As a business owner, It is important to meet your customer’s demands, especially when it comes to shipping during the holiday season. Unfortunately, many regular shipping and courier systems can pose a host of issues and complications, most of which can be avoided entirely by hiring a same-day courier service like Reliable Couriers.

• Step 1: Set up your order fulfillment process

  It is essential to have this step in place to ensure you are packaging and shipping the correct goods. Make sure you are reviewing orders in a step-by-step process to ensure nothing is missed or looked over. First, review your open orders and ensure they are organized by delivery or location pick-up. Next, you will want to check the packing slip to double-check that everything on the order is packaged, labeled, and ready to ship. Finally, suppose you want to avoid going through the hassle of this organization, checking that all Items are in the shipment, packaging them up, and setting up pick-ups and shipping times. In that case, Reliable couriers offer many different services that can fulfill this need; from rush or same-day freight to next flight out, you will not have to worry about any of the logistics.

• Step 2: Print and buy in bulk

  Shipping can be costly if you buy packaging and labels separately, but you can save time and money by purchasing both in bulk. By printing your labels in bulk, you save yourself the time of filling out and printing or going to the store to pick up each label. Purchasing ship supplies in bulk also usually comes with a price break once you have purchased over a certain amount. Another option to avoid the headache is to hire a same-day courier who will do everything for you—without worrying about printing labels or purchasing too much or too little shipping materials.

• Step 3: Set up pick up and delivery

  It is essential to know what type of delivery your customer wants. It could be a pick-up from your store, delivery to a nearby location, or Door-to-Door delivery. A local pickup or delivery can be easy to manage for some businesses; however, it may become time-consuming and cause companies to fall behind on orders, hindering the entire process. By outsourcing this step to Reliable Couriers, you can keep the process moving and under control.

• Step 4: Meet deadlines

  Every year around the holidays, regular carriers put out shipping deadlines and delivery estimates that never hold true and are always delayed. It is best to plan ahead for this inevitable shipping delay and ship products as soon as possible to avoid any complications with the customer being upset over a late order. Shipping delays like this are not a problem using a same-day delivery service. Same-day shipping services take the package straight from you to the consumer, avoiding any delays in third party carrier warehouses or long delivery routes with hundreds of other people’s packages bouncing around in the back of a truck. Reliable couriers securely transport your package as quickly as possible with 24/7 tracking.

• Step 5: Strategize your Shipping

  There are many ways a company can utilize the busy season to its advantage; here are a few strategies you may want to consider implementing.

  • Type of shipping

    • Free shipping – most of the time, people leave carts full and never make it to check out due to the shipping costs. Offering your consumers free shipping is a compelling way to improve conversion rates without relying on item discounts. However, before doing this, it is important to understand how this will affect your margins and the rates you will have to cover.
    • Flat-rate shipping – this method can offset some of the costs associated with sticker shock for consumers at checkout. With this option, you will still need to check your margins and see how they will be affected by the rates you will be paying. If you choose this method, add weights to each product so that customers can calculate an accurate shipping cost.
    • Exact Cost shipping – for this method, you are charging the consumer precisely what it will cost you to ship. This method can better understand who your customers are and help you make an informative decision on which shipping method will work best for you and your consumers.

  • Return Policy

    • Data shows that nearly 67% of consumers check the return policy of a product before purchasing. The average rate of returns for online shoppers is usually around 20%. With this in mind, you will want to have one of three options in place for your return policy.
      • You pay the cost of the return.
      • The customer pays the return shipping.
      • Both parties bear the cost of shipping.

    The option you choose will again depend on your margins and return rate.

• Step 6: Unboxing Experience

  The unboxing experience is important for many reasons. When a consumer opens their package, how it looks is the first thing they will notice. You want your packaging to stand out from others, and you can get shares on social media by adding your business card and politely asking for a like, follow, and share. This method will help prompt new business. To keep business, you can add complimentary products, samples, and coupons for their next order.

• Step 7: Tracking

  Before a customer even checks out, the number one thing they want to know about their package is, “when is it going to get here?”. You still may receive phone calls and emails no matter how clearly you give shipping dates and times, which is why having a tracking system on your packages can help. If you are shipping with regular couriers, they usually have a ‘tracking’ option for your parcels; however, it is never accurate, on time, and is always given to you as a range. A same-day courier service can provide you with the live tracking of the parcel you and your customer want. Take the guesswork out of when your package will arrive and know when it will come. Reliable Courier’s fleet of vehicles, from sedans and cargo vans, all the way to trucks with lift gates capable of transporting 10,000 lbs, are all equipt with GPS tracking, so you can ensure your package will be delivered at the right place at the right time.