By Rob Hango-Zada, Co-Founder / Joint CEO Shippit
The eCommerce landscape is changing. Business leaders must de-risk their operations, prepare for large scale disruption and surges in consumer demand to protect the customer experience. Shippit’s own data shows that since September, retailers were already dealing with Christmas 2020 volumes every single day. And today, off the back of a 25% increase in online retail demand, Australia’s parcel-handling system continues to experience delays and courier disruptions.
Choosing the right carrier can help reduce shipping delays and has never been more important. With a record-breaking peak season ahead, staying on top of your fulfilment and logistics operations will be key to meeting customer demand.
We can’t predict how this will impact networks and supply chains, but we don’t see the trend of online shopping going away. So, here are 4 ways to de-risk your operations and reduce shipping delays this peak season:
1. Warehouse Management
Strategically plan out your warehouse operating hours to reduce fulfilment backlogs and speed up delivery times to customers.
Tip: Create a calendar for workers of when extra hours are needed to meet surges in customer orders around the holiday season. For instance, a Saturday shift (after Black Friday sales) will help reduce the number of orders needed to be fulfilled on the following Monday.
2. Multi-carrier shipping strategy
A multi-carrier strategy helps to spread freight across the right mix of carriers, especially when depots are at capacity through peak and parcels can take longer to be processed.
Tip: This will help de-risk deliveries from delays.
3. Multiple delivery options/on-demand delivery
Offer multiple delivery options at checkout to give your customers the convenience of online shopping and peace of mind that their orders will be delivered on time.
Tip: Provide access to a range of delivery options to get ahead of cut-off times — from standard to express, next day, same day and on-demand —at discounted rates.
4. Define your returns strategy to improve customer satisfaction
While a large influx of holiday gift returns might not start coming in until the end of December or early January, it’s important to make sure you have a thorough returns management process in place.
Tip: Revisit your returns policy and review which products have historically been returned the most. Based on qualitative data, determine why and consider making changes to the product descriptions to set better expectations.
Ready to get ahead of peak season demand and avoid supply chain delays? Set your business up for success by adopting a multi-carrier strategy.