Losing a shipment is one of the most frustrating challenges for sellers who are doing business on the Internet. In order to lessen lost shipments, one should stick to best practices for shipment handling to ensure the timely delivery of the products.
In this blog, we’ll talk about strategies to handle lost shipments and tips to improve your procedures each time they occur. From proper labelling to product protection, from tracking orders to multiple delivery options, it is all about how you can reduce lost orders and keep your e-commerce business running smoothly.
A Closer Look at Lost Shipments: Understanding the Key Issues
Before you can effectively handle lost shipments, it’s important to understand what causes them and how they will impact your business. Usually, lost shipments are caused by human errors such as misidentification, mislabeling, or mishandling during transit. Such problems may damage goods or cause their goods to be lost and, in the case of lost shipments, discarded.
This can cost you a lot. The refund request from the customer might be coming directly. If such a thing is happening repeatedly, the customer moves away and can also lose the trust that can put down your reputation.
Preventing Shipment Loss: Proactive Approaches
In this process the prevention is a must to minimize shipment losses. This method assures the protection of the products as well as customer relationships by addressing all potential weaknesses in the shipping process. Some of these tactics include the following:
- Check Delivery Location Details: One of the most common reasons is because of incorrect or incomplete address details. All address details, such as postal codes, apartment or flat numbers, city, or state, must be accurate at every point.
Even the smallest of errors describing an apartment as APT when it should be Apt, or swapping two digits in a postal code-can cause unnecessary delivery delays. These delays then multiply the risks for miscommunications, mis-tracking, and eventual losses of the shipments. You can handle this by hiring a partner with logistics firms that offer address verification or correction services.
- Secure Packaging: Use high-quality boxes that ensure secure handling and reduce the risk of damage during shipping. Use a packaging that is suitable, seal it with strong enough to protect against damage or theft during transit.
Fill empty spaces with materials that will provide protection, such as bubble wrap or cushions. This prevents the items from shifting around.
- Offer Flexible Delivery Options: Providing flexible delivery options increases customer convenience against losses and theft. Allow customers to choose delivery alternate drop-off locations, or even a “delivery signature required” option for packages. This little extra form of consideration will go a long way toward boosting customer satisfaction and delivery security.
For instances of home delivery, especially for expensive or sensitive items, increase security measures by requiring verification via one-time password (OTP) sent to the customer’s registered mobile number or email. This helps in delivering the recipient to the right person and prevents any acts of fraud or theft.
- Invest in Insurance: Insuring expensive products is a must, so your business does not suffer severe losses. Thus, the loss or damage of a single shipment can dearly affect your bottom line as well as customer confidence. However, please carefully read through the insurance terms, knowing that there may be some restrictions or exclusions that might affect your claims.
Maintaining records such as proof of delivery and photographs of the goods while on dispatch is extremely useful. It ensures a smooth run of proceedings if there are any cases of disputes concerning damage, partial deliveries, or missing items.
Additional Strategies to Prevent Your Shipments
Beyond the basics, these advanced practices can help you stay ahead of potential shipping problems.
- Blind Packaging: Use plain packaging, preferably unbranded, for higher-value items. It helps keep the product concealed, minimizing the risk of theft. Branded boxes attract attention and might be picked by so-called “cherry pickers” after premium products.
- Secure Carrier Handoff: Select transport partners employing robust tracking systems, including the ones which utilize real-time transit scans or blockchain-based technology, providing a transparent and tamper-proof record of your shipment’s journey. Some platforms offer end-to-end tracking, so your team can keep an eye on every single moment of the delivery and take ownership thereof.
- Advanced Tracking Technologies: This technology doesn’t just give the location also gives real-time updates on package condition, orientation, and potential delays. This helps to identify the damage, theft, or delivery issues while in transit.
- Streamline Internal Workflows: Regular attention to your shipping process can be helpful in spotting the weak point. Remind your employees about secure packaging and careful hand-offs. Encourage your teams to communicate clearly across departments so any issues can be solved easily.
- Consolidation centres: Choose vendors that have the fulfillment centres near the customer’s locations to combine shipments. By combining multiple shipments and reducing delivery steps, you lower the chances of lost or delayed packages.
Using a multi-layered approach to shipping protection is much better than relying on single solutions. This will prepare you to handle the challenges efficiently.
How to Handle Lost Shipments Efficiently
Sometimes packages get lost or damaged in transit, particularly if shipping internationally or for long distances. Here’s a guide on how to handle customer complaints and work with courier services when a shipment goes missing.
Responding to Customers
- Keep the customer informed with regular updates, even if there’s no change. Share any new information from the courier, including tracking or investigation details.
- Thank the customer for their patience and encourage them to share feedback to help improve future experiences.
- Reassure the customer that you are actively working on resolving the issue. Also, let them know your support team is available for any questions or concerns.
- Show gratitude for their business and ask for more feedback in the future. Reassure them of the confidence that support will be provided until the lost shipment is found.
Communicating with Courier Services
- Reach out to the courier service provider and explain the issue. Also, provide them with the necessary information concerning the shipment.
- If the courier fails to find the item during their check or needs more information, advance the case by requesting a more detailed search and inquiry.
- Keep on following up on the matter at regular intervals until its status changes. Document all details of the employee who was assisting you and all the timings that have been provided.
- Demand compensation as per the policies if your shipment remains untraceable beyond the promised time. Secure in writing a commitment to a definite time frame for resolution.
- Express appreciation for the support and give feedback from the customers. Ask for remedial measures to ensure that such scenarios do not repeat themselves, to amass credibility and trust.
- Lost deliveries can compromise your business and customer confidence; however, with the help of proper measures, they can be controlled. Starting from improved packaging and tracking to effective correspondence with the courier, the slightest improvements might go a long way.
Conclusion
In order to stay ahead of shipping-related challenges and smoothly and successfully run an e-commerce enterprise, lost shipments can be prevented by a few easy yet effective steps, such as verifying addresses, using secure and simple packaging, and allowing customers to track their orders in real time. Align with reliable logistics partners such as Bigship for yet another layer of reliability, which further smoothens the process of delivery and makes it safe.
At Bigship, secure shipping is our promise, so sign up now to avoid the lost shipment problem.
