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4. Opt for in-store pickup

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Shipping carriers work on the condition that they abide by their contract and one such condition is their commitment to on-time deliveries. If these deliveries are missing their mark, carriers will ensure a 100% refund under their ‘money-back’ guarantee policy’.

Money-back guarantees are refund policies within the carrier’s SLAs that promise a 100% refund on shipping charges for select service types if a parcel is delayed (sometimes even by 60 seconds) except in exceptional circumstances (natural disasters, weather delays, etc.).

Major carriers that provide money-back guarantees for late deliveries

Here’s the list of different terms and conditions on money-back guarantees from major shipping carriers that you can revisit to stay aware of while filing refund claims. 

• FedEx Service Guide – Money-back Guarantee
• UPS Service Guarantee
• DHL Money-back Guarantee
• Canada Post Late Package Claims
• Purolator Money-back Guaranteed services
• USPS Eligible Refunds
• Royal Mail’s Retail Compensation Policy for Delay
• UK Mail Claims and Compensation

Shipping carriers offer money-back guarantees to assure customers of the reliability and timeliness of their services. I.e., if the carrier fails to meet certain predefined service standards or delivery commitments, then you, the shipper, are entitled to hold them accountable for their service failures and thereby are eligible for a refund of the shipping cost. 

Benefits of claiming refunds under the money-back guarantee

Shipping carriers such as FedEx and UPS have money-back guarantees that offer refunds for late deliveries. However, they either don’t get automatically credited to your account nor are not easy to claim. Therefore, shipping invoice audits act as document evidence that can help you recover costs directly associated with late deliveries. There’s more to it. 

Firstly, making full use of the money-back guarantee and claiming refunds gives you the opportunity to save on your shipping costs.

Second, regular auditing of invoices and claiming refunds holds carriers accountable for their service level agreements (SLAs). This ensures better visibility into your carrier’s delivery performance and fosters a more transparent relationship between you and the carrier.

As a third, with insights into the form carrier performance metrics such as recurring delays with specific routes, services, etc., you can optimize your shipping and make informed decisions regarding logistics.  

Data from audited invoices can also be used as leverage in negotiating better terms (lower rates or improved service guarantees) for future contracts with shipping carriers, thereby enhancing overall logistics efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

However, enjoying these benefits and claiming refunds are not so straightforward, as these money-back guarantee policies often come with certain fine print caveats that make it complicated for you to claim refunds. 

Refund hurdles under the money-back guarantee policy

• There is a list of eligible services – Only certain services are applicable for money-back guarantees. It is important to check if your packages are sent through a service where the guarantee is valid.
• It can be excluded based on conditions –  Money-back guarantee is not applicable when delays are caused by natural disasters, weather conditions, incorrect addresses, customs delays, the unavailability of the recipient, or other events beyond the carriers’ control.
• There are modifications and suspensions – Carriers reserve the right to modify (increase the permissible duration) or suspend the money-back guarantee during high-volume periods like the holiday season. 
• The claim process is tiresome and time-consuming – Even if all conditions are in your favor, the claim can still be rejected owing to the reason that the carrier must be notified within a specific time frame after the delivery (typically 15 days). This can be a hassle, especially if you’re filing these claims manually. 

The post Shipping Carriers’ 100% Money-Back Guarantee Policies and Why Avoid Signing Refund Waivers appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

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While continuous efforts are being made to restore normalcy in operations – carriers including UPS, FedEx, and Purolator have REINSTATED their Money-Back Guarantee for some service types, effective April 5, 2021.

The latest carrier to resume On-time Delivery Guarantees is Canada Post for parcels shipped within Canada. The delivery guarantees will take effect starting August 23, 2021.

This translates to more savings on your shipping bills, given that over 20% of all shipments faced delivery issues in 2020. 

But first, you must stay in the loop of the select services that are now eligible for the money-back guarantee. And that’s why we’ve compiled them for you. 

Want this list right in your device? 

We’ve also presented the same as a downloadable document below for you to access the links and read more about money-back guarantee being reinstated from the carriers themselves. 

The post Everything You Need to Know about the Changes Made to Canada Post, UPS, FedEx and Purolator’s Money-back Guarantee appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Step 3: File a Refund Claim for the Lost Packages

• File refund claims for DHL lost packages here 
• File refund claims for FedEx lost packages here
• File refund claims for UPS lost packages here 
• File refund claims for USPS lost packages here

Step 3.1: How do I file a claim for lost packages?

