Wondering where to save money next? Refining the way you do shipping could help you claw back your small business’s profits. – Shipping is so often overlooked, but it is an essential part of any business that produces goods. If your delivery is untimely, you lose custom. If your goods arrive broken or damaged, you lose custom. If they go to the wrong place, you lose custom. There are many other ways you can lose business if you don’t get your shipping process right.
With SME owners everywhere already responsible for the thousand of things that it takes to run their business, shipping tends to get overlooked. Here are some of the ways you can streamline your shipping process without having to get mired down in detail.
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How To Streamline Your Shipping Process
If you want to streamline the shipping processes in your small or medium business, or even in your large company, then follow these hot takes.
Refine Who Ships For You
Which company do you use to ship orders? Do you go to the US postal service? If you do, that’s a glaring error right there. They are notorious for lost and damaged packages. Don’t believe us? They have a full 1.1 stars out of 4,800+ reviews on TrustPilot. The amount you will spend on replacing your goods is not worth it.
If you have a large number of packages to ship, or if you regularly need to deliver goods to national stores, try hiring a Freight Brokerage Service instead. If it’s just the odd package, switch to FEDEX and save yourself a fortune.
Look At Pallets
If you routinely send out oversized lots of goods like cans of pop or boxes of chocolates, then pallet damage is another fundamental issue you have to contend with. You can get packaging companies that will perform packaging audits on your goods. This allows you to spot and eliminate areas where waste is having an impact on sales. If your pallets are secure, there is minor damage. Therefore, it makes sense to take the time to secure them.
Consider Materials
There are lots of things that you could be doing wrong with materials used in shipping. If your stock reordering processes aren’t correct, you might run out of certain materials. This leads to further damages to goods. Another way materials can impact your business is in the environmental factor. Paper is much less permanent than plastic is. Are your cheaper materials performing as well as a slightly more expensive one might be?[1]
All of these adjustments will help streamline your business’s shipping process and knock down those overheads.
Consider Your Shipping Process End-To-End
Remember that there are multiple stages to your shipping process, starting when the moment the order is taken and ending when it arrives. If your software is slow, you are losing production. If your shipping company isn’t recording goods, you have a problem. Only by effectively reviewing the entire process can you genuinely save time and money. We recommend you do so at least once per year.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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