Shipping damages can be a significant concern for online stores and businesses involved in shipping goods.
By understanding and addressing this issue proactively, online stores can reduce financial losses, customer dissatisfaction, avoid reputational crises, and enhance the delivery experience.
Any form of physical harm or impairment that occurs to goods or products during transportation (loading, unloading, handling, or while in transit) can be, most of the time, prevented to avoid a delivery exception.
Impact of shipping damages on the eCommerce business
Shipping damages mainly result in financial losses and reputational damages for the online store shipping the item, but there are some other key consequences:
1. Customer dissatisfaction
2. Increased customer service cost
3. Financial losses
4. Inventory imbalance
5. More resources spent to solve issues
6. Damaged brand image
To reduce the number of shipping damages as much as possible and, when they happen, mitigate their effects, online stores should put in place a series of measures to protect the products and ensure a smooth delivery experience.
6 Steps that prevent shipping damages
Preventing shipping damages is crucial for online stores and businesses involved in shipping goods. Here are steps to be taken to minimize before the goods are actually damaged. Preventative measures:
1. Minimize package damage with sturdy packaging
Investing in high-quality packaging materials that protect the products while keeping costs under control is a necessary decision in those businesses that don’t want to leave anything to chance.
From boxes to cushioning materials and strong tape, these are all indispensable parts of a successful delivery experience.
For extremely delicate or valuable items, consider placing the ready-to-ship box within another box, with appropriate cushioning, as the first box and layer of cushioning will absorb most of the impacts.
2. Avoid the most common types of packaging damage
One thing is to pay the price of high-quality packaging materials and another thing is to pack the items wisely and use the packaging materials as they are intended to.
Utilize the space to place products in a way that prevents them from moving and bulging around the box. For that, choosing the right size of the box is the first step, as it will decrease the amount of padding needed and reduce shipping costs.
3. Indicate the need for special care
Clearly labeling packages with handling instructions, such as "Fragile" or "Handle with Care," it’s a visual and fast way of alerting shipping personnel on the fragility of the products inside the parcel.
By using labels, stickers or stamps to indicate specific requirements or warnings, you will be able to drastically reduce the number of broken items that get delivered to your customers’ doorsteps.
4. Work with professional courier companies
Research and select couriers that are well-known for their careful handling and reliable delivery. For that, take into account factors such as their track record, handling procedures, and customer reviews.
Mitigation measures:
5. Implement an effective tracking system
Utilizing the different tracking services provided by couriers is extremely inefficient, especially when several courier services are in use.
For that reason, centralizing all shipping information in a single hub speeds up operations, but also brings internal information and communications, stopping the dependency on external parties.
Outvio can do that and more! As it automatically notifies you when something goes wrong with a parcel, or even before it goes wrong, so you can minimize shipping damages and provide the best delivery experience to your customers. Try it now.
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6. Analyze customer feedback
Prepare customer surveys to gain insights on their feelings on the packaging and condition of received items. Then, analyze this feedback to identify recurring issues and areas of improvement.
Regularly evaluating your packaging and shipping processes and staying updated on best practices in the industry will keep shipping damages to a minimum.
8 Actions to solve shipping damages
Once the shipping damage happens, it is important to take prompt and appropriate actions to address the issue effectively. Here are some crucial steps that you can’t miss:
1. Document the damage
As much as you want to prevent and minimize shipping damages as a retailer, it’s fundamental to state clearly what to do in case of receiving a damaged parcel as a customer.
That is, taking pictures or videos of the parcel as soon as the customer notices a flaw or damage on the package. These documents won’t only be used internally, but may be requested by other parties such as shipping insurance companies, couriers, 3PLs, etc.
2. Contact the courier
Once you receive the claim from the customer, the next step is assessing the responsibility of all the parties involved in the delivery process. Being the last party involved the courier, that’s where you should begin, as any other party involved in the process would have claimed an issue with the package before passing it onto the next agent in the chain.
Provide the courier with all the relevant information, such as tracking numbers, shipment details, and documentation of the damage and follow their instructions for filing a claim or initiating the resolution process if they were indeed responsible for the damage.
3. Review your insurance policy
If you have shipping insurance, or any of the parties have, review your policies to understand the coverage and claims process. In this way, claiming compensation and filing a claim is easier and faster. Most likely, they will require documentation and proof of the damage, which is why the first point is crucial to handling shipping damages overall.
4. Communicate with the customer
As an online store or retailer, remember that you are ultimately responsible for the delivery experience.
In this sense, the customer is always expecting news from your side. For this reason, promptly informing the customer about the shipping damage and how you plan to solve the issue is fundamental to their satisfaction.
Apologize for the inconvenience caused and keep them updated, offering options for replacements, refunds, or exchanges based on your store's policies.
5. Arrange the return of the products
Study the possibility of having the items returned to your warehouse or store or put in place an automatic refund to the customer when the shipping costs exceed the value of the purchase.
This is fairly simple to do when you work with Outvio, as it enables retailers to set in place automatic returns and exchange rules that minimize costs while maximizing the customer experience. Try it now.
6. Assess the need for repair
If you decide to have the items shipped back to you, most likely you considered that the products could be resold.
Evaluate what would be the cost and offer the repair to the customer or let them opt for a replacement, exchange or return.
7. Improve the packaging and shipping processes
Analyze the cause of the shipping damage and identify areas of improvement. The reason why parcels and products may be getting damaged could be as simple as using the wrong size of box, not enough padding, a deficient shipping service, etc.
8. Keep records
Maintaining detailed records of all communication, documentation, and actions taken throughout the handling of shipping damages is vital when processing a claim, supporting customers and for future reference.
For example you may need this data when analyzing inventory, providing financial data, dealing with a customer that experienced a shipping issue before, terminating a contract or asking for compensation from the shipping company.
Remember, each situation has unique circ*mstances, but prompt communication, thorough documentation, and a commitment to resolving the issue satisfactorily can help mitigate the impact of shipping damages on your business and maintain customer satisfaction intact.
Conclusions
Shipping damages pose significant concerns for online stores and businesses involved in shipping goods.
They can lead to financial losses, customer dissatisfaction, and reputational damage.
The causes of product damage vary, from inadequate packaging to environmental factors, and careless handling. The reasons why they happen aren’t always clear, but how to prevent them and solve them once they happen is.
While couriers and 3PLs may have the actual responsibility behind shipping damages, for the customer, retailers and online stores are the ones actually dealing with customers and putting their reputations at risk.
By understanding and addressing shipping damages proactively, online stores can enhance their delivery experience, minimize losses, and maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.