The tracker on your package is usually true to its name and rarely allows packages to get lost. But on the off chance that the shipping label comes off, or the package is torn and the contents scattered, you’ll have no choice but to file lost package claims with the carrier.

Here are a few things you need to keep in mind if you’re going to file a claim for FedEx lost packages.

1. If the contents of the package cost less than $100, you can complete the entire form online and request a refund without documentation.
2. In the event of the package costing anywhere above $100, proper documentation is necessary for the claim to get processed.
3. Documentation can include FedEx pickup records, photos of the damaged or lost contents, and proof of value documentation.
4. Claims have to be filed within 60 days for US shipments and in 21 calendar days for international shipments (with all supporting documentation filed within 9 months of delivery date).
5. The tracking number that was initially allocated to the package is vital to the process and has to be provided.

After a scheduled inspection, your claim will be processed and you can track its progress.

In the case of other shipping carriers, you can file claims online through the following links and within the following deadlines.

• UPS lost packages claim (file within 5 months online, within 9 months through customer service, and within 45 days if it is an uncollected C.O.D)
• USPS lost packages claim (file within 60 days for all services except Priority Mail Express, First class, and Surface Mail)
• DHL lost packages claim (file within 30 days)

Step 4: How Lateshipment.Com Helps You Handle Your Lost Packages

Sure, refunds are great for your business. But getting them doesn’t help in mitigating the pain of a loyal customer who might have lost  packages such as birthday gifts or an anniversary surprises.

That’s when our other feature Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform can help. DEM is particularly helpful if you are a bulk shipper who uses multiple carriers and would prefer an efficient automated workflow.

Step 4.2: How Delivery Experience Management (DEM) Platform Works

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The 50+ failures of shipping carriers that are eligible for refunds can be separated into service failures and billing errors. Billing errors themselves can be classified separately into surcharges & fees and other billing errors. 

This classification helps you immediately identify and recognize the types of service failures and billing errors and act accordingly when faced with any of them.

The post 50+ Shipping Carrier Service Failures That are Totally Eligible for Refunds appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

You’re Actually Losing Money!

Most shipping carriers guarantee refunds if deliveries are delayed because of errors on their part. Some, like UPS and FedEx, promise refunds even if the delay is only a minute.

But carriers make it hard, very hard to get those refunds.

How, you ask?

They make their claim forms hard to fill out, and they provide a limited window of time within which claims must be filed.

“I can handle that,” you say?

Well, then consider this.

Do you only ship a few packages every once in a while or do you ship regularly to your customers?

If you answered, like most people, that you ship regularly to your customers, you may be having a problem on your hands.

You’re probably missing out on a bunch of refund money because you’re not auditing your shipments and carrier invoices.

Let that sink in.

You are letting someone else keep YOUR MONEY because you aren’t keeping track of where they mess up. And boy do shipping carriers mess up!

How Shipping Carriers Mess Up (You Face the Consequences)

Between July and December of 2018, Fedex and UPS, two leading carriers, experienced significant delays while delivering shipments. Based on our delay report, the states worst affected by delays by these carriers were New Jersey, Texas, California, New York, and Illinois. The worst affected cities were Jersey City, East Syracuse, Mesquite, Hutchins, and Memphis.

The performance of these carriers was deficient throughout the review period and particularly during the holiday period (November and December). FedEx and UPS had a combined delay percentage of 7.57% in November and 5.86% in December.

UPS performed marginally better than FedEx during the period with an overall delay percentage of 4.9% as against 5.1% by FedEx.

But here’s the catch. These percentages don’t tell the complete story. There’s more to small parcel delays.

A customer who has experienced a delay in receiving their shipment is less likely to buy from you again. You end up losing them, forever. A one-time refund from your carrier cannot compensate for this.

A lost customer is the ultimate tragedy for your business because you can no longer count on any repeat business or positive reviews from them. You end up losing out in a big way. Your brand’s value is eroded.

So, what must you do?

Audit Your Shipping Carrier

You need to have a system in place to audit your shipping carrier and get refunded every time they mess up. The usual way of making this happen is by using the services of a shipping auditor. This person checks the invoices sent to the business by the shipping carrier and audits them for inconsistencies. The shipping auditor has the task of optimizing the shipping process for the organization and cutting down on costs wherever possible.

Some large organizations make use of an entire team to make this process happen. Still others outsource the job to external agencies. A few make use of automated software solutions to perform their shipping audits.

The question still remains. What must YOU do?

This is what you must do. You need to sign up for an automated service that does all the heavy lifting for you.

