The holiday season can be one of the most lucrative, yet overwhelming times of the year if your company isn’t properly prepared for the influx of orders. Shipping can sometimes feel like a chore, but it doesn’t have to with good shipping methods.
Sell more this holiday season by incorporating these shipping strategies today:
Utilize a 3PL for fast, smooth shipping
As one of the best 3PLs for ecommerce, we encourage utilizing a third-party logistics provider (3PL) like Fulfyld to fulfill your company’s orders for faster, more efficient shipping. The surge in shopping that happens during the holiday season can be overwhelming if you don’t have a sufficient amount of storage and resources available, and let’s face it—the garage or your home office just won’t cut it anymore. At Fulfyld, we save our customers lots of time and money by taking care of this part of business. We handle everything from storage to picking, packing and shipping your orders. Whether it’s your ecommerce store, Kickstarter campaign, subscription box or other ecommerce fulfillment needs, we get ship done.
Optimize your mobile site and checkout page by creating a seamless checkout experience
Nowadays, many more shoppers are going online via their mobile phones to make purchases. Therefore, its crucial to provide a mobile-friendly version of your website that is simple and fast, making it easy for customers to purchase your product. When a potential customer visits your site and the pages, images, products, etc. take too long to load, it can quickly turn potential customers off and compel them to shop elsewhere.
Additionally, after optimizing your mobile site you also want to make sure your checkout experience is seamless. Too many fields to fill out during checkout, advertisements, or the biggest turn-off of them all: expensive shipping rates can easily make a customer abandon their cart.
Beware of holiday shipping deadlines
Staying in the know of holiday shipping deadlines with major carriers like USPS, UPS or FedEx, will allow you to communicate shipping expectations to your customers amid holiday season. The last thing your customer wants is for their package not to arrive on time or even worse, arrive much later than expected. At Fulfyld, shipping is never an issue. Our fast, 2-day guaranteed shipping service is an affordable, competitive alternative to Amazon Prime that provides your customers with the best shipping experiences possible. This way, your customer won’t have to experience frustrating delays that sometimes occur when ordering online, and your product can arrive safe and secure on your customers’ doorstep.
Encourage “ship by dates” on your site
A “ship by date” is the latest date that a customer’s order could be shipped out to ensure their package arrives within the expected delivery window. By encouraging ship by dates, this helps to give your customers a gentle nudge to go ahead and make purchases before or by these dates, so that their orders are delivered before the holidays. Adding these dates in your email marketing and on your social media pages are also great reminders for buyers as well.
Organize and optimize shelf space
Making sure your inventory stays organized during the holiday season is crucial for efficient productivity and shipping. A modern inventory management system and shipping software are big key factors to saving time during the holiday season. By having a robust inventory management system and super effective warehouse strategy to optimize shelf space, our warehousing experts have been able to shrink the time it takes to fulfill orders and get packages to your customers quicker.
Create an unforgettable unboxing experience with branded packaging
Surprisingly, these days its not just the product itself that wows the customer anymore, it’s the packaging that the product comes in as well. For some, the packaging a product comes in can either make or break the customer experience since it is the first thing a customer recognizes before they actually get their hands on your product. This is why we offer custom packaging services to set your package apart the moment a customer sees it. Our in-house designer can work with you to create unique, custom packaging for an unforgettable unboxing experience.
Have an efficient returns management process in place with a clear, concise returns policy on your site
Just like there’s a spike in shoppers during holiday season, there’s also a spike in returns. While some look at returns as a pain, it doesn’t have to be when you have the right systems in place. At Fulfyld, we aim to provide a smooth reverse logistics process so that your customers will be more inclined to shop with you again. Your customer won’t ever be in the dark about what’s going on with their return because our system informs them every step of the way, and also provides an option to check the status of the return as well.
Additionally, having a clear, succinct returns policy on your site is the key to informing your customers of what they can expect when shopping with your company. This helps to build trust and ultimately increases customer satisfaction.
Prioritize your employees to keep them happy and motivated
While customers are definitely a main priority, the people who fulfill the orders (your employees) are just as important. No one wants to deal with the added stress of employees quitting during harsh shipping times. This is why we emphasize taking care of our employees at Fulfyld year-round, especially during the holidays. We provide lunch, drinks, snacks and music to make sure our employees are working in a warm, welcoming environment. Before Covid-19, we also had holiday parties and company outings. We are still doing certain activities in-house like providing boxed lunches for our company, with extensive safety measures and social distancing in place. We are also intentional about ramping up our hiring efforts and training before peak season hits, so that we are fully prepared for the volume increases and don’t have to overwork our staff.
Each of these methods are helpful ways to efficiently improve your holiday shipping this season. If you need additional assistance, contact us today and we can start shipping your products in 48 hours!
