The post Lost And Damaged Packages Causing Trouble During The Holidays? Here Are 5 Simple Ways To Avoid Them appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

It’s
that time of the year. Pumpkin, turkey and opportunities!  Marketers
love the festive seasons. People are willing to spend more during
these times.

So,
it makes sense to step up your marketing game during this time. Play
to boost traffic, sales and overall profits. If you run an online
business that ships to customers, you need to focus on shipping
strategies.

Package
with a festive charm

Nothing
says Happy Thanksgiving like a package that is wrapped with a pumpkin
and turkey print. Remind the customer that it is a special purchase.
Every time they think of you, they will be reminded of your extra
effort in the festive season.

Include
freebies

Let’s
say you are a baker who sells cakes online. When you ship your bakes
during this season, send a freebie. An extra slice of a cake they did
not order will make a great festival freebie. A ceramic mug that
proudly claims Happy Thanksgiving is a wonderful and thoughtful
festive gift. That’s the oldest trick in the marketing universe.

Wish
them with a handwritten note

Several
new age e-commerce folks have realised that a handwritten note to
customers can make for a personal touch. An online sale lacks
personal connections. Overcome that with a handwritten note wishing
them on Thanksgiving, when you ship it across. Say thanks, if your
creative potential jilts you. Make your staff team sign the note.
That’s as personal as it gets.

Stick
to the theme

Go
the whole nine yards. Deliver the product with Thanksgiving cards,
turkey image carrying party favours or such knick knacks. Draw them
to you during the following festive seasons too. Your Thanksgiving
scheme is just a trial run for the year end festive season that
arrives soon.

Offer
special shipping rates

Nothing
boosts sales like Free Shipping or Special shipping offers. If you
can handle festival sales with reduced margins, offer free shipping
on your products. You can even look at building the shipping costs to
your product price and then offering Free Shipping. This is a fool
proof marketing success tip that works across industries. People
cannot look past a free shipping offer. If free shipping is eating into your budget then compensate your shipping expense by signing up with a service like LateShipment that will help you save up to 20% of your shipping cost. 

The post 5 smart shipping strategies to capture the thanksgiving market appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

The
success of an online business depends severely on its logistics
strategy. Let’s look at logistic decisions that have helped online
businesses.

Plan
B

Let’s
say you run an e-commerce site that sells bags. Online sales is a
great idea. From the customer’s perspective, there are several
advantages. But if you want to match up to the customer’s
expectations, you need to make sure your logistics is perfect in
order to help achieve customer satisfaction. The bag needs to reach
the customer soon enough. There is a critical need to be hyper-fast
and build an environment to meet the expectations of clients. Find a
fast, efficient means of handling products. So, here the most
important tip is to have a very efficient Plan B for every single
potential mishap that you foresee in the logistics chain. Develop a
special “finger print” for each of your products; some are
sensitive to spoilage, some are fragile electronics and others
require more human labor. For every such occurrence, you need an
alternate plan. In order to react swiftly and decisively, you need
technology in place. You need a proper communication channel to aid
the plan.  

Technology
to the rescue

If
there is scope for automation somewhere, go ahead and automate it.
Many organizations still rely on “tribal knowledge” for
information, but even the best memories fail. Manual processes are
error prone, however good they are. Automate the supply chain and
keep everyone in the chain informed about real time data. If the
shipping partner doesn’t have to wait for a call to bring his pick
up vehicle to your place, that’s one degree of complexity down. The
orders that flow in online can be automated straight to the
warehouse. They can start packaging the product right away and wait
for the freight pick up. Technology is linking vendors to customers
and customers to shippers through an interlinked web that promotes
the sort of fast, adaptable response that sets a business ahead of
its competitors.

Optimizing
cost, service and performance

Within
the supply chain, there is the need to optimize service and cost
performance. There are tools for this but in the end it’s all about
delivering low cost and great service. For this, we need to gain
end-to-end visibility of the network and analyze service and cost
performance. And very often, companies decide to partner with a third
party logistics provider (3PL) which has the people, processes and
technology needed to execute, gain visibility, track and report cost
and service performance. 3PL is a great idea if outsourcing is what
you have in mind.

