You provide an excellent shopping experience, the most competitive prices, outstanding customer support, but if your shipping process is inadequate, you are sure to lose your potential customers.
Why? Customers care about shipping; after all, shipping is the process that gets the products into customers’ hands. Your eCommerce website shipping strategy is the key to the success of your online store.
Yes, it is true! Statistics say that 38% of customers steer clear of the retailer after a negative delivery experience, while 60% switch to competitors providing more convenient delivery options. Moreover, 75% of shoppers look for free shipping as an important factor when purchasing online.
Like many other small online businesses, if you also believe that you alone can manage the whole logistic process, there are chances you will ruin your business reputation. It isn’t just about what options you offer on your online store.
Over that, there is no all-in-one platform for eCommerce that manages logistics, CRM, ERP, and other related things. Keeping these things in mind, it becomes inevitable for you to partner with one of the most reputed eCommerce shipping companies. Furthermore, to understand how eCommerce shipping works, what are things taken into consideration, continue reading!
What eCommerce shipping process entails?
The eCommerce shipping process includes everything from receiving an order from the customer to delivering the product to the customer. It comprises three primary stages that include:
- Order receive: Ensuring the availability of items ordered by the customer.
- Order processing: Verifying and validating the order data.
- Order fulfillment: Generating a list of things to be picked, packed, and prepared
What is the eCommerce shipping process? (4-step process)
Here are the four simple steps of eCommerce shipping required to provide the best customer experience and ensure robust business growth. Read on!
Step 1: Order Processing
It involves a set of activities needed to process the order placed by the customer. There are different teams in a logistics company that are dedicated to performing a specific task in processing the order.
Once your business has received an order, the production and inventory team will verify whether you have inventory in stock or not. Then, verify the customer’s shipping address and other pertinent information associated with the order and finally close the purchase order by forwarding the task to the packaging and delivery team.
Step 2: Order Packaging
Now the packaging team is responsible for packing the items properly before the shipment. Some of the standard packaging options utilized by the eCommerce companies are boxes, envelopes, packets, more.
However, packaging depends on the type of item. Packaging is considered the critical aspect of shipping; first, it prevents the product from getting damaged, and secondly, it creates brand value.
It is important to note that your packaging needs to be sturdy, durable to keep the item intact during transit yet user-friendly and cumbersome. Plus, it should have your brand identity distinctly visible.
Step 3: Logistics and Delivery
It is another crucial aspect of eCommerce shipping in India. To grow your business, you should have an outstanding logistics facility to meet your customer’s satisfaction and deliver the products to your customer’s doorstep timely and seamlessly. Click here to know more: https://www.shiply.com/
For this, one needs to partner with a reliable third-party logistics and courier agency that will provide the orders on your behalf. If you are an eCommerce giant, of course, you can afford to have your own logistics division to deliver your orders; however, for small or mid-sized businesses, there are countless eCommerce shipping companies to partner with.
Step 4: Returns
Now comes the last stage of shipping- ‘Return’. Sometimes customers return the product received for some reason, and then your logistics partner schedules a pickup from the customers and ships the item back to the retailer. Further, based on the return policies of the eCommerce business, the refund is processed.