Joelah James, Rohan Rinaldo Felix, Author at Lateshipment.com Experience the future of logistics with LateShipment.com. Discover how we revolutionize efficiency and cost savings in shipping and delivery operation Fri, 09 Aug 2024 09:24:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://lswordpress.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/01181630/ipad-retina-144X144-100x100.png Joelah James, Rohan Rinaldo Felix, Author at Lateshipment.com 32 32 DHL Vs. FedEx Vs. UPS: Shipping Carriers Compared https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/overview-of-fedex-ups-and-dhl/ https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/overview-of-fedex-ups-and-dhl/#comments Thu, 08 Aug 2024 07:40:09 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=1128 Choosing the carrier from the list of companies is obviously a tedious process. Each carrier has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, it is important to understand what they are and how well they suit your business needs. To help you get better informed while making that decision, here’s an in-depth comparison of the […]

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Choosing the carrier from the list of companies is obviously a tedious process. Each carrier has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, it is important to understand what they are and how well they suit your business needs.  

To help you get better informed while making that decision, here’s an in-depth comparison of the three private giants, DHL, FedEx, and UPS  — who have been in business for decades and have transported billions of parcels. 

Although competing in the same line of business, DHL, FedEx, and UPS have a lot of things unique, particularly in line with their services, pricing, etc. By understanding these distinctive features, you can pick an option that aligns with your business’ shipping goals. 

DHL Vs. FedEx Vs. UPS: An Overview

DHL

Overview of DHL

As of today, DHL is the world’s leading logistics company, with close to 600,000 employees and a reach of over 200 countries. In 2023, DHL generated a revenue of € 81,8 billion, equivalent to $103.86 billion. 

DHL has four primary divisions, namely 

  • DHL Express for fast and expedited shipments
  • DHL Global Forwarding for cargo shipments worldwide
  • DHL Supply Chain for a support system for both local and international business
  • DHL Ecommerce for standard residential delivery

Apart from being the largest, DHL is also known as the pioneer of low-carbon logistics, who come with the most extensive solutions to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. DHL has 36,000+

Electric delivery vehicles in its fleet and hopes to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Starting with 186 deliveries on its launch, FedEx now makes more than 14 million deliveries in a single day. 

Similar to DHL, FedEx also operates in over 220 countries and territories. Additionally, FedEx boasts a vast network of convenient locations worldwide, including FedEx Office, FedEx Ship Centers, and authorized drop-off points — making it possible to pick up, drop off, or ship at more than 50,000 FedEx locations.

FedEx is also known for its efforts to give back to the community via charitable giving, investing in communities and helping businesses reach new markets, sustainable choices on deliveries, facilities, and packaging, etc.

UPS

Overview of UPS

UPS is the oldest of the three behemoths, starting services in 1907 and growing to more than 500,000
employees, services across 200+ countries & territories, 22M+ daily delivered packages, and a revenue of $91B (in 2023). 

Similar to DHL and FedEx, UPS also stands to deliver social impact and address environmental challenges while delivering customers’ packages, and charitable giving via UPSers’ volunteerism. Thereby sharing commitment towards being a good steward of the planet and communities. 

DHL, FedEx, or UPS: What Works Best for Your Business

While DHL, FedEx, and UPS work in the same niche, businesses that choose their services often come from varied domains that require these carriers to improvise with their catering. 

To see which of the three carriers works best for your business, it is important to know your goals first — fast shipping, cheaper options, international reach, range of services, access to technology, and efficient customer service. And that will be classification criteria to evaluate carrier performances and decide who works best for your business. 

Services offered by DHL, FedEx, and UPS

DHL operates a gamut of services to cater to the shipping needs of its customers – Some of its domestic non-freight service types are DHL SameDay Sprintline, DHL Express 9:00 Domestic, DHL Express 10:30 Domestic, DHL Express 12:00 Domestic, DHL Express 18:00 Domestic, and DHL Express Easy. Its international non-freight offerings include DHL Sameday Jetline, DHL Sameday Sprintline, DHL Express 9:00, DHL Express 10:30, DHL Express 12:00, DHL Express Worldwide, DHL Express Envelope, DHL Express Easy, and DHL Globalmail Business.

FedEx offers the following service types for non-freight shipments within the US – FedEx SameDay, FedEx SameDay City, FedEx First Overnight, FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx 2Day A.M., FedEx 2Day, FedEx Express Saver, FedEx Ground, FedEx Home Delivery, and FedEx SmartPost. For non-freight international parcels – FedEx International Next Flight, FedEx International First, FedEx International Priority, FedEx International Economy, FedEx International MailService, FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution, FedEx International Economy DirectDistribution, and FedEx International Ground. FedEx has recently launched Network 2.0, an initiative combining Ground and Express networks to streamline operations and offer customers a simplified delivery experience. 

UPS offers non-freight shipping service types for both domestic and international shipments –  Within the US: UPS Express Critical – Domestic, UPS Ground, UPS Next Day Air Early, UPS Next Day Air, UPS Next Day Air Saver, UPS 2nd Day Air A.M., UPS 2nd Day Air, and UPS 3 Day Select. International – UPS Express Critical – International, UPS Worldwide Express Plus, UPS Worldwide Express Shipping, UPS Worldwide Saver, UPS Next Day Air, UPS Worldwide Expedited, UPS 2nd Day Air, and UPS Standard.

DHL vs FedEx vs UPS service comparison

Distinctive features from DHL, FedEx, and UPS

DHL, FedEx, and UPS – each of them has its unique pros and cons: 

  • FedEx is strong with overnight shipping, expedited 2-day, and 3-day deliveries, and offers advanced tracking and shipping solutions
  • UPS is strong in the ground shipment game and offers comprehensive supply chain management services
  • DHL has the broadest global presence among the three and is the most vocal about its environmental commitments

DHL, FedEx, or UPS: What to Choose

All three behemoths have their distinct advantages and disadvantages and it is quite unfair to pick the best one out of them. 

Ultimately, the choice between the three carriers comes down to your specific business needs. A good ploy would be to use multiple carriers for different requirements so that you get the best out of each of them.

Apart from all these aspects, an important factor i.e. always overlooked while choosing a carrier is their delivery performance. Especially during times of high volume such as the holiday season or the pandemic period, shipping carriers have been known to have struggled to deliver on time amidst supply chain limitations.

Therefore, irrespective of shipping with DHL, FedEx, or UPS, start automatically auditing your parcel invoices with a tool like LateShipment.com to instantly save up to 20% of your shipping costs. 

  • Recover refunds for 50+ carrier service failures like Late Deliveries, Lost Shipments, and Billing Errors
  • Gain delivery performance metrics to know where you’re seeing profits and review areas where you’re not
  • Compare cross-carrier spending to identify those that require reevaluation.
  • Not just DHL, UPS, and FedEx — supports all major global shipping carriers

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FedEx & UPS Rate Increase for 2024 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/fedex-ups-rate-increase/ Fri, 05 Jan 2024 12:25:53 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=2136 Introduction To The Rate Increase By Fedex And Ups In 2024 Counterparts, rivals, competitors — call them what you want. Shipping behemoths FedEx and UPS follow almost identical practices when it comes to services or rate increases by an average of 5.9% YoY. The rates have been identically increasing for 7 years in a row […]

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Introduction To The Rate Increase By Fedex And Ups In 2024

Counterparts, rivals, competitors — call them what you want. Shipping behemoths FedEx and UPS follow almost identical practices when it comes to services or rate increases by an average of 5.9% YoY. The rates have been identically increasing for 7 years in a row but somehow, they still have the potential to impact e-commerce businesses, particularly SMBs, who operate on a limited bandwidth.   

If you’re a part of an SMB business, being aware of this spike by shipping carriers can help you plan out your shipping strategy in advance and put you ahead in your last-mile game. To save you time, we’ve charted out the data for you!

Make sure to read till the end for ways to save on shipping in 2024 and reduce the impact of FedEx & UPS’ General Rate Increase on your business.

Why Are FedEx and UPS Rates Increasing YoY?

A question on the minds of all regular shippers at some point — why do these behemoths, who dominate the U.S. carrier market, with a combined market share of around 70% by revenue keep increasing the rate of their services YoY and burdening several growing e-commerce businesses?  

The answer is a no-brainer and it is not just one particular reason but several factors that lead FedEx and UPS to increase the rates of their services each year. 

  • Inflation – The supply chain and logistics is a very uncertain space that constantly needs fixes and improvements in order to run smoothly and efficiently. A major hindrance to the smooth running of the supply chain is the ever-rising inflation that impacts labor costs, fuel prices, cost of materials and equipment used in shipping operations, leading to higher overall expenses for shipping carriers. To cover these costs and maintain profitability, FedEx and UPS have no choice but to directly pass on these increased costs to customers. 
  • Increase in demand – While the growth rate has slowed down since the pandemic, e-commerce is still growing. This means, the number of packages being sent out for delivery is on the rise — leading to an increase in demand for infrastructure and resources and thereby impacting costs.
  • Strategic investments = There are also frequent investments being done in technology innovations such as fleet maintenance and other areas. Not to forget, as competing businesses, they are prone to focus on profitability and shareholder value and anticipate potential economic fluctuations.

Also, it is important to note that while the average YoY increase is around 5.9%, the actual impact on individual shipments can vary based on service type, destination, and other factors. A breakdown of each carrier’s rate increases will give us a better understanding. Let’s start with the increased rates of FedEx in 2024. 

FedEx Rate Increase Details for 2024

FedEx rate increase 2024

Amidst all these rate increases, shippers who opt for FedEx can be slightly relieved due to the fact that the General Rate Increase (GRI) for 2024 is at an average of 5.9%, which is 1% lower than last year’s rate increase. 

However, for most shippers, the increase will be more than just 5.9%. For instance, additional handling on oversized packages will increase by about 20%. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how rate increases impact your spending with FedEx. While it’s impossible to take a deep dive on every rate increase, we have managed to cover some key takeaways for all shippers. 

  • Domestic Express services will see an average increase of 6.25%, with packages shipped through FedEx 2 Day, will see an increase of 6.83%, followed by 2 Day AM at 6.65% and 6.39%. FedEx First Overnight sees lowest increase at 5.46%
  • Domestic Ground services as always have different classifications based on different zones and weights, where without surprise — packages shipped to longer distances (zones 5-8) or are heavier (11 pounds or more) see the highest increase at an average of more than 6%. 
  • FedEx Home Delivery packages are almost similar to Ground packages but will see an additional $5.55 residential surcharge and a rate increase of 6.36%.  
  • Another often overlooked part of the GRI is the minimum charges that you’ll be paying for the shipment regardless of the weight, distance, and other factors. These minimums ensure profitability for the carriers, especially for smaller packages or shipments to remote areas. Faster shipments such as FedEx Priority Overnight will see an increase of 7.88%, followed by Standard Overnight at 7.50%.    

The following FedEx Express and FedEx Ground surcharges will also take effect on January 2024:

  • Effective January 1, 2024, FedEx will be increasing customs clearance service fees on imports.
  • Effective January 15, 2024, FedEx will assess the Additional Handling Surcharge and Oversize Charge per eligible package for international multi-piece shipments, instead of per shipment. The affected surcharges are the Additional Handling Surcharge (Dimensions, Weight, Packaging, Freight, and Non-Stackable) and the Oversize Charge.

UPS Rate Increase Details for 2024

UPS rate increase 2024

UPS has followed suit with FedEx almost similarly across the table, starting with dropping the GRI from 6.9% last year.  

  • Similar to FedEx, UPS has kept the shorter Zones (2-4) lower than the 5.9% increase, while shipping options such as 2nd Day Air and 3 Day Select rates in Zones 5-8 have an increase rate of nearly 8%.
  • On the other hand, when it comes to rate increases based on weight, lighter packages (falling below the 1-10 lbs mark) have a maximum increase of 6.65%
  • For minimum charges, faster shipping options such as Next Day Air and Next Day Air Saver see the highest increase at 7.91% and 7.51% respectively.  

The following UPS surcharges have also been effective since December 26, 2023:

  • UPS also introduced an increase in rates for specific Value-Added services and other charges like additional handling rates for both weight and dimension-based packages. For instance, in Zone 2 the Additional Weight Handling rate will go from $29.00 to $34.50, and the Dimensions (Length, Width, Length+Girth) will increase from $18.50 to $22.00 (a rise of 16% in each case).
  • Additional Handling fees will also be imposed on international shipments weighing 55 pounds or more. UPS has also stated that when a commercial fee is submitted in connection with a shipment, a fee of up to $5.00 per shipment will be applied to the shipper if the commercial invoice is not provided in digital form using UPS Paperless Invoice services before the processing of the commercial invoice by UPS.

How E-commerce Businesses Can Prepare for the Rate Increase

It is without a doubt that the service rate hikes by FedEx and UPS will definitely impact the spending threshold of all businesses that ship. However, it’s no time to panic! There are definite ways to help mitigate the impact and even turn this tide into an opportunity to reduce shipping costs.

1. Strategies for Mitigating the Impact on Shipping Costs

  • Make use of multiple shipping carriers: If you’re a regular shipper with a mid to high shipping volume, don’t just use a single carrier for your shipping needs. Explore alternative carriers and regional shipping providers for competitive rates and service options.
  • Negotiate Volume Discounts: Shipping through multiple carriers also creates a bargaining opportunity to negotiate lower rates or better terms with your existing carriers and cut down costs.
  • Offer Free Shipping with Minimum Order Thresholds: Encourage customers to ship more by offering free shipping for purchases exceeding a specific amount or multiple products. 
  • Implement a Flat-Rate Shipping Model: For certain product categories or domestic shipments, consider a flat-rate shipping charge to simplify and potentially control costs.
  • Consolidate Shipments: Combine multiple orders into a single shipment whenever possible. This reduces the number of parcels, lowering shipping expenses.
  • Explore Cost-Effective Shipping Options: Investigate alternative shipping methods, such as regional carriers or third-party logistics providers (3PLs). These options may offer competitive rates and service quality.
  • Understand Dimensional (DIM) Weight Pricing: Familiarize yourself with dimensional weight pricing, which factors in package size. Adjust your packaging and shipping strategies accordingly to avoid unnecessary charges.

2. Considerations for renegotiating shipping contracts

  • Evaluate Current Contracts: Carefully review your existing contracts with FedEx and UPS. Identify areas where you can negotiate for improved rates, discounts, and service levels.
  • Gather Data and Analysis: Before entering negotiations, prepare data on your shipping volume, service usage, etc to strengthen your bargaining position.
  • Contract Flexibility: Seek flexibility in your contracts to adapt to changing needs. Consider shorter contract terms and options to adjust rates as market conditions evolve.

3. Optimizing shipping practices to minimize expenses

  • Invest in Shipping Software: Explore shipping software solutions that provide real-time rate comparisons, print labels, and manage orders. 
  • Leverage Automation: Automate repetitive tasks, such as order processing to not only save time but to minimize labor costs, streamline processes, and reduce manual errors.
  • Real-Time Tracking: Implement real-time tracking and monitoring of shipments to identify potential issues early and proactively resolve them, thereby reducing the risk of costly delays or returns.
  • Utilize Fulfillment Centers: Strategically locate fulfillment centers closer to major customer bases to reduce shipping distances and potentially qualify for lower zone rates.
  • Offer Pick-up Options: Allow customers to pick up their orders at local stores or designated locations to eliminate shipping costs.

How LateShipment.com can help in Navigating the Rate Increase

Check your contract with your shipping carrier, be it FedEx or UPS, and ensure that you haven’t signed any money-back guarantee waiver — as there are a lot more pitfalls than benefits in signing them. 

For instance, you may overpay shipping bills by up to 20% by not claiming refunds from shipping carriers for service failures and billing errors.

The Money Back Guarantee policy of shipping carriers promises 100% refunds on shipping charges if a parcel is delayed even by 60 seconds. You can claim refunds for carrier service failures and billing errors. 

However, manually claiming refunds from carriers can be both exhaustive and expensive, making it extremely challenging to recover refunds for valid claims before their eligibility window expires.

