6 Packaging & Delivery Tips For New Businesses

6 Packaging & Delivery Tips For New Businesses

If you have just started a new e-commerce business, you’re probably already inundated with hundreds of tasks that go hand in hand with starting a new business. One of the biggest components of an ecommerce business is its packaging and shipping processes. Getting this fundamental step of business wrong can lead to irate customers who in turn give you a bad reputation online. The solution? An iron clad packaging and delivery system. In today’s article, we look at 6 packaging and delivery tips for new businesses, so read on to find out more!

Streamline costs 

Shipping is not something that comes cheap which is why streamlining the process and its costs is vital for any new start up. When it comes to your packaging, it is always recommended to do a little “window shopping” and fully exhaust all resources before biting the bullet. In 2020, packaging options are plenty and one size of box may not fit all. In some instances, the best solution may not even be a box. The best way to figure out the most cost-effective packaging for your business is to get online and start researching the latest in packaging materials, designs and technology.

When it comes to streamlining warehouse and delivery costs, there are a wide number of options that are at your disposal. One of the biggest trends in 2020 is to reduce overhead costs by looking into options such as automation and skylight installation that will greatly reduce your overall utility costs. Getting into contact with various courier services to find out which one can offer you the best deal is also highly advised to ensure that you’re not spending exorbitant amounts to get your products to consumers.

Schedule carrier pickups

The last thing you want to be doing is making multiple trips to the post office every day, especially when your new business is in its budding stages. To maximise efficiency, we highly recommend scheduling carrier pickups. Scheduled pickups are where your carrier representative comes to your warehouse or office to gather your packages and inputs them into the mailstream all at once. Depending on your business, you may need either one or two pickups a day to fulfill all your orders.

Understanding dimensional weight

Unless you ship using flat-rate boxes, one thing you’re going to have to get around is the concept of dimensional weight. This is something that is often met with confusion, so let’s try to simplify it. Dimensional weight, also known as volumetric weight, is a concept that was introduced for light-weight and low-density packages due to the amount of space they occupy in relation to their weight.

Calculating dimensional weight: 

Dimensional Weight = (Length x Height x Width) / DIM factor

The DIM factor is a number that can change from carrier to carrier.

Dimensional weight is something that all business owners need to pay attention to as not doing so may result in extremely high shipping costs that prove to be incredibly unprofitable for your new business. Find all this a little daunting? Fret not, because major carriers like UPS and Couriers Please have dedicated DIM weight calculation tools on their websites.

Test it out first

When you send a shipment out, you have a lot riding on your package. All the factors that are out of your control including environmental factors and handling may result in a less than optimal package that reaches your customer’s front door. In order to avoid such a situation, we recommend testing out your packaging and delivery process in order to monitor how smoothly (or roughly) the whole process goes. It is important that you come up with testing guidelines and so that you can determine whether your packaging is the best for your product.

Use 3rd party insurance

So, you send a package out and it either gets totally damaged, lost, or worse. This is a situation that one cannot entirely avoid, so the next best option is 3rd party insurance. Many small and or new businesses pay for insurance when shipping which is a smart and unfortunately rather costly move. A better alternative is to use third-party insurance that often costs about half the price and ensures that any damages to your product are covered, come rain or shine.

Utilise shipping software 

The whole packaging and shipping procedure is one that is incredibly time consuming and where time is money, it is important to streamline the process as much as possible. Shipping software is a great option for new businesses as they can help you manage orders, negotiate rates with carriers, print shipping labels, track packages and much more. Ideally, you’ll want to choose software that integrates with your ecommerce platform so that you can easily sync all of the information. Doing so will cut hours and hours of your time which you can better use on other aspects of growing your startup.

With these new business shipping tips, you’ll be able to save boat loads of time when it comes to getting your product from point A to point B, thus resulting in highly satisfied customers that make repeat purchases repeatedly.