Tips to Deal with Shipping Delays
Shipping is one of the most important parts in an eCommerce business. A package must be delivered to customers within minimum days. And, if you do not deliver the products on or before the expected delivery date, it will make your customers unhappy. So, in this article, let us discuss how to deal with shipping delays with a few tips and how to track the shipment using a shipping calculator tool.
As we know, shipping delays are not uncommon, especially during these pandemic days. Even the major online retailer Amazon delays the delivery in the pandemic time even for its prime members!
So, shipping delays are common. Approximately 6 -12% of packages are delivered late due to various problems. Even the fastest shipping carriers like FedEx and UPS delay the delivery during the peak seasons. But, customers do not like delays! Hence, as a store owner you have to try your best to deliver the products on time.
Based on the distance or other factors, the delivery can be delayed. Sometimes, it depends upon the courier partner you choose. That is, if you choose a courier partner which has nearest hubs in your targeted locations, you can deliver them quickly compared to other carriers which do not have nearest hubs.
But, some issues like natural disasters, customs issues in international shipment, etc., may lead to delayed delivery.
How does delayed shipments affect your business?
Delayed shipments often leads to unsatisfied customers. If you delay once even though you have delivered all their previous orders even before the expected delivery date, customers may leave your store forever. If the delay takes too long, they can even write a bad review on a public platform, which will lead to losing thousands of your customers.
It is harder to keep the existing customers than to attract new ones. If you need to keep your existing customers and make them choose your store over and over, you have to deliver the packages quickly or within the expected delivery date.
So, it is important to deliver your products on time to keep your existing customers sticking to your store.
Let us check the causes of the delayed shipments in detail.
Causes of Delayed Shipments
As we have already discussed, delayed shipments would affect your reputation. So, for finding solutions to deal with the delayed shipments as well as taking precautions to avoid the delay in advance, you need to check the main causes of delayed shipments. Based on that, you can check the measures to solve the problem.
The following are the main causes of delayed shipments:
- Current issues and problems
Current scenarios and situations like the pandemic have highly influenced the delivery time of shipments. Also, if any natural disaster or calamities occur, that will definitely affect the speed of delivery.
But, these problems are not in your hands as well as the shipping carrier. So, all you can do is keep updating your customers regarding the scenarios and the reason for delayed shipments.
- Problems in international and domestic shipping
Both international and domestic shipments have their own reasons for delayed shipments. When it comes to international shipping, small problems with the paperwork or missing any information in the documents may delay the shipment. Or, if a flight got cancelled due to weather issues or any other problems the shipment will be delayed.
In domestic shipments, most of the shipping will be ground shipping. Hence, the traffic issues, vehicle breakdowns or in a worst case scenario, accidents can lead to delayed delivery.
- Peak time and holiday seasons
During festival seasons and holidays, shipping carriers need to deal with so many packages and deliver a large number of packages in a day. Even though they extend the delivery time, many packages will take time to get delivered.
During this time, the manpower should coordinate and work together. If there are confusions and organizing issues in the hubs or carrier office, there are chances of delayed delivery as they may not have sorted the packages to deliver on priority.
- Customs clearance issues
Customs clearance is an inevitable part of international shipping. You should submit certain documents to the customs department of the destination country to deliver the packages to an address in that specific country.
If the document you have submitted has any incorrect values or missing some information, the package will be held by the customs till you submit the right documents. This will delay the shipment than expected.
- Incorrect destination address
If you have added incorrect information on the address or some spelling mistake occurred on the shipping label, the delivery men will get confused to deliver to the right location. So, try to verify the address from your side before the pickup of packages.
These are the main causes of delayed shipments. Even though you try your best to avoid the shipping delay, sometimes things will not be in your hands. So, what can you do if the shipment has already been delayed? How can you compensate for it to convince customers? Let us check!
Tips to deal with delayed shipments
- Communicate with customer regarding what happened
There is no doubt that customers will be unhappy if you deliver the products after some days from the expected delivery date. But, it is your responsibility to communicate with them the reason for the delay. It will be convincing for customers as they would feel you are aware and concerned about the particular delayed shipment. So, they will become ready to wait for some more days.
You can let them know through calls, SMS, live chat, or email as per your convenience.
- Choose the domestic or local shipping partner
Choose the shipping carrier service which has a number of hubs in the nearest location of the destination address. This will help you to deliver the products to customers’ doorstep as fast as possible.
- Do not promise same day delivery
Some stores promise same day delivery to customers. But, due to many reasons it may get delivered the next day or after some days. If a customer has ordered an urgently required product from your store as you provide same day delivery, they will get disappointed with your service if you could not deliver on that day. So, try not to promise same day delivery if there are chances you cannot deliver on that day.
- Provide free shipping
If you have no idea on the speed of delivery of a specific carrier you have chosen, or you are aware of a situation which will definitely lead to delayed delivery, provide free shipping for customers. With free shipping, customers will have less expectation of fast delivery compared to paid shipping.
- Compensate on next orders
Unfortunately, if a shipment is already delayed due to some unforeseen circumstances, you can compensate for it in the customer’s next orders. Provide free shipping or give attractive discounts and offers in their next orders. And, do not forget to communicate with them regarding the offer and discount you will provide in their next orders. This will make them not leave your store as well as they will again shop from your store.
- Pass the packages to nearest driver if the vehicle got stuck
If a vehicle broke down and hampered the delivery, contact the nearest available shipping carrier driver to pick up the packages and deliver to customers. This will avoid the chances of delayed delivery due to vehicle breakdowns.
- Share the real time tracking details with customers
Share the tracking link with your customers which will show the real time status of the packages in transit. This will reduce customers’ frustration as they can clearly view their package’s transit status in real time.
To get the best shipping rates of multiple shipping carriers and getting their tracking details, you can use a shipping calculator tool.
The ReachShip shipping calculator can be used to check the shipping rates of USPS, UPS, FedEx, MyPost Business, and DHL shipping carriers, print their label and get the tracking links easily.
So, get the tracking links of all your shipments and share with your customers to let them check the status of their order!
Wrap Up
Delayed shipment will definitely affect your store’s reputation. But, sometimes you cannot control the reasons which lead to delayed shipments. In such scenarios, take some precautions and use the tips specified in this article to make your customers always happy and satisfied!
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