There are many challenges to running an ecommerce business. Perhaps one of the most challenging is effectively managing your shipping processes. If you do a bad job at this, you will end up with angry customers who will never give you business again. Instead, you need to find ways to ensure better and faster shipping to your customers especially if they are B2B clients. Below are a few strategies to try.
Provide Free Tracking
One of the worst parts of a poor shipping process is not knowing the status of a package after it has been shipped. The solution to this problem is to provide free tracking with each package shipped out from your company to clients. Most major shipping providers do now provide tracking numbers that can be used to instantly look up where a package currently is and where it has been. Being able to see this kind of progress may be enough to satisfy much of your customers.
Business Shipping
In regards to your business to business sales, you have to provide a quality experience that is up to their standards. Considering you will most likely be receiving a high volume of business from these business clients, it’s only fair that you offer reduced rates far below what you would offer to one-off customers. Work with these clients to create specialized transportation management solutions that meets their needs. For example, many business clients may prefer to receive their shipments on wrapped pallets. While this may not be the case with your regular customers, you should certainly make exceptions for business clients that order in high volume.
Offer Next Day Shipping
In certain cases, clients, especially business clients, may demand your product arrive much quicker than would be the case with your standard shipping options. The solution, in this case, would be to provide next day shipping at a premium. While this would be a much more expensive option, many clients may find it preferable to pay that amount than have to wait for multiple days for your product to arrive. Always make sure to have as many shipping options as possible. If you want to work with businesses, you’re going to need to be more flexible than if you were only serving the general public.
Overall, shipping is one of the most complex aspects of being an ecommerce business. You need to remain flexible and be able to meet the shipping needs of different clients. Business clients, in particular, have specialized needs you will need to make adjustments for. Try to always provide quality and quick service within reason when it comes to shipping.
Bio: Anita is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn’t writing. You can follow her on Twitter @anitaginsburg.
