specific margin for packaging. Bigger products can have a larger markup.
Packaging and marketing
There are a lot of different options for packaging and these represent your brand as well. For example, you should stay away from excess plastic which we all know is bad for the environment.
It is a good idea to go for the lightest weight products that can give adequate protection. Definitely consider whether breakable items are going in the packaging when buying.
Unfortunately, small businesses don't have enough marketing budget like the big ones, especially it is hard for newbies, but still, any business needs to have a good marketing strategy. For example, Google Ads & Facebook Ads work great and must be included in your digital marketing strategy.
Insurance and shipping with tracking
Most shipping companies will offer some way to protect your package. Insurance is a good idea when you are dealing with valuable products as they can allow you to claim if anything gets lost in transit.
Tracking also really helps if a customer calls you up wanting to know if you’ve sent their new cat bed yet! You can find out where it is on its journey and how long the customer might then have to wait.
How e-commerce customs work
Are you operating globally? These sorts of forms are just something that is inevitable and necessary when sending abroad. These will vary from one country to another. Fortunately, many shipping companies will be happy to help you with this. In addition to it, quite a number of firms actively apply various e-commerce services making their working flow easy for sending goods abroad. For instance, they take advantage of Live Chat Outsourcing Agency Services that can impact e-commerce customs simplifying the very process.
Business accounts
Think about getting a specific business account with a shipping company. This will allow you to get better rates if you are sending a bulk of items. You may pay a monthly fee to be on a contract with a certain shipping company. In the long run, this may represent far better value.
Labeling your packages
Label your packages professionally, double-check the correct address. Try to make use of the shipping labels that can be generated automatically on a courier’s site when you enter the details of the item you are sending online. This means you aren’t addressing things individually, which might be fine when you are just selling a few things, but when your business grows it can be difficult to keep up with this demand.
Using a fulfillment warehouse
If you use a fulfillment warehouse, it can be easier to automate the process. These are usually only economical when you are a big company shifting a lot of units.
Fulfillment centers are staffed and will receive your inventory before sorting and sending when your orders come through. You may even be able to automate the details of items sold getting directly sent to the staff at whichever warehouse you use. Automation for e-commerce can be a big help and free you up to work on other things.
Shopify Shipping
If you sell on Shopify, you can take advantage of specific rates that they have managed to secure with different product carriers around the world including UPS and DHL. Choose which courier you are going to use and which of their postage services you plan to take advantage of, then it should be as easy as printing your labels and getting the product ready to ship. You may even be able to arrange pickups so that the courier visits your warehouse (or home garage) to collect the orders.
Remember!
Whether you like it or not, shipping is a fundamental part of your e-commerce business, so it is vital that you get it right. It is an extension of your brand and something you should handle with professionalism. On top of this, you need to protect yourself and your customers and steer clear of the many scams that are out there by knowing when you spot a red flag or a potential issue with your shipping. This can be very costly.
