This guide outlines 4 key strategies to follow when you ship products to your clients, or for your company.
The ability to ship products to customers is great because it means you get to have clients from all over the country or even the world, since they won’t need to visit your business in order to buy your products.
However, as amazing as it may be, shipping products to customers also presents a whole host of challenges. Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to make the process smoother for both you and your customers, and we’re here to share four of them.
How to ship products efficiently
Use a reliable courier service
If you only do local deliveries, you may be able to have your own delivery team to ship products if you can provide them each with the transport needed. But once you start branching out, you will likely need to use a postal service to get the products to your customers.
Unfortunately, normal postal services are often slow and unreliable, so a courier company may be a better fit. While it may cost a bit more to ship products this way, you will be able to deliver better service to your customers. Visit www.courierstexas.com to learn more.
Be clear about shipping times
It’s always a good idea to be clear about shipping times beforehand. After all, you don’t want a customer to expect their package the next day and only have it come the next week.
Most courier companies offer different shipping options at different price points, and it’s a good idea to let your customers pick what works for them to ship products.
If they are in a hurry, they can pay extra to have their products delivered sooner, and if they are on a budget, they can opt for a longer wait period but cheaper costs. Customer communication is important, so you should also keep them informed of any updates when it comes to their shipping status.
Decide whether you want your customers to pay for shipping
Another thing you need to consider when you ship products is whether or not you want your business to cover the shipping fees, or whether customers will need to pay extra for that. Many businesses decide to include free regular shipping, which means customers just need to pay extra if they are opting for a rushed service.
This has its pros and cons, and if you do decide to cover shipping fees, you may need to rework some of your money management strategies.
Focus on packaging
Once the package is shipped, it’s out of your hands, but your business will likely still need to fix things if something gets lost or damaged in transit. There may not be any way of avoiding lost packages except using a reliable courier service, but there is something you can do to try and minimize damage: you can focus on the packaging.
Using thick boxes to ship products will add a nice layer of protection to the products in the box, and you should also consider bubble wrapping any fragile items. While you can’t guarantee that the products will arrive in one piece, this will at least increase the likelihood of that happening.