Even now that the practical obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic have made things somewhat trickier, the international freight trade remains extremely active. Importing and exporting are entrenched in the global economy, and though conventional retail has suffered during the lockdown, online retail has marched on with minimal disruption.
From an entrepreneur’s perspective, this has one key takeaway: anyone with an aspiration to form a shipping company — or an online business, for that matter — needn’t exercise restraint in an effort to see how the world bounces back from this once-in-a-generation event. They can get started right away. And with other industries still struggling, boldness seems quite sensible.
But this takeaway is there for anyone who cares to form a reasoned inference, so it’s hardly a secret that can be exploited for easy success. If you want to truly compete in the shipping and freight industry, you need to get your business firing on all cylinders.
In this post, we’re going to set out six points that can help you succeed in your efforts. Ready? Let’s get started.
Leading companies offer valuable inspiration
When a smart and capable professional starts to outline their move into a new industry, their first step will always be the same: competitor research. It’s extremely hard to compete if you don’t know what you’re competing against, after all, and there’s so much precedent out there that can inspire you to move in the right direction.
By researching the most successful freight and shipping companies (as well as the retail companies that handle such things very effectively), you can quickly get into discerning why they do what they do. How did they reach their decisions? If there’s a tactic you’re considering that isn’t being used, is there a good reason for that?
If not, then you have a great opportunity to set your company apart. If there is, then you can disregard that option and go back to the drawing board. Knowing the enemy is a fundamental part of warfare, and business operates in a comparable way (only somewhat less violently).
Customer service is a smart top priority
Everything we look at henceforth is important, shaping how much money you can make and how robust your operation can become, but you might want to make customer service your top priority. It’s a great catch-all focus. You can’t provide great customer service if you’re massively overcharging or failing to meet your core goals, but you also need to ensure that your customer experience is excellent if you want to get ahead.
Take something like your quote system, for instance. If you’re offering a shipping service, how easy can you make it for someone to get a quote? The simpler you make the process, the more potential customers you’ll attract — and if you somehow make the process clumsy and awkward, you’ll lose out on leads regardless of how good your actual shipping process is.
Warehouse management needs optimization
To run a modern business with maximum performance, you must check all the boxes and get things running efficiently. As you scale, you can be confident that you’re making the most of your resources — and given how extensively a freight company can scale (and how substantial your professional commitments could become), a small increase in efficiency could result in a massive difference in your profitability.
Key to achieving efficiency improvement is taking advantage of technological developments across the board. It’s now common to see freight companies use machine learning tools to predict stock demand and merchants use cloud-synched retail pos systems to accurately track in-store sales, contributing to a supply-and-distribution chain that’s quite advanced.
If you’re not interested in getting into the fine details of technological improvement, SeaRates offers expert managed warehousing that can take the challenge out of the process. Depending on how you want to set your brand apart, this might be the smartest way to proceed.
You must carefully research product demand
Once you set the gears of a large freight haul in motion, they’re not easy or cheap to stop, so you need to know before you begin that your selected cargo is the right choice. Where you’re taking specific commissions, it’s outside of your control, but what about when it isn’t? What about when you’re independently choosing to import and export products — or when you’re choosing among numerous comparable commissions?
When you need to make a reasoned choice, product research will point you squarely in the right direction, helping to avoid damaging situations such as bulk-buying items that are on the cusp of losing their popularity and leaving you with a large amount of stock that you can’t profitably sell.
Your brand deserves a meaningful identity
Since shipping and freight businesses are basically facilitators, serving as the go-betweens for other companies, it’s easy to assume that they don’t really need brands (beyond having brand names that can be associated with quality). This isn’t the case. Every business needs a unique brand with a meaningful identity, especially if it’s to be found online.
By creating expert blog content, delicately supporting laudable causes, providing valuable insight, and maintaining a workforce of capable and well-supported employees (more on that next), you can attract more visitors to your business website and give your various actionable pages better chances of appearing prominently for relevant search terms.
Investment in training needs to remain high
As much as technology plays a part in flourishing in the hyper-competitive shipping and freight industry, it isn’t the only thing you need to think about. Your human workforce is of paramount importance, and that won’t be changing in the near future. If you fail to train your workers properly, even the smartest management systems won’t allow you to excel — and if you don’t make them feel worthwhile, they won’t keep things ticking along at a solid pace.
By investing in their continued training, you can demonstrate your commitment to their career development and ensure that they use your chosen systems with optimal success. What should you train them in, specifically? Digital tools including automation services, the latest customer support techniques, effective communication methods, self-care — training in any of these areas will contribute notably to the strength of your business.
This is a fine time to move into the shipping and freight industry, but you need to get your approach exactly right or you won’t be able to compete. Use the points we’ve set out here to tailor your strategy, and you should have a decent change at success.