On the other hand, LateShipment.com automates the process of auditing your shipping invoices regularly and claims refunds for 50+ carrier errors that include late deliveries, incorrect surcharges, lost or damaged packages, and more. By regularly claiming refunds and holding your carrier accountable for your service failures, you can ensure better quality service from them, and save up to 20% on shipping expenses.

That’s not all! LateShipment.com also helps you analyze your carrier’s performance and getting insights on performance lapses such as delays or lost parcels. This will put you in control of shipping rates and help you negotiate for better rates. 

You can also take note of our data-rich shipping reports and conclude which carrier works best for which type of delivery/destination/cost/customer/product.

Conclusion

The logistics landscape is dynamic, and the 2024 FedEx and UPS rate increases are just one wave in its constant flow. By proactively planning, making informed decisions, and embracing a culture of continuous optimization, businesses can navigate these changes with confidence, turning every tide into a springboard for growth and success.

 

Remember, the key lies in flexibility, strategic foresight, and a commitment to delivering exceptional value to your customers. So, raise your sails, adjust your course, and confidently sail towards a prosperous future in the ever-evolving world of shipping.

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How to Improve Brand Experience via Post-purchase Communication https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/brand-experience-in-post-purchase/ Tue, 25 Oct 2022 13:40:56 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=4840 E-commerce brands prioritize communicating with their customers frequently to influence their purchasing decisions and offer a decent experience associated with the brand. However, the situation becomes radically different when the critical post-purchase phase of the customer journey begins. This is where the brand’s efforts towards a great customer experience (CX) suffer tremendously due to inadequate […]

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E-commerce brands prioritize communicating with their customers frequently to influence their purchasing decisions and offer a decent experience associated with the brand. 

However, the situation becomes radically different when the critical post-purchase phase of the customer journey begins. This is where the brand’s efforts towards a great customer experience (CX) suffer tremendously due to inadequate customer engagement leading to irreparable problems and lost opportunities. 

If you’re an E-commerce or D2C store owner, customer support, or customer experience leader; this article is for you. Here are the things we’ll be covering in it. 

Read through till the end if you’re looking at ways to start effectively engaging with customers in the post-purchase stage to improve the brand experience.

What Is Post-purchase Communication?

In simple terms, post-purchase communication is any sort of interaction between the brand and the customer after the latter has purchased with the former. 

Any touchpoint that exists in the middle of the order getting confirmed to the order getting delivered or the returned order making its way back to the store qualifies as a post-purchase communication. 

Post-purchase communication exists in many forms. Keep in mind that customers always expect brands to initiate communication hence, common forms of communication are order status notifications via emails and SMS, order tracking pages, customer support and social media interactions, delivery and returns feedback requests, etc. We’ll look at all of them in detail below. 

Now that we’ve got a hang of what it means, let’s get into the underlying issues that exist in the post-purchase phase of the customer journey due to lack of communication. 

Issues That Emanate from Lack of Proper Communication in the Post-purchase Phase

Today’s customers have almost unrealistic expectations when it comes to their experiences and this extends to the post-purchase phase too. Like this one for example.

Order delivery tracking details

Jokes apart. The post-purchase is notorious for service failures, billing errors, and everything that comes along with it. Such issues pose a real challenge for brands to meet customer expectations, let alone exceed them. 

To make matters worse, brands often leave this valuable phase to third-party shipping carriers. This unfortunately results in a situation where communication suffers tremendously during this critical phase of the customer journey leading to irreparable problems and lost opportunities in the form of: 

  • 82% of online shoppers are worried about their orders not reaching them on time.
  • Up to 40% of support inquiries are WISMO (where is my order) or return status related.
  • 30% of your customer support team’s time and effort is wasted handling repetitive delivery and return issues.
  • 78% of online shoppers won’t purchase from a brand again after ONE negative delivery or returns experience.
  • 12% of revenue is LOST by not selling more to customers during their ‘order’ and ‘return’ tracking moments.

On the other hand, effectively engaging with your customers comes with a host of benefits for your e-commerce brand, particularly related to improving the post-purchase CX among other things.

Why Communicating in the Post-purchase Phase Is Essential to the Brand Experience

  1. Reduce customer anxiety when it comes to tracking their parcels – Pre-parcel anxiety is a real thing and more common than you think. Frequent communication from your end at this stage can mitigate their anticipation levels and reduce WISMO inquiries around parcel status by up to 70%. This can help you create a positive experience associated with your brand. Also, such proactive measures can free up your support team’s time and enable them to focus on other important stuff.
  2. Improve brand recognition and recall – Customers track orders 6 to 8 times before delivery. By sending customers to track their parcels with the shipping carrier, you can stand to lose valuable opportunities to engage with them and build your brand. By taking control of your communicating order tracking information with your customers, you can witness a 30% increase in customer delight and brand recall.

That’s not all! There are also other benefits you stand to gain through the high open rates of shipping transactional emails (80-85%) and a possibility of up to 25% lift in repeat purchase rates with your remarketing efforts. 

Now that we’ve seen the what and the why, let’s move on to the foremost question that is pondering in your mind. “So how do I start effectively engaging with customers in the post-purchase stage to improve the brand experience?”. 

And the answer to the question is simply proactively communicating with your customers at various stages of the post-purchase phase. How exactly? Here’s how. 

How Businesses Can Proactively Communicate Post-purchase

Let’s start with the most basic question, what does one mean by proactive communication in the first place? 

Simply put, proactive communication in the post-purchase stands in interacting with the customers about their needs and issues preemptively (even before they become aware of it). 

We’ve already talked about how close to 40% of customer support tickets created are shipping, delivery or returns related. These tickets are created out of primary needs such as order status information, inability to determine the parcel’s location, the requirement to return an order, frustrated rants over package issues not being informed, etc. 

In all of the above cases, mitigating their frustration is a walk in the park with the help of proactive communication. So, without further ado, let’s start looking at ways e-commerce businesses such as yours can proactively communicate with customers in the post-purchase phase and improve the brand experience as a result of it.  

Inform about potential order delays in advance

Your customers’ parcels facing delays are a common sight during the holiday season.

This is primarily due to shipping carriers straining capacity amidst the huge incoming volumes of parcels. 

While delays are indeed frustrating for your customers, their impact can be largely reduced when customers are informed of them. And one such way to do it is to throw an announcement on your homepage and the order confirmation page about the possibility of delays

Potential order delays

This way, your customers who are shopping with you will be ready to accept that their holiday gift may arrive later than usual.

Inform shipping deadlines in advance

One such pre-purchase tactic to reduce your post-purchase burden is to inform your customers about the last days to ship for each holiday.

If you’re a frequent shipper, you might be aware that your shipping partner such as FedEx or UPS always comes up with a holiday shipping schedule that they adhere to. Last-minute shoppers who are unaware of these deadlines might receive parcels late, much to their disappointment. 

Similar to the possibility of delays, you can also share your shipping deadlines as the customers are placing their orders and selecting delivery options. If you’re a business that doesn’t work on specific occasions such as holidays, you can share that information with customers as well.

Send out an early order confirmation

Unlike other transactional notifications, your order confirmation notifications are not an option but more of a necessity as customers are always expecting the brand to confirm their order ASAP. 

Order confirmation email to improve the brand experience

This sets your customers towards a great post-purchase experience by giving them the satisfaction of the purchase being a success and the ability to re-check the details and make corrective actions. 

As for your brand, order confirmation emails can be your ticket to increasing retention rates via special limited-time offers and product recommendations based on the customer’s recent purchase. Keep in mind that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%

Send delivery status notifications

Shoppers want to be up to speed about when their orders will arrive or what their return status is. Automate delivery and return notifications to inform customers at every event of the package journey.

delivery status notifications to improve brand experience

Some of the common shipping transactional notifications can be sent for events such as order shipped, in transit, out for delivery, delivered, etc. In case everything doesn’t go according to your plan and your customer’s order hits a roadblock, you can send out customized notifications for common events such as delivery exceptions, suspected delays, failed delivery attempts, etc. 

You can even up things further by embedding an order lookup widget on your shipping notifications and website to make tracking self-service.

Provide branded order-tracking experiences

Sending customers to a carrier’s website to track their order is old world. While you’re in complete control of your customer’s buying experience, why not their tracking experience?

How to do it, you ask?

Enable your customers to track their orders in a “branded” order tracking page hosted in your domain. 

Branded Tracking Page

Apart from the generic order summary and tracking information, you can also extend the capabilities of your tracking page by including:  

  • Brand elements such as font, logo, color schemes, etc, which can help brand recognition and recall. 
  • Options to contact support and initiate returns from your tracking pages to offer convenience and improve the brand experience.
  • Sale announcements and personalized product recommendations to boost repeat purchases. 

and so much more… 

P.S. You can also enable your customers to track their ‘Order Delivery’ and ‘Return’ status by embedding a 24×7 order lookup widget on your website and chat tool. This helps you in making the brand experience smooth via self-service order tracking for your customers while considerably reducing the need for your support team’s help. 

Self-serve order tracking to improve the brand experience

Collect customer feedback around post-purchase experiences and act on it

Allow customers to rate their overall delivery or returns experiences by including a rating/ feedback system on your ‘Delivery Notifications (Email & SMS)’ and ‘Branded Order Tracking Pages’ to gain customer feedback around post-purchase experiences and understand their satisfaction levels. 

Customer feedback to act on brand experience

Getting feedback is one thing. But its true purpose lies in implementing required changes to your existing operations and making improvements that really matter.

Consistently directing efforts to improve CX post-purchase, and getting positive feedback from customers can help you promote brand credibility.

Simplify returns initiation

Customers return their purchases for various reasons ranging from size and fit related to quality issues. 

And believe us, customers are not happy about returning the item(s) they purchased, as they’ve waited long enough to get their hands on it. Thus, let’s not make it any more stressful for them. Instead, simplify returns initiation by keeping the process limited to not more than 2 minutes.

Easy returns initiation with Returns Experience Management

Inform customers of the status of their returned orders

Communicate the return status information with your customers at regular intervals via: 

  • Sending proactive updates on returns requests, via automated email and SMS status notifications to keep customers in the loop effortlessly.
  • Enabling live package tracking that provides complete transparency around return status to eliminate customer anxiety about the whereabouts of their package. 

Such measures in turn can help you make the returns experience seamless for your customers and give them the confidence to keep shopping with you. 

Returns tracking with Returns Experience Management

The start of the holiday season can be a great time to implement all these post-purchase communication tactics right. Here’s a little hack — you don’t have to do all this by yourself. Instead, you can try making use of a post-purchase solution like LateShipment.com, to get things done on your behalf.

How Lateshipment.com Can Help You Provide a Great Brand Experience

Want to deliver delight with every order you ship?

Want to drive more sales during order tracking?

And lastly, want to make returns profitable?

Look no further. LateShipment.com is the world’s only all-in-one post-purchase success platform built for e-commerce retailers, D2C brands, and other businesses shipping parcels, no matter the volume of shipments.

Our Delivery Experience Management (DEM) is here to help you build memorable order delivery experiences and boost revenue during order tracking moments. And our Returns Experience Management (REM) is here to make returns hassle-free with flexible return options and smart automation to help retain revenue.

Also, LateShipment.com seamlessly integrates with 600+ shipping carriers and business tools that include E-commerce platforms, Helpdesks, and Marketing Automation tools to:

  • Build branded tracking experiences in your domain and increase repeat purchase revenue.
  • Initiate contextual communication with customers whose parcels may be facing issues.
  • Automate shipping-related notifications for more than 10 shipping events and keep customers informed of their parcel status at all times. 

And drive delightful post-purchase experiences at scale.

The value we offer is most evident when experienced first-hand.

Try LateShipment.com now

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E-commerce Delivery Experience Management (DEM) to Drive Customer Delight https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/e-commerce-delivery-experience-management-dem/ Mon, 25 Jul 2022 11:24:42 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=4617 Customers are no longer just interested in low prices, fast shipping, and free returns have constantly been the three must-haves for an online business to make the cut in today’s market. They want e-commerce brands to treat them with the proper experience that can lead them to shop again. However, most brands unwillingly make the […]

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Customers are no longer just interested in low prices, fast shipping, and free returns have constantly been the three must-haves for an online business to make the cut in today’s market. 

They want e-commerce brands to treat them with the proper experience that can lead them to shop again. 

However, most brands unwillingly make the mistake of not giving the same level of attention to their post-purchase as they do to their pre-purchase. This is because brands feel the customer journey ends with the ‘buy’ button. Which is not the case. 

This lack of attention and leaving out the post-purchase order delivery phase at the hands of the shipping carrier often leads to bad delivery experiences and ultimately a post-purchase CX gap that can cost you customers and money. 

In order to close this existing gap and create the opportunity to delight customers in the post-purchase phase, brands must start crafting stellar delivery experiences. Here comes Delivery Experience Management (DEM) that can help you do just that. 

To get better context, let’s start with what DEM stands for. 

What is Delivery Experience Management

What is Delivery Experience Management (DEM)?

Delivery Experience Management (DEM) is the process of being proactive in ensuring that your customers receive their orders on time and how they expect. It also involves taking action as required to correct delivery issues and constantly engaging customers in the post-purchase phase to validate brand promises.

Organizationally Delivery Experience Management (DEM) sits at the very intersection of onsite customer experience, post-purchase customer experience, and order fulfillment.  

DEM is all about offering each of your customers a memorable post-purchase experience that not merely satisfies but also delights and makes them advocates of your brand. 

But why does your e-commerce business in particular need DEM?

Why does your business need Delivery Experience Management

Why Does Your Business Need Delivery Experience Management (DEM)

DEM, still largely untapped, is sure to provide you a competitive advantage and allow your hitherto unprecedented control over your post-purchase phase. Here are only a few reasons why your business needs DEM:

  1. Resolve critical shipping incidents before they happen with real-time updates – leads to 70% reduction in delivery inquiries 
  2. Strengthen customer relationships by keeping your customers informed of their orders – open rates are around 80% for personalized email and SMS notifications
  3. Leverage tracking moments to increase brand awareness –  30% increase in brand recall
  4. Decode customer sentiment and engagement to provide a positive delivery experience – 25% lift in repeat purchases 

DEM is chock-a-block filled with aspects, if I may, that can help you craft the perfect delivery experience and drive customer delight. Let’s take a deeper look at tools for a complete understanding on DEM.

How DEM Helps You Craft the Perfect Delivery Experience and Drive Customer Delight

Real-time shipment tracking : A feature of delivery experience management

Real-time visibility is an aspect of DEM that allows you to stay on the pulse of each of your parcels in transit (from the moment they’re picked up by a shipping carrier up until it is delivered to its designated destination) and identify issues they face, thereby giving you ample time to set things right.

A lack of visibility into your delivery often comes with a horde of challenges, in the form of: 

  • You, the business becoming aware of a delivery issue only when an angry customer calls in and 
  •  Your customer support reps are forced to handle repeated WISMO (Where Is My Order?) inquiries as there is a lack of information to deal proactively with delivery issues.

However, DEM simply eliminates this case by affording a real-time view of all parcels in transit across different shipping carriers and also working predictively to flag delivery issues even before they arise. This arms businesses with all the actionable information required to thwart a possible negative delivery issue for the customer even before it arises, thus enabling customer loyalty over time.

Proactive customer service is enabling your customer support reps to address and mitigate delivery issues before customer impact. This shows your strong commitment to keeping up with the high standard of customer experience you offer.

Not just unresolved issues, even simply being reactive to delivery issues can also hurt your business in the following ways: 

This is where a DEM solution can make a major difference.

By providing unbiased real-time insights on the status of each of your parcels in transit, it can prepare you to respond in time when a specific parcel is facing a delay. This is a surefire way for your business to demonstrate to each customer that they are valued, thereby preventing the possibility of them switching over to a competitor.

Also, it considerably reduces the number of calls about parcel whereabouts that a support agent has to face and frees up their time to tend to product-specific issues. Over time, this helps in improving the scores of every member of the support team for which they will be thankful to you!

