The festive season is upon us – the light, the glitter, the shopping. You could almost call the festive season, shopping season as that is no doubt one of the best things about the season. There are so many shopping deals and sales going on that people love to take advantage of them all. Here are 6 festive season shipping tips for hassle-free shipping.
Shipping Is The Key
According to the Management consulting firm RedSeer, the gross merchandise value (GMV) is expected to grow to $7 billion for the festive month of October in 2020, an 84% growth compared to last year’s $3.8 billion.
As a seller, you’d no doubt want to capitalize on all the season’s demands. However, with the increase of sales, you also need to keep an eye on the logistics side of it all. Your sales need to be packaged, packaged well, and shipped to your customers, and that too in a timely manner. If your customer’s don’t receive their goods on time, then they are not likely to shop from you again.
So, how can you ensure that your shipments are not delayed and that everything keeps running smoothly? Here are some tips to help you conquer festive season shipping, so that you can build up sales and not problems.
Plan out your Logistics
Take some time to go through your logistics. See how much time it takes on each step, from the customer placing the order, to your company packing it and shipping it, to the order actually reaching the customer. Ensure that everything is optimised, in not, try to optimise it. See how much time it actually takes on average, and plan your logistics accordingly. Plan out step by step what needs to be done to ensure that the package reaches the customer on time, as well as if and how can that process be improved.
Do your Research before Hand
Ensure that you check out the shipping rates and times from all your shipping partners and options. Compare them so that you can have an estimate of what timeline you can expect from the moment the customer places an order to when they can receive it. Make sure to leave some buffer time for unexpected delays. Shipping aggregators like Dash101 can help here, as they automatically collect rates, estimated shipping times, and various other information and show it to you. This would save time and help you make an effective plan.
Choose a Shipping Partner
Now that you know what your requirements are and what each shipping company offers, you can put two and two together. See which shipping company meets all your needs while also being cost effective for your ecommerce company. You being able to dominate festive season shipping will depend largely on how good and effective your shipping partner is and how they cope with your needs and demands.
Provide Options
It’s always good to have options. You can partner with more than one shipping partner. And give a choice to the customer regarding whom they want to ship. You can also provide the customers with the option to pay to ship the item faster with expedited shipping. Even offering them the option to pay via multiple payment options is good. This includes prepaid payment via Netbanking, Credit or Debit Cards, or Online Wallets. You can even offer the option of CoD. I.e. payment at the time of delivery which is very popular with customers. Depending on your shipping partner offers that option. See what your customers like and try to give a few options.
Free Shipping
A lot of customers don’t like to pay for shipping. And giving them the option of free shipping will increase sales. But will also lead to you bearing the additional cost. In order to offset costs, you can look into the option of threshold shipping. Threshold shipping is when an order is eligible for free shipping after reaching a threshold limit, such as Rs.1000. Alternately, you can also set a countdown for free shipping, e.g. Free Shipping if you order within the next 30 mins or a free shipping sale. This means a special time offer only for the festive period. You can also send customers coupon discounts for free shipping. This can have the additional benefit of increasing your average order value and pushing the customers towards checkout. You can also look into International Shipping or discounted international shipping as a choice.
Communication is key
Like in any relationship, communication is also key here. Once your customer has placed the order, they would love to know what happens. Let know that their order is placed and appreciated. Send them notifications or emails when the order has been packed, and then shipped. You can then continue to let them know where their order has reached. As well as the time estimate when it will reach them. Especially let them know if the order is going to be delayed. Customers like to be kept notified. This will help build goodwill with the customer.
There you have it. These are just some of the ways to help you manage and boost your season’s sales. Thus dominating the festive season shipping. You can utilize these tips to maximize customer satisfaction in addition to increasing orders. It is key to have a good shipping partner who supports you to help achieve your targets.
