After the eCommerce boom in 2020-21, the number of global digital shoppers is predicted to hit 2.05 billion U.S. dollars from 1.32 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. It’s a great time to capitalize on some of the trending ideas like the Amazon Prime Air service shipping solution that will deliver packages up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less using small AI-enabled drones for delightful delivery experiences.
This is the time online retail businesses need to optimize and improve their supply chain and logistics processes. They need to bring in advanced routing capabilities, improve visibility of end-to-end logistics operations, boost productivity, etc. All of these aspects empower retailers to meet customer expectations and stay profitable.
When it comes to choosing a shipping solution, businesses need to be resourceful and smart.
If you’ve been looking to find the right shipping solution for your new retail company or looking to implement a better one for your business, the tips below can help:
6 Quick Tips For Choosing a Shipping Solution
Consumers these days demand more and more from online retail businesses. If you don’t meet your customers’ expectations, your customers will go elsewhere. You need a shipping solution that can notify customers by sending them text messages with an estimated time of parcel delivery and by giving them a live tracking map.
Automation Is the Key
Even a small mistake with regard to customer address, contact number, or bills can lead to product non-delivery and thereby loss for your business. These mistakes might often happen when your customers manually typing their addresses, email, pin code, etc. The more you can automate the eCommerce process, the better off your customers will be.
If your staff members are still using spreadsheets for manually entering orders and tracking customer information for managing couriers and deliveries, then it’s time to kick those to the curb. You need to put an eCommerce shipping solution in place that can automate different tasks for the input of customer data like orders, bills, etc.
Real-Time Notifications, SMS & Emails
The most common question that customers think about is “updates for where my product reached?” and then you get calls and emails from them asking the same. Answering your customers’ calls is necessary. Why don’t you get an online shipping solution for yourself that can provide answers related to the whereabouts of shipments?
By implementing a shipping solution to your eCommerce website, especially one with the real-time update capabilities, allows your customers to check their orders from any place, at any time. It provides you instant, 24/7 access for greater data control, improved customer services, and more efficient order processing.
Seamless Integration With Other Software & Programs
The next thing to bear in mind is the seamless integration. Of course, this plays a large role in the process of shipment. Using a regular software solution is always an option, but be prepared for your delivery time to be lengthened, as the parcel goes through the different postal channels, through the customs, and then post on the other side. This is why it’s important that your online shipping solution should be faster, safer, effective, and be able to integrate with the other software you’re using to run your eCommerce business.
Analytics For Data-Driven Decisions
Whether your eCommerce business is small or large, to go that extra mile needs efforts, management, the right data, and numbers about your order processes. More importantly, the smooth automated process reduces all your efforts for data collection and analysis.
Analytics is extremely important for your eCommerce business in order to find inefficiencies in your process, analyzing which processes are the most profitable, product selling profits, keep track of all deliveries, comparing the performance of your carriers through statistics and reports. All of this information helps you understand, make informed decisions, and take action that will improve your business processes and online delivery.
Real-Time Route Optimization
The eCommerce companies provide city-to-city courier delivery services through their dedicated, exclusive, and regular delivery solution. But, it’s frustrating for drivers to drive down the same street and get lost because the route they were given isn’t clear. Hence, if you have the eCommerce shipping solution e in place that provides optimized routes, then your drivers don’t run in the other direction to get all of your deliveries done.
Most of the shipping solutions will optimize delivery routes. However, you should choose the one that is more user-friendly, send you the live traffic updates, traffic conditions, etc.
Research, Compare & Do a Trial
Since research and comparison are the most dominant factors in the process of choosing an eCommerce shipping solution, any kind of lack of information about the software is completely unacceptable. As the business owner, you should be able to get complete information and updates about the software.
However, you’re always at a risk of getting confused on a load of platforms, even though there are options that can work from one dashboard only to support your entire eCommerce business. It’s better to do some research about the tools and compare them in different ways such as attributes, features, price, interface, etc. are some of which you may or may not need. By comparing your options you can decide which software is the best fit for your retail company.
A trial of the shipping solution gives you an opportunity to see if that software functions well or does it meet all of your needs. A temporary trial will allow you to make a decision to choose another software for your business.
Shipping Solution Final Words
This article enlists tips for choosing the right shipping solution for your eCommerce business. Use this information and make a sound decision. However, you should evaluate, compare, and try the shipping solution first to pick the best one for your business.