How to Overcome the Logistical Challenges of eCommerce?

Published on: 11 January 2019 Last Updated on: 04 November 2024

If you want your online business to really take off in 2019, you’re going to need to plan ahead for the logistical challenges presented. There are numerous issues eCommerce companies face in terms of logistics; particularly as the business grows. So, if you want to overcome the challenges within the industry, here you’ll discover some of the best tips and advice you can follow.

Ensure you’re providing the right delivery options:

One challenge eCommerce businesses face today is the increase in delivery demand. This poses two potential problems. Firstly, it means your business needs to ensure its goods are delivered quickly and safely to its customers. Secondly, it means you need to be offering a variety of delivery options in order to keep customers happy.

Customers today want a variety of delivery options available. This could include same day, next day and special delivery options. If you aren’t offering a variety of delivery methods, you could be missing out on a lot of potential business.

Avoiding inventory issues:

Inventory issues pose a major challenge for eCommerce. As online shopping continues to rise, it’s more important than ever before for retail companies to keep tabs on their stock levels. You’ll need to pay attention to both inventory location, as well as accuracy.

Knowing where everything is located will improve efficiency within the warehouse, while also ensuring you don’t invest in a stock that you don’t actually need. Similarly, ensuring you have full visibility of your stock levels in real time will help you to prevent running out of stock and disappointing your customers.

You can purchase inventory software which automatically tracks stock levels and shows where the stock is. This is definitely worth investing in if you want to improve your logistics in 2019.

Providing a reliable delivery service:

We mentioned earlier that there were two challenges with delivery in today’s eCommerce sector. One of which was ensuring your parcels arrive quickly and safely. There are hundreds of delivery companies to choose from these days and not all of them offer a good, reliable service. Therefore, you’re going to want to ensure you choose a courier service you can rely on.

Take your time to compare the different couriers and see what their reputation is. You should be able to find plenty of online reviews to help you make the best decision.

The above are just some of the main logistical challenge’s eCommerce businesses face today. As online shopping is expected to grow even further in 2019, getting on top of your logistics operations and ensuring they are as efficient as possible, is going to help ensure you keep up with demand.

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Three Essential Techniques To Form Lasting Customer Loyalty

A great product and/or service may be the foundation of a company, but customer loyalty is the key to success. Customers don’t come with a guarantee to stick by you just because they’ve purchased something: loyalty and repeat business must be earned and enticed. The standard adages and techniques apply: put the customer first, reward their continued business, and create a valuable experience beyond your product. How can these things be effectively achieved? Review the following key areas and tailor them to your business. Different Ways To Maintain Customer Loyalty There are multiple ways you can maintain customer loyalty. You have to understand the ways that can work well for you in the best possible manner. Access customer relationship management tools: In the same realm as enterprise resource management tools, there are digital solutions to assist with practically managing and improving relationships and dealings with customers. These systems provide easy, streamlined access to data and customer information anywhere, with cloud capabilities. Manage sales, customer support, marketing, and more. Collect the right data from customers and learn how to utilize it to your advantage. Employees are empowered with accurate reporting tools to manage and forecast effectively. Marketing programs are automated, and campaigns can be tracked, analyzed, and altered. Customers have tools to help themselves in addition to enhanced customer care and satisfaction applications. Expert consultants can offer professional Sage software help to better customize a CRM solution to fit your organization. Go beyond offering incentivizing rewards: Rewards programs, like earning points to spend, or free products based on milestones, are common because they work. Customers are indeed drawn to return to companies that add extra value to their repeat business. But, because these perks are standard, and many businesses offer them, so too do your competitors. You need to go beyond a rewards program. Encourage people to spend time on your site with entertaining and informative content. This could be blog articles that enhance your product or service with tips for usage, getting the most out of their purchases, how to improve their lives in the same general subject area. Videos are another great way to deliver this information and encourage engagement. Promote a sense of community among your customers. Send newsletters that treat everyone like members of a team with common interests and goals. Create social media channels suited to your brand where people can interact and potentially help and add value to each other’s lives. The plan sponsored events and opportunities in the community. Develop a branded app to for additional functionality and connection. Provide authentic customer care: Open communication channels to offer feedback and ask questions. Let customers know they not only have a forum, but that it is being read, considered, and responded to. Allow other members of the community to aid your efforts through offering their assistance and tips on a digital platform like a message board or social media. Allow your loyal customers to help your company make decisions and steer you in new directions. Provide surveys that go beyond asking ‘How Did We Do?’ by asking for and valuing their opinions on new offerings, designs, and customizations. Allowing for multiple aesthetic and functional options to choose from when buying to better personalize your offerings makes your product or service suit the individual better and sets you apart. If customizations aren’t feasible, instead of better inform customers on how to make the most of their purchase with proper instructions, additional materials, and tips. Read Also: Why Your Business Should Care About Social Responsibility

