Shipping Issues with E-Commerce

The Internet allows you to sell products to customers all over the world. But remember: If you sell a product to a customer in India, you're also going to have to ship that product to a customer in India. But even if you're only shipping across state or county lines, you must find economical ways

E-commerce is all about trust — customers pay you for a product without being able to size up your store, employees or even your product. Even after you've won your customers' trust, the ease of Web comparison shopping guarantees that you're going to have to work hard to retain it. And whether you choose to take care of some aspects of shipping in-house or outsource everything to an independent carrier, shipping-related problems can destroy your firm's credibility.

The good news is that there are reasonably simple ways to keep your company's shipping running smoothly when you're selling over the Internet. The ideas below should give you a good starting point:

• Data management. Internet commerce involves a great deal of data: addresses, names, credit card information and the like. You'll need the right software to manage this information. If you decide to take care of shipping in-house and already have data management software, make sure your shipping software can be integrated with your database.
  
  
• Outsourcing. If you decide to outsource all of your shipping requirements — including insurance, packaging, scheduling, tracking, and so on — consider hiring a company such as Mail Boxes Etc., which will let you download your information onto its database. That way, your business will have the speed and size of a corporate database — without the cost — that is accessible via the Internet.
  
  
• Price comparison. Customers like shopping on the Internet in part because they can compare prices and shipping costs. For that reason, it's doubly important to offer your e-commerce customers a low-cost shipper — without sacrificing speed, service and safety. You don't want your customers to love your product, think it's competitively priced, and then decide not to buy from you because your shipping charges are too steep.
  
  
• Brand identity. Even if you decide to take care of some shipping aspects in-house, you'll need to outsource the actual transportation of the goods. Offer your customers a well-known, reliable shipping company, such as FedEx or United Parcel Service. Using a name-brand shipping company gives customers confidence in your ability to deliver their merchandise on time and undamaged — even if your business is relatively unknown.
  
  
• Tracking. Consumers who order products over the Internet have come to expect that they can track their order via the Net, so you'll need to offer that service. Consider linking your Web site to your carrier's site so that your customers can track their shipments.