Handing over the control of the package causes a broken customer experience in the order delivery phase and is also a lost opportunity to monetize tracking moments. 

Delivery Experience Management corrects this imbalance by helping e-commerce businesses provide on-brand order tracking experiences that can make more of a mark on their customers and, indeed, delight them.

In terms of branded customer engagement, DEM helps you: 

Leveraging order tracking moments can work as your e-commerce store’s next marketing advantage by ensuring brand recall and opening up upselling and cross-selling opportunities for your business. Also, adding relevant product information can help reduce unwanted returns.

Customer feedback to improve delivery experience

There has always been a dearth of data when it comes to the error-prone stage of the logistics cycle, the post-purchase phase. This includes the gap in understanding customer satisfaction metrics as well. 

While you have CSAT and NPS to know how satisfied your customers are and how likely they are to recommend your brand to others, you still don’t have clarity on when exactly customers feel let down by your business. 

Worry not! DEM provides access to a wealth of unbiased data on the delivery performance of your shipping partner(s); data hitherto unavailable to e-commerce businesses like yours; data that shipping carriers have always been hesitant to share with businesses.

This unbiased view of customer sentiment about the quality of delivery experience you offer enables you to:

  • Take delivery-related decisions that are bound to delight your customers
  • Know how your shipping carriers’ performance impacts your customers and hold this data to account for their SLAs
  • Shine a light on the quality of your post-purchase phase
  • Helps protect your brand’s reputation from negative feedback.

How DEM Integrates with Your Existing Tech Stack

The beauty of a good DEM solution lies in the fact that it allows you to simplify workflows and boost organizational productivity without disrupting your pre-existing solutions. 

For instance, a DEM platform like LateShipment.com gives you everything you need to create delightful delivery experiences for every shopper, every time. And the best part, it works with all the tools you work with

LateShipment.com’s DEM suite is designed to seamlessly integrate with most shipping carriers, eCommerce platforms, order management platforms, CRMs, and helpdesk tools.

Additionally, LateShipment.com also can integrate with custom-built tools and platforms. Our API makes it easy to enable such integrations. This allows you to tap into all the great benefits that can take your business to the next level.

The perfect delivery experience ad

Do Bigger Things with Your Post-purchase

Don’t stop with a great delivery experience. With LateShipment.com, go all out with your post-purchase excellence. It combines stellar delivery experiences with easy, seamless returns – all while significantly reducing your shipping spend by auditing your invoices and recovering eligible refunds from your carriers.

It takes less than 2 minutes to see LateShipment.com in action without any change to your existing workflow.

Try for free now

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Porch Pirates: How to Handle Them and Prevent Package Theft https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/porch-pirates-and-package-theft/ Wed, 06 Apr 2022 00:00:56 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=587 Imagine if a product you’ve longed to collect for years gets stolen from you. And guess what? It was stolen right at your doorstep by fellow people dubbed ‘the porch pirates.’ Package thefts are so frustrating for the customer because of the fact that they can’t hold anyone responsible for the mishap of not being […]

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Imagine if a product you’ve longed to collect for years gets stolen from you. And guess what? It was stolen right at your doorstep by fellow people dubbed ‘the porch pirates.’

Package thefts are so frustrating for the customer because of the fact that they can’t hold anyone responsible for the mishap of not being able to get their hands on their much awaited purchases except themselves and the “pirates” who scooted away with their package. 

But you as an ecommerce business owner can save your customers from such bad times and stop package theft by porch pirates or if not even drastically reduce them to a great extent. 

However, before we get to know the ‘how’ part, let’s take a further look at porch pirates and their impact on your business.

Who Are Porch Pirates and How They Can Affect Your Business?

Porch pirates are average individuals or a group who steal packages off customers’ doorstep or porches when it is left unattended.

Much like kleptomaniacs, Porch pirates are simply opportunists who cannot resist an opportunity to pick up packages they see lying on doorsteps or porches. 

A recent study by Safewise found that a staggering 210 million packages vanished from porches across the US over the past 12 months. 

The scale of the problem is only getting worse as more people begin to shop online. The problem gets exacerbated during the holiday season because it’s at this time of the year that people shop online the most. And it is common for people to leave on holiday while ordered packages lie on their doorstep. 

Worry not! The situation is not out of hand. There are measures your business can take to stay safe from the scourge of package thieves that America is facing. Here are some things you could do. 

What Retailers Can Do to Prevent Package Theft by Porch Pirates

There are a lot of ways in which retailers and shoppers can work together to prevent a theft attempt by porch pirates. Let’s take a look at the ways in the timeline of the order delivery cycle even before it gets shipped. 

1. Package discreetly

When a package is dropped off on the porch of a house, it can sit up like a duck waiting to be shot. Porch pirates dream about just such a situation. Packaging discreetly can help avoid this situation.

There are many ways to make a package discreet. One way is to avoid excessive branding. Another way to make a package less noticeable is to reduce the amount of product-descriptive text on it.

Larger boxes are more attractive to porch pirates because they give the impression of a larger pay-off. Using a box that fits the size of the product will help make the package less noticeable while also helping to reduce the cost of shipping.

2. Provide your customers with flexible delivery options

It is best to start by leaving things to the judgment of your customers and the utmost importance for them would be the delivery. 

There is a multitude of choices when it comes to making your delivery options flexible.

For example: you can provide multiple shipping and delivery options like Same-day delivery, BOPIS, etc to let your customers choose their own delivery time and follow up with offering 4-5 time windows throughout the day. 

Apart from package safety, such flexibility in delivery options can also help you increase conversions, lower cart abandonment, and improve brand loyalty in general. 

3. Keep your customers updated about the status of shipments

Proper communication is key to eliminating many of the pain points of the post-purchase shipping experience. This is a good way to deal with the risk of package theft as well.

  • The first aspect of proper communication with customers is to provide them with the right estimate of the delivery date and time. 
  • The next step to be taken is to give them periodic updates on the status of the parcel in transit. These updates can be provided via SMS or e-mail or both. This will help customers be prepared at the time of delivery.
  • The final step in this process of communication is to drop a message once the actual delivery is about to be/has been performed. A helpline number can be provided to assist in case of discrepancies.

4. Use emerging technologies to ensure safe delivery

Using emerging technologies can help you stay one step ahead of porch pirates. 

A lot of businesses today have come up with package guarding technologies that can come in handy for your customers. You can suggest any of these technologies to your customers and play a role in providing a safe delivery. This, in turn, can help in improving their post-purchase experience. 

  • Amazon has come up with the Amazon Key, a smart lock that allows delivery persons to place packages not only at homes but also in garages and cars when the customer isn’t available at home. 
  • There’s also the Amazon locker at select locations, that customers can make use of to pick up their packages with a unique code.
  • Suggest using package guarding services such as The Package Guard or Door Box to protect your packages via secure locks and anti- theft alarms, etc.
  • Encourage customers to install doorbell cameras and home security systems to deter porch pirates in most cases. 

Such technologies can be especially useful when shoppers are away on a short trip or a long holiday vacation.

That’s not all! If you’re still concerned about your customers’ packages being stolen, know that there are many measures available to them to deter package thieves.

What Shoppers Can Do to Prevent Package Theft by Porch Pirates

1. Route Packages to Office Addresses

Re-route packages to office addresses

Home deliveries are fraught with problems: package thieves looting drop-off deliveries, irresponsible mailmen or carriers leaving packages on the front door without even knocking or ringing the door, pre-signing delivery without consent, or delaying home delivery by sending notifications too early. 

All this can be avoided by routing packages to office addresses where they are processed officially. The probability of losing packages to package thieves is much less with office deliveries. This is also why FedEx/UPS charges more to deliver to residential zip codes than to office zip codes.

2. Mandate signatures on delivery

Mandate signatures on delivery

A mandated signature delivery can help in preventing package theft in most cases. An arrangement can be signed off with mutual consent from the sender and the receiver (you, that is). If a package is lost and there is no signature of delivery, a legal procedure can ensure that you receive a replacement or full refund.

3. Place packages on hold when on holiday

Put packages on hold while on holiday

If you are away on holiday, you can opt to place your pending packages on hold. While USPS and FedEx offer a free service to hold packages for a certain period, UPS charges for every rescheduling.

4. Opt for in-store pickup

Holiday Insight #3 - In-store pickup

Click-and-collect is increasingly becoming a trend. Using this mode of delivery, you can order online and collect the ordered parcel from an outlet located near your home. This mode is particularly useful for ordering a larger number of items.

Bottom Line

While the threat of package theft continues to increase year on year, some measures can be taken by both retailers and customers to ensure package safety and a smooth last-mile experience. Retailers, shipping carriers, and end customers need to work hand in hand to stay ahead of package thieves.

A Little about LateShipment.com

We at LateShipment.com work hard to make “parcel shipping & delivery” transparent and help businesses be fully in control of their last-mile success.

Here are some ways in which LateShipment.com can help you regarding packages getting lost or stolen:

  • With our real-time tracking solution, you can step in before customer impact and proactively address them, thereby instilling confidence in your customers.
  • With automated and customized shipping notifications, keep your customers in the loop about the whereabouts of their order with proactive communication and free up your support time to focus on more pressing issues.

That’s not all! In case of packages that get lost due to carrier negligence, LateShipment.com can also help you automate refund claims from your shipping carriers for service failures to help you save up to 20% on shipping costs.

The value we add to businesses is most evident when experienced first-hand. Learn more about our solution here.

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How to Deal With Shipping Delays https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/how-to-deal-with-shipping-delays/ Thu, 10 Mar 2022 06:19:00 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/index.php/2014/07/04/how-to-deal-with-shipping-delays/ Shipping delays (also known as post-pickup delays) are inevitable even with the most efficient carriers (thanks to the growing consumer demand). And when they happen, they tend to drive your customers away. That’s not all! The worst part about them is that you do not have control over such events and often feel helpless when […]

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Shipping delays (also known as post-pickup delays) are inevitable even with the most efficient carriers (thanks to the growing consumer demand). And when they happen, they tend to drive your customers away.

That’s not all! The worst part about them is that you do not have control over such events and often feel helpless when they happen. 

Worry not! Dealing with shipping delays is no rocket science but first, we’ll start with the basics.

What Are Shipping Delays?

A  package picked up by the carrier is marked as ‘shipped’. There are instances where this package gets held up before getting into transit and when that happens, the shipment is considered delayed. 

While looking trivial, they can be particularly frustrating because they create a sense of uncertainty and can disrupt plans (on-time deliveries and improving customer experiences).

When delays in shipping are left unattended, they lead to late deliveries or delivery delays and can have worse consequences on your business. 

Shipping delays are not only inevitable but frequent. They occur daily and it is somewhat true that they largely happen because of shipping carriers failing to keep up with their promises of on-time delivery despite their busy schedules. 

But that’s not the only reason why parcels take time to reach their destination. Here are some of the other reasons why these delays happen. 

Why Do Shipping Delays Occur

There are many reasons why the package is prevented from leaving the sorting facility or held by the carrier. 

  • Severe weather conditions 
  • Transportation issues like congestion, accidents, or equipment breakdowns 
  • Peak seasons like holidays, where huge volumes of shipments overwhelm carrier networks
  • Issues within the carrier’s system, such as sorting errors, poor warehouse management, lack of coordination among the people involved, or labor shortages
  • For international shipments, customs inspections and clearance processes can take a little extra time

While shipping delays might be inevitable, they sure aren’t unavoidable. With the right course of action, you can mitigate or even prevent their impact on customers and your business. 

What You Can Do About Shipping Delays (You Have the Power)

There are a whole lot of things you can do to avoid shipping delays from becoming late deliveries. Assuming that a delay has already happened. Here’s what you can do:

Effective communication with customers in handling their complaints

While customers are prone to get frustrated seeing that there has been a delay with their shipment before getting into transit, that shouldn’t prevent you from hiding this detail from them. This can cause more damage as customers always expect you to keep them informed about the status of their orders and estimated delivery times. 

Firstly, it’s incredibly important that you communicate with your customer. The last thing a customer would want to see is that there has been a delay in shipping, and there’s no communication from the shipper. Make the effort to get in touch with the customer and let them know of the status of the parcel. 

Secondly, Apologize if you should. Don’t fall to the misconception that this is the carrier’s fault. Your customers do not feel that way and are more inclined to hold you accountable. Therefore, take ownership and explain the whole situation.  

Proactive customer service = SMS notification for delayed in transit

Take ownership of the situation

This is probably easier said than done, but make sure you own up and face the ire of the customer if it comes to that. There’s no way you can skirt the issue — understand the customer’s frustration

Aside from giving consistent updates such as order status information, and offering empathy along with alternative shipping options or solutions they prefer. 

This will actually show you in a good light and ensure that the expectations of your brand have been exceeded (thanks to your efforts to address their concerns efficiently and follow up to ensure satisfaction).

Delivered with delays

Proactive Measures to Minimize Delays

Here’s another killer tip for you. Sign up for a service that will help you track your shipments in real-time. This will allow you to identify potential delays early on and respond to issues preemptively. Regularly tracking your shipments also allows you to identify areas for improvement, such as insights into carrier performance. 

real-time tracking

If shipping delays are a regular occurrence with your carrier, using multiple carriers for different delivery requirements may well be the way to go. Multiple carrier options while being armed with data can help you to make necessary adjustments such as better carrier choices to prevent recurrence. 

Final Word

Shipping delays are an inevitable part of the logistics industry. While they can be frustrating, proactive measures, effective communication, and a customer-centric approach can significantly mitigate their impact. 

By following the steps mentioned here, you can minimize the impact of shipping delays and maintain customer satisfaction. Remember, effective communication and proactive measures are key to handling these challenges successfully. 

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Shipping Carriers’ 100% Money-Back Guarantee Policies and Why Avoid Signing Refund Waivers https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/money-back-guarantees-shipping-refund-waivers/ Fri, 11 Jun 2021 08:44:18 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=2699 Shipping is an area of e-commerce business that is highly risk-worthy and more prone to errors than the other phases of the order journey. The carriers responsible for your customers’ orders during this stage are very much aware of this — hence, major carriers such as FedEx, UPS, Canada Post, Purolator, Royal Mail, DHL, UK […]

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Shipping is an area of e-commerce business that is highly risk-worthy and more prone to errors than the other phases of the order journey. The carriers responsible for your customers’ orders during this stage are very much aware of this — hence, major carriers such as FedEx, UPS, Canada Post, Purolator, Royal Mail, DHL, UK Mail, etc, offer the option to claim refunds when they commit a service failure.

Given that over 15% of parcels shipped through them face service failures and delivery issues (it becomes 2x or even 3x during busy seasons such as holidays), claiming refunds is a must to ensure you’re not overpaying your shipping carrier. 

While carriers provide the option to claim refunds for different errors from their end, they understand the need for shippers like you to extra-emphasize handling as many late deliveries as possible. This is what led them to specifically come up with a money-back guarantee policy for late deliveries.

What are Money-Back Guarantees or Guaranteed Service Refunds?

Shipping carriers work on the condition that they abide by their contract and one such condition is their commitment to on-time deliveries. If these deliveries are missing their mark, carriers will ensure a 100% refund under their ‘money-back’ guarantee policy’.

Money-back guarantees are refund policies within the carrier’s SLAs that promise a 100% refund on shipping charges for select service types if a parcel is delayed (sometimes even by 60 seconds) except in exceptional circumstances (natural disasters, weather delays, etc.).

FedEx vs UPS vs DHL Money Back Guarantee
Terms and conditions from the money-back guarantees of FedEx, UPS, and DHL

Major carriers that provide money-back guarantees for late deliveries

Shipping carriers offer money-back guarantees to assure customers of the reliability and timeliness of their services. I.e., if the carrier fails to meet certain predefined service standards or delivery commitments, then you, the shipper, are entitled to hold them accountable for their service failures and thereby are eligible for a refund of the shipping cost. 

