Shipping is a major challenge and vital to the success of any online business. Customers expect high quality shipping service and a positive shopping experience from one transaction to another. By understanding the logistics and potential hassles during the product shipping process, a seamless customer experience can be created for buyers.

If you run an online store, you are highly likely to face these challenges regardless of the type of trade you have or the products you sell. However, there are several ways to solve most of these problems and challenges even before they occur.

In this article, we will offer you solutions that will help you overcome these obstacles. Let’s get started!

High Shipping Rates From Logistics Companies

When shipping products, you are likely to incur expensive shipping costs. sellers often prefer lower shipping costs, but all fees should be covered. This liability usually falls on the store, and the seller is obliged to subtract the shipping fee from the gross profit while offering free shipping.

There are many reasons why you spend too much on shipping your products, such as not thoroughly investigating all shipping options before making a decision, neglecting to know your customers and competitors, and choosing expensive packaging materials.

When it comes to shipping products, you should always take advantage of any discounts available. Even a small discount can save you money in the long run. Some small discounts go a long way over time. In general, the more products you ship, the better the discount. Diversity among shipping companies can help you manage your shipping costs and predict profits accurately.

Weight Discrepancies

After the customer creates a purchase order, the product is picked up by the shipping company of your choice. This company then measures the length, weight, etc of your product packaging. There may be a discrepancy between how much weight you have already weighed and how much weight is measured by the shipping company, resulting in an increase in the cost of shipping order.

Then the shipping company sends you to let you know the weight discrepancy and increase the shipping costs as a result. This difference can be avoided by being careful during the weight of the product because it can lead to changes in the total weight of the package that will be delivered to your customer. You can also be very careful by determining the exact volumetric weight of your shipment.

Slow Pickup & Delivery

Even if you spend a lot of money on shipping, it can sometimes take a long time for your order to arrive. Theoretically, rapid shipping development should alleviate this problem – but that’s not always the case. Depending on the nature of your trade, this can lead to increased or decreased sales.

What major companies like Amazon have done is take advantage of consumer preference for instant gratification along with two-day shipping. Amazon uses artificial intelligence where it predicts consumer behavior by analyzing previous data, allowing the company to store specific products in warehouses geographically closer to the customers which are most likely to shop.

 This way, shoppers can order and receive products almost immediately – even better than going to a physical store!

Product Damage Or Loss During Shipping

If you lose your shipped products, you should have a plan to deal with the situation. Make sure you think about what you’re going to do when it happens so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Instead of adjusting to the loss you can subscribe to the insurance service provided by the shipping company or get insurance from a third party. Both options have benefits and disadvantages. If you get insurance from the shipping company, you can save time by searching for third-party insurance. However, the search is worth it if you’re looking for a cheaper option because third-party insurance is usually cheaper.

Inconsistent Shipment Tracking

Having an order tracking system allows you to monitor the status of all your orders at any time, regardless of where they are during the shipping process. This includes features such as real-time shipping tracking, estimated delivery dates and repeat order updates. The ability to track your orders is an essential tool to ensure that your customers receive their products on time as well as a unified vision throughout the entire process.

Customers appreciate the ability to track their orders – this is understandable. For this reason, you should have a system to track orders internally and send customized updates to buyers. You should also offer multiple notification options to customers when buying, provide an on-demand tracking number, and track all orders using an internal platform.

High SLAs During festive Seasons

Well-known shopping seasons such as Black Friday or Eids can be great as your sales are sure to rise, but at the same time, you may receive an influx of orders you may not be able to handle. The same applies to your shipping partner; They are likely to receive a lot of shipments and packages in a short period of time (during high season). So don’t be surprised if your shipping partner sends you an alert about the late arrival of your shipment to your customer.

To make sure you stand out during seasons, it’s important to create a shipping calendar that helps you store early and accurately. This way, you will be prepared for any important season and your products will never run out of stock. To reduce the number of angry customers, set the right expectations from the beginning. For example, prepare stickers and media messages to post about potential seasonal shipping as well as any additional charges your customers can incur.

Lack Of Proactive Customer Service

Customers expect to receive their products quickly and with the least hassle. They also expect to be able to communicate with you in case of any problems. As an e-merchant, you must have several contact points throughout the customer’s purchase until the product arrives. If you are able, appoint customer service representatives at every stage of the customer’s journey.

For more precautions, it would be better to prepare for shipping issues. These actions seem daunting at first, but they will become nature once combined with your normal store operations. Having a preparedness plan will help avoid the most common problems – while building a loyal customer base for your brands.

How Can You Solve All These Hassles Through One Solution?

When running an ecommerce business, your reputation is everything. Poor delivery service delivery, budget neglect, and not tracking your shipments may have negative consequences. Therefore, it is important to choose the right shipping solution for e-commerce and allow your business to thrive.

So we advise you to start signing up for free with Shiprocket, a shipping platform that provides eCommerce companies with an easy way to manage shipping. It also provides one dashboard for shipping orders from multiple eCommerce platforms, automating shipments, and tracking shipments in real time. Shiprocket also offers access to discounted prices from the best shipping companies within the Kingdom, making it an affordable shipping solution for SMEs.

Conclusion

You learned now about the common shipping challenges you may face in your business. Always remember that there are solutions available for any problem or challenge you may face. The best strategy was to proactively work on the steps that needed to be taken to avoid those obstacles.

We hope you have found this post useful. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below. And if you’re looking for more eCommerce shipping tips, be sure to check out our blog.