The post 3 Game Changing Logistic Decisions for a Successful Online Business appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Lost packages are a rarity. But, they
do happen. Reputed carriers like FedEx and UPS have very efficient
parcel handling systems and instances of lost packages are very
miniscule. In such cases of lost packages, his is aided by
sophisticated tracing systems that are in place with these carriers.

Once shipped, carriers provide you with
a tracking number or Delivery Confirmation number via email. If you
can’t find the particular email, you can request the carrier to email
you your tracking/delivery numbers. They are kept on file.

While checking the status of a lost
package, if there is any indication that the package is missing, send
an email to UPS/FedEx citing the loss.

If the status claims the package
has been delivered but you know that it has not been received:

Note time of delivery. Ask the
concerned people about who delivered the package. Ask neighbours if
they signed for your package. Stealing mail is an offence. If you
suspect foul play, this needs action. Fill out forms with UPS/FedEx.
The local UPS/FedEx service center should assist you with the
process. They will put you in touch with the delivery driver who made
the drop. He should have answers.

Remember that international deliveries
are not in American jurisdiction and not much can be done in such
cases.  

If you purchase
the pack-and-ship services and have your item shipped via FedEx
Express, FedEx Ground or FedEx Home Delivery, and that item is lost
at the FedEx Office location or in transit, file a claim. FedEx’s
liability for each package is limited to US$100 unless a higher value
is declared and the charge for the higher value is paid.

It is a similar process with UPS also.
So, when you ship FedEx or UPS, you are entitled to get a monetary
refund if they lose a package.

But, from the buyer’s perspective,
you, as the seller, are responsible for the loss. So, it makes sense
to refund the sum he’s paid for the product. But you would save
your reputation by citing the shipper’s fault.

The post How to hold your shipping carrier accountable for all your lost packages? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

With the increase in growth of businesses, it is exceedingly challenging to manage orders. Here are a few tips to efficiently run your supply chain without being overwhelmed:

1. Accurate Demand Sensing and
Shaping

The first thing you get sorted in order
to establish successful order fulfilment is to have a good demand
management system. An advanced demand management aids in improving a
business’ ability to manage demand volatility, improve
demand-planning processes, and realize higher forecast accuracy. What
matters here are demand sensing and demand shaping.  With customers
using various purchase channels, sometimes it becomes difficult to
capture purchase data. So, there are applications such as demand
signal repositories that allow companies to capture real time
multi-channel demand signals and analyze, through “slice and dice”
capabilities, the demand information to reveal patterns. This is
combined with demand history to provide insights for a more accurate
demand forecast. Other technological aids like trade promotions
optimization work together with demand sensing. These tools create
incentives to stimulate demand or optimize product promotions to
maximize growth and profitability.

These advanced demand management
capabilities can give accurate ideas on demands on a dynamic basis.

2. Global Order Promising

GOP enables organizations to make quick
delivery promises that customers can rely on. It allows organizations
to address customer related issues from basic “available to
promise” to “capable to promise” to “profitable to promise.”
GOP aligns real-time data-driven processes with manufacturers,
suppliers and logistics constraints so that organizations can have
more responsive, reliable, and profitable promising processes that
improve customer service levels and increases fill rates. Similarly,
retailers can use GOP to balance planning and execution when those
cycles are out of synch. Retailers with GOP now have complete
visibility into the supply chain and can take customer orders taking
into consideration the total order fulfilment cost.

3. Global Distributed Order
Orchestration and Fulfilment

The Distributed Order Orchestration
system enables organizations to apply enterprise-wide rules and
processes, and identify and rectify problems before they become an
issue for customers. Business managers have complete control over
order management processes and because of this, they are able to
monitor order progress, review issues, resolve problems, and modify
fulfilment processes as the business evolves. They can see real
margins during promising, fulfilment, and particularly expediting
activities and this improves their decision making.