What kind of lifting, you ask?

This service should be able to

• track your packages from source to destination.
• identify shipping errors when they occur and automatically generate refund claims.
• save your business up to 20% on shipping costs.
• provide real-time insights on the status of your package.
• certify your business for last-mile best practices.
• integrate with and provide data on the performance of multiple carriers.

You need to sign up for a free LateShipment.com account.

This probably looks like self-promotion, and it is. But not without reason.

Our service will audit your shipping invoices to identify over 50 service failures and submit refund claims to your carrier on your behalf. Businesses that use our services save up to 20% on every shipment.

That’s not all! Use our services and get access to advanced analytics tools that will help you audit every shipment in real-time and fix delivery errors even before they happen. With your account, you can rest easy in the confidence that you will be able to handle delays before they affect your customers. Signing up takes 2 minutes, and you have nothing to lose!

Take a peek into our dashboard.

This is our Shipment Report, designed to give you overall shipment data in one place. The shipments that leave your warehouse are categorized by date, service type, and shipping costs. You can also see how many claims have been filed and their cumulative value.

If you’re wondering how to evaluate your shipping carrier, then the Carrier Performance report is what you should look at. It gives you an in-depth report on carrier performance over the last six months. It also includes a graph that shows the package delay rate divided by hours and days delayed.

Our Monthly Shipping Spend report is for when you need to know the value of either individual or bulk shipments in a specific window of time. It gives you a detailed monthly and yearly break up of shipment value.

There are plenty more insights we can offer your business.

 Why You Should Use an Automated Solution to Audit Your Carrier

Manually tracking and auditing shipments is a process that has been performed for long. So why reinvent the wheel and go in for an automated service? Here’s why.

Manually tracking/auditing multiple shipments at the same time is difficult work. On a large scale, it requires an in-house or external team of shipping auditors. Both can be expensive.

Also, delays aren’t the only possible failure. There are over 50 ways in which shipping carriers can let you down. For example, your products could be damaged in transit or even not be shipped at all! Your team of auditors will have to audit for all these possibilities, which can lead to them being overwhelmed.

After all the effort, there’s still the aspect of human error to consider.

An automated service like ours is designed from the ground up to audit shipments and invoices and claim refunds. It has handled the tracking of over 75 million shipments and has successfully claimed refunds worth millions of dollars.

Once you start using a service like LateShipment.com, how are things going to improve for you?

The Very Real Benefits of Auditing Shipments

Here’s how using our service will add value to your organization:

• The refunds will start flowing in.
• Your shipping carrier(s) will be forced to improve their service.
• You will be able to proactively handle shipping-related issues before your customers know of them.
• You will be able to ensure customer satisfaction.
• Our insights will provide you a broader picture and let you negotiate better rates with your shipping carrier(s).

At the end of the day, it all boils down to one word: Accountability. Shipping carriers have been getting away with way too much for way too long. The 3 billion dollars in unclaimed refunds that they pocket each year is money that should have been in the hands of businesses like yours. When you submit claims for refunds, you force your carrier to take a good, hard look at the quality of their service.

When a carrier receives a large volume of refund claims, they are forced to improve the service they provide. Which is a win for businesses like yours! At the end of the day, all we want from shipping carriers is that they walk the talk.

At the end of the day, all we want from shipping carriers is that they walk the talk.

Useful Links

Here are some links to help you learn more about the refund policies of major carriers and get you started with applying for refunds.

• FedEx Money-Back Guarantee & Refunds

• UPS Refunds & Claims

• DHL Claims & Refunds

• USPS Refunds & Claims

• Canada Post Refunds

• Purolator Money-Back Guarantee & Refunds 

If you found this post useful, check out these as well:

• Parcel Audit & Shipment Tracking: A LateShipment.com Guide to Win Your Last Mile
• Guide to Cross-Border Shipping in 2019
• Top 10 Retail Blogs of 2019 That Every Retailer Should Be Reading

The post How and Why of Shipping Audit for FedEx, UPS, and DHL appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

The ability to successfully negotiate a contract hinges on several factors. Especially when it comes to negotiating deals with your shipping partner. You need extensive data on their performance stats, the impact they’ve had on your clientele, and much more.

Besides, if shipping prices hit too high (cue the hikes you see every quarter), you’ll have to change product prices to match them. So it makes a huge difference if your negotiation prowess can be put to use.

Here’s a checklist that will be of great use when you negotiate contracts with FedEx and UPS.

