The main issue in front of eCommerce business start-ups is how to ship the products. Shipping plays a crucial role in the survival of an e-commerce business. Many customers blame retailers for poor delivery. Shoppers also say delivery is the most important to the shopping experience. The package you ship to your customer is the first physical impression of your brand that your customer experiences. Hence, if the fulfillment of your products is hampered, your sales and marketing are affected directly.
In this article, we will discuss the shipping procedure along with some information that will help you improve your shipping process.
How to Plan the Shipping of Your Product?
As you are planning to start an eCommerce business, it is vital to chalk out your products’ shipping and fulfillment process even before setting up your business. In India, many logistics service provide in-house shipping and outsourcing services for eCommerce businesses all over the country at different prices according to the weight and cost of the product. To make an effective plan to ship your product to the right customer, you need to select the best ecommerce fulfillment center after considering the cost and weight of your product.
Factors to Consider While Choosing the Right Ecommerce Fulfillment Center
Choosing the correct shipping center relies on some significant factors, which are mentioned below:-
1. Reliability
From a reliability standpoint, one consideration when choosing your shipping carrier is that the carriers must be reliable. The reliability of a fulfillment or shipping center can be determined by the ratio of successful deliveries and deliveries that did not meet the standards set by them. It is important to review the current ratio of delivery reliability to identify weaknesses in the delivery process and to know how easily they can make changes in order to minimize errors that occur during delivery.
2. Availability
Sometimes you have to ship some special orders to your customers living in some regions that are restricted, such as army camps or bases. Your shipping service providers must have a license to deliver your products in such areas. Make sure the shipping service provider you choose must be available to parcel the products in every area.
3. Cost
The e-commerce fulfillment center must be cost-effective. Usually, you add the shipment charges along with the product, but you need to be within the limit in increasing the product’s prices. From a cost standpoint, it can vary quite a bit depending on a few different following factors:
- Customer’s location.
- How far away from your warehouse are you shipping?
- Actual weight of the package.
- The dimensional weight.
4. Speed
Speed is also an essential factor to consider while choosing shipping services. It is crucial to deliver the product to the customers on time. If you deliver medical equipment, you need to opt for one-day deliveries. So, you need to look after an eCommerce fulfillment center available to do one-day deliveries.
Tips to Ship Your Products Seamlessly
With a few general tips in mind, you can get the whole process right and quickly gain your customers’ trust.
1. Packaging of Product
Packaging of products makes a lot of difference. Choose the packaging as per the variety of products you are offering. For example, if you sell breakable items, you must pack them more carefully with ample stuffing and bubble wraps to avoid breakage. Important to note is that you must not stuff your product or present it poorly. Pack the products so that when the customer opens the package, he feels overwhelmed and excited to use the product.
2. Set Your Shipping Rates and Methods
You must choose your shipping pricing plan before you can begin goods transport service. There are various popular approaches, but the underlying financials of your company should always guide your decision. These include:-
- Include Free Shipping: One of the best strategies to lower shopping cart abandonment is to offer your consumers free shipping. However, shipping is never free, as you could have guessed, and there is always a cost, and you have a few options for making free shipping work.
- Boost goods prices to cover delivery expenses (customer pays).
- You pay the full freight cost using your profit margins (you pay).
- Price increases partially offset delivery costs (you and your customer pay).
- Give some consumers a coupon code for free shipping.
You can also set a minimum order amount to offer free shipping. This method can offset the shipping costs by increasing your average order size, but you will still pay the freight amount from the margins you will earn.
- Charge Real-Time Carrier Rates: Charge real-time shipping rates that customers can select according to their preferences and needs. You can help customers choose and pay for the service they need by offering live prices for various carriers.
- Charge a Flat Rate: Offering flat-rate shipping is another well-liked choice. The best course of action for this choice is to make an effort to prevent significantly undercharging or overcharging your consumers.
Flat rate shipping works well when you have a reasonably uniform product line of items with comparable sizes and weights. Flat-rate shipping tends to get complicated and less efficient if you sell an extensive range of goods in various sizes and weights.
3. Use a Fulfillment Warehouse
You can automate and take care of the shipping with the help of an eCommerce fulfillment provider. You’ll store your merchandise in one of their logistic warehouse if you decide to deal with eCommerce warehousing.
When an order comes in, your fulfillment partner will instantly receive it and forward it to pick, pack, and ship the purchase order on your behalf, depending on their level of integration with your shopping cart.Â
AAJ Supply Chain Management
