The first global package theft survey covered the period from May 2021 to April 2022. One in ten survey takers reported that they had at least one package stolen during this time. The total financial loss for this situation was an estimated $1.8 billion.
You shouldn’t want the customers of your small online business to become victims of this trend. But how can you prevent this from happening? The trick is to find the best e-commerce shipping solutions for your small business.
How can you do this? Read on to find out.
Your Business’s Needs
The “best shipping” for an e-Commerce business can vary from business to business. All businesses have different shipping needs.
You need to learn what these are for your company. You should then choose your e-commerce solution based on them. Here are some examples of shipping needs:
Shipping Volume
How many packages does your small business send regularly? This should affect the type of shipping software your business decides to use.
Some shipping software solutions may be unable to handle the shipping volume of your store. Other software solutions may charge you more for higher shipping volumes.
Learn about your business’s regular shipping volume. Check the shipping abilities of each software and their prices. Perfect shipping for small businesses software should offer what you need.
Scalability
Are you going to grow your business soon? If so, you need to have a scalable e-commerce platform. That is, you need an e-commerce platform that can grow with your business.
Many e-commerce platforms have tiers of shipping volumes. As your business grows, you can simply move up to different tiers. For example, Shipmates has tiers for 500 and 1,000 minimum shipments per month.
If you hit the limit with an e-commerce platform, you can switch to another one. But it will take some time for your employees to learn the new software. Staying on the same platform is a simpler, more cost-efficient solution.
Software
Your business should already use a few software solutions for other purposes. The marketplace where you sell your product can be one example of such software. However, your new shipping solution may not integrate with that marketplace.
Poor integration can leave you with a lot of headaches. You need to make sure that the e-commerce software you choose integrates well with your other software.
Write down the software programs that your business uses regularly. Read each shipping solution description to see if it integrates with those software programs. Choose a software program that connects with as many ones you use as possible.
The Best E-Commerce Shipping Solutions Features
Beyond the features that your business needs, there are features that every business needs. Check to see if each software has these features. Then check each feature’s quality level.
Here are some common shipping solution features:
Customer Support
Most shipping solutions should have some form of customer support. But this support isn’t always the best. And bad customer support can lead to a lot of headaches.
If there’s an issue with your platform, you need to get it fixed quickly. It won’t look professional if a bug takes a long time to fix. This situation can cause you to lose customers.
With poor customer support comes bad communication. This can cause you to wait a long time for a problem solution. Good customer support should have the opposite effect.
Prevent the weakening of your customers’ trust. Get a shipping solution with good customer support.
Ease of Use
A lot of software programs are needlessly complicated. This quality makes it hard for employees to learn how to use it. And they may still struggle with issues while using the software.
If your employees struggle with a platform, your productivity levels will go down. When your business’s productivity goes down, so do your profits. So an intuitive platform is better than a complex one.
Run a demo of each software solution. While you do that, analyze how easy it is for you to run the platform. Ask a few of your employees to try the software as well.
Speed and Functionality
Another thing that can slow your productivity is functionality. If a software program runs slowly or has a lot of bugs, it can affect your business’s success.
As you go through a software demo, carefully analyze how fast the program runs. You should also keep an eye out for any bugs. Choose the software that runs best.
You can also check the reviews of previous customers for complaints about bugs and speed. This can help you learn about issues that you can’t spot in a demo.
Security Levels
The e-commerce solution you use must have high-quality security. Much of your customer data will appear on your e-commerce software. If this data leaks you may face legal ramifications alongside losing your customer’s trust.
Look at the security solutions that each e-commerce platform has. Look these technologies up and see if they’re worthwhile. You can also ask the company how they handle different security issues.
Hardware Usage
Many software solutions don’t function well on mobile devices. You can still use a software program that only works on desktops and laptops. However, your employees may find it inconvenient to not always have your shipping solution on them.
Consider what your employees are doing throughout the day. Are they, say, constantly moving around your warehouse? If so, you probably want shipping software that functions on mobile devices.
More Business Technology Solutions Ahead
With the best e-commerce shipping solutions, you should always know your customers’ packages’ locations. You’ll also know who is getting what and so on. If that’s what you want, get shipping for small business software now.
Also, do you want to elevate your business further? If so, check out our other articles on business technologies. You should find some useful tools there.
