Do You Know About Your Product? Questions Before Shipping
Shipping products always entails a certain risk. At any point in the shipping process, products can be damaged, lost or stolen, increasing operating costs and putting businesses at risk of bankruptcy. So before a business leader gets into shipping, they need to know the answers to these crucial shipping questions.
Questions about the products
So much detail of shipping depends on what kind of items a company is trying to ship here and there. Before devising a shipping strategy, business leaders need to understand all they can about the products in their shipments, which means asking some of the following critical questions:
Where are products shipped from and to?
There is a big difference between sending a package across the city and sending a package around the world. Departure locations and destinations can determine a lot about the shipping process, from changing the way a product is packaged and labeled to dramatically increasing or decreasing shipping costs. The route that shipments travel may require greater protection for packages from shippers and carriers. Business leaders might want to consider placing restrictions on where they want to ship products to keep these details of the shipping process more standardized.
What size and weight are the products?
As products get bigger and heavier, shipping needs change. Business leaders must prioritize keeping their products safe during shipment, regardless of size. They may also need to change their shipping and returns policies to account for the higher price of shipping large items. However, this may mean that other services, such as repairs, are offered to customers who receive damaged goods.
Are products fragile or temperature sensitive?
Shipping will always be a risky process and all packages are subject to some bumps. Business leaders must ensure that their items are properly packaged to provide complete protection. Particularly delicate shipments may require additional packaging, as well as labels indicating to carriers that extra care is required. Temperature-sensitive goods, such as medical supplies or perishable foods, require special shipping containers and temperature indicators to provide information about the temperatures packages experience during transit.
What are the profit margins on the products?
Companies that have large margins on product sales can afford to spend more on shipping. They can insure their packages, invest in luxury packaging materials and offer customers a high-quality repair and return policy. Small margins, on the other hand, can make companies more cost-conscious when it comes to shipping products and processes.
Are there any unique restrictions on shipping products?
There are rules about what can be sent and how. For example, international shipping regulations prohibit shipping a number of volatile products over national lines, including items such as aerosol cans, cigarettes, ammunition, and poisons. Some dangerous products can be shipped, but they must be packaged in a certain way to keep carriers and customers safe. Business leaders can consult shipping experts to learn about any regulations that may apply to their goods.
Questions about the company
How the company operates – and how business leaders hope to build their brand identity – can have a significant impact on shipping. The shipping process is one of the few business processes that customers experience acutely; if shipping is slow, disrupted or delayed, customers are likely to know, and if products arrive damaged due to improper packaging or rough handling, customers will be upset. On the other hand, most business leaders don’t want to spend too much resources on shipping, which can become an expensive venture if not controlled by strategy. That’s why leaders need to ask themselves and their employees two crucial questions:
What experience is the company trying to create?
Shipping can have a profound effect on the customer experience, so companies need to be careful about controlling those aspects of shipping that can make a difference. Understanding the details of the intended experience can help make decisions, especially in the shipping process, to achieve business goals.
What resources are currently available to optimize shipping and fulfillment?
Business leaders can use a variety of resources, from money and staff to software and storage, to improve shipping processes. It may be worth freeing up some resources so companies can fine-tune their shipping processes and develop optimal strategies to reduce waste in the future.
Finally
The more business leaders think about their products, company and customers when developing processes; the more successful those processes are likely to be. Being a complicated process, shipping deserves a lot of time and attention from leaders who should strive to identify and mitigate as many risks as possible.
Feature image: Pixabay
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