List of Basic Shipping Documents you should be aware of

The shipping of goods involves interacting with different governments and commercial parties to transport goods from one place to another. In international shipping to be specific, rules should be properly maintained for the smooth transport of goods. There are a number of procedures and documents that need to be filled in. Sanctioning of the order, specifying its origin, declaring its ownership are just a few of the many shipping documents that need to be arranged for the transport. Sellers, after discussing it with the buyers, must use proper incoterms on the products to increase their shipping potential. Even the payments are made on the basis of the arranged documents. Therefore the importance of the shipping documents can be properly gauged from the above lines. Still, it can be really confusing for the sellers to arrange it all smoothly. So, to help the sellers, a list of basic shipping documents integral for international shipping has been compiled below- Purchase Order: This is the first official deceleration of the order received by the seller from the buyers. The purchase order defines what has been ordered, the quantity, its monetary value, and the parties taking part in the transactions. Commercial invoice: While the purchase order is the initial document declaring the purchase, the commercial invoice is the final receipt of all transactions between the buyer and seller. This contains the amount paid, yet to be paid, shipment details, carrier payments, and even the incoterms that guide the transaction. The article is also used by the federal authorities to check the ownership of the goods and to identify individual organizations involved in the transaction. In a way, the commercial invoice summarizes the whole transaction procedure on a single sheet of paper. Bill of Lading: The bill of lading is an official contract signed between the owner of the goods and the carrier services be it ships or an airplane. By generating a bill of lading, the carrier agrees to carry the specified goods from one destination to another officially. Therefore the bill of lading is an important shipping document as it makes the freight forwarders association responsible for the products they are transporting. This reduces the excessive pressure on the seller while the transport of goods. Similarly, when the cargo has reached its destination, the bill of lading is used to hand over the shipment to the importers by the carriers. Packing List: The packing list is a detailed itemized list of cargo. It includes the names, weights, volumes, and monetary value of every item being transported. Even the safety measures are taken as well as the packaging types are also mentioned in this list. The packing list is the document referred to by the customs officials in case of any discrepancy in the cargo. It allows swift identification of the suspicious object and minimizes the damage to the other cargo. As a reference, it is used to make other shipping documents like the bill of lading. In some cases, the payment procedures via a letter of credit also depend on the submission of a packing list. [caption id="attachment_21956" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Packing List should contain itemized details of the cargo[/caption] Letter of credit: International shipping takes time and is very complex due to the several parties involved. Therefore a secure mode of payment needs to exist for the growth of trade. A letter of credit is generally accepted as the most credible mode of payment among traders. This is issued by a reputed bank guaranteeing the payment to the seller within a specific period in case the buyer fails to pay the whole transaction sum in the specified period. This payment can be obtained by the seller only after successfully submitting all the shipping documents to the specified bank. Dock/Warehouse Receipt: The condition of the product is integral while being transported from one place to another. In case of going for a long voyage, the shipment is stored in a dock/warehouse before being shipped off. The receipt generated here proves that the product arrived in good condition and is passed along as it is. Certificate of Origin: Certificate of Origin declares the country to which the product is manufactured and therefore belongs to. This is an essential shipping document because countries have different trade policies with different countries. Therefore if the origin country is unknown, the customs cannot charge proper taxes and other duties on the goods. It also helps to identify if transporting the goods is legal and conforms to trade ties between the countries. Insurance Certificate To minimize the risk in international shipping, insurance is taken on the shipment by the exporter. The insurance certificate certifies the insurance scheme and its value. All these shipping documents together can give the parties involved the best experience of international shipping. Though a lot of the information in many of these documents is similar each serves its own purpose and is needed in different stages of shipping. To know about these in more detail, check out https://www.cogoport.com/shipping-documents. Read Also: Follow These 5 Tips To Avoid Mistakes In Immigration Application The Ultimate Moving Checklist – Things you Need to do When Moving 10 Things to Do Before You Move Out of State

