Step by step guide to managing shipments from sellers to customers
You put a ton of exertion into ensuring your clients have an incredible experience with your product. You put a lot of pictures, you tune up your store, and you compose the messages, all intending to leave your clients upbeat. Be that as it may, with regards to delivery, it can feel like you’re giving your image over to an outsider.
Whether you run a warehousing solution in India, or you own an online selling site, with some idea and arranging. Nonetheless, it doesn’t need to feel that way—which is something to be thankful for, in light of the fact that delivery is a crucial piece of your business. It’s where a client at long last experiences your product face to face, and it can likewise speak to a high cost in your business, contingent upon your shipping system.
That is the reason it’s so critical to delineate a characterized shipping methodology. Since the universe of transportation and satisfaction can appear to be perplexing when you’re inexperienced with it, we have a diagram of all that you’ll have to know to settle on an ideal decision for your shipping business. Before we move on to the step by step guide, we need to understand some of the attributes which define your shipping strategy:
- Shipping method and rate: Generally, there are two ways. Either you can pass on the full cost of shipment to your customer, or you can offer free or discounted shipping and adjust the cost in your product price depicted on the online selling site.
- Weight of the item: To make things easy, it’s better to measure and depict the weight of every item that you ship. The simple piece of information ensures the customers that they are paying the correct shipping cost.
- Packaging type: There are many packaging options available, but you only need to stick with the one which ensures the safety and security of the product while en-route to the customer.
- Outsourcing: There are outsourcing options available for each step in the shipping business. From storage to transportation, some players can take care of all the operations. There are many warehousing solutions in India and fulfillment center India, which can get your job done.
Step 1: Determine the essentials
Before you begin with the shipping process, it is advisable to determine a few things, such as the category of the item, delivery date and time, and the recipient details, which are necessary for shipping.
Step 2: Compare, select, and ship
Once you have the entire information ready, you are good to select your courier and start the actual shipping. In this step, you will need to finalize the costs involved, documents required, and regulations to be taken care of. To compare the shipping costs, you can request a quotation from the primary courier services and e-commerce fulfillment services India that you shortlist.
Step 3: Documentation and Labeling
Shipping isn’t as easy as it sounds, but if you are aware of all the steps involved, then it surely is. Get ready with all the documents like waybill, commercial invoice, customs declaration form (in case international shipping is involved), and MSDS declaration for dangerous goods, etc. Major e-commerce fulfillment services, India, who have made it big in the shipping business are very precise about their documentation processes.
Step 4: Packaging
We already mentioned that the best packaging is one that ensures the safety and security of the goods until it reaches its destination. Apart from it, don’t forget to use a ‘fragile’ sticker for delicate items and suitably indicate the presence of a battery or any potentially harmful substance, if any.
Step 5: Handover to the courier
Once you have completed all the above steps, it’s time to hand over the consignment to the courier. Though it sounds pretty simple, you still need to check whether the courier has carefully recorded all the details regarding shipping from the warehouse to the customer.
Step 6: Tracking
There’s no ‘fire and forget’ mechanism for shipping, and that’s why you need to keep a track on the movement of your courier. It is done through a unique ID which is scanned at every point the courier is received. In this way, both you and the customer can track the consignment while its en-route to the destination.
Takeaway Solution: Automating the operations is the key
There are a lot of ways to make a difference through the quality of your product, but if you plan to be the best in the area of shipping, you need to be different from the others. The best way to do that is by getting rid of the manual mechanism and switch to the automated one. An automated fulfillment center India or an automated warehouse consists of AI-based tools and software which speed up the operations to a great extent, thereby minimizing the delivery time and reducing the chance for errors!