Forum Moderators: buckworks
I am currently writing a plan for an online retail business here in Australia and am thinking about how to handle product shipping while staying competitive.
I was after some comments and experiences from existing site owners on what shipping features they consider essential. For starters
- Online trackable - customers can track their own parcels on the web.
- Signature required on delivery. For those who have decided to save money by not requiring it (ie, regular post) have you experienced significant fraud or claims of non-delivery?
- Next day delivery. Appealing to customers need for instant gratification.
- Optional insurance? (the products I am selling are worth approx $90 each)
At the moment I am thinking of using Express Post here in Australia which is not trackable online, does not require a signature (is delivered with regular mail) but does have a next day delivery guarantee for most of the country and is very resonably priced. Of concern is the fact that it is just packaged in with the regular mail and therefore I cannot prove delivery.
Cheers and many thanks in advance
James Boyle
Elemental Services
We have found that the ability to track is the #1 concern for our shoppers. Customers are willing to pay a little extra for that piece of mind.
Here in the US, we use United Parcel Service (UPS) almost exclusively.
It is rare for a customer to report that a package was not delivered. When that does happen, UPS has delivery signatures available. If they left a package at a residense without a signature , they notate where the package was delivered. If the customer still says they have not received it, UPS doesn’t fight too much in refunding the value.
Packages are automatically insured for the first $100.00 dollars. That covers most all our on-line orders.
A service like that, in the long run, makes both my customer and me happy.
jb
I just had a project that dealt with a client selling rather heavy objects. The shipping component of the cart had to be customized to meet their needs because while the dimension of the products were well within the UPS limits, the weight was not necessarily. And given they use several different size packages - multiple products could be packed together - but the total weight would exceed the allowable so we had change the standard shipping module to suit our needs for weight limitations.
Other essentials: multiple FOB points, selection of shipping options (UPS offers several as does FEDEX), rate schedule, individual packaging, the ability to include complex rules for weight & size to get the best packaging. This last one is unlikely to be found as a default in any cart but once it's built - it can be used to generate packing slips.