These 3 factors can help an
organization revamp their order fulfilment systems and have a firm
grip on end to end logistics. The systems and tools drive
profitability and make sure that costs are optimised wherever there
is scope for cost optimization.

The post 3 best kept secrets to successful order fulfilment appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Cinching the best deal with the shipping carrier is still a challenge for most small businesses. Here are some tips to overcome the challenge:

Quote accurately to your
customers

Do you offer
real-time shipping quotes to your customers? If yes, then make sure
that these quotes are accurate. Make sure that your rate checker
understands and factors every single additional charge, tax and
surcharge involved in shipping. UPS and FedEx have dynamic charging
systems.  There are fuel surcharge, residential delivery surcharge,
and address correction fees.

In order to give the right quote, get
the necessary information from the customer. You need to have the
correct weight for your package, the correct box size for your
package, a validated address for the shipment, and whether it is a
residential or office address.  This is because there is an
additional surcharge on deliveries to residential addresses.

The right packaging box

Don’t think it’s just the product’s
weight that the shipping company is going to charge you for. Your
product needs to be wrapped or packed in boxes. Factor the weight of
the packaging material, cushions, boxes etc. If your shipping quote
to the customer is based on the weight of the product alone, you will
end up shelling money out of your pocket. This is especially if you
ship a lot of expedited packages or bulky, lightweight items. You
think the product is light and you might not factor the collective
weight of everything put together.

FedEx and UPS now the greater of
dimensional weight and actual weight on any expedited method as well
as on ground shipments if the package is larger than three cubic
feet. If you don’t know what dimensional weight is, read on it and
figure out how to cut down on dimensional weight.

Now, you need to choose a box that’s
big enough to hold the product comfortably but small enough to
optimise costs when it comes to dimensional weight pricing methods.
So, for all the products that you sell, make sure you have boxes that
are just right. Not too big that your shipping bills are high and not
too small that your product ends up being damaged.  You need to pack
in such a way that your orders arrive in pristine condition. You
can’t buy customer loyalty with bad boxes, bad packaging and shoddy
presentation however great your product is. And if the packaging is
so bad that the product gets damaged in transit, it kills your bottom
line to reship items for free.

Buy supplies locally

You will be surprised by how much you can save
when you buy your shipping supplies locally. There are online shops
that offer a fantastic selection of products and service standpoint.
However, they are not the cheapest options you have. So, go to places
nearby and see if you can buy shipping supplies in bulk and cut
costs. There are small business houses that stock up for a year
ahead. A box is not a perishable commodity. So, hunt for good deals
and stock up.

The post 3 Smart Tips To Negotiate The Best Shipping Rate For Your Ecommerce Store appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Finding a suitable shipping plan can be very challenging for any business. Here are a few tips to help you finalise a cost effective shipping strategy:

Sign up with FedEx/UPS

Create an account with either shipping
carrier. Or with both.  The shipping carrier will collect your
packages and deliver it. They will also give a delivery guarantee
with each shipment. You can track the package until delivery and also
get delivery confirmation once the package has reached its
destination. If you have accounts with both the major players, FedEx
and UPS, you can check for the cheaper rate for the same service and
destination and go ahead with the one who offers a better rate.

Negotiate

Like with all
business deals, talk it out with the shipping company representative.
Before you invite him over for a conversation, have data ready:
number of packages, frequency, destinations, frequent destinations,
time frame within which you expect the package to reach the
destination etc. if you have these data ready, you can negotiate a
better deal with FedEx/UPS. As part of this first step, sign up for a
late shipment refund collection software. This is an automated
process that can help you retrieve shipping costs of shipments that
fail to honour the delivery guarantee.