Benefits of claiming refunds under the money-back guarantee

Shipping carriers such as FedEx and UPS have money-back guarantees that offer refunds for late deliveries. However, they either don’t get automatically credited to your account nor are not easy to claim. Therefore, shipping invoice audits act as document evidence that can help you recover costs directly associated with late deliveries. There’s more to it. 

Firstly, making full use of the money-back guarantee and claiming refunds gives you the opportunity to save on your shipping costs.

Second, regular auditing of invoices and claiming refunds holds carriers accountable for their service level agreements (SLAs). This ensures better visibility into your carrier’s delivery performance and fosters a more transparent relationship between you and the carrier.

As a third, with insights into the form carrier performance metrics such as recurring delays with specific routes, services, etc., you can optimize your shipping and make informed decisions regarding logistics.  

Data from audited invoices can also be used as leverage in negotiating better terms (lower rates or improved service guarantees) for future contracts with shipping carriers, thereby enhancing overall logistics efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

However, enjoying these benefits and claiming refunds are not so straightforward, as these money-back guarantee policies often come with certain fine print caveats that make it complicated for you to claim refunds. 

Refund hurdles under the money-back guarantee policy

  • There is a list of eligible services – Only certain services are applicable for money-back guarantees. It is important to check if your packages are sent through a service where the guarantee is valid.
  • It can be excluded based on conditions –  Money-back guarantee is not applicable when delays are caused by natural disasters, weather conditions, incorrect addresses, customs delays, the unavailability of the recipient, or other events beyond the carriers’ control.
  • There are modifications and suspensions – Carriers reserve the right to modify (increase the permissible duration) or suspend the money-back guarantee during high-volume periods like the holiday season. 
  • The claim process is tiresome and time-consuming – Even if all conditions are in your favor, the claim can still be rejected owing to the reason that the carrier must be notified within a specific time frame after the delivery (typically 15 days). This can be a hassle, especially if you’re filing these claims manually. 

What Are Shipping Refund (Money-Back Guarantee) Waivers And Why Avoid Them?

Shipping refund waivers or (specifically called) money-back guarantee waivers are clauses within the SLAs that provide special benefits (typically discounted prices) to shippers in return for giving up (waiving off) their right to claim shipping refunds. Carriers more often than not claim that not signing the waiver will deprive you of saving on your shipping costs and insist you do sign them.

However, signing a shipping refund waiver might not be best for you and hence, must be avoided. Before we look into why you must avoid waivers, let’s see why carriers insist on signing them so much. 

Why do carriers want shippers to sign refund waivers?

Now the obvious question arises: Why are carrier representatives so keen on getting shippers to sign refund waivers? Is it because they want to provide them with discounts and help their clients reduce their shipping costs in the bottom line?

Not at all.

So, why are they insisting then? This is why:  

  • Over 3 billion dollars go into unclaimed shipping refunds each year –  Unclaimed refunds are just money left on the table and carriers want to keep it for themselves. This money rightfully belongs to retailers like you, but if you cannot claim your refunds because of the waiver you signed.
  • Fear of accountability despite ever-increasing shipping costs – Shipping carriers have dodged accountability despite higher shipping costs due to a lack of close watch on their service failures and not claiming refunds.    

However, the growing demand for refund claims and better service has proved inconvenient for them. This makes them eager to get shippers to sign refund waivers so that they can skirt their responsibilities despite increasing costs YoY.

Now that it is evident that signing waivers only stands to benefit these carriers, let’s consider how you, the shipper, stand to lose because of them.

What are the disadvantages of signing a shipping refund waiver?

Not claiming refunds roughly translates to not holding your shipping carrier accountable for their failures.

With your shipping carrier conveniently left out of accountability, the next thing that happens is you bear the brunt of the delivery issues. And as if that won’t be enough, keep in mind that about one-third of customers won’t repurchase from you after a late delivery.

In the long term, lack of accountability also leads up to the fact that you can’t expect better service performance from the carriers. In a situation where a waiver has been signed, there would be nothing you could do to pull up the carrier for the poor quality of service, leading to your last-mile suffering in a big way.

Amidst growing concerns about on-time deliveries, you end up overpaying your shipping carrier. It is to be noted that the meager discounts that are promised at the time of signing a waiver are often superseded by add-on charges beyond the cost of shipping. Also, discounts promised on waivers usually last for a limited period. On the other hand, the waiver is permanent.

Worry not! At the end of the day, there are ways for you to avoid being forced to sign a waiver of your money-back guarantee.

What can you do to avoid signing shipping refund waivers?

  • Be prepared with comparative data about the services of various shipping carriers before negotiating a contract.
  • Ask the shipping carrier representative to provide you with an impact summary to detail how signing a refund waiver will affect your monthly shipping spend and how many packages will be affected.
  • Before signing the contract, check to ensure that there is no clause waiving off your right to claim refunds.

Congratulations! You’ve managed to avoid signing a waiver and are now eligible to claim refunds from shipping carriers for their service failures. So, what next? 

Before you start claiming refunds, there’s one more thing that you must keep in mind. 

Manually claiming shipping refunds with carriers is such a hassle for more reasons than one. Therefore, it is a good ploy to start using automated parcel audit companies such as LateShipment.com to do it for you.

Rather than seamlessly cruising through the tiresome process of late delivery claims, LateShipment.com also helps in identifying and claiming refunds for 50+ service failures and billing errors

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The Real Cost of Late Deliveries & How to Deal with Them https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/what-is-the-real-cost-of-late-deliveries/ Mon, 15 Mar 2021 12:00:53 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/index.php/2017/01/03/what-is-the-real-cost-of-delivering-packages-late/ Online shoppers are clear with their order delivery expectations. They want it free, they want it NOW, and they hate delays. How much, you ask? So much that late deliveries tend to drive customers away. Read on further to know how much late deliveries can cost your business and how you can deal with them […]

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Online shoppers are clear with their order delivery expectations.

They want it free, they want it NOW, and they hate delays.

How much, you ask? 

So much that late deliveries tend to drive customers away

Read on further to know how much late deliveries can cost your business and how you can deal with them in order to spur customers to spend more on your brand!

The Human Cost of Late Deliveries

How would you feel if you were affected by any of the following situations?

  1. Critical medicines being delivered late.
  2. A birthday gift you send reaching the destination a day after the special day.
  3. Santa delivering that particular Peppa Pig life-size toy your child has been coveting for months a day after Christmas.

You would surely not order from the same business again. You would most certainly not accept excuses like “We outsource our shipping needs to FedEx, UPS, or DHL, so please check with the shipping carrier.” Such an excuse would only infuriate you further.

Now put your customer in the same situation.

Needless to say, they would be just as anguished as you would be in their shoes.

You Bear the Cost of Late Deliveries

What makes late deliveries worse is that despite paying a steep price to provide customers a top-notch eCommerce delivery experience, you are held accountable for delivery issues committed by your shipping carrier. 

Since the onus is now on you provide a great post-purchase experience, you end up spending up to 20% more on shipping costs than you should. As if this were not bad enough, many such former customers end up posting damaging reviews on social media and forums that deter potential customers from buying with you! 

And if you are planning to just replace one customer with another, you are in for a shock! 

The hard truth is that acquiring new customers is costly work. It costs as much as seven times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Also, an existing customer will buy more from you and recommend your business more than a new customer will.

For these reasons, it is critical you retain your existing customers at all costs.

The Impact of Late Deliveries on Key Metrics

You can get an unbiased picture of whether you are investing in the right areas and if you are getting commensurate returns by tracking key metrics like Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Customer Retention Rate (CRR), and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Ready to take your post-purchase delivery experience to the next level?

Download our guide, Supercharge Customer Lifetime Value & Retention Through a Stellar Post-Purchase Delivery Experience’ – for insights on key metrics that matter, and how you can leverage them to ensure a positive and seamless delivery experience.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Are You Spending Too Much on Acquiring Customers?

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Are You Spending Too Much on Acquiring Customers?

In simple terms, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the cost of convincing a potential customer to purchase your product/service.

CAC includes the cost of marketing and sales. The higher your CAC, the more you need to charge your customers for using your product/service to make a profit.

The simplest way to calculate CAC is to divide marketing and sales costs combined for a period by the number of customers acquired during the period.

For example, let’s say a small business spends $100,000 in a year on marketing and sales. 2000 new customers buy its products during the year.

The CAC of this business can be arrived at by dividing 100,000 by 2000. The answer is 50, which means this small business spent $50 in marketing to acquire a new customer during the year.

The effect of late deliveries on CAC –  Late deliveries increase the CAC of your business. This is on account of the negative social media reviews and word-of-mouth interactions that need to be countered.

Customer Retention Rate (CRR): Are You Keeping Your Customers Happy?

Customer Retention Rate (CRR): Are You Keeping Your Customers Happy?

Customer Retention Rate (CRR) lets you know what percentage of customers still shop with you at the end of a period compared to at the beginning of it. The importance of customer retention cannot be overstated.

Loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as the value of their first purchase.

Studies have shown that increasing your customer retention rate even by 5% could lead to increased profits of between 25% and 95%

Let’s assume you want to calculate your customer retention rate (CRR) for a particular year. You started the year with 100 customers (S) and lost 5 of them during the period. You acquired 10 new customers during the year (N).

At the end of the year, the total number of customers you have (E) would be 105 (keeping in mind the ones you lost and gained).

Now, let’s apply the formula to calculate the CRR for the year.

CRR = [(E-N)/S] X 100

That is,

CRR = [(105-10)/100] X 100

The customer retention rate for the year works out to be 95%, which is a spectacularly great percentage indicating you have great customer retention programs in place.

The effect of late deliveries on CRR – Late deliveries has the effect of decreasing the CRR of your business. Most customers who experience a late delivery tend to abandon a business rather than stay on.

Another important metric to measure for eCommerce retail businesses is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): How Much Are Customers Spending on Your Business?

Customer Lifetime Value Cartoon

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a metric that is critical to the long-term viability of a business. It is the measure of how much a business can expect to earn off each customer during their relationship. 

In other words, it is the measure of how much a customer is expected to spend on a business during their lifetime. The inference to be drawn here is that the longer a customer chooses to buy from a business, the greater their lifetime value. CLV is a forward-looking metric.

CLV also helps to make decisions about how much money to invest in the acquisition of new customers and the retention of the ones existing.

How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The way CLV is usually calculated is using the formula,

CLV = average purchase value for a customer segment X number of times a customer from a segment will purchase each year X average length of the customer relationship for the segment.

Let’s assume you run an eCommerce site selling shoes.

A professional runner who is a frequent buyer on your site might be worth this:

$100 per shoe pair X 4 pairs yearly X 8 years (average professional career length for the segment) = $3200

The mother of an infant might be worth this:

$20 per shoe pair X 5 pairs yearly X 3 years = $300

Now you know you will need to devote more attention to the professional runner than the mother of the infant to boost your bottom line moving forward.

This is the value of calculating CLV.

The effect of late deliveries on CLV – As far as CLV is concerned, it decreases (and drastically) because of late deliveries. Not surprising, considering that customers who experience delivery issues don’t stay loyal to a business.

The Impact of Late Deliveries on Key Retail Metrics

How to Deal with Late Deliveries & Boost Customer Lifetime Value

Here’s how to improve customer satisfaction in the last mile and deal with shipping delays, while ensuring your customers enjoy a near-white-glove delivery experience: 

  1. Create a loyalty program to encourage customers to buy more and often.
  2. Under-promise and over-deliver on delivery dates.
  3. Track your shipments in real-time using a parcel-tracking service.
  4. Keep your customers informed of package location at all times about important parcel-tracking events, including delivery issues. 
  5. Make use of a Delivery Experience Management (DEM) service to manage your customers’ post-purchase experience.
  6. Ensure that your support reps are rightly equipped to handle customer queries and complaints regarding delivery delays across all channels, including social media. 
  7. Make the eCommerce returns process free and as simple as possible. This will contribute to the overall comfort level of your customers.
  8. Compensate customers for late deliveries by offering them coupons or discounts on future purchases.
  9. Audit your shipments and claim refunds for delivery failures, including late deliveries (but remember, refunds don’t prevent customer churn).
  10. For every delivery failure that happens, do a thorough analysis to understand the reasons and track your carrier’s performance.

Final Word

Taking proactive measures to handle late deliveries helps provide a positive eCommerce customer experience and improves metrics like CRR, CAC, and CLV.

Improved customer service in the last mile translates to an improved bottom line for your business.

The post The Real Cost of Late Deliveries & How to Deal with Them appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

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Will You Be at Freshworks’ E-Commerce Bootcamp 2020? https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/e-commerce-bootcamp-2020/ Mon, 14 Sep 2020 09:56:27 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=6260 At LateShipment.com, we are excited to announce that we will be a part of the  “E-Commerce Bootcamp” being organized by Freshworks on the 25th of September, 2020 and supported by industry behemoths such as Shopify, PayPal, SurveyMonkey, Unicommerce, and Parcel Hub. DATE: SEPTEMBER 25 (FRIDAY) SESSION 1: 11 AM–12 PM (PT) | 2 PM–3 PM […]

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At LateShipment.com, we are excited to announce that we will be a part of the  “E-Commerce Bootcampbeing organized by Freshworks on the 25th of September, 2020 and supported by industry behemoths such as Shopify, PayPal, SurveyMonkey, Unicommerce, and Parcel Hub.

DATE: SEPTEMBER 25 (FRIDAY)

SESSION 1: 11 AM–12 PM (PT) | 2 PM–3 PM (ET)

SESSION 2: 12 PM–1 PM (PT) | 3 PM–4 PM (ET)

E-Commerce Bootcamp is a series of Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions that seek to encourage e-tailers to transform their existing business while also encouraging traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores to bolster their online presence, especially in the current uncertain economic climate.

Here’s Why You Should Be a Part

2020 has been a challenging year for the world of retail and e-commerce. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has forced organizations to rethink the way they do business. 

A recent report by IBM states that the pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital shopping by roughly 5 years ; the same report also indicates that by 2020, department stores will decline by 60%, while e-commerce will grow by nearly 20%.This indicates that you need to bring your digital A-game to the fore in order to stand out in an already crowded online e-commerce environment.

Of particular importance is how you handle the moments after buyers hit the  “BUY” button on your website. Studies during the pandemic show that post-purchase customer experience has taken a big hit as a result of shipping carriers straining to meet increased parcel-delivery demand. This doesn’t bode well for businesses like yours, especially at a time when customers are more dependent than ever on online commerce.

If your business has been impacted by the pandemic, these interactive sessions will provide you the opportunity to have your pressing concerns and questions addressed by subject matter experts. You will also have access to rare insights to help you optimize and scale-up your workflows in light of the present circumstances.

Who Are These Sessions For?

These bootcamp sessions are tailored toward anyone working in an e-commerce environment or looking to transition their business online from brick-and-mortar (brick to click).

Retail Leaders Who Should Attend

  • Management teams: CEOs / Founders
  • Operations: COOs, Operations Managers
  • Supply-chain leaders: Logistics Managers, Shipping Managers
  • Marketers
  • Customer Support & Customer Success Executives

What You Will Learn

The expert sessions of E-Commerce Bootcamp will provide a much-needed deep-dive for business leaders.

Session 1 | 11 AM–12 PM (PT) | 2 PM–3 PM (ET)

  • The importance of having the right strategy in place before venturing into e-commerce
  • Is Direct-to-consumer (D2C) the right selling strategy in the next normal
  • Employing no-code tools to boost your online sales
  • Competitive Pricing — Deal-maker or deal-breaker
  • Criticality of logistics and inventory management for on-time delivery
  • Social Commerce — Creating a level-playing field for small and family-owned businesses
  • Are traditional marketing campaigns (OOH, TV spots, radio ads) still as relevant in today’s overtly digital marketing landscape

Session 2 | 12 PM–1 PM (PT) | 3 PM–4 PM (ET)

  • The impact of evolving consumer behavior and social distancing norms on the holiday season spending
  • Personalization in a contactless world
  • Beating customer choice paralysis through conversational commerce
  • Customer Loyalty Programs vs Customer Service — What’s the #1 Brand Differentiator
  • Importance of on-time delivery and customer support in real-time
  • The importance of customer feedback in meeting customer expectations
  • How social listening helps you understand your customers’ needs and gather valuable feedback

Featured Speakers

These sessions will feature subject matter experts from Outgrow, Chargebee, SurveyMonkey, and LateShipment.com.

