The world of eCommerce experienced a new phenomenon caused by COVID-19. The holiday season further adds more challenges to it in the form of sudden increase in online orders, shortage of in-stock items, and delivery delays.
Shipping carriers such as UPS and FedEx, have learned from experience and are preparing for the increased load. But they aren’t the only ones who should be taking measures to prevent delivery delays. It is the hands of eCommerce retailers as well.
Let’s delve in deeper and find out what causes delivery delays and how to avoid them when shipping overseas.
Impact of Delivery Delays
To some extent, delivery delays are inevitable when sending a package to a faraway destination. They are more likely to happen if you’re delivering gifts to a different continent as in the case of shipping to Europe from the USA. But it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t strive to prevent them.
Delivery delays cost a lot in the long run. They deal a blow to the reputation of the retailer.
Customers are less willing to buy from the same shop if they have experienced shipping delays. The negative feedback also makes it harder to attract new clients.
Not to mention extra costs. They might add up when you have to compensate the customer for a late package. You may also need to deal with cancellations or returns because the parcel took too long to arrive.
How to Avoid Delivery Delays
While some of the factors that impact package delivery, such as weather conditions and global events, are beyond human control, you can still take measures to minimize the risks. Here’s what you can do before the holiday season surges.
Adjust delivery expectations
The best way to deal with customer dissatisfaction over delivery delays is to establish realistic delivery expectations. Don’t wait till the peak of the holiday season. Start preparing your customers in advance.
You can put a banner on your website with the delivery times for the holiday season, especially for international shipping.
The key is to kindly inform and encourage the customer to order sooner to ensure that the goods are delivered on time for holidays.
Some of the international shipping companies, such as FedEx and UPS, have already posted their holiday season shipping schedules. You can follow their example and inform your customers beforehand.
Use multiple carriers
It’s comfortable to work with the same international shipping company that has delivered your packages for a long time. But when the holiday season arrives, your usual carrier might be overwhelmed with the increased volume of parcels. It’s a good idea to partner with more international parcel service providers to ensure that all your packages are handled on time.
If you’re shipping to Russia or Eastern Europe in general, consider partnering with a shipping company that specializes in delivering packages in this region. You can also cooperate with local delivery experts to take some load off your main carrier. Try to ensure several ways of transporting your goods to the client.
Track your packages
International package tracking has several benefits. It’s good for both the client and the retailer. The customer will feel more relaxed with the possibility to check on the parcel from time to time.
You, as the seller, can also take advantage of parcel tracking. You can observe where the packages are being held up and take action in advance.
Proper package tracking can even lessen the burden on customer support. Some clients might not be in a hurry to send inquiries about late packages if they can see at which point of the delivery chain their goods are delayed.
Prepare in advance
The holiday season comes every year at the same time. It’s very convenient because you can anticipate the increase in demand and make preparations beforehand. It’s best to learn from past experiences.
Analyze the most common causes of delivery delays from your personal experience. Try to identify the issues and fix them. Or have a solution ready, if they reappear this holiday season.
Take control of your delivery management
It may be difficult to control everything when shipping overseas during the holiday season. But you don’t have to do this alone. Consider crafting delightful delivery experiences with a post-purchase solution such as LateShipment.com
Delivery experiences from end to end consists of different aspects such as:
- Enabling your customers to track their orders in real-time
- Resolving delivery delays even before they happen
- Delighting your customers with branded tracking pages
- Engaging with your customers via automated and customized shipping transactional notifications
- Collecting customer feedback to know how their delivery experiences fared.
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.
Check out LateShipment.com’s ‘2021 State of Holiday Shipping in the US’ – an unbiased trend analysis and forecast report for UPS and FedEx from an on-time delivery performance standpoint in retail parcel shipping.