Keep it simple, small and light

Shipping carriers charge you on the
basis of dimensional weight. So, the size of your packaged box
matters more than the actual weight of the package. So, it is prudent
to keep the size of the package small. Use just the optimum amount of
packaging material, cushions, bags and fillers to make sure your
product remains safe during transit and delivery. Buy your boxes with
this in mind.

Shipping Prices

Are you going to offer Free Shipping?
Are you choosing flat rates for shipping? Or, are you going to charge
the customer exactly what the shipping carrier charges you? Come to a
conclusion on this. Here’s a list of factors that would help you
decide: Free shipping is a big USP. Customers love to get the product
delivered for free. So, if you can offer competitive rates and offer
free shipping, go ahead with this. If you offer flat rates, you need
to make sure that shipping rates are affordable and convenient to
both you and the customers. the flat rate is something that needs to
be arrived upon after studying the business for a long time and using
the historical data to predict future sales and shipments.

Insurance and Tracking

What do you sell or ship? Tee shirts?
Or fine jewellery? If it’s a tee shirt that you are shipping,
forget the insurance part. Do you sell depending on what you’re
selling and its value, shipping insurance and tracking can on the
other hand, if you are shipping valuable merchandise, make sure you
get insurance for the shipment. Track it periodically and make sure
it has reached the destination safely. If you are shipping it
overseas, you need proper customs documentation. Address those
issues.

The post 5 ways to set up a shipping system for your startup appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Surprising
as it may sound, UPS and FedEx charge more when the destination is a
residential address. What’s more? The difference in cost between
shipping to a residential address and an office address is quite
significant. It’s cheaper to ship your parcels to an office
address.

Why is that so?

Office buildings are typically in high density areas. And homes do not generally get as many parcels as offices do. Someone is usually available at the office building to accept the package; there isn’t much of a chance that the delivery guy has to revisit the address because it wasn’t delivered to the person the first time. More importantly, an office gets several parcels on an everyday basis. So, there would be multiple packages going to the same address or at least, to the same locality. There is no need for worry about knocking on a door three times and then having to hold it at the depot and then providing facilities and staff for people to pick up packages.

Of course, it’s different story if the destination is a residential building with a concierge who can accept parcels on behalf of the residents who aren’t home. There are some exceptions. And these buildings would entitle comparable shipping rates to commercial addresses in terms of cost of service.

With FedEx, this differential pricing is typically seen in FedEx Express, U.S. package services and FedEx Ground services. It’s called a delivery area surcharge and it applies to shipments destined to select ZIP codes: these codes are the ones that do not fall within the official district codes.

The surcharge numbers depend on a lot of factors. So, if you can ship a parcel to an office district, it makes sense to choose that address as your destination than choose one that falls in a residential zone.

The post Residential vs Commercial Shipping Charges: Which is more economical? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Secret 1: 97% of businesses over pay their shipping carriers and receive poor service form them
Secret 2: Understanding how shipping carriers work and making a few simple changes to your shipping operations can permanently stop your business from doing this.
Secret 3: LateShipment.com, independently tracks and audits millions of shipments every year from every major shipping carrier which has helped us gain a tremendous amount of valuable knowledge about shipments and shipping carriers.

Wanna find out more? Grab your last chance to register for a short, expert hosted webinar where we expose shipping carrier secrets, give away valuable advice that can help your business instantly ship cheaper and smarter.  It takes less than 2 minutes to register and we are giving away a free ebook that contains all the tips to immediately optimise your shipping cost.

ShipTalk  

13th October at 2:00 PM (EST)

Presented by Sriram Sridhar

Chief Supply Chain Strategist

LateShipment.com              

The post Unveil the secrets to ship cheaper! appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

So,
you are an ecommerce seller and you have received an order. You ship
the product via FedEx or UPS and let the customer know that he can
track the shipment from his end. Have you ever wondered if the parcel
alerts from FedEx and UPS are reliable or not? The customer receives
several messages from the shipper about the shipment’s location,
expected delivery time and such. You are also privy to the
information.