1. Surcharges

A look at your shipping invoice will give you an idea of how many additional components your shipping bills contain.

You can read more on various surcharges here. In a nutshell, there are several surcharges in your shipping bill. Oversized packages, residential zipcode destinations, fuel hikes and many such aspects attract surcharges. All carriers have their own set of surcharges. Every surcharge added to your shipping bill has its own terms and conditions. So, you need to be in a position to identify surcharges that do not apply and filter them out, when you negotiate with your shipping vendor.

2. Impact of DIM

In recent years, both FedEx and UPS have shifted to dimensional weight for billing purposes. Earlier, packages were billed according to their actual weight. According to the new order, the package weight to be billed is determined by the dimensions of the package. This is because the space the package occupies in a container is what counts, logically speaking.

You can save a lot on your shipping bills if your packages can come down in size along with actual weight. This requires a close look at packaging strategy.  If you are packing odd shaped packages, check out how to optimize shipping costs here.

3. Arm yourself with data!

Before you start your negotiations, arm yourself with data on past performance of shipping carriers. Study individual costs and work out a plan to reduce costs, going forward. Make a list of cost components that can be reduced or done away with. Optimize as much as possible and then take the list to your shipping carrier to negotiate on what can be negotiated. When you assemble the data, make sure you have a list of cases where the shipping carrier has failed to perform, as promised.

LateShipment.com is a one stop tool that provides you with all the data you need for this purpose. It can tell you everything about every shipment you have sent across, with data on geographical performance, where it has been delayed, et al. Here’s a graph showing geographical representation of delays across specific areas in the US.

4. Read the fine print

Your shipping vendor gives certain promises to deliver the package on time. Failing which, they have to refund your shipping money. Now, this is stated as a USP in their sites. But what you are blissfully unaware of, when you sign up with the carrier is the fine print. The fine print has dozens of conditions that FedEx and UPS can use to NOT refund your money. Invest time in reading the fine print. A firm grasp of the fine print can give you an edge when you discuss terms during the negotiation.  

UPS and FedEx offer similar money back guarantees. And the process to retrieve the money in either case is equally circuitous. Despite having an in depth knowledge of everything the fine print entails, you can miss out on refunds if the carrier considers them ineligible. your claim can be revoked on account of season, weather conditions, unexpected delays out of their control and unstable political ambience. 

5. Are you giving up your right to refunds?

Every retailer should ensure that he/ she does not give up the right to refunds through the carrier money back guarantee. No matter how attractive the discount offered may be, holding shipping carriers accountable for their performance by monitoring all your packages and claiming refunds for the ones with delivery exceptions is a must.

As we have seen earlier, you are entitled to a full refund of your shipping bill if the carrier fail to deliver the package in the promised time. This can be a significant savings if done diligently. Bring this up in your negotiations. Also, waiving your money back guarantee for a hefty discount would mean forgoing the ability to hold the carrier accountable for service failures.

6. Leverage competition

A very critical part of running a business is knowing your competition. Enrol yourself in associations where most of your peers are involved. You would facilitate healthy competition while getting to know what your peers do. This would help you in forming business strategies, and negotiating better discounts with the carrier if you’re already aware of the discounts others of the same caliber avail. Using a common forum, you can get to know best practices in the industry and follow what suits you best.

7. Protection against rate spikes

FedEx and UPS are infamous for sudden spikes in their rates with several reasons ranging from seasons to fuel costs. So, it’s a good point to bring that up when you negotiate. Ask for protection against such sudden price inflation.

You can read more on the UPS and FedEx recent price hikes here.

This is a regular occurrence. A single rate change in shipping can affect your logistics costs and your bottomline. You certainly need cover against such rate changes.

8. Holiday Shipping Rates

Holiday seasons happen to be the most rush period in eCommerce and shipping. Predictably, shipping rates go up and the money back guarantee also ceases to apply for most shipping service types (if you haven’t specifically asked for it during negotiation) during these times. You should make it a point to request for the money back guarantee during holiday season as well.

9. Review the contract  

Periodically, review the contract and try to figure out a middle ground where you and the shipping carrier can benefit from each other. Revisit your contract before renewing it every time.

The period for these reviews is something you need to take a call on. It could be monthly, quarterly or half yearly, based on factors like

• The number of packages you send

• The number of times your carrier changes rates and how you get impacted

• And, whatever your reviews tell you!

10. Multiple carrier negotiations

Do not stick to a single shipping carrier at any point of time. if you negotiate with FedEx and UPS at the same time, you leverage competition against each other and you benefit from better rates. Also, you can choose the best performer for each type of delivery and use that effectively.