Role of supply chain management in business

In recent times, supply chain management (SCM) has had a huge impact on global business. The presence of an efficient SCM system can directly improve customer service, benefiting the producers and distributors simultaneously. This article talks about the operations that supply chain management encompasses and the advantages that it comes along with. Supply chain management ꟷ definition Supply Chain Management (SCM) is an important part of every business organization, no matter the size. It refers to the effective management of stock chain activities to maximize customer benefit and gain a sustainable competitive benefit in the international marketplace. In addition to this, SCM also deals with the movement and storing of materials needed to create the final product, inventory management and keeping track of finished goods. Another important aspect of SCM is the strategic alignment of end-to-end business processes to determine market and economic value. Keeping a good supply chain management system in place can drastically improve the efficiency of plants, warehouses, and transportation vehicles. In brief, SCM plays a crucial role in the final standing point of a company. The importance of employing supply chain management to business Supply chain management has turned out to be an essential part of a business and is crucial to every company’s progress and customer comfort. This is because SCM has the power to increase customer service and reduce operating costs. It also improves the financial position of a company. The following pointers explain how supply chain management helps a business to execute all of this: Meeting customer expectations to deliver the correct product mix and quantity to be delivered on time, in the right location; Providing efficient follow-up support right after a sale is made; Decreasing the purchasing and production cost, for example, quick distributions of costly products and raw materials; Setting up a proficient SCM system to design a network that meets customer service goals on behalf of wholesale manufacturers and retailer suppliers; Assisting businesses to control and decrease supply chain expenditures, thereby increasing profit leverage; Reducing the use of large fixed assets such as plants, warehouses and transportation vehicles, which can essentially diminishing cost; Enhancing cash flow by contributing to the speed of product flows to customers. The structure of an SCM degree curriculum puts emphasis on leveraging the effects of the operations, as well as the effects of supply chain management on business performance and its objectives. Choose to obtain knowledge with Diploma in Supply Chain Management today and gain a fundamental understanding of company SCM from a global perspective. Read Also: International Business Degrees in Today’s Global Marketplace 4 Reasons Your Home Business Needs A Virtual Receptionist Start-up Business Management: How to Reduce Risk and Guarantee Success

How to Overcome the Logistical Challenges of eCommerce?

Ensure you’re providing the right delivery options:

Avoiding inventory issues:

Providing a reliable delivery service:

How to Choose Insurance When Launching Your HHA Business

What are the best business opportunities for 2019?

Content Rally

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

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Three Essential Techniques To Form Lasting Customer Loyalty

List of Basic Shipping Documents you should be aware of

Role of supply chain management in business

How to Overcome the Logistical Challenges of eCommerce?

Ensure you’re providing the right delivery options:

Avoiding inventory issues:

Providing a reliable delivery service:

Share this Article

How to Choose Insurance When Launching Your HHA Business

What are the best business opportunities for 2019?

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

Leave a Reply

Popular

Follow Us

Recent

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