There will be additional participation from industry behemoths such as Shopify, PayPal, Unicommerce, and Parcel Hub.  

Session 1 will feature:

  • Saksham Sharda, Creative Director at Outgrow
  • Vikram Bhaskaran, Senior Director of Marketing at Chargebee
  • Miguel Adao, Head of Marketing for North America at Freshworks

Session 2 will feature:

These sessions will provide you the perfect opportunity to have your pressing questions around e-commerce and e-tail answered by industry experts.

The sessions are scheduled for the 25th of September, 2020. Slots are limited, so register today to book your place!

DATE: SEPTEMBER 25 (FRIDAY)

SESSION 1: 11 AM–12 PM (PT) | 2 PM–3 PM (ET)

SESSION 2: 12 PM–1 PM (PT) | 3 PM–4 PM (ET)

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6 Ways to Improve a Customer’s Post-Purchase Delivery Experience https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/5-ways-to-improve-a-customers-post-purchase-shipping-experience/ Fri, 28 Aug 2020 09:30:54 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=656 The Big Post-Purchase CX Gap in the Order Delivery Phase Picture this. A shopper visits your website after a friend raved about one of your products or after clicking a compelling ad on social media. They casually navigate through the essential products section and decide to make a purchase. Your checkout process is seamless with […]

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The Big Post-Purchase CX Gap in the Order Delivery Phase

Picture this. 

 

A shopper visits your website after a friend raved about one of your products or after clicking a compelling ad on social media. They casually navigate through the essential products section and decide to make a purchase. Your checkout process is seamless with limited navigation, thanks to your focus on providing a great user experience on your site. 

 

Thereafter, the shopper hits “buy” and selects their preferred payment and shipping options from the choices on your checkout page. You send them a well-crafted order confirmation mail that is to their satisfaction and then proceed to pick, pack, and ship the order out. 

Your shipping partner then shares a tracking URL with you, which you share with the customer. Beyond this point, the customer periodically checks their order delivery status on the tracking page of the shipping carrier.

So far so good. 

But not beyond this point.

Beyond this point, there exists a BIG customer-experience gap in which you unwittingly neglect post-purchase experience. 

This gap is on account of the fact that your post-purchase phase is outsourced to your shipping carrier, a third party who likely does not share your commitment toward providing your customer a standout delivery experience.

Because of a lack of control over your customers’ post-purchase experience:  

 

  • You’re unable to resolve customer issues proactively The post-purchase phase is extremely error-prone with 1-in-5 parcels being routinely delayed. A lack of real-time visibility into shipments in transit makes you incapable of foreseeing delivery issues and offering a proactive resolution. 
  • You’re not in a position to communicate adequately to reduce customer anxiety Customers are always anxious about their parcels and are known to check the status of their orders frequently. When you’re not in control of the most anxious stage of your customers’ journey, you jeopardize your relationship with a lack of communication.
  • Your shipping carrier’s brand rather than your own is prominent in the customer’s field-of-view in the post-purchase phase. This is a lost upsell and cross-sell opportunity for you.

A loss of control over the post-purchase experience you offer has even more consequences.

Read till the end for a way to delight customers with a standout post-purchase CX.

Consequences of a Lack of Control in the Post-Purchase Phase

Here are some of the more damaging consequences of a post-purchase phase that is not in your control:

1. Increase in customer disloyalty

 51% of customers will stop shopping with you after just one bad delivery experience.

The reason? Quite simple.

Customers want their orders delivered how and when they expect them. And they expect to be kept in the loop consistently.

In the case of a broken post-purchase experience, you’re unable to fulfill this expectation of a customer. Consequently, they are more likely to switch over to a competitor who can provide a more reliable delivery experience.

2. Damaged brand reputation

Frustrated customers don’t merely stop shopping with you. They further escalate the situation by dropping negative reviews on social media and by word-of-mouth thereby damaging your brand reputation. 

This is significant because 93% of customers say online reviews impact their buying decisions. Negative reviews add to your woes by deterring potential customers from shopping with you. 

3. Lost opportunities to monetize post-purchase tracking moments

On average, customers track their orders 6–8 times on shipping carrier tracking pages. 

 

This is a lost opportunity on your part to place your brand in front of customers during parcel tracking and leverage the opportunity to upsell and cross-sell.

4. Increase in customer service inquiries

Not enabling customers to effectively track their parcels leads to a high volume of customer service inquiries around deliveries. 

 

Shipping carriers often withhold information regarding parcels running late to prevent them from being shown in a bad light. 

However, this leads to anxious and angry customers bombarding YOUR support team with WISMO (Where Is My Order?) calls, consuming all of their time. 

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. With the right measures, you can turn the tide in your favor.

6 ways to improve a customer's post-purchase experience

6 Ways to Improve a Customer's Post-Purchase Delivery Experience

Here are 6 ways to improve your post-purchase delivery experience and delight customers.

1. Proactively resolve customer issues

Proactively extend assistance in the post-purchase phase. 

Enable your customer-support-reps with a solution that provides real-time shipping information for timely delivery issue resolution.

When you have real-time visibility into your shipments in transit, you stay on top of parcels in transit, particularly those likely to face delays. 

Resolving a delivery issue preemptively before it impacts a customer sets you up on track to provide a great post-purchase experience.  

2. Engage meaningfully and effectively at all times to reduce customer anxiety

Engage meaningfully and effectively at all times to reduce customer anxiety

How do I resolve uncommon delivery issues, you ask?

Here’s how. Meaningfully engage via timely order updates tailored to specific customers or situations to mitigate anxiety. 

Engaging with your customers in the most anxious stage of their journey helps you build trust and fierce brand loyalty.   

3. Reduce customer service inquiries with delivery status notifications

Notify customers of important order updates automatically via email and SMS. 

 

When you keep your customers informed of order status, their anxiety is eased and they’re less likely to bombard your support-reps with WISMO calls. 


This saves support-reps’ time and enables them to focus on other important things like tending to product-related concerns.

4. Offer custom branded tracking experiences

Offer custom branded tracking experiences

Extend your brand identity into tracking moments by offering customers the ability to track their parcels on a branded tracking page. Additionally, utilize self-serve order tracking widgets on your website and order shipping emails.

Providing on-brand delivery experiences creates brand-immersive experiences and post-purchase moments of delight. 

5. Maximize sales by monetizing tracking moments

Maximize sales by monetizing tracking moments

Use post-purchase touchpoints as a means to drive sales. 

 

Make use of a service that allows you to host a tracking page on your eCommerce site.

 

Use the real-estate on your order tracking page to run relevant promotions and campaigns and create upselling and cross-selling opportunities. 

6. Get customer feedback on delivery experiences

Capture user feedback around customer delivery experiences to understand the detractors of a great post-purchase experience.

Understanding your customers’ delivery expectations, make necessary operational changes to ensure customers who bore the brunt of bad delivery experiences are given greater attention.

LateShipment.com: Post-Purchase Solutions for Supercharged CX

LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management platform helps you craft outstanding post-purchase experiences and build long-lasting customer relationships.  

Our groundbreaking post-purchase solutions help businesses effortlessly bridge the post-purchase CX gap and discover new ways to delight and retain customers.

Our high-impact post-purchase offerings allow you to: 

  • Stay on top of order deliveries, particularly those facing delays

Track in-transit shipments in real-time across multiple carriers on a single dashboard.

Receive predictive alerts about parcels facing delivery delays & take remedial action.

  • Over-communicate and reduce customer anxiety post-purchase

Proactively identify and communicate with customers facing delivery issues. 

Automate order status notifications via eMail or SMS throughout the delivery lifecycle.

  • Reinforce your brand identity with custom order-tracking assets

Provide brand-consistent order tracking pages to customers & drive repeat purchases.  

Embed self-serve order tracking widgets on your website and order-related emails.

  • Leverage order tracking moments to increase sales and reduce returns

Increase sales with personalized product recommendations on your tracking page.

Reduce returns by providing relevant product usage information on tracking assets.

  • Know if customers were satisfied or not with their delivery experience

Capture customers’ Delivery Satisfaction (DSAT) rating after every order delivery.

Measure the average DSAT score of every customer to optimize shipping & delivery processes.

  • Access data-rich reports

Gain critical insights about your shipping spend and carriers’ delivery performance across service types and geographies to take data-driven decisions and make shipping efficient.

That’s not all! 

Bonus: Save up to 20% on Your Shipping Spend

LateShipment.com also allows you to have your monthly shipping invoices automatically audited for 50+ shipping carrier service failures and claims refunds on your behalf. The claimed amount is directly deposited into your account. This can save you up to 20% on your overall shipping spend.

Our automated shipping refunds solution:

  • Audits your monthly shipping invoices
  • Submits refund claims to your carrier(s) on your behalf
  • Deposits the refunded amount directly into your account

How good is that?   

The best part is, it takes less than 2 minutes to see LateShipment.com in action without any change to your existing workflow. 

The value we add to businesses is most evident when experienced first-hand. Try LateShipment.com now.

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LateShipment.com: Integrations for a Better Last Mile https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/lateshipment-com-integrations-for-a-better-last-mile/ Wed, 29 Apr 2020 10:18:44 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=5248 If you run an eCommerce retail business, you probably leave no stone unturned to ensure shoppers have a great user experience on your site. You use the best possible images for your product listings, make navigation to checkout a breeze, and do everything it takes to make loading times fast. However, once a shopper checks […]

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If you run an eCommerce retail business, you probably leave no stone unturned to ensure shoppers have a great user experience on your site. You use the best possible images for your product listings, make navigation to checkout a breeze, and do everything it takes to make loading times fast.

However, once a shopper checks out and you hand over their package to your shipping partner for delivery, the situation moves out of your control.

While shipping carriers like FedEx & UPS often claim a near-perfect on-time delivery record, this isn’t accurate. 7–8 percent of all parcels are routinely delayed.

And to make matters worse, shipping carriers often fail to inform customers of parcel delays. This creates a situation of customer angst which is bound to reflect on your retention rates and customer lifetime value (CLV). After all, it costs at least 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

The loss of control over customer experience you encounter once you hand over a parcel to a shipping carrier is called the post-purchase experience gap.

Retail's Post-Purchase Experience Gap

Customers who face a poor delivery experience tend to vent their frustration on your brand’s social media channels or on review sites. Such feedback ends up dissuading over 90% of prospective shoppers, who read online reviews, from buying from you.

This challenging situation necessitates a proactive approach on your part to resolve.

Delivery Experience Management (DEM): The Answer to Your Last-Mile Troubles

Actively working to mitigate delivery issues and ensuring last-mile customer satisfaction is what’s needed for you to take control of your customers’ post-purchase experience. You need Delivery Experience Management (DEM).

Delivery Experience Management (DEM) is the process of being proactive in ensuring that your customers receive their orders on-time and how they expect. It involves taking action as required to correct issues in the last mile and constantly engaging customers to validate brand promises.

A meaningful Delivery Experience Management (DEM) solution allows you stay on top of the three pillars of delivery experience:

  1. Complete visibility
  2. Customer engagement
  3. Proactive issue resolution

While some aspects of delivery experience management may be performed in-house, others necessitate a dedicated third-party solution

These are the questions you need to ask before choosing a dedicated third-party delivery experience management platform to help provide customers a memorable post-purchase experience:

  1. Will it help you gain real-time visibility into in-transit shipments?
  2. Will it allow you to proactively resolve delivery issues?
  3. Will it help Increase customer engagement in the last mile?
  4. Will it let you provide an on-brand post-purchase experience?
  5. Will it let you improve customer satisfaction with data-driven insights?

The delivery experience management platform that adequately addresses the above concerns will be a tremendous step forward for your business compared to legacy methods.

Legacy Methods of Parcel Tracking Vs. Modern Delivery Experience Management (DEM)

Delivery Experience Management (DEM) is a pioneering approach to handling parcel delivery that allows for unprecedented visibility and control over last-mile shipping as also better customer engagement in the last mile.

It places you in the driver’s seat in the post-purchase phase rather than being a mere bystander to your shipping carrier.

You can unlock all these advantages by integrating your existing CRM solution, eCommerce platform, order management system, and helpdesk with the best-in-class Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform.

LateShipment.com: Best-in-Class Delivery Experience Management (DEM)

At LateShipment.com, we are committed to enabling your business to wrest control of the post-purchase experience you provide customers. Our experience in tracking over 100 million parcels for our customers has allowed us unprecedented visibility into last-mile pain points businesses like yours face. We came to realize that despite using industry-standard eCommerce, order management, CRM, and helpdesk tools, businesses like yours were still struggling to

  • Gain unbiased real-time visibility into parcels in transit
  • Meaningfully engage with customers in the post-purchase phase
  • Respond proactively to delivery issues
  • Identify weak areas to improve in the delivery phase

Addressing these pain points was the motivation behind our pioneering Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform. LateShipment.com makes it possible for you to stand apart from your competitors by offering your customers near white-glove service in the delivery phase. We offer your retail business unprecedented, top-line DEM capabilities:

  1. Gain real-time, granular visibility into shipments in transit across carriers.
  2. Keep support reps on top of delivery issues using a dedicated customer support dashboard that displays delivery issues as soon as they are detected.
  3. Proactively handle delivery exceptions using our communication solution that helps send customized messages to specific customers regarding delivery status.
  4. Keep customers informed of delivery status through automated email and SMS notifications that are triggered and sent to customers when their parcels reach specific events during the shipping process.
  5. Provide an on-brand delivery experience by providing a branded tracking page that customers can visit for information on parcel status.

Pairing LateShipment.com to your existing CRM, eCommerce, order management, and helpdesk tools allows you to tap into all the great benefits that can take your business to the next level.

One Simple Integration, a World of Retail Benefits

Adopting a Delivery Experience Management (DEM) mindset does not mean disrupting your workflows or getting rid of the tools you already use. LateShipment.com integrates seamlessly with your existing tools and makes it possible to boost their capabilities in the following ways:

1. Contextual & meaningful customer communication

Integrating LateShipment.com with your customer relationship management (CRM) platform, order management system (OMS), or eCommerce platform allows you to take customer engagement in the post-purchase phase to an all-new level. After all, communicating relevant information at the right time to customers is critical to allaying their anxieties while they await their parcels.

A simple integration enables you to trigger automated email & SMS updates that are sent to customers from LateShipment.com on the completion of standard shipping events like “Shipped,” “In-Transit,” and  “Delivered.”

Additionally, this integration also allows you to reach out to specific customers whose parcels are facing relatively uncommon exceptions like weather-related delays and allay their anxieties with custom email messaging.

For instance, using LateShipment.com, you could send a customer who’s parcel is facing a weather delay a personalized message with a discount coupon attached for a subsequent purchase. This will allow you to make a positive impression on the customer and also ensure that they don’t switch over to a competitor because of circumstances outside your control.

Post-purchase integration: CRM
An example of the LateShipment.com integration with a CRM tool

Tap into all the great ways LateShipment.com lets you engage with customers in the last mile by integrating your CRM, order management, and eCommerce tools with it.

2. Effortless control over delivery experience

Staying in control of every customer’s last-mile delivery experience is critical for support reps to proactively step in and prevent customer angst when issues arise in the delivery process.

LateShipment.com’s predictive algorithm is capable of flagging delivery issues before the fact, affording your customer support reps sufficient time to rectify the situation before customer impact.

LateShipment.com integrates with your existing helpdesk tool and automatically generates and pushes support tickets to it for possible delivery issues flagged by our predictive algorithms. Any changes in the status of a ticket already generated are pushed as updates to it, so one support representative is able to follow through on the ticket from issue to resolution.