During negotiations, you can bring this up and note differences in carrier performance.

Here’s a bonus point for you.

11. Maintain good relationships

It is very important to maintain good relationships with your carrier representative. These are people who can help with your negotiations. You would be making it easier for them if you could hold your end of a civil business relationship.

Like with every other relationship, business and otherwise, your interpersonal skills will help you get better deals and make your business running easier. This can even help you get access to association rates that only the representative can work out. So a good working rapport will reward you with better pricing and access to offers and schemes.

And that’s your checklist for successful negotiations with FedEx and UPS representatives. The smartest path to take would be to sign up with a service like LateShipment,com to obtain data to help you with negotiations. You can make use of this data to stay ahead of competitors this holiday season.

The post 10 Must Know Tips to Negotiate Shipping Contracts With FedEx or UPS appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

1. Generate shipping labels online

A very integral part of order fulfilment is to do with generation of shipping labels. Sites like Shopify let you generate shipping labels online and more recently they let you do so from your mobile phones through an app. Shipping costs are calculated by freight carriers based on the weight of the parcels you are shipping. When you create your shipping labels, add product weights. Or, you may use the bulk editor to update the product weights according to your current inventory. When you ship the same product in volumes, this becomes easy as the product weight remains the same. This procedure gives you the correct shipping rates when you’re fulfilling your orders. The label data can be saved and reused any number of times. It gives accurate shipping charges based on destination zip code, weight, dimensions, type of delivery etc. In case of void shipping labels, it is easier to get the money refunded for the void shipment if the process is streamlined online.

2. Efficient Packaging

Several ecommerce sellers do not understand the importance of efficient and optimised packaging. Now that FedEx and UPS have shifted to dimensional package weight for their tariff, you need to ensure that your packages are optimal in size. While your package weight to be billed is based on the dimensions of the package, you will also have to consider something else. Your UPS package is considered a Large Package when its length plus girth [(2 x width) + (2 x height)] combined exceeds 330cm, but does not exceed the maximum size of 419cm. And it attracts a Large Package surcharge. So, go through your invoice. If your package size is being billed as a large package, ask yourself if you can package your products any differently. You can experiment with several packaging strategies to figure out what works best in terms of safety until delivery and cost optimization. You can read more on efficiently packaging odd shaped items here.

3. Multi-carrier shipping

If you ship in significant volumes, sign up with multiple carriers. For the same package, before you send the package across, check for rates across carriers. LateShipment.com has an additional feature, that helps you choose the right carrier, every time. not only do you get to choose the optimal way out for each delivery but you also get to see a carrier performance report. With this report, you can conclude on which carrier works best for which type of delivery/destination/cost/customer/product.
Not only would this help you with shipping cost optimization but also with choosing the best product type. For example, if you can send the package through either freight carrier for the same or similar charge but one can do it faster, you can go for the faster one. Checking your options and going for the economical, optimal carrier each time will also give you data enough to negotiate better with either shipping carrier. Each carrier would want to maximize the number of orders with you. And they would offer better rates if you choose them over the others.

4. Use zone skipping

Zone Skipping is a logistics technique where several packages destined for the same location are consolidated.  The carrier collects individual packages and holds them all until a threshold is reached. The optimal threshold involves truckload capabilities and time frames.  All the packages are sent en masse from the same origin to the same destination. In the common arrival destination, all the parcels are sorted in a sorting area and then the last mile delivery is carried out according to each package.

For instance, in Zone Skipping terminology, Atlanta is in Zone 2 and Los Angeles is in Zone 8. Shipping a huge, consolidated truckload from Zone 2 to Zone 8 is considered Zone Skipping.

The per package cost of shipping via Zone Skipping comes down dramatically. This cuts down on shipping costs majorly. There is also the additional benefit of avoiding delays and hassles at hubs, ports and transits. But, you might not be able to achieve fast delivery times with zone skipping.

5. Package bundling

UPS and FedEx allow you to bundle products when you are sending multiple products to the same destination. But they are quite specific about how to bundle these packages. You can either strap them together or choose to bundle the packages with tape. Filament MOPP (the tape most often comes in the form of filament or tensilized tapes;  it is standard tape with nylon filament threads running along the length of the tape to give it additional strength when packages are bundled)  comes highly recommended. Or, you can use stretch tape to bundle your packages. This can save your shipping costs majorly.