While
tracking shipments is made easy with GPS, there are a few roadblocks
with this. Technology is the least of the problems here because your
UPS delivery guy has a handheld (the one you sign once you receive a
shipment) that can trace his global position accurately. Security
might become a problem with accurate, real time position tracking.
For example, a valuable shipment is better off without such trackers
erey minute for it might invite theft.

But
the truth is, no one needs accurate real time tracking information.
If I know that a product I ordered from the East Coast is on its way
to the West Coast and will be delivered in 2 days, I am satisfied. At
least, most of us are satisfied with such information. Now, when a
parcel alert appears on your phone and it says you will receive it
today or tomorrow, the driver makes a note of it and delivers in
whatever order that he chooses. We all need to know when to be home
to collect the parcel. So, UPS provides a 2 hour window. So, at some
point, parcel alerts are not very reliable. Factoring whatever we
have discussed above, you can see that manual intervention can mess
with delivery timings and real time location of the shipment.

There
are also weather disruptions and manmade problems that can hamper
deliveries. So, a parcel alert on a rainy day is to be taken with a
pinch of salt. When a political rally is on full swing, a delivery
executive, despite his alert to the customer, will not be able to go
ahead with the delivery. Parcel alerts are only indicative.

In
an era where drone deliveries are being explored and aggregators like
Uber offer the customer the advantage of seeing exact location of
service providers on a real time scenario, parcel alerts are expected
to be merged with greater accuracy, efficiency and technology.

The post Are the parcel alerts from your shipping carrier reliable? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

ShipTalk  

13th October at 2:00 PM (EST)

Presented by Sriram Sridhar

Chief Supply Chain Strategist

LateShipment.com  

The post ShipTalk – A Free Webinar to Optimise your Shipping Operations appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Shipping
costs can make or break your bottom line. And that’s the hard truth
with online sales. And with any business that involves shipping.
LateShipment is a wonder genie that helps you streamline your process
and eliminate everything that can inflate your shipping bills. Let’s
look at best practices that have helped several smart shippers who
use FedEx, UPS or DHL.

1.
Ask. And you shall have it!

Before
you sign up with FedEx, UPS or DHL with their rates mentioned in
black and white, ask for better rates. And guess what, if you ship
volumes, you will get a better rate. A phone call is what it takes to
lower shipping costs. A sales representative would turn up at your
doorstep and you can negotiate rates with him. That is step one. As
simple as that.

2.
Apples and Oranges

Segregation
is an absolute necessity here. So, if your customer wants the
delivery ‘as soon as possible’, do you just book the fastest
delivery FedEx or UPS offers? Wrong there, bud. It makes sense to
give it a minute. If the customer stays in the same state, it really
makes no difference time-wise whether you opt for a ground delivery
or an express delivery. But yes, you would be paying a bomb for an
express delivery. And you would be paying a bomb for no reason. So,
segregate your orders based on place and time. Choose the right
service and then go ahead.

3.
What’s in a square or a rectangle?!

While
it might seem artsy and unique to go for hexagonal boxes to pack your
goods, it makes no business sense. Shipping costs depend on
dimensional weight rather than on actual weight. That means you have
to follow certain rules when you choose your shipping boxes to
optimise costs. A few inches can save several dollars.

4.
Package it right

You
could think that stuffing your package with cushioning material will
keep your product safe. Possibly. But remember not to go beyond the
optimal amount. You would just be adding to your shipping bills
otherwise. Have a standard packaging procedure.

5.
Make use of that guarantee

Major
players, FedEx, UPS and DHL have a delivery guarantee in their
contract. If the package is delivered late, EVEN by a minute, the
shipper CAN collect a full refund on shipping costs. And
statistically, 6-8 per cent of all FedEx/UPS/DHL packages are
delivered late. And the fact is that 95 per cent of late deliveries
are left unclaimed. The reason is that UPS and FedEx complicate the
process of filing for refunds so that it deters people who want to do
it. But when you sign up with

LateShipment, the
process is automated and voila, you receive your refunds just like
that. You needn’t lift a finger.