Integrating LateShipment.com with your helpdesk solution can benefit your support team in 3 tangible ways:

  • There is contextual info for every delivery issue at hand
  • The support rep is enabled to resolve delivery issues in the manner of choice
  • The support rep is able to respond to issues faster

Your support reps will thank you for integrating with LateShipment.com and providing them a virtually effortless way to address customer concerns in the post-purchase phase. After all, delivery issues constitute a large volume of tickets that take away from the attention due to product-related concerns.

Post-purchase integration: Helpdesk
An example of the LateShipment.com integration with a helpdesk

Give your support reps effortless control in the post-purchase phase by integrating LateShipment.com with your helpdesk tool of choice.

3. Continuous customer feedback to improve the quality of deliveries

Here’s another reason to integrate your CRM platform, eCommerce platform, and order management system with LateShipment.com

LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform automatically assigns a Delivery Satisfaction (DSAT) score to every one of your parcels. This is possible through our bleeding-edge predictive algorithms that have tracked over 100 million parcels.

The DSAT score allows you to gain a clear, unbiased understanding of probable customer sentiment around every delivery even without them reverting to you.

This score can be pushed to your integrated tool, making it possible to associate post-purchase delivery experience with individual customers. This places you in a strong position to make quick improvements in the best interest of your customers, enabling you to stand out from the competition.

Additionally, we also enable you to collect feedback scores from customers on a custom-branded tracking page that we provide you.

Post-purchase integration: Branded tracking page
Record customer feedback on a custom-branded tracking page offered by LateShipment.com

Give yourself visibility into customer sentiment in the last mile by integrating LateShipment.com with your CRM, order management, or eCommerce tool of choice.

LateShipment.com DEM Integrations infographic

Plug-&-Play Integrations

LateShipment.com easily integrates with your existing tools, whether CRM software, eCommerce platform, order management system (OMS), or customer support helpdesk solution. Our pre-built integrations work seamlessly on the backend to help you stay on top of your last-mile game.

Additionally, LateShipment.com also has the capability to integrate with custom-built tools and platforms. Our API makes it easy to enable such integrations.

We are committed to helping you take control of your last mile, & to help you get started, we are offering our comprehensive DEM suite at absolutely no cost to you until June 30, 2020. Our value is best experienced first-hand, so get started now!

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Improve Customer Satisfaction With Data-Driven Last-Mile Insights https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/improve-customer-satisfaction-with-data-driven-last-mile-insights/ Wed, 01 Apr 2020 13:52:22 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=5054 Shipping is the most important factor in any online shopper’s decision criteria. Providing quick deliveries at the location and time of choice with a variety of payment options is a must in the modern world of online retail. Flexibility and convenience are key. When not enough delivery options are provided, a shopper may decide to […]

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Shipping is the most important factor in any online shopper’s decision criteria. Providing quick deliveries at the location and time of choice with a variety of payment options is a must in the modern world of online retail. Flexibility and convenience are key.

When not enough delivery options are provided, a shopper may decide to shift over to a competitor who provides them.

While providing flexible delivery options is non-negotiable in ensuring online shoppers checkout of your store rather than a competitor’s, the quality of the post-purchase experience you offer determines whether your customers will stay with you. In this article, we will look at why last-mile customer satisfaction is crucial and explore the best way to measure it.

Online Shoppers are a Vocal Lot

They do not hesitate to write poor reviews on the social media channels of a business or on review sites if faced with parcel delays or losses. These reviews have the insidious effect of dissuading potential customers from shopping at an online retail store.

Over 90% of customers read reviews before making an online purchase. 

If you are learning about the delivery issues your customers are facing after the fact, then it is already too late to resolve these situations. The damage is already done, and retention will take a hit.

Thankfully, there are definite measures you can take in the last mile to ensure customer satisfaction, but before that, let’s gain an understanding of why customer satisfaction takes a hit in the post-purchase phase.

Why Customer Satisfaction Takes a Hit in the Post-Purchase Phase

1.Loss of Last-Mile Control to a Third-Party Shipping Partner

Most businesses outsource the delivery process to a shipping carrier like FedEx, UPS, or DHL. This creates a situation where control over customer experience is ceded to a third party.

To a shipping carrier, a parcel from your business is but one among the millions that are transported daily. There is no incentive for them to provide YOUR customer a better delivery experience than other customers. So, even if you’ve worked hard to provide the customer a memorable shopping experience until checkout, there’s still the risk that the delivery experience may be underwhelming.

2.​​Shipping-Carrier Deliveries are Often Error-Prone

Though shipping carriers tout a near-perfect on-time delivery record, the truth is not as rosy. 6–8% of shipments routinely end up being delivered late. Some parcels even end up being lost in transit.

The delivery phase is error-prone as it depends on variables like the weather, manpower at sorting facilities, etc. Add to this the fact that shipping carriers are challenged by the rapid increase in the volume of online orders. This creates a situation where customers are set up for failure from the get-go.

3.Lack of Visibility into Shipping Carrier Operations

Shipping carriers are notoriously opaque with information on service failures at their end.

It is common practice for carriers not to update their parcel tracking pages with details on exceptions because doing so is not in their own best interest.

Consequently, customers are often in the dark about the real status of their parcels. Anxiety about parcel whereabouts and frustration over the delivery experience leading to an increased volume of WISMO (Where Is My Order) calls results.

With all the challenges the last mile poses, it is still possible to reap rewards from this part of the customer journey if the customer satisfaction deficit is addressed using an independent third-party tool that allows you to manage delivery experiences.

Why There is a Need for a Third-Party Solution to Amplify Last-Mile Customer Satisfaction ​

1.Measure the Quality of the Delivery Experience You Offer Customers

It is incumbent upon you to use metrics to monitor the performance of various business processes across your retail value chain. After all data is crucial to measure your effectiveness (or otherwise) in providing customers a great post-purchase experience.

A third-party Delivery Experience Management (DEM) solution can help identify where you need to up your game in the post-purchase phase. For example, whether you need to increase your level of engagement through sending automated updates is a call you can take using the data gleaned from a third-party DEM solution.

2.Identify Which Carriers & Service Types are Failing You

Since shipping carriers seldom provide sufficient insight into why a parcel was delayed, using an independent third-party tool can provide that information. A delivery experience management solution can provide you unbiased insights into which service types & shipping carriers you use are failing you and your customers. The beauty of the solution lies in the fact you can gain a bird’s-eye-view across carriers or get granular to the level of a single package. 

3.Identify Time & Weather Windows When Issues Arise

One notable benefit of a third-party Delivery Experience Management solution is its ability to help discern last-mile trends. For instance, using such a solution, you can identify specific time and weather windows when issues repeatedly arise and work on being prepared to handle them when the need arises.

4.Increase Customer Retention & Lifetime Value

Using a delivery experience management solution can help you retain customers and boost customer lifetime value (CLV). This is crucial, especially because it costs at least 5–7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. A quality DEM suite can help you make a positive impression on a customer and show them you have their back at a time when they may be anxious.

it costs at least 5–7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

5.Reduce the Volume of WISMO Calls

A quality DEM solution can help reduce the volume of WISMO (Where Is My Order) calls your Support team has to field. It ensures your customers receive regular email & SMS updates and never have to be in the dark about parcel whereabouts. It frees up your Support team to focus on resolving product-specific issues.

While it is a no-brainer that customer satisfaction is a must-have for a retail business like yours to keep customers returning as repeat buyers, it makes sense, at this point, to take a critical look at two metrics commonly used to measure customer satisfaction: CSAT and NPS.

The Limitations of Measuring Customer Satisfaction Only Through CSAT & NPS

Since we inhabit an experience economy where customer experience is a competitive differentiator, measuring how well the expectations of shoppers are met is critical. Listening closely to the vital signals that come from customers, even after a product has been delivered is how this is done.

You’re probably already collecting customer satisfaction data through CSAT scores and NPS surveys.

A Representation of the NPS System
A representation of the NPS system

While these methods provide an idea of how satisfied your customers are and how likely they are to recommend your brand to others, they have 2 major limitations:

1.CSAT & NPS Do Not Measure Customer Signals in the Post-Checkout Stage

CSAT and NPS are designed to measure customer sentiment in the pre-purchase and post-delivery stages. However they do not measure customer satisfaction in the post-purchase stage. This leaves a gap in the understanding of customer sentiment as both metrics ignore a critical, error-prone stage of the logistics cycle.

2.CSAT & NPS Do Not Provide Insights on When Issues Arise or When Exactly Customers Feel Let Down

While CSAT & NPS give an idea of customer sentiment, they don’t provide clarity on when exactly customers feel let down by your business. They don’t pinpoint specific instances when issues arise. This creates a situation wherein your business could be in the dark about which issues to address and when despite making use of CSAT and NPS.

The shortfalls of the CSAT and NPS systems make it incumbent upon businesses like yours to have a system in place to measure the quality of deliveries.

DSAT Score: A Brand New Metric to Measure Delivery Experience Quality 

We at LateShipment.com have pioneered a new system that can help you gain a clear view of what your customers feel about the quality of delivery experience you offer.

We are pleased to introduce the DSAT scoring system.


The DSAT scoring system is designed to give an unbiased view of customer sentiment about the quality of delivery experience you offer.

At its heart, this is a surprisingly simple system that allows your customers to rate their delivery experiences on a scale of 1–5.

It’s filled with benefits aplenty for your retail business. It lets you:

1.Provide Customers an Opportunity to Give Feedback on Delivery Quality

The DSAT system lets you listen to customer voices and gain an unbiased idea of what they think of their order delivery experience. It places you in a position to take last-mile decisions that are bound to delight your customers.

DSAT Score
Customer feedback within a custom tracking page provided by LateShipment.com

2.Hold Your Shipping Carrier Accountable for Service Failures

Despite their claims to the contrary, shipping carriers like FedEx and UPS generally have a delay rate of 6–8%. The DSAT system allows you to know how their real performance impacts your customers. After all, with data in hand, it becomes easier to hold them to account on their SLAs.

3.Measure Post-Purchase Customer Experience on Par with Pre-Checkout Customer Experience

While most businesses place a great deal of emphasis on the onsite experience they offer their customers, the post-purchase phase is inevitably neglected. While CSAT and NPS provide an idea of customer sentiment in the pre-checkout stage, DSAT can help shine a light on the quality of your post-purchase phase.

4.Protect Your Brand's Reputation in the Last Mile

Despite the fact that the last mile is generally outsourced to shipping carriers, most shoppers still tend to pin the blame for delivery delays on retail businesses like yours. The DSAT system helps protect your brand’s reputation from negative feedback and isolates problems outside your organization from those within. It lets you identify aggrieved customers and do right by them.

Angry Customer Tweet

5.Identity Which Areas of Your Logistics Operation Need Attention

The feedback mechanism that the DSAT system provides allows you to unambiguously identify which areas of your logistics operation need attention in order to allay customer concerns.

How You Can Get Started Amplifying Costumer Satisfaction in the Last Mile

Improving customer satisfaction in the last mile is an important challenge to solve as it translates to increased retention and profits.

Here are some ways your retail business can boost customer satisfaction in the last mile:

1.Get Actionable Post-Purchase Insights Using a Third-Party Solution That Provides Visibility into Shipping Carrier Delivery Performance 

A quality Delivery Experience Management (DEM) solution can help your business measure the actual performance of your shipping carrier and hold them accountable. It can provide real-time visibility into their operations from the standpoint of delays and service types. If you use multiple shipping carriers for fulfillment, such a solution can help compare them and identify where your service level agreements (SLAs) are not being delivered upon.

2.Be Proactive in Identifying Delivery-Related Customer Issues and Take Appropriate Action to Mitigate Customer Pain

If you’re learning about delivery delays from customers, it’s already too late to remedy the situation. You need to be proactive in identifying possible delays and address them before customer impact. While this may seem a challenge for businesses that ship at scale, an automated algorithm with predictive capabilities can help your customer-facing teams do just that.

3.Meaningfully Engage With Customers Across the Delivery Lifecycle of an Order

One of the most effective ways to increase customer satisfaction in the post-purchase phase is to engage with them consistently as they await their parcels. Sending automated status updates and providing an easy, on-brand tracking experience are ways to do this.

DEM Increased Customer Engagement

4.Get Feedback From Customers About Deliveries and Take Action as Needed

A business that listens to customer voices and makes changes as required is one that reaps the rewards of increased retention and lifetime value. Make sure to provide customers an avenue by which to provide feedback on the quality of deliveries, and have a rating system in place. LateShipment.com’s pioneering DSAT scoring system allows you to do just that.

LateShipment.com's Delivery Experience Management (DEM) Platform: A Win for Your Last Mile

In spite of the sky-high costs, tedious process, and accumulated complications, last-mile delivery will always remain the decisive leg of the supply-chain process.

At LateShipment.com, our focus has remained steadfastly on the last mile, typically the part of the logistics chain that is the most opaque.

LateShipment.com is the world’s only logistics cloud tool that helps businesses of every size reduce shipping costs by up to 20% and provide memorable delivery experiences to customers at scale.

The best part is, it takes less than 2 minutes to see LateShipment.com in action.

COVID-19 Note: To help tide over the current crisis, we are giving all businesses full and free access to our Delivery Experience Management Platform till June 30, 2020.

The value we add to businesses is most evident when experienced first-hand.

It’s that simple!

The post Improve Customer Satisfaction With Data-Driven Last-Mile Insights appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

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Use Cases for LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management Platform https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/use-cases-for-lateshipment-coms-delivery-management-platform/ Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:39:57 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=3133 What is Delivery Experience Management? Delivery Experience Management (DEM) is the process of being proactive in ensuring that your customers receive their orders on-time and how they expect. It involves taking action as required to correct issues in the last mile and constantly engaging customers to validate brand promises. DEM is all about offering each […]

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What is Delivery Experience Management?

Delivery Experience Management (DEM) is the process of being proactive in ensuring that your customers receive their orders on-time and how they expect. It involves taking action as required to correct issues in the last mile and constantly engaging customers to validate brand promises.

DEM is all about offering each of your customers a memorable last-mile shipping experience that not merely satisfies but also delights and makes them advocates of your brand. 

However, the last-mile is most often controlled by third-party shipping carriers.

This unfortunately results in a situation where your customers’ delivery experience suffers tremendously during this critical phase of the customer journey leading to irreparable problems and lost opportunities.

Let’s take a look at some of the issues you will inevitably encounter in the last-mile without a solution to manage delivery experiences that can hurt your business in multiple ways.

Issues Your Brand Will Face Without a Solution to Manage Delivery Experiences

1. Losing Customers to Bad Delivery Experiences

The last-mile is error prone. No matter how efficient shipping carriers claim they are, 8 to 10 percent of parcels inevitably get delayed. 

And when delays do happen, more often than not, customers blame the retailer rather than the shipping carrier for the bad delivery experience. 

 It is a fact that 47% of customers won’t shop with your brand following a bad delivery experience. Worse, they will vent their ire on social media, making it incumbent on you to offer a great delivery experience. 

2. Broken Post-Purchase Experience With Inadequate Customer Engagement

While a retailer may have exclusive control of a customer’s on-site experience, this is lost once the parcel has been handed off to their shipping partner. 

 

This is because the post-purchase order delivery phase and its activities such as giving customers the ability to track their parcels and sending them delivery status updates are considered to be functions of the shipping carrier. 

 

This leads to grossly inadequate customer engagement from the retailer’s side in the last mile, making customers move away from the brand as a result of a broken shopper experience.

3. Increased Customer Anxiety and Frustration Over Parcel Whereabouts

Customer anxiety while awaiting parcels forces support reps to handle a skyrocketing number of WISMO (Where Is My Order?) calls. 

 

Not being equipped with the right technology leads to slow customer support response times and a bad delivery experience for customers. 

 

Adding fuel to the fire, a high volume of WISMO requests affects your support team’s productivity by taking up all their time and prevents them from focusing on critical product-related concerns.

4. Lost Opportunities to Monetize Post-Purchase Tracking Moments

On average, customers track their parcels 6–8 times on a shipping carrier’s tracking page.

Unfortunately, carriers tend to withhold information on delivery exceptions such as delays, which can increase customer angst and result in a poor delivery experience. 

