Why do you think, Amazon has set the new standard of completing product delivery within forty-eight hours? Why are big players such as Target and Walmart are trying to compete with Amazon by integrating a two-day shipping model as a standard part of their platform? The answer is simple. These organisations are strengthening their logistics to beat the market competition.
Agreed that currently, your online business might not be on a grand scale. You may have just gone live with your portal and started to receive a handful of orders. But as and when your company expands, you will need a good shipping strategy for smooth deliverables.
Online retail is a rapidly progressing segment with new players stepping in each day. The majority of businesses nowadays depend on a flexible online platform for better performance and customer satisfaction. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, if you want to make your mark, it is important for you to keep pace with the ever-increasing digital demands. To ensure your customers log out happy and satisfied, you will need a full-featured development platform. Also, advanced processes to manage your supply chain should be in place.
Innovative features and technical solutions reduce costs and ensure competitiveness to build an online store. Failing to build a web portal in sync with supply chain trends, will put you at a risk of losing competitive advantage and favours in terms of consumer loyalty.
So how do you accommodate the growing costs, trending features and consumer demands all at once for a swift and efficient supply chain? Well, it isn’t a rocket-science. With technological advancements, the era of manual inventory management, single shipping partner and conventional packaging store is a bygone.
To hold a forefront in the online market, you need to look for advanced logistics facilities that can sky-rocket your business. As we said, there is no rocket science, but it surely needs some considerations. What are those? Let’s look at them in a jiffy!
Table of Contents
#1 Advanced features can help you do more with less
To build a well-efficient supply chain, you need to develop an approach that is software and technology-driven. Firstly, build an online store that provides you with a complete set of features and tools to start, market and grow your business. Once you have established that, you can think of innovative approaches to managing your logistics.
Nowadays most online retail businesses rely on shipping aggregator platforms that provide 360-degree support for their supply management needs. Deploying the features of an aggregator platform will save you on manpower and resources in terms of your valuable time. Besides this, automation will scrape off the scope of errors which otherwise might lead to customer complaints and dissatisfaction. To boil it down, with a shipping aggregator platform you can have greater work productivity with lesser hassles.
Some of these facilities could be:
- Bulk order upload: Nowadays, saving on manpower is equally important like saving time. If you want freedom from processing orders one by one, you can look for a software that helps you upload orders in bulk. You can then send them to designated shippers and save time. Your business efficiency increases, isn’t it?
- Automatic Order Sync: With the help of a reliable logistics tool, you can get all your orders synced automatically for shipping. You do not need any manual intervention. Automatic shipping enables you to easily pull your orders from anywhere that you are selling and get them shipped in a few clicks.
- Scheduled Pickups: Certain supply management platforms allow you to schedule your product pickups. You can conveniently choose your suitable pickup time with your fulfilment partner. Scheduled pickups ensure that one bit from your supply chain is taken care of. Your parcels will be picked up at a given time and you don’t need to keep following up with the e-commerce courier partner.
StoreHippo will provide you with supply chain support with their shipping aggregator platform ShipKaro. Also, it gives you the freedom to choose and integrate any shipping partner of your choice.
#2 There is a way to do it better
Just like in every other aspect of your business, there is a way to do it better when it comes to supply chain management. Are you offering anything extra that ultimately benefits your end-users and takes your supply chain management a notch higher? There are ways through which you can do that!
Simple things like getting a COD option or getting to know the status or location of the product are things that matter to your customers. If you can add such facilities to your shipping chain, nothing better than this !
- Shipping Tracking: Providing your customers an update on their shipment status seems to be a good idea. It will tell them exactly where their products are at any given point in time. Shipping aggregator platforms come with real-time logistics facility that enables you and your customers to track the package when it is out for delivery.
You can make use of a real-time tracking facility to track your shipments once they are out from the warehouse. This helps you stay updated about the movement of your parcel and if any damage or misplacement happens, you can take control of it soon. This is also an added advantage that you are offering to your customers.
- COD cycle support: You have put your heart and soul to build an online store. You have also taken care of supply chain efficiency and have partnered with a good fulfilment provider that helps you cover a wider demographics. But what if your audience does not get the cash on delivery option! It’s not going to do any good right? You will lose the masses. Therefore, you need to offer COD to your customers and expand your business to reach a larger audience base. It’s a good idea if you go for an aggregator platform that ties up with multiple shipping partners offering COD support. Also, check if they are offering automated COD payment cycles and easy ways to manage it.
#3 Partnerships can help you move further
Think your in-house team can look after order deliveries. We are afraid it does not work that way. A reliable e-commerce platform helps you better by offering discounted shipping through their pre-integrated carriers. Most of the time, it is good to partner with multiple fulfilment providers to have multiple gains. So how can this multi-partnership approach help you?
- Global Shipping Solutions: Fulfilment partners have better contacts and reach than your organisation’s in-house supply management team. By leveraging this benefit, you can ship across the globe with integrated fulfilment partners. International shipping will only boost your e-commerce sales and widen your customer beyond geographical boundaries.
- Partial Fulfilment: Suppose one of your customers puts a lot of things in the cart. However, he or she may need some products on priority and is ready to pay extra to get speedy delivery. How do you cope up with that? Well, you can split a multi-product order among different courier partners easily. This can be possible if you use the services of multiple carriers to optimise your cost and delivery time.
So you see, advanced logistics is much more than it appears and encompasses a lot of things. The more well-managed your web portal is and well-planned your company’s supply chain is, the better your business prospects will be. Now how do you ensure that you can take care of all these aspects for an efficient set-up? Well, all you need to do is rely on a good web platform and get going. This way, you can use all the features, build an efficient website and a well-functioned supply chain.
StoreHippo is one of the most flexible online platforms that helps entrepreneurs build an online store. A fully integrated online store adds value to your branding. In a way, it is social proof that you have a systematic approach to showcasing and selling your products or services.
Remember your online store is like that first impression you make on your customers. If they like what they see and find your efforts genuine, they are going to become your loyal customers and eventually your company’s brand ambassadors. Isn’t it one hundred percent worth it?
So when there is an option to exploit innovation for good, why slog with manual options? With StoreHippo’s unique features it’s time to upgrade your website and supply chain and get inspired.
Looking for incorporating advanced features to your web portal? Write to us today!
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