The post Five proven ways optimize shipping cost appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

When you run a small business, every cent is important. The difference between a good margin and a bad margin is all about optimising costs here and there. Shipping costs offer great scope for cost optimisation given the complicated operations. Poor shipping planning can result in inflated shipping bills.

Let’s look at feasible optimisation principles to keep shipping costs down.

Maintain shipping accounts with FedEx and UPS

This makes total sense to the small business owner. Whenever a shipment has to go out, compare shipping prices between the two shipping carriers. And choose the carrier who offers the lower costs for the same service. Bifurcating your shipping between carriers serves another purpose also.

Look at the weekly performance of both the shippers and stick with the one who has better efficiency during that period.You can also compare the shipping rates offered by these carrier and pick the most economical rates

Time it right

When you have to send a shipment, you need to time the pickup or drop just right. When you call the shipper at the last moment, you will have to pay express delivery fees. Air delivery might be the only alternative left and it’s obviously more expensive. So, once you get the order (  if you are an e-commerce player), make sure you have enough time to choose an economically feasible shipping option. Act accordingly.

Match delivery requirements and fees for common shipments.

FedEx and UPS, unarguably the most often sought after shipping carriers for small businesses in the US provide assistance in the form of a small-business specialist to match the carrier fees and services with common shipping requirements for your business, such as mode of transportation and delivery timing.

Sit with the specialist and discuss things like logistics, cost and efficiency. Discuss when you would like to choose air over ground deliveries. A ground service can save a lot of money versus air. Something that has to reach the next day in the next state can be achieved through a cheaper ground delivery.

Auditing your shipments and submitting refund claims for delayed packages, can save a ton too. If you find the process of identifying  delayed packages and submitting refund requests too cumbersome, simply integrate your shipping carrier account with LateShipment and eligible refunds for all the delayed deliveries will be automatically credited to your shipping account.

Let the consignee know of transportation cost charge-back policies

The customer needs to understand that you are paying so much for shipping. If you charge it to the customer, he understands that explicitly. If you bear the cost, he needs to have an inkling of how much it’s going to cost you. Some ecommerce players do not charge for standard shipping but they do collect a shipping fee if the customer wants same day or next day delivery.  This is also when you decide to scrap free shipping when it’s not feasible.

Get a postage meter.

A postage meter is a portable machine with a scale that weighs packages, assesses exact postage charges and prints shipping labels. This eliminates the errors that might occur from guessing the weight of a package. You save time on paying over postage if you resort to postage meters.

The post 5  frugal tips for businesses to ship packages appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Did you know that every time your shipping carrier fails to deliver your package on time you are eligible for a refund? Here are 5 tips to receive and manage your shipping carrier refunds.

Outsource the task in hand

Sign up with a third party vendor who
will follow up with your shipments, analyse and file claims for
refunds wherever necessary. Companies like LateShipment have
specialised software that can do all the manual work automatically.
And while you relax, you get all the refunds you are eligible for.
You needn’t spend any effort on it and you can get your shipping
refunds by paying the vendor a very affordable sum.

In house software

If you have the manpower and technology
required to develop your own software that would automate shipping
return refund process, get working on it. And remember that
automation is the key. UPS and FedEx make it a point to keep the
refund retrieval process tedious so that it puts people off the
process. So, automate every process that goes into it and integrate
it with your shipping accounts. But remember that you are reinventing
the wheel when you do this.

Manual Tracking

Manual tracking of shipments is
possible only if you ship less than 2 or 3 products a day. Even then,
it can get hectic. Open your shipping accounts with FedEx and UPS
every day and track delivery times of every single package you have
sent. Check that against promised delivery time. If you find a late
shipment, raise a claim for late shipment refunds. And keep following
up on each such request every day.

