10 ways for an online store to burn out on delivery

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Julia Avdeeva, Marketing Director of IdeaLogic, specially for Lifehacker wrote a very important article about what NOT to do if you have an online store, and you want to grow and do not want to go broke. Mistakes can be avoided if you approach the issue of organizing delivery responsibly and competently.

At the start, almost every novice entrepreneur who opens his first online store is a multi-machine hero. He does everything himself - from the production of goods to courier delivery. But this period does not last long. Soon the turnover begins to grow, the work increases, and our salesman begins to understand that we need helpers. And not anyhow, but professional. Because taking five packages with orders to neighboring streets is one thing, and establishing logistics even for thousands of orders from different cities a month is already a serious task that requires a balanced approach.

And if the scale of our entrepreneur's thinking grows along with his business, there is a chance to organize delivery in such a way that it will facilitate further influx of customers. And if there are already a lot of orders, and the merchant is still the same multitasking loner, then he, most likely, will go the way we want to tell you about. Your attention - 10 opportunities to spend time, effort and money on the wrong organization of delivery, lose faith in distance selling and go broke.

1. Wrong choice of assortment and work format

If you are fully focused on a seasonal product or there are surges in demand in your business, and you don’t want to outsource logistics, be prepared to overpay for warehouse and staff during periods of downtime and lack of resources at the time of peak orders. The consequence is the loss of customers and the development of a bad reputation.

2. Few delivery methods and limited delivery area

For example, a store delivers goods in Moscow, but does not want to bother organizing delivery in the Moscow region, not to mention other cities. Because in Moscow, he has enough of his three couriers, and outside of it he will have to hire someone, use the services of logistics operators. This means that you voluntarily give up a huge regional client base, and your competitors who are not too lazy to tackle these issues will definitely take advantage of this situation.

3. Inconvenient and unobvious delivery terms for the client

If you need some basic hacking skills to find meaningful information on your online store website, you can say goodbye to most customers. People want to see terms, conditions, and shipping costs right away. No one will be looking for anything - they will just leave the basket and google another store.

4. Poor address data entry system

Another possible drawback of the store's website is an inconvenient and unobvious form for entering customer data. If there are no drop-down tips, automatic lists of regions, if the client has to guess, fill in the cells in capital or lowercase letters, and enter captcha 10 times - you can count on errors in delivery addresses at least, which will lead to a return of the order or delivery to the wrong address. But, most likely, the client will simply leave.

5. Savings on personnel and outsourcers

If you think that your operator can manage the bookkeeping and answer customer calls at the same time, and on the way can throw a couple of orders, then most likely, you will really be able to save money. But things will not go beyond those two orders.

6. Ill-conceived packaging of goods

Damage to goods during delivery, loss or theft are not as uncommon as you might like to think.

7. Ignorance and non-observance of the carrier's rules on packing and processing of items

The entire batch of incorrectly processed items can be “wrapped up”. Agree, it is not the most pleasant gift for both the customer and you: you will have to spend time and money on repackaging, re-registering the items and re-transferring them to the carrier.

8. Poorly organized work on tracking the progress of delivery of items and informing the recipient about it

If you yourself do not know where your shipment is at the moment, you do not give any specific information to the buyer, and you can only shrug your hands at his question - there will be many complaints. And orders are few.

9. Refusal to work with cash on delivery

Yes, the number of cash on delivery refunds may increase. Yes, some funds are temporarily frozen. But customer loyalty and trust in the presence of cash on delivery increases disproportionately. If you only want to receive prepayment, you voluntarily limit your customer base, which means that you slow down the growth of your business. This is especially critical for a beginner store, which is still unknown to anyone, and it is too early to talk about customer confidence.

10. Lack of control over cash on delivery

The freezing of working capital for a long time and the lack of control over the transfer of money for orders leads to financial losses, everything is obvious.

Indeed, there can be a lot of problems in organizing logistics and it is very easy to burn out on delivery. But all these mistakes can be avoided if you approach the issue of organizing delivery responsibly and competently.