With a hailing USD 2,500 billion market, e-commerce is connecting both businesses and consumers globally. However, if you want your e-commerce startup to thrive in the market, you must follow some tips to ensure efficient shipping and fulfillment.
A successful e-commerce business must consist of clear-cut policies, transparency, attractive packaging, timely shipping, reasonable delivery rates, and more.
We’ll share nine viable tips for your aspiring e-commerce business, so you can take your business to the desired height.
9 Effective Tips to Make Your E-Commerce Startup Successful
You must be wondering why your ambitious e-commerce business isn’t spinning the wishing wheel yet. You’ve invested the required capital, established the operational infrastructure, hired people for shipping & fulfillment, and rented warehouses, and yet, things aren’t looking promising.
Has it ever occurred to you that the resources you’ve put together in your e-commerce business weren’t accommodated perfectly? Is there anything you missed out on? Or is it just bad luck?
If you’ve been struggling with these questions, take note of the nine valid and purposeful tips below to put your wheels back on track:
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Apply Customized Product Packaging
Customers are more concerned about designed packages nowadays thanks to vibrant social media reels and snaps. No matter how stellar material you provide in the packaging paper, there remains a customization necessity.
Obviously, you can’t double your budget on the packaging material as long as it’s serving you well. However, there’s something you can introduce: custom printed tape.
Custom printed tape will serve your purpose in two ways: You can ensure sturdy packaging, and it gives your customers the aesthetic sense they crave.
Above seventy percent of American consumers prefer custom-designed packaging while receiving a delivery. It enhances their consumer experience greatly.
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Prepare Your Shipping and Fulfillment Policies
It’s true that your customers won’t care much about the policy prevalence. However, things might take a turn once you make it accessible in most of the sales funnels.
Make your policies concise and readable for conscious customers. The shipping and fulfillment policies should be visible right, left, and center. It’s a marketing strategy for uplifting your business image in customers’ eyes.
As experts say, a viable and transparent policy can increase your conversion rate.
Your shipping and fulfillment policies should include:
- Quality policy
- Delivery time
- Shipping policy
- Return policy
- Product and delivery rates specification
- Order placement rules
Make your policies available on your e-commerce website, app, etc., so it’s visible to your customers. Also, ensure that individual policies are conveniently stamped or printed on various shipping and fulfillment channels.
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Establish Transparency with Customers and Suppliers
It’s as essential to keep ties with your suppliers as it’s important with the customers. And when it comes to end-to-end communication with the suppliers, you must be as detailed as possible.
The supply chain should be as clear as day. Make sure of the following when dealing with supplier chain management:
- Audit your suppliers (if resources are available) for their compliance verification.
- Make sure you have a verified suppliers list and their details.
- Keep product catalogs accessible from both suppliers and your ends.
- Make sure you both follow the same inventory and order fulfillment.
Generally, maintaining such end-to-end visibility keeps the customer at peace. Customers can check whether certain products are in or out of stock.
Such transparency ensures customer satisfaction at all levels, including order and delivery fulfillment, product quality, and loyalty.
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Practice Free Shipping and Returns
There’s no way a customer won’t love the free shipping or return of their desired product. Free these two services and see the difference.
You may not find it profitable to deal in free shipping and return for each product. Whatever, you can at least select some exclusive and other popular products to get snap deals with most customers.
On the other hand, sort those products that exceed a specific amount in price and delivery period. Then declare free shipping on your e-commerce website for those products.
Similarly, you can offer free returns to your customers. Free returns will put your customer at ease about buying things without a potential return hassle in mind. Most customers take the risk of online shopping with the prospect of receiving low-end products.
Nonetheless, it may work wonders if you allow free returns since customers will remain loyal to you.
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Flat, Table, and Live Shipping Rates
Flat-rate shipping gives your customer a snapshot of the overall cost of a product they want to purchase. It’s a shipping rate regardless of the product’s size, weight, or number. Flat-rate shipping isn’t as popular as free shipping, nonetheless, for customers who need to buy products in bulk, it works fine.
In contrast, table rate shipping is more business-friendly. It gives you the option to charge for different delivery types. In short, it’s completely opposite of what flat-rate shipping does. Here, you can charge different amounts based on product size, number, distance, and categories.
Another shipping strategy is a live shipping rate. It gives your customer specific and exact shipping rates from popular carrier services. It’s a popular B2B shipping strategy implemented based on product size, weight, distance, etc.
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Introduce Loyalty Programs
It never hurts your business to make your customers feel like winners.
Establish and launch customer loyalty programs where you can send your customers surprise or unusual gifts, annual merch, discounts, vouchers, etc.
Having a concise budget for customer loyalty programs will keep your business afloat like never before. It’ll compel your customers to come back to your online store more frequently.
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Ensure Prompt Shipping
Establish a practice of quick shipping of the products. Most customers stay satisfied and loyal if they receive their products in due time.
Prompt shipping doesn’t only indicate delivering your products earlier but handing them over to your customer within the promised deadline.
Different products have different lasting qualities depending on perishable and nonperishable products. Hence, it’s wise to fetch, pack, and send them off to the destination as quickly as possible.
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Use Analytics for Cost Reduction
Every small to large business today is dependent on analytics. Online analytics help in gathering data on your customer retention, sales, market share, customer reach, and whatnot.
Appropriate data analytics will help you in assessing your promotional cost, operational budget, and cost reduction. Most e-commerce businesses go through over-the-top expenses due to the lack of analytics.
Studying analytics regularly may also help you in saving money on taxes, levies, and other regulatory expenses.
So, learn and install a reliable analytics system in your e-commerce website and app, so you can remain up and ahead of your business.
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Establish Strategic Warehouses
Imagine that you have bulk orders of products that need delivery within a short period, and you’re out of stock. Fetching products from an alternative warehouse would waste a lot more time.
In such a situation, the only corrective action should be to establish warehouses strategically. This means renting or building warehouses closer to your customers’ locations. Each warehouse should have an office where a skilled and responsible person will work.
Besides, you may assess specific product demand in certain areas of your customers, so you can stock products in your warehouses as per area demand.
Wrapping Up
As we’ve streamlined the nine effective tips for succeeding in e-commerce shipping and fulfillment, you must be ready to sail your boat with more fluidity.
An e-commerce business carries so many risks in itself as you must deal with thousands of unknown customers in millions of dollars. The bottom line is storing and delivering quality products timely and in perfect conditions.
Optimizing your online shopping business is imperative, and you can learn and do a lot by going through this helpful article.
