Whatever your business, if you sell products then you need to establish an effective delivery system. While Royal Mail may prove an efficient solution for sending letters, it is unlikely to be the cheapest option for parcels and packages. What’s more, you are more likely to enjoy access to a wider range of delivery options, alternatives, and even bulk discounts by using a courier service like, for example, TNT Direct. Below are six additional tips to help improve the delivery process for your home-based business.
Know Your Delivery Rates Before You Advertise Them
If you don’t offer next day delivery, you may lose some buyers. You could suffer a similar fate if you fail to offer delivery slots, but you are highly likely to lose out on repeat custom, and will almost certainly gain a bad reputation for failing to meet your own delivery promises. Make sure you are aware of the delivery options available to you, so that you can advertise realistic deliveries to your potential customers.
Offer Clear Delivery Options
Buyers love options, and while some people may prefer next-day delivery, others may be more than willing to wait a few days if it means saving some money. By providing a decent range of options, you will alienate fewer potential buyers and increase your revenue potential.
Brand Your Deliveries
Repeat customers are your most profitable customers. You pay less for marketing, lead nurturing, and you have already built a relationship of trust with those buyers that come back for more. Always include branded invoices, receipts, letters, or details of your latest sale, and even consider branded franking and packaging to help retain more customers.
Impulse Buyers Typically Want Next Day Delivery
Impulse buyers, and many of your other buyers, will want to receive the items they buy as quickly as possible. Typically, this means that they want it next day, and in some cases they may want it guaranteed next morning. Try to ensure that you can offer next day delivery.
Flexible Delivery Times
Few people can justify waiting at home all day for a parcel to arrive, unless they are buying big-ticket items. Allow your buyers to choose a specific delivery schedule, or at least offer them a good range of options so that they can ensure they will be around to take delivery.
Free Shipping Really Does Draw Attention
Next day delivery and delivery slots are usually a premium service for you and your customers, and there are those buyers that will be more interested in saving some money than in receiving their items as quickly as possible. Free shipping is a major draw to these buyers, and something you should try to incorporate into your business.
I am encouraged to buy products if the delivery is free. And, I think this strategy should be incorporated by every business if they want to draw attention and increase profit.
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I’ve considered starting an online retail business a few times, just selling things on Etsy. So it’s good to have a bit of extra advice on how to make the delivery aspect of things run smoothly.
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When it comes to courier service, that’s when my wife and I think about doing it more effectively. Especially for the small company that the both of us have started doing. So together we are looking to see our options in working with a courier service.
Free delivery is great but, nothing is ever free. The seller either has to absorb the cost or add it onto the price of the item. Obviously, absorbing the cost only works for high priced items.
Also, there are situations where neither adding nor absorbing work. For example, if you sell an item for $5 and postage is $10, you can’t absorb that cost and adding on the postage triples the price of your inexpensive item.
Having sold online for over ten years, my recommendation is to put a lot of thought into this aspect of the business BEFORE committing to a product line. It’ll make life a LOT simpler for you if you can offer free post. But, you don’t want to send yourself broke doing it.
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I really like the suggestion to brand your deliveries! You talk about how branding your packaging can help you retain more customers. I definitely agree when you add logos and personalize the invoices or details, the package will be more inviting to the customer. This is a simple customer service task, and I definitely agree that it will help you to make and keep loyal and authentic customers. Thank you for sharing!
These are some really great tips for anyone who handles packaging and shipping for small or home-based businesses. I know a lot of the businesses I buy from I do so because I appreciate their shipping methods over others. because getting whatever it is you’ve purchased is really important. The faster and more convenient you can make it for your customers to receive their purchases, the better off you’ll be. Thanks so much for writing!
I didn’t know that some courier services could offer bulk discounts. I understand how hiring a courier service can provide a wider range of delivery options; after all, they know more about delivery than you do. However, getting bulk discounts is a great option if you’ll be delivering a lot of packages. Thanks for all the tips!
This is a great guide to follow for people who have or are starting a home-based business. It’s really important to understand your customers in order to meet their wishes and needs. Delivery time and efficiency is definitely something that every buyer is concerned about, so it should always be a priority of a business or distributor! Nice work. Thanks for sharing!
I didn’t realize that courier services could give bulk discounts. This is something that I have considered, but I just didn’t know much about it or how to go about arranging this type of thing. Thank you for explaining all of the benefits of using a courier service and for your alternative ideas. If the courier doesn’t work out, I will certainly look into your other ideas.
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Nice share. I think all of these 6 delivery tips are every product selling business owners need to follow. A product based business most challenging part is satisfying the customers from selling products to delivery to them properly.
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You’ll have more time to focus on other stuff on your business knowing that some tasks are already handled by professionals.
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These tips are really helpful for people who are starting a small business. Others are lost with procedures with deliveries which eventually causes loss of profit. Now they have a reference on what to do with product deliveries.
Nice post. These tips will be useful for me. I do not have much idea about these accounting and all. Thanks for sharing this informative post.This information will be beneficial for many people.
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