6. Strategic location of fulfilment center

Optimizing the location of your ecommerce fulfilment center can result in very significant savings in terms of shipping costs. It can also improve customer service. An optimal fulfilment center in an optimal location leads to lower outbound and inbound shipping costs and lower transit times.

Optimising fulfilment center location depends on customer density and economic factors. The facility has to be close to where most of your customers reside. Economic factors are dependent on the cost of space and labor. Also, you need to understand package routes to figure out where the next fulfilment center should be located at. The location of fulfilment centers is a make or break decision that can reflect on your shipping, customer experience and overall image.

7. Negotiate a discount with the carrier

This should be your go to mantra not just with shipping but with every aspect of your business. Whenever you sign up for a long term (or short term) deal with a freight carrier, call them up and ask for discounts. Before holding the conversation, have all your data ready in hand. Include data on destination, weight and dimensions of most of your parcels, delivery type and volumes of boxes. This data will help you strike a good deal with the negotiation.

During the negotiation, you should look for insulation from the sudden price hikes that shipping carriers are famous for. Shipping partners are very integral in your business chain and without them, you cannot deliver your goods to end customers. You price your goods with a certain shipping price in mind. When the carrier increases rates, you are left gaping with uncertainty over whether you should hike your rates and disappoint your customers or bear the brunt yourself. So, look for an upper cap or fixed rates for a time period.

8. Using a 3PL/ outsourcing shipping

Whatever your core process is, stick to that. And whatever can be outsourced with the promise of better efficiency, perfection, expertise and cost optimization should be outsourced. There are several shipping related third party vendors. It’s not necessary to depend on FedEx and UPS for shipping. You can also choose to outsource everything from shipping labels to packaging.

9. Be a part of a professional association

Having a peer network like Retail West or ACT Canada where you have a forum to put forth your concerns is a good idea. When you have a high volume of shippers, for example, you can have negotiations with shipping carriers and other 3PL vendors to give your association members better rates. Moreover, interaction with others will expose you to best practices prevalent in the industry. You can study and learn where to cut costs and how in such forums.

10. Conduct regular shipping invoice audits

A post mortem analysis on every process will help you with your strategies going forward. A shipping audit with all your invoices, held periodically, will help you chart out where you spend money and what can be avoided/optimized. Here’s why your business should automate your shipping invoice audit.

Shipping reports and further audits are made simpler with tools like LateShipment.com. LateShipment.com is a one stop solution that helps you recover shipping refunds that you are eligible for, from your shipping partners. Almost all reputed shipping partners promise a full refund of shipping costs if the delivery is later than the promised time. Most small businesses let go of this refund because the process to file for the claims and follow up is very troublesome and time consuming. LateShipment.com can automate the entire process and easily get your refunds, thus bringing down your shipping budget.  

The post 10 Best Ways to Reduce Your Shipping Costs appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

But somewhere along the way, even the best of us seem to get sidetracked by the nitty gritty of running a business. Focus on the customer gets distorted into a multitude of different things that seem to simultaneously require your attention.

If you plan on surviving the highly competitive retail space, the not- so- linear line between pre purchase and post purchase strategy needs to be revisited. The last mile has now become the ultimate hurdle to overcome for any retailer.

Image: marketoonist

Meeting customer expectations demands crafting a unique and handcrafted experience. In the age of Amazon’s one day delivery, creating an exceptional last mile experience is the way to a customer’s heart.

Technology could be the best way to do this. For when necessity arises, the gods of tech always step in.

When shipping turns crippling

One of the major areas where being customer centric becomes problematic is shipping. A third party shipping carrier takes over the shipment, and you basically lose control of it right then and there till it reaches the customer. The waiting period is made more painful if there are agitated customer phone calls demanding to know the whereabouts of a package that already seems to have been delivered according to your logs.

The only way to counter the effect of handing over the reins to a shipping carrier is to constantly monitor them and hold them accountable for their performance.  Considering the fact that your interests do not align, ensuring a great last mile delivery to every customer is something that rests on the retailer’s shoulders.

Ensuring better carrier performance

Holding carriers accountable for their performance can be achieved by filing claims for all eligible service failures committed by the carrier. This makes it expensive for them to commit errors, and therefore brings better performance to the table.

A manual audit of your shipping invoice is a laborious task (you might still miss something), so an automated audit would be the best bet when it comes to shipping. This is partly due to the fact that there are over 50 carrier errors you need to be aware of, and surcharges to add to it! Any of these might have been miscalculated or mistakenly billed into your invoice.

