Logistical options for shipping and fulfillment have expanded with the rapid growth of e-commerce, cloud, and mobile computing solutions. While this growth has created many opportunities for small and large businesses alike, it’s also raised the standard with consumer expectations. If modern enterprises fail to plan accordingly by upgrading and streamlining existing systems, costly blunders could stifle future growth. In an effort to help, let’s discuss 3 costly shipping and fulfillment blunders and how to avoid them.
Careless Shipping Mistakes
Careless shipping mistakes are one of the biggest blunders a business can make, as they directly impact customers and cost businesses both time and money to manage and resolve. When an order arrives late, contains the wrong item, isn’t packaged correctly, or is shipped to the wrong address, the customer’s expectations won’t be met and the business’s brand reputation will be damaged.
- Overworked employees
- Disparate distribution channels not centralized and integrated
- Understocked warehouses
- Failures with manual inventory processes
- Lack of automation controls with address verification
- Coordination failures with logistic partners
- Lack of coordination with customer service departments
- Not enough resources to meet the scale of orders
Overspending on Shipping and Fulfillment Processes
This blunder is, especially, prevalent with medium to large-sized businesses, as the scale of their orders works to magnify the margins of overspending; conversely, by using an effective solution, the scale of orders can magnify the margins of profit. In other words, running a tight ship with streamlined efficiency has the potential to save businesses a significant amount of time and money.
This is why most of the top companies in the world outsource their shipping and fulfillment processes to 3PL partners, as data from a Shopify article validates:
An estimated 86% of Fortune 500 companies and 96% of the Fortune 100 use these services.
Not Preparing for Peak Seasons
An article found at Forbes puts it this way:
Essentially, businesses want to be prepared for an increase in orders all the time, as this is the goal of marketing efforts and strategic developments, such as expanding e-commerce channels. While the level of order fluctuation will vary depending on the specific variables involved, all businesses will benefit by avoiding the blunder of not being prepared for peak seasons.
How to Avoid These Blunders
Online technology and the rise of e-commerce has drastically changed the expectations of modern consumers. Today’s retail e-commerce consumers expect faster shipping times and optimized shopping experiences. Essentially, they expect the standard being set by retail e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay.
The good news is businesses don’t have to be Fortune 500 companies to excel with shipping and fulfillment, in order to meet these rising consumer expectations. Really, all they need is the right focus, technology, and partnerships to upgrade and optimize these processes. This may include working with a third-party logistics partner and adopting order management software with cloud capabilities.
With the total online retail sales in 2018 at $504.6 billion in the U.S. and $40 billion in Canada ($2.3 trillion worldwide in 2017), there’s plenty of reasons for businesses to focus on optimizing these important processes. For most medium to large-sized businesses, this means finding effective 3PL partnerships that work for their specific needs.
Learn More About Avoiding Shipping and Fulfillment Blunders
Finding the right shipping and fulfillment partner can drastically change the possibilities for businesses. Not only will they avoid these 3 blunders more often, but they’ll also enjoy the benefits of working smarter and not harder. If interested in learning how Ottawa Logistics can help, please contact us today.