Stick to FedEx and UPS

FedEx and UPS are
the shipping giants that are reliable enough in the USA and they
offer a full refund on your shipping fee if they fail to deliver
within the promised time. They also have good online account
platforms where you can raise claims for late shipments. Do not opt
for other players who do not have these facilities.

Play with your costs keeping
refunds in mind

Statistics claim that FedEx and UPS
goof up around 8-10 percent of their deliveries. They tend to deliver
later than promised during these times. So, you are eligible for FedEx and UPS refunds on these late shipments in most such cases. If you factor
these refunds, your shipping budget can be utilised better. And your
bottom line will be better. This also means that you can price more
competitively keeping these refunds in mind. So, do everything you
can to make sure you don’t let go of the shipping refunds you are
eligible for!

The post 5 easy steps to manage shipping carrier money back guarantee appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Linkedin marketing is not yielding you results? Follow these 7  smart tips and get cracking!

1. Generate leads from your company
LinkedIn page

Turn your business or company page into
a lead generation page. People who stumble upon this page should have
the motivation to visit your actual company website. So, build such a
page. Apart from the basic details you provide on LinkedIn about your
business, use images and make your pitch right there. Your pitch,
remember, is not about your turnover or the number of offices you
have opened. Yawn. Speak directly to your audience, and invite them
to convert. In a couple of lines, tell them what you can do to their
businesses.

2. Keep updating your LinkedIn page

Even if you are active on LinkedIn, do
you have a page that you last updated in 2012? That’s close to
being dead on social media that expects you to keep updating every
detail by the day, by the minute. Have you done something new today?
Go to LinkedIn and update. Post updates that are directly aimed at
your target audience. Bring in blog updates, link to your
infographics, and share other information.

3. Showcase

LinkedIn has the option of having
showcase pages for companies to promote individual brands that are
extensions of the company. This helps you segment your inbound
LinkedIn traffic. Someone who’s interested in one segment of your
business goes If you can create a business un that particular
segment. You can narrow down to your exact audience with a Showcase
page. Showcase pages are especially for B2Bs to better generate
leads. LinkedIn writes, “It makes sense to create a Showcase Page
when you want to represent a brand, business unit, or company
initiative. These pages are intended develop long term relationship
with a specific audience.”

4. Advanced Search

LinkedIn’s advanced search helps you
in identifying the exact type of people who you are targeting. If you
are looking for operations managers in shipping companies that have
20-100 employees, or some such very specific set of target audience,
advanced search is what you go for. Advanced People Search can help
you filter people by location, current company, industry, past
company, school, profile language, and non-profit interests.

5. Save Searches

When you have painstakingly built a
search with all the criteria you need, LinkedIn saves the search
along with all the conditions. You can also set alerts in the space
of your interest. But the catch is you can save only 3 searches.

6. Groups

Find groups that are relevant to your
search. And join them. When you are active in these groups, you can
find leads and have great prospects of converting leads, multiple
leads at once. If you think you are too niche, create a group and
actively scout for members who would be interested in it. You will be
a trendsetter and manage the group.

7. Share relevant content

LinkedIn has a powerful content
publishing platform. But it’s still in its pilot phase and is not
rolled out to all users. So, if you have publishing access, go ahead
and grab the chance to share relevant content.

The post 7 smart LinkedIn marketing tips for B2B marketers appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

In the age
of internet shopping, you always see someone from international
territory interested in your products online. After all, your online
shopping site and products are only a Google search away. Talk about
one degree of separation here! So, as a smart seller, you need to
make sure you. With access to foreign markets, many American
companies are looking to expand overseas and to sell internationally.
So, what are the challenges that ecommerce sellers face when they
venture into international space?

Cultural
Complexities

Knowing
your customer across boundaries is important. When it comes to
shipping from abroad, people expect certain things. For example, the
lady in Japan who looks forward to her online purchase from the US
would expect her product to her at the promised time. She would be
highly irked if the product arrives later than promised. The Chinese
man who browses your site would like it if your site can be
translated to comprehensible Chinese. So, people from different parts
of the world and walks of life have different values and priorities
on different products. Research says that currently, online sales are
highest in the U.K, China, Finland, Norway, South Korea, and Denmark.
So, a smart seller would like to expand into these territories. It
makes sense to look at shipping partners who can handle logistics in
these countries.