Considering all this, it is certainly wise to opt for an automated shipping invoice audit.

The big picture: Refunds or the last mile?

Let’s say you have an automated audit process in place. You might be using internal resources or an online tool, depending on what your business needs. The great thing about the audit would be that you don’t have to lift a finger to get the refunds that are rightfully yours. At the end of every month, you get the report along with a chunk of cash you otherwise would not have noticed you were missing out on.

Despite shipping refunds making you feel great and saving you quite a bit of shipping costs at the end of the day, the other side of the story is not that good for your business.

At the tail end of every refund you receive for a shipping carrier error, is a frustrated and angry customer whose order didn’t make it on time. Or whose order was damaged upon arrival.

When you look at it from a customer centric perspective, the joy of receiving refunds does not really cut it when an unhappy customer is on the line. Over 50% of customers rarely choose to shop from the same retailer again after a bad delivery experience. Repeat shoppers are another story altogether.

Providing a memorable last mile experience to customers needs to top your list in order to earn the trust of repeat customers and entice new customers to keep coming back for more.

The key herein is to have an eye on the refunds while your focus is on the bigger picture- the customer.

Two birds. One stone. Happy customers.

When we at LateShipment realised that the big picture was going out of focus to several retailers, we decided to create a solution that would ensure

1. Proactive prevention and addressing of last mile issues
2. Automated refunds and
3. Carrier accountability

This is how (LateShipment.com) Pulse was born. As a service, LateShipment.com strives to bring more trust and transparency to the world of shipping. This helps businesses predict and fix delivery exceptions even before they happen, working around existing shipping strategies.

The value of predictive softwares can possibly be measured only in proportion with increased customer retention per se. What makes this a wonderful resource for any retail business is that it equips more than one team to handle both customers and revenue.

The customer support team for instance, could be on top of all the orders that require immediate attention, and notify customers when a delay becomes inevitable. Or even send in a replacement for time sensitive deliveries when the predictive software shows that a delivery is not going to make it on time for that party!

The fulfilment team benefits from a predictive tool too. The data collected on the shipping carrier becomes a valuable resource to analyse and compare performance rates between carriers. It also comes in handy when negotiating prices with your carrier.

As for customers, it will not turn into a case of blaming the retailer for the carrier’s error. If informed well in advance and kept in the loop, their brand loyalty only tends to increase. They can also time their availability to collect the package, so that multiple delivery attempts are avoided.

Your business gets those coveted repeat customers, along with extensive data on the shipping carrier you use, plus the refunds! I guess that’s technically three birds then.

How Pulse works:

Like I said before, Pulse is our real time tracking dashboard that keeps track of multiple shipments (it tracks over 25000 packages at any given point of time). The tool uses around 150 data points to predict the course of any package that might deviate from the set path. Some of the major features of Pulse include,

1. Real- time tracking across multiple carriers on a single dashboard
2. Predicting delays beforehand
3. Pinpointing orders that require immediate attention
4. Estimated number of returns at any given time
5. Notifying customers in advance regarding delivery exceptions

When the customer comes first, the customer will last.

We realise that putting the customer first is vital to the success of any business (in theory). Bringing it to practice is an entirely new ball game. Not only does it require extensive strategic planning on your part, it also involves paying attention to the needs of a customer.

When it comes to shipping, around 60% of customers expect fast delivery options which they are willing to pay for. This makes it all the more critical for retailers to step up, proactively fix delivery issues, and explain the situation beforehand in case of unavoidable circumstances. Customers appreciate being informed and kept in the loop even if the there is a slight change in the schedule.

Your focus should therefore be on the trail of unhappy customers left behind each refund you retrieve, and not solely on the money. The revenue from returning customers will more than make up for the reduced number of shipping refunds you receive.  

Minimizing the number of claims you dispute will automatically increase the number of repeat customers and help in building a loyal customer base.

The post The BIG Picture: Think Beyond Shipping Refunds and Claims appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Luckily, you don’t have to embark on this scavenger hunt alone. At LateShipment.com, we automatically audit your shipping invoice for over 50 carrier errors and recover refunds that are directly applied to your shipping invoice.

Here is a snapshot of the ten most expensive shipping carrier errors that are eligible for refunds

Delayed Deliveries – Sample this: You are a wine retailer who has had a merry sales season. Just when you are toasting your big wins with that chilled Chianti, you are interrupted by a distressed call from your customer. As luck would have it, his favourite bottle of chardonnay was going to arrive late. To keep him happy, you speed deliver another bottle, it’s Christmas after all! But then you get another call and then another. Before you realise, you are flooded with order delivery complaints and end up spending the better part of your holiday salvaging delivery disasters.

