Preparing for Q4

2020 is without a doubt, an unprecedented year. The novel coronavirus forced everything to go online. Consumers were panic buying essentials and leaving grocery stores empty and retail stores closed. It quickly became the year for ecommerce growth and retail store adjustment. .

With the country still on partial shutdown and growth in people who feel uncomfortable with air travel, we can only project online buying continuing to grow this holiday season. Customers will be looking for the best and cheapest way to get their gifts far and wide to their loved ones.

Though many digital-native companies are more than happy to welcome the growth in ecommerce, this sudden evolution has left a lot of companies floundering. The lack of systems in place to handle the quantity of packages being delivered have proven to be too much for many who used to lean heavily on their brick and mortar sales. An influx of customer reviews has hit the web, with stories of broken packages, wrong items delivered, and even packages that simply never arrived. Companies have spent the last 6 months scrambling to hire more delivery people and warehouse workers to package orders in a timely and safe matter. Logistically speaking, it’s been a shipshow.

With the holidays just around the corner, and online sales not slowing down any time soon, here is a list of tips to keep your business organized:

1. Hire a Supply Chain Specialist:

Supply chain management is a very specific and highly regarded position created to help you with your warehouses, route planning, shipping, and manufacturers. These business wizards maximize profit, decrease errors, and increase productivity. Bringing in an outside eye to look for gaps and weaknesses in your supply chain can be a great way to ensure smooth sailing for Q4.

2. Consolidate Shipping

Consumers have the tendency to enter multiple orders on one site within moments of each other, yet this often creates different orders within basic systems. In order to reduce time and money on boxes and shipping labels you consolidate the order into one when shipping.

3. Free Shipping and Returns

If you are planning on investing most of your money to your ecommerce platforms, then it is best to try to encourage consumers to shop there rather than brick and mortar. Consumers are 96% more likely to shop on a site that offers free shipping and 87% of consumers are more likely to buy from a site that offers free returns. This is just one way to give your customers great customer service and keep them shopping online.

4. 24/7 Support

With customers more likely to turn to ecommerce this holiday season, making sure there is a focus on customer support is a must. Customers will no longer be in the stores to ask employees which size would better fit their wife’s cousin, they will be turning to customer support. Offering 24/7 support or hiring more customer relation reps to ensure buyer questions get answers will help increase customer conversion.

5. Integrating with a Shipping Solution

Shipping solutions can integrate all your marketplaces and will rate shop the best possible shipping price, making it our favorite (excuse the bias!) way to ensure customers are happy this season. The more errors within shipping, the more the company must pay to keep consumers happy. Working with a shipping solution company such as DesktopShipper will reduce errors and increase your ROI by reducing shipping cost for each parcel.

Fact: consumers are expecting more from their ecommerce retailers. They want the right packages on time and for the best possible price. Utilizing the above tips will help your business stay organizes while increasing profit.

Which tip do you think is the most helpful?