There’s never been a better window to shop in than the world wide web and there’s no end to the type of businesses on the internet. You can quite literally sell whatever you want online, within reason. This is good – but it also means there is a sea of competition out there for you. Competition that will look to capitalize on any area where you slip up.
The very backbone of your online business is how well you can get your products out to customers. If competing businesses or websites can ship products faster, safer or more efficiently than you can – you’re going to lose business, and money.
Firstly, if you want to ship well and master online business – you store needs to be in order. Copy needs to be fresh, unique and relevant. Shipping costs need to be displayed. Terms and conditions need to be available. If you can’t handle this – get someone else like Lightbox over at https://lightboxdigital.co.uk/e-commerce/ to manage it. It’s so valuable that this is mastered.
Because it’s the internet, you’re of course guaranteed to have competition and your customers are more likely to shop around because a cheaper option than you could quite possibly be a few clicks away. This is a good reason to keep prices down, especially in areas like shipping where prices and the costs to you will constantly change – meaning you should be setting your prices and charges to the consumer with respect to the current market for shipping costs.
A lack of respect towards shipping can damage your marketing efforts, but be aware that shipping itself offers an extra chance of marketing your brand.
If you master shipping your product out to customers, they are never going to be left with a bad impression. Shipping is something that should happen daily, week-in and week-out. It constantly repeats and it is physical – which is obviously unique when running an online business. If you can make someone happy when they open a package from you – you’re on a really good path and at the very least you’ve avoided being burned on social media by a lot of angry customers!
It’s important to not dedicate yourself to certain carriers unless a relationship and loyalty will benefit you and your customers. While savings are good, you could potentially save by using a different carrier for your products. Look at all the shipping costs that are available to you and simply choose the best option that doesn’t affect the quality that you should pride yourself on. If you can find a way to offer free shipping, make sure it doesn’t cut into your profits too much as it’s best that your business doesn’t suffer at the expense of your charity – on the overhand, look for ways that you can offer savings to big spenders.
So, now the customer has an efficient site to purchase from and now that they have purchased your goods – everything is done, right? Nope. What happens when the new customer opens the torn package you’ve shipped late to find broken goods? They come to your door and complain and they let as many people know about how bad you are at everything – thanks to social media.