Having insufficient or no technology in place to manage your delivery experiences is a lost opportunity to not just meaningfully engage with your customers but also to reinforce brand identity and drive sales through upselling and cross-selling.

The good news is LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform has a host of use cases for a variety of organizational roles pertaining to the last mile and beyond, which can help you resolve the issues we’ve discussed. 

Use Cases for a Delivery Experience Management (DEM) Platform

Use cases of LateShipment's Delivery Experience Management

Use Case #1: Gaining Real-Time Visibility Into Shipments in Transit

As a logistics manager, how many times have you found it hard to keep track of the parcels you’ve dispatched to your customers?

Worry not though! LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform is designed from the ground up to provide unprecedented visibility into every one of your shipments in transit, unlike the limited visibility provided on a shipping carrier’s website. 

 

LateShipment.com intuitively categorizes all your parcels. So, a mere glance at your dashboard can provide you an immediate idea about how many of your parcels will be delivered during the day and how many are likely to be delayed.

Not just that, LateShipment.com helps you identify delays spread across carriers and service locations and provides you the ability to get as granular with your data as you please down to individual shipments.

And the best thing? Our system integrates with close to 50 shipping carriers, eCommerce platforms, order management systems, and CRMs, and this number is growing every week

Real-time visibility

Use Case #2: Keeping Support Reps on Top of Delivery Issues

As head of a customer support team, If there were some way to be aware of issues before customers knew of them, wouldn’t your customer support reps be better able to handle such situations?

Here’s a solution: Use a dedicated customer support dashboard that highlights delivery issues as soon as they are detected. This capability is present within LateShipment.com, and unlike our standard dashboard, this interface provides only the very essential data that you and your customer-support-team mates need to proactively resolve issues

This solution not only helps you to predict delays and fix last-mile issues before they impact customers but gains your support-reps time when it comes to handling product complaints.

Support dashboard

Use Case #3: Proactively Resolving Delivery Issues

As an online merchant, how many times have you struggled to handle relatively uncommon situations like weather-related exceptions because you were unable to inform specific customers in time that their parcels would be delayed?  

At LateShipment.com, we are committed to helping you retain customers through the toughest of circumstances. This is why we provide you with the ability to send custom messages to specific customers whose parcels are experiencing uncommon delays like unexpected weather exceptions.

When your customer’s in-transit order is likely to go haywire, you can preemptively inform them of the issue and offer them a solution like re-shipping the order via an expedited shipping option, a discount, or a refund on their next purchase.

Proactive handling

Use Case #4: Meaningfully Engaging With Your Customers Across the Last Mile

As a customer-centric retailer, how often have you wanted to keep your customers informed of parcel status so that they don’t need to constantly go to the shipping carrier’s website to check delivery status?

The solution is right here. LateShipment.com helps you set up automated email and SMS notifications that are triggered and sent to customers when their parcels reach specific events during the shipping process.

We provide you with the ability to send timely notifications to your customers about their orders for last-mile events such as “Shipped”, “Attempted”, and “Delivered”. 

You can also provide a tracking link along with the mail to ease their anxiety and keep them in the know of their parcel’s whereabouts.

All you need to do to enjoy this feature is to connect your eCommerce store or CRM platform to our interface, and relevant customer data will be populated within our interface.

Meaningful engagement

Use Case #5: Providing an On-Brand Delivery Experience

As an eCommerce retailer, are you taking efforts to ensure brand recall at all stages of the tracking and delivery process?

Since this is critical, LateShipment.com provides businesses like yours the ability to create a branded tracking page that customers can visit for information on their parcels.

Your branded tracking page will contain your logo and the language of your brand, thus enhancing brand recognition and keeping your brand foremost on your customers’ minds. 

To unlock upsell and cross-sell opportunities, you can subtly populate your tracking page with engaging marketing assets such as personalized recommendations and offers.

LateShipment.com also provides you with the ability to place a tracking widget anywhere on your website, such as on the order confirmation/ history page. Customers can enter the tracking number in the widget and be immediately redirected to your branded tracking page.

On-brand delivery experience

Use Case #6: Improving Customer Satisfaction With Data-Driven Insights

As a business driven by data, do you measure customer feedback to make optimization decisions? After all, what gets measured, gets managed. Are you armed with data to help you measure the effectiveness of your delivery experience?

 

Unfortunately, shipping carriers generally don’t report back with relevant feedback on the delivery experiences of your customers in the last mile.

 

LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management suite helps retailers like you add a Delivery Satisfaction (DSAT) score system within their tracking page. This allows customers to rate delivery performance, which in turn helps you monitor your carrier’s performance. 

 

Also, you can link your tracking page to your Google Analytics account to know how your brand is perceived by customers.

 

The data-driven insights you gain from collecting customer feedback on a scale of good, not so good, or bad experiences will help your business do right by customers by gaining a deeper understanding of their delivery experiences.

At the end of the day, it boils down to keeping track of the delivery experience your customers have had every single time they’ve shopped with you and ensuring corrective measures are taken if a particular customer has repeatedly had a substandard delivery experience.

 

These insights also arm with you relevant data when it comes to negotiating with your shipping carrier.

How a DEM Platform Can Be a Competitive Differentiator for Your Business

1. Gain Control of Customers’ Delivery Experiences

A DEM suite allows you to provide your customers a frictionless delivery experience via tools that enhance visibility of parcels across carriers and that  let you communicate at critical moments with customers.

 

By communicating with customers when it matters the most and resolving delivery exceptions even before they become an issue, you are making your loyal customers feel more valued and understand that you, the retailer, have their back.

2. Strengthen Customer Relationships in the Last Mile

Highly engaged customers become loyal customers.

 

DEM provides you with the ability to meaningfully engage with your customers in the last mile through automated and customizable email updates, SMSes, and more.

 

When you are actively engaging with your customers, you are fostering a connection by keeping them in constant loop of their order status.

 

This way, you are able to make more of a mark on your customers and, indeed, delight them.

3. Improve Retention and Customer Loyalty

Providing your customers with a smooth, hassle-free delivery experience allows you to encourage repeat purchases and forge long-lasting customer relationships. This inevitably leads to increased retention resulting in higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

DEM arms businesses with all the actionable information required to thwart a possible negative delivery experience for the customer even before it arises, thus enabling businesses to be more empathetic towards their customers and encourage customer loyalty over time.

4. Increase Sales revenue and Reduce Costs

Customer loyalty is valuable for businesses. Studies show increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase your profits by more than 25%. Also, repeat customers are nine times more likely to buy from you than new customers. 

By proactively reaching out to customers, retailers can mitigate customer pain and face less flak from angry customers. 

Moreover, due to the efforts taken by a retailer like you, customers may avoid taking harsh decisions such as returns and continue shopping with you.

Given that it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, DEM helps you cut down on costs.

Final Word

In spite of the sky-high costs, tedious process, and accumulated complications, last-mile delivery will always remain the decisive leg of the supply-chain process.

At LateShipment.com, our focus has remained steadfastly on the last mile, typically the part of the logistics chain that is the most opaque.

LateShipment.com is the world’s only logistics cloud tool that helps businesses of every size reduce shipping costs by up to 20% and provide memorable delivery experiences to customers at scale.

The best part is, it takes less than 2 minutes to see LateShipment.com in action.

COVID-19 Note: To help tide over the current crisis, we are giving all businesses full and free access to our Delivery Experience Management Platform till June 30, 2020.

The value we add to businesses is most evident when experienced first-hand.

It’s that simple!

The post Use Cases for LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management Platform appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

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How Millennials Shopped Online This Holiday Season https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/how-millennials-shopped-online-this-holiday-season/ Fri, 10 Jan 2020 10:41:54 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=4440 A Record-Breaking Shopping Season Online spending is at an all-time high this holiday season. Data from Adobe Analytics suggests that web spending may have witnessed an increase of 14.1% over the 2018 season. In contrast, purchases at brick-and-mortar locations have witnessed a modest 4.0% growth. The shift from physical to web-based shopping is afoot. A […]

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A Record-Breaking Shopping Season

Online spending is at an all-time high this holiday season. Data from Adobe Analytics suggests that web spending may have witnessed an increase of 14.1% over the 2018 season. In contrast, purchases at brick-and-mortar locations have witnessed a modest 4.0% growth.

The shift from physical to web-based shopping is afoot.

Predicted Online Spending in the Holiday Season

A pre-season study by the National Retail Federation had predicted an increase in consumer spending by 3.8 to 4.2 percent during the period. It based the prediction on factors like the robustness of the economy, low unemployment rates, all-time high consumer confidence, and the retail sales forecast of the commerce department.

The scale of online purchases this holiday season is staggering. Consumers spent well over the forecast of $123.9 billion in the months of November and December compared to $108.8 billion last year.

This has, doubtless, been the biggest ever shopping season in the country.

While spending has increased across the generation spectrum, millennials (also called Gen Y’ers) have contributed the most to the season’s numbers.

Millennial Shopping Trends

Millennials’ Online Shopping Preferences

A nationwide study of shopping trends served up the following findings: 

  • Most millennials surveyed indicated that they would be spending more this season.
  • 69% of millennials said they would use their phones to shop online, a higher percentage than desktops or laptops.
  • 30% of the millennials said ads influenced their purchasing decision more than word-of-mouth.
  • 95% of the millennials surveyed were more loyal to stores where they were rewards members.
  • Around 45% of millennials say same-day delivery is important, which shows the generation’s demand for convenience online.

Discover’s annual holiday shopping survey provided some insight into why millennials are prolific spenders. 45% of those surveyed suggested that higher wages spurred their spending habits.

According to a survey by Accenture, Gen Y cares deeply about inclusion and workplace diversity.

Most millennials are inclined to choose brands that demonstrate diversity in promotions.

The Most Popular Products This Season

While analytics organizations don’t categorize online shopping data by generation, we are able to make a reasonable guess of what millennials have been buying online during the season by taking a look at the most popular products on key days.

According to Amazon, the most popular products were toys. Particularly L.O.L Surprise, Frozen 2 toys, and a variety of toys from LEGO, including Star Wars Darth Vader Castle and NASA’s Apollo Saturn V sets.

Some other popular products were gaming devices like Nintendo Switch and SEGA Genesis Mini, and electronic devices such as VR devices and Samsung TVs.

A Closer Look at Millennials

The generation of those born between 1981 and 1997 is widely considered to be both tech-savvy and materialistic and makes its shopping decisions based on its beliefs and values.

Millennials are passionate about the world they inhabit and often assess factors like the environmental footprint of a product and the social responsibility of a brand before making a purchase decision.

At the same time, they are also instinctual. They are heavily influenced by social media trends and the choices their peers make.

They are anxious to be seen making the spending choices that win them the approval of their peers.

In general, millennials are distrustful of financial professionals and often consider them to work out of a vested interest of self-enrichment.

One of the notable traits of Gen Y’ers is their short attention span.

Capturing their attention involves being innovative rather than jostling with the thousands of marketing messages they encounter on a daily basis.

The average millennial is subscribed to numerous emailing lists and is constantly bombarded by offers and inducements to purchase.

While millennials are generally open to sampling new products and deals, they dislike mass-marketing campaigns that are not tailored to their needs and interests.

They keep themselves updated on the latest products, prices, and reviews and value brands that are open and fair with their offers.

One feature that millennials share with other generations is that women are generally more frugal with their expenses and more likely to save than men.

The Key to Reaching Millennials

Successfully marketing to Gen Y’ers is a big step toward boosting product sales and ensuring profitability.

Gaining and maintaining attention in the advertising cacophony they experience daily involves a strategic approach.

Appealing to the average millennial’s concern for the environment and sense of advocacy is a method successfully employed by brands that show their processes and products to be eco-friendly and sustainable.

Running innovative and out-of-the-ordinary campaigns on social media channels is another method that works with this demographic.

When running campaigns on websites and social media, using behavior data ensures that individual targeting is spot-on and relevant.

As the average millennial receives a large number of emails daily, the key to impressing them lies in delivering relevant and timely messaging that offers a learning experience.

Since millennials are naturally inquisitive about the latest and greatest products in various categories on the market, keeping them updated with product releases and providing them with tailored deals earns their attention.

The most important thing to remember when marketing to Gen Y’ers is to look at things from their perspective and use an empathetic tone in messaging.

Conclusion

Fulfilling the expectations of millennials is critical to the success of any online business that ships to the U.S. One of them is making sure that packages arrive on time.

If you own a business that ships products, consider signing up for a LateShipment.com account.

LateShipment.com is the world’s only logistics cloud tool that helps businesses of every size reduce shipping costs by up to 20% and provide memorable delivery experiences to customers at scale.

Some of our high-impact offerings are :

  • Save up to 20% on Shipping – Automatically audit your shipping carriers’ invoices and recover refunds for 50+ service failures & billing errors including late deliveries.
  • Real-Time Visibility – Monitor your outbound & inbound shipments across multiple shipping carriers on a centralized window, in real-time.
  • Critical Delivery Alerts – Pay attention to daily deliveries with predictive delay alerts and more on a purpose-built dashboard for support reps.
  • Proactive Issue Resolution – Proactively communicate with customers to prevent them from having bad experiences due to delivery failures.
  • Custom Delivery Notifications  – Send custom or automated delivery status notifications for events like “shipped,” “attempted,” & “delivered.”
  • Branded Tracking Pages – Build fully-customizable order tracking pages for your customers to improve brand recall and sales.

You can start using these features in less than 2 minutes without the need for any IT/business process change or coding. And the best thing is that LateShipment.com is a simple cloud-based plug-and-play solution that can seamlessly integrate with the tools you already use.

It’s that simple!

The post How Millennials Shopped Online This Holiday Season appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

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Omnichannel Customer Experience for Retail (2020) https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/omnichannel-customer-experience-for-retail/ Mon, 19 Aug 2019 02:19:45 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=3011 Introduction A cohesive shopping experience, both online and offline, is what the modern consumer demands. An omnichannel customer experience (CX) works by seamlessly connecting every one of your customer touchpoints over multiple channels with the aim of optimizing your brand’s customer journey. Customer interactions and engagements today are typically a blend of traditional and digital […]

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Introduction

A cohesive shopping experience, both online and offline, is what the modern consumer demands. An omnichannel customer experience (CX) works by seamlessly connecting every one of your customer touchpoints over multiple channels with the aim of optimizing your brand’s customer journey.

Customer interactions and engagements today are typically a blend of traditional and digital customer touchpoints to ensure brand success. For example, regardless of whether a customer shops from a desktop or mobile device or a retail store, they are bound to have a seamless brand experience.

Customer interactions and engagements today are typically a blend of traditional and digital customer touchpoints.

Businesses that provide an omnichannel customer experience tend to retain their customers better, with the ease of use contributing to recurrent purchasing.

Why You Must Provide an Omnichannel Customer Experience

Technology is now integrated into every area of our lives. The line that separates online and offline interactions with customers has started to blur. The average customer today wants to interact with businesses on the go without having to switch platforms or applications. This is why it is incumbent upon brands to build an omnichannel customer experience.

[bctt tweet=”The average customer today wants to interact with businesses on the go without having to switch platforms or applications. This is why it is incumbent upon brands to build an omnichannel customer experience.” username=”LateShipment”]

The Key to a Worthwhile Omnichannel Customer Experience

Your brand’s success hinges on creating multiple customer touchpoints that provide a singular, unified customer experience.

Your brand must align its goals, messaging, and design across different channels and devices to provide a truly omnichannel CX. For this to happen, you need to first understand the various channels and devices your customers use apart from their needs and preferences. You must apply this knowledge about your customers to create an engaging omnichannel CX for higher ROI.

[bctt tweet=”Your brand must align its goals, messaging, and design across different channels and devices to provide a truly omnichannel CX.” username=”LateShipment”]

How to Provide Top-Class Omnichannel Customer Experience

An infographic about omnichannel customer experience

  1. Don’t Lose Sight of the Traditional

Going digital doesn’t imply ignoring your brick and mortar business. Take the effort to ensure your customers receive the same information about your business across all platforms. Make sure not to leave your physical store behind while you run offers, deals, discounts, and more!