The real cost of late delivery is a disjointed customer delivery experience and losing repeat buyers. One harrowing delivery experience could get you blacklisted by even loyal customers.

Damaged shipments –  True, when an expensive order is found to be damaged, it causes a dent in your profit margin. But far greater is the resulting negative impact it has on a customer’s brand perception.

Lost Shipment: The message on your customer’s tracking page reads: Delivered to the front porch. When your customer enquires about the package whereabouts, with casual indifference, you quote the delivery status update. Surprise! They don’t even have a front porch. 

Lost shipments could turn out to be devastating for retailers and their customers alike. Especially when they are marked as delivered by the shipping carrier.

Residential surcharges: There is a fee applied to packages that are shipped to non-commercial addresses. But what exactly is considered as a non-commercial address? UPS states that a residential surcharge would be applied whenever a package is shipped to any address that is a house and does not have an entrance open to the general public.  Let’s say you’ve got an artistically designed, quaint office with a side entrance and a carefully camouflaged garage- it’s quite possible that residential charges will get applied even if it’s situated in the middle of a bustling city.

Address correction charges: Instances of packages delivered to wrong addresses are aplenty. Agreed, the address could be incorrectly mentioned on the package by the shipper. That still does not absolve FedEx or UPS of taking responsibility when packages are delivered to wrong addresses. Nobody wants their brand new purchase sitting on somebody else’s doorstep.

Dimensional weight pricing:  When you ship a 3 tier cake or a pound and bench toy that weighs less than 6 lbs, how much do you pay? You may have to pony up the charges for a 13 lbs package. Dim weight pricing is one of the trickiest charges to calculate. Finding an optimal package size for orders remains a challenge for retailers. Pad it, you pay extra. Skimp on the cushion, you face unhappy customers. Adding to worries of a toppled cake, is an application of incorrect DIM weight charges.

Void shipments: Remember those labels that you created but never used? They generally account to about 0.22% of total packages. At an average cost of $5 per shipping label, cancelling unused labels could recover a significant amount, especially if your shipping volume is quite high.

Delivery area surcharges and extended delivery area surcharges: Did you know an additional fee is applied every time a package has to be delivered to residential, rural or commercial rural area? Packages tagged under DAS are charged a $4 – $4.5 whereas those tagged as eDAS are charged a whopping $130-$150. Even more appalling is the fact that there is a good possibility that 20% of your ecommerce orders fall under either of these categories.

Fuel surcharges: The most contentious and least surprising fee applied to a shipping invoice has been fuel surcharge for all service types including ground shipments. Adding to the complexity of validating your invoice charges, fuel surcharges keep fluctuating on a weekly basis.

Duplicate charges: Is it possible to bill a tracking number twice? Tracking numbers theoretically are unique. But in practice, the same tracking number could be assigned to two different orders. Although straightforward and low in occurrence (.07%), depending on the charges that are duplicated, the amount you could save from auditing for duplicate charges could be significant.

Image source: Disneyinstitute

Inspecting each shipping invoice and searching for errors is like playing catch blindfolded. You have no clue where or when you are likely to bump into an error. An automated auditing process, on the other hand, could systematically catch all possible errors and request refunds on your behalf. All you have to do is, say the word: “Audit”! ( And of course follow it up with a 2 minute sign up process with LateShipment.com)

Credits

https://parcelindustry.com 

https://ecommercenews.eu/primary-reason-orders-dont-arrive-time/

All charges mentioned are as published by FedEx/UPS

The post 10 Important Shipping Carrier Errors That Could Cost Your Ecommerce Business appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

The most compelling reason to switch to an automated audit process is that manual process could be time sinking as well as labor intensive. Moreover, the cumbersome process of auditing your invoice takes your focus away from building a successful business. Listed here are the definitive advantages of using automated parcel shipping invoice audit over manual in-house process.

As noted in the illustration, the first step towards logistics digitalization is automating the auditing process of FedEx and UPS shipping invoices. LateShipment.com is a service that helps you audit upto 50+ service failures committed regularly by your shipping carriers and save instantly upto 20% of your shipping costs. Our realtime tracker also empowers your business to predict delivery exceptions and help you make data driven logistic decision.

Are you willing to take a calculated leap and step out of your in-house process? Sign up now to automate your shipping invoice audit process.

The post Why should your retail business automate shipping invoice audit process? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.