Date
and time differences

While the
US follows the MM/DD/YY format to write dates, the UK follows
DD/MM/YY format.  So, if you promise to deliver a product by the 10^th
of November when you mention 11/10/2016, the British citizen thinks
his product will arrive by the 11^th
of October. And he is going to be angry if the product doesn’t
arrive on that day! So, change date formats according to country.
Mention such details very clearly lest problems and miscommunication
arise.  Tailor information according to country from which the
shopper originates.

Shipping
Costs, Duties, Taxes, Export Laws and  Regulations

Legal
entanglements are very rampant when it comes to shipping
internationally. There are laws that you have never heard of in
mainland USA. But when you ship to a country as close as Canada or
Mexico, you will face several detailed legal regulations and
constraints. You will see a whole new world of plus plus costs,
duties, taxes, regulations, and export and import laws.

There are
also several restrictions across borders. Shipping powdery stuff will
be checked, regulated or banned across borders for fear of narcotic
traffic. A simple children’s toy you sell and ship might be seen as
an offensive object elsewhere. Returns processes are also frustrating
when you deal with overseas markets. You might not be able to promise
free returns, no questions asked returns policies when you sell
internationally.

The post 3 biggest challenges to overcome while shipping internationally appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

If you are a business house that ships across the world or the country often, you would like to know what the potential problems you face are.  Here’s a list of 3 oft repeated mistakes that happen while people ship in volumes.

Insurance

If you are shipping something valuable, it makes sense to insure your freight. There are several cases of damaged cargo. Sometimes in large scale long haul shipping, containers get picketed. Ships might crash. Flights go missing. If your product is temperature variant, keep in mind that in some parts the temperature can go up to triple digits and fall below freezing point. Cargo is poorly handled by dock hands. So many factors can go wrong. So, if your product is valuable, it makes sense to insure it.
Insurance is different for different types of goods. So, before you decide on a certain insurance package, talk to people, do your research and figure out what coverage works for you. Most legitimate freight partners have allied insurance schemes.

Money, money, money

The cheapest deal is not always the best deal. The most expensive deal is not always the best. Find the lowest rates for your needs but do not compromise on your requirements. If a customer needs his shipment the next day, for example, choose the shipping service that would take it to him the next day. Now, think again. Several shippers blindly opt for express delivery in such a scenario. But they don’t realise that if the customer lives 30 min away, the slowest (and cheapest) shipping service will take it to him the next day. And the difference between normal and express delivery is significant. Do the math!  
Similarly, there are reputed freight providers who have been in the industry for long. There are also local players. Look at all your options before you decide.

Do not guesstimate shipping costs

If you are shipping products internationally, beware of hidden costs, taxes and duties that can crop up.  If you are an ecommerce player, have a list of countries you ship to. Before you commit to customers from these countries, do research on how much it actually costs to ship products to the destination. Or, do not mention shipping costs explicitly on your site.
If you are dealing with bulk orders, make sure the shipping partner gives you a discount. If you have to guesstimate, do involve your shipping partner. Call them and ask for quotes before you go ahead with the pricing.

At LateShipment, we offer comparative analysis of your shipping carrier service types that helps you find the most suitable service for your FedEx/UPS/DHL package.  Additionally you can also check if you are using the right service type by uploading your recent invoice at https://smart.lateshipment.com/carrierreport.

You will receive
a customized report that benchmarks your rates, identifies areas where
your shipping carrier is currently overcharging you and uncover several
areas of improvement your shipping carrier does not want to share with
you. We believe that your business will find significant value in this
tool.

The post 3 biggest freight shipping mistakes appeared first on Lateshipment.com.