Going digital doesn’t imply ignoring your brick and mortar business.

  1. Make the Customer Experience Immersive & Interactive

According to a Forrester report, around 30% of marketers repurpose ad budgets toward data, technology, or innovation with a view to fulfilling customers’ needs by creating an immersive customer experience.

It is is incumbent upon brands to ensure that their customer journey is immersive and interactive. Identify all the touchpoints of interaction in your customers’ experience cycle and make sure you connect with them at every point. Doing so will help you identify customer pain points and quickly address them while they are still manageable.

  1. Focus on Apps

Data from Forrester Research suggests that on average consumers from Britain and the United States use around 24 apps per month. Of all these apps, they spend more than 80% of their time on not more than five apps. Consequently, it is important to ensure that your brand is with the consumer all the time as an interactive and engaging mobile app.

[bctt tweet=”It is important to ensure that your brand is with your customers all the time as an interactive and engaging mobile app.” username=”LateShipment”]

The research study also suggests that customers spend most of their time on social media and messaging apps rather than on games or business apps. This indicates that brands need to build an innovative app marketing strategy where they engage customers through frequently-used third-party apps while simultaneously not abandoning their own native apps. Brands can also run innovative campaigns and promotions to bring customers on to their apps.

  1. Have a Responsive Website

Gone are the days when internet usage was restricted to desktop computers and laptops. You are probably surrounded by many electronic devices and gadgets even as you read this article! This means that every device can serve a purpose or be substituted by another. 

Is your website optimized enough to cater to all audiences who come to your website using different devices? Based on Forrester data, Over 90% of mobile users haven’t bought anything through their phones in the past three months. More than half of these cite unfamiliarity with the mobile version of sites as the main deterrent.

  1. Create Cross-Selling Opportunities 

It is easier to sell to existing customers than to  convince new ones to buy. So, always have cross-selling options in place. According to market research by Gartner, “of 503 buyers of B2B technology and services, a significant number of respondents viewed these activities (cross-selling pitches) as extremely significant in terms of expanding the relationship (and propensity to buy).” The reasons for this could be varied, including factors like knowledge of the brand, trusting the organization and product/service quality, perception of value for money, better access to customer support, being existing customers, etc. 

Make sure you package your offerings with an understanding of your customers’ needs and use cross-selling to engage your customer better while expanding the scope of your business.

  1. Be Where Your Customers Are

Do not shut yourself from customer feedback. Listen to your customers and gather all the qualitative data that their inputs give you on multiple platforms.

A depiction of customer feedback

In other words, be wherever your customers are, and have an active brand presence on all platforms. This won’t just make customer interactions easier, it will also help you ensure that your customers do not have to take any extra steps (opening a new app, website, or social media platform), to connect with you. Businesses sending tickets and notifications to customers on Whatsapp is a great example of being where customers are.

  1. Let Data do the Talking

When Econsultancy surveyed over 600 digital marketing and e-commerce professionals for a research study, a staggering 85% of them admitted to facing difficulty in extracting full value from data sources. Additionally, two-thirds of survey respondents admitted to feeling overwhelmed by the volume of incoming information. While you may have been working hard to reach out to your customers and been gathering vast amounts of data, the real challenge is to sort through them and use them for your benefit. 

We are in an information age. It is now possible to use inputs from incoming data points for customer behavior prediction and proactive branding and marketing. Handling data analytics the right way can give your business a major boost in your omnichannel strategy.

A representation of data analytics

  1. Have a Uniform Call-to-Action

Uniformity is the key to building a top-class omnichannel customer experience. So make sure your brand speaks the same language across platforms, channels, and collaterals. By uniformity of messaging, we do not mean using the same words or tone everywhere but rather that the overall brand messaging needs to be packaged to convey the same meaning everywhere while effectively targeting each platform’s audience.

How Omnichannel CX Impacts Organizational Functions

Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support are the three major business processes that have a major impact on and are impacted by omnichannel CX. Each of these processes plays a critical role in the customer journey right from creating brand awareness to customer acquisition and retention. These processes work in tandem toward developing and delivering a seamless and cohesive customer experience.

Research and Planning has a huge role to play in applying advanced CX strategies and models. For instance, the Product and Customer Success departments can also be a part of your brand’s CX strategy in order to ensure a successful omnichannel experience. The right combination of business processes can be streamlined to create an integrated CX and achieve business goals.

Conclusion

Businesses are constantly striving to obtain a global customer base. Consequently,  relevance, reach, and retention must be the key principles to serve, support, and delight your customers worldwide. Omnichannel CX is your go-to business strategy to boost ROI and brand loyalty. While one is all about the numbers, the other is dependent on your customers’ connection with your brand on an emotional level.

[bctt tweet=”Omnichannel CX is your go-to business strategy to boost ROI and brand loyalty.” username=”LateShipment”]

CX leaders target increased growth and greater profits through omnichannel marketing. They understand that true omnichannel customer experience is an eclectic mix of customer-centric business innovations and strategies that provide better results for various stakeholders: employees, customers, and shareholders.

True omnichannel CX is an eclectic mix of customer-centric business innovations and strategies that provide better results for various stakeholders.

An increasing number of global brands are adopting omnichannel CX best practices to ensure customer success. Disney is a case in point. It’s mobile-responsive website, the My Disney Experience tool, and the Magic Band Program all provide an integrated customer experience. This omnichannel approach has allowed customers to enjoy a seamless experience of Disneyland across multiple channels online and in the park.

Ultimately, The thing to remember is that when you begin building your brand experience with a focus on omnichannel customer experience at its essence, you can ensure business growth that is both future-proof and holistic.

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Ecommerce Returns: Challenges & Solutions https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/ecommerce-returns-challenges-solutions/ Thu, 13 Jun 2019 14:33:03 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=2834 Introduction As a small business, running an e-commerce website can be hectic. Managing the inventory, packaging, and delivery of products can be overwhelming. Return of products can also add to the chaos. Customers only gravitate to online stores that have easy return procedures. 66% of customers check the return policy before making a purchase, making […]

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Introduction

As a small business, running an e-commerce website can be hectic. Managing the inventory, packaging, and delivery of products can be overwhelming. Return of products can also add to the chaos. Customers only gravitate to online stores that have easy return procedures. 66% of customers check the return policy before making a purchase, making it essential for retailers to think through the return policies before starting an online business. This approach is applicable for both stand-alone e-commerce websites and brands that sell on marketplaces like Amazon.

Handling returns is often easier said than done because it involves a variety of challenges.

Handling returns is often easier said than done.

Some Challenges That Come with Returns

  • Interrupted warehouse efficiency: Unexpected return of goods can complicate warehouse operations and inventory management. Per-process handling costs can escalate, and this combined with resale challenges can become a major pain point.
  • Extreme return policies: Some businesses have strict return policies to combat the increasing number of returns. However, customers only respond to and become loyal to brands that have flexible return policies.

    Customers only respond to and become loyal to brands that have flexible return policies.

  • Handling product damage: Once products are brought back to the warehouse, they have to be conditioned for resale. Most business owners ask customers what was wrong with the product but “It was damaged” is not an answer to work with. Figuring out the problem with a damaged product can consume a lot of time and money.A damaged parcel
  • Loss of liquidation: Sometimes you might want to liquidate an entire set of products if there is continuous return from that category, e.g. the previous season’s clothes, old electronics, etc. This might lead to selling them at prices far below than the retail price.

While there are a myriad challenges associated with reverse logistics, thankfully there are a variety of ways by which these can be overcome.

Facing the Challenges Associated with Handling Returns

  • Use technology to your advantage: Returns come with a lot of supply chain confusion and losses. One way to reduce these is by streamlining back office operations and integrating them with the overall reporting system. This will help you identify the exact threshold to cross for a customer to become problematic. Addressing problems according to individual customer profile can help you reduce costs. For instance, beauty and cosmetics giant Sephora used this technique to identify clients who returned their products several times, mostly after trying them out. They imposed a rule that their products couldn’t be returned more than twice in any given situation. This is a well-balanced return policy that is fair to the brand and the customers.
  • Use the data on hand: Collect all the important data associated with the returning of goods. The number of returns for a particular product type, the type of damage,and the number of returns due to improper packaging are significant actionable data. Having this data on hand will help you improve your packaging and delivery efficiency and also aid decisions pertaining to restocking products. You can use tools like Optoro to carry out the data analysis process.
  • Pre-print return labels: Protect your business from fraudulent returns. Attach pre-printed return labels that include invoice number, quantity, and SKUs. When products are returned with these return labels, your team will know the returns are authentic. They will then be able to proceed with the replacement process.  
  • Reverse Logistics
  • Offer a reasonable return time limit: The time within which customers can return products is critical. Usually, small businesses have a 60-day return policy, but depending on the products you sell, set a reasonable return time-limit that does not affect your business or is too less of a time window for customers. If you are selling perishable goods or products that have a short shelf life, you can fix a 30-day or 15-day return policy.
  • Create a balanced return policy: Creating a balanced return policy that does not affect your business is essential. But make sure this policy is flexible when it comes to retaining loyal customers. As a small business, you can bend backward to maintain your loyal customers. You can also ease out the return process by adding a small gift like a discount voucher as a “sorry” for a damaged product or even have a follow-up call to ask about the replaced products. If you rack up overhead expenses due to these measures, you can always take loans for your retail business.

Infographic on how to handle ecommerce returns

Conclusion

Many hidden costs, like the costs on free shipping, are involved in the return process. Always keep a watch on your profit margins and avoid taking returns for products that are sold at steep discounts. Make sure your retail prices cover operating costs.

Though there are several ways to handle returns, steps should be taken to reduce returns in the first place. Optimize product descriptions and images to set realistic expectations among customers. Also, offer impeccable customer service as customers might sometimes want to try getting products fixed first instead of returning. Give them that chance.

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This is a guest post by  Joseph Brady, Vice President of Digital Marketing at Reliant Funding.

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Shipping Wine: What You Need to Know https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/shipping-wine-what-you-need-to-know/ Fri, 31 May 2019 09:17:28 +0000 https://trial.lateshipment.com/blog/?p=2764 Introduction Shipping wine is, to put it mildly, a complicated process.  Firstly, shipping wine requires a license for the manufacture and shipping of wine. Secondly, there are numerous state laws to be complied with: laws of both the state of origin and the destination state. Thirdly, a specific wine shipping contract with a shipping carrier […]

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Introduction

Shipping wine is, to put it mildly, a complicated process. 

Firstly, shipping wine requires a license for the manufacture and shipping of wine. Secondly, there are numerous state laws to be complied with: laws of both the state of origin and the destination state. Thirdly, a specific wine shipping contract with a shipping carrier like UPS or FedEx is required. By the way, the United States Postal Service does not ship wine!

The United States Postal Service does not ship wine!

If you are Canadian, know that the laws around shipping wine are complex and still evolving within the country, but this hasn’t prevented retailers like this one surmounting the challenges and thriving.

Why does shipping wine have to be so complicated, you ask? Well, the answer to that lies in one word: prohibition. The result of the prohibition era in the country (from 1920 to 1933) was that individual states were given the power to legislate on whether and how they would allow the manufacture and shipping of wine to take place.

The impact of prohibition on wine laws

State-Wise Laws on Shipping Wine

Utah, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama prohibit the direct shipment of wine from wineries to customers. In Kentucky, residents may have wine delivered to them from wineries that produce less than 50,000 gallons of wine annually, but neither UPS nor FedEx deliver to the state.

Ohio and Louisiana limit the number of cases of wine that may be shipped to state residents annually.

Delaware prohibits direct shipping of wine to state residents. Residents may, however, bring or ship wine home from out-of-state wineries, although shipping wine by common carriers like UPS and FedEx is banned. The same is true for Rhode Island.

States like California and Colorado don’t restrict direct shipping from wineries.

As is evident, there are a wide gamut of laws concerning wine shipping in the various states.

If you intend to ship wine, what you need are awareness and a plan.

Getting Started with Shipping Wine

Infographic about shipping wine

Obtain a License to Ship Wine

As mentioned earlier, shipping wine requires a license. There are licenses issued by the various states for this purpose. The fees involved in obtaining a license vary widely from state-to-state.

For example, the fee for direct shipping of wine in California is $10, but in New Mexico, it varies between $150 and $1150. As a first step, make sure to research the licensing requirements and costs for the states you intend to ship to.

Comply with Applicable State Laws

Comply with the laws of the state you are shipping to for a painless shipping process. For example, in Arkansas, only one case per month may be shipped to a person. In Indiana, the limit is a much more liberal 5000 cases per year per winery.

Direct shipping of wine to Utah is a third degree felony, so the major carriers don’t ship to that state.

Negotiate a Wine Shipping Contract with Your Carrier

FedEx and UPS require that anyone who wishes to ship wine must first enter into a specific contract with them.

For FedEx, this contract is called the FedEx Alcohol Shipping Agreement. As for UPS, shippers who wish to ship wine must enter into either the UPS Agreement for Approved Wine Shippers or the UPS Wine Industry Fulfillment House Agreement For Approved Wine Shippers.

Make sure you do your research and weigh your options before entering into any agreement with a shipping carrier. This will ensure you get the best possible shipping terms and rates. Do not, under any circumstance, waive off your right to refunds.

Package Right

The quality of packaging is critical when you ship wine. The last thing you want is your expensive bottles breaking in transit.

Use a corrugated box with polystyrene inserts. Let the box be a little larger than the size of your bottles. Pack the bottles as far from the walls as possible to avoid movement or breakage during handling. Use pressure-sensitive packing tape generously to seal up the closure flaps and prevent bottles from falling out the bottom when in transit. The number of bottles in a case of wine is usually 12. Each bottle holds 750 ml.

Wine consignments must be identified as such in the label. Further, there may be additional labeling required by the origin or destination state.

A wine case filled with bottles

Track Your Consignments

Wine is a time-sensitive product and delays can alter quality. Make sure you track your shipments when they are in transit. Consider using an automated service that can predict delays to make the process easier.

Keep the Customer Informed of Shipment Status

Keeping your customers up-to-speed with the status of their shipments is a healthy practice regardless of the product being shipped. It helps build trust and prevents confusion in the event of any shipping carrier exception occurring. A positive shipping experience for the customer helps you retain them.

Send out periodic SMS and e-mail alerts while a customer’s parcel of wine is in transit. This channel of communication could also come in handy to gently advertise your other wine varieties.

Make Sure an Adult is Present to Take Delivery

The law mandates that only an adult 21 or older with valid ID can take delivery of a consignment of wine. A large number of wine parcels go undelivered because of an adult not being present to take delivery. This is all the more reason to ensure proper communication channels are present between you and your customer during shipping.

A large number of wine parcels go undelivered because of an adult not being present to take delivery.

Audit Your Shipping Invoices

Shipping carriers like UPS and FedEx are more prone to delays and other errors than one might expect. It is therefore a healthy practice to audit your shipping invoices and claim refunds for service failures where applicable. As with parcel tracking, using an automated service for this purpose can go a long way toward simplifying the process.

Auditing your shipping invoices and claiming refunds becomes all the more important as a wine shipper. Wine is an expensive commodity that takes intensive effort to prepare. Any delays or damage during shipping can make a significant dent in the profitability of your business. Auditing invoices and applying for refunds ensures not only that you receive refunds to offset damage during transit but also impels your carrier to provide you better service moving forward.

Conclusion

Shipping wine is far from a straightforward process. Compliance to various state and federal regulations is required at every step of the process. And there are significant fines to be paid for non-compliance. To ship wine is to step into a minefield, and yet, there are numerous businesses that thrive in the sector: businesses not just in the United States but also in Canada with its similarly complicated wine laws.

At the end of the day, what it takes to make it in the wine shipping business is an awareness of state and federal laws and the requirements of shipping carriers as also a desire to delight your customers. Now go enjoy a glass of the best from Sonoma or Napa as you watch the sun set behind the misty, vineyard-covered hills!

A vineyard the US

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