Getting Your Delivery Logistics Shipshape: advice for e-retailers

Whether it’s lily bouquets for Valentine’s, hot-cross buns for Easter, or woolly jumpers in the run-up to Christmas, many businesses will have their periods of increased demand. Often these can be wholly anticipated and planned for, but occasionally they’ll simply spring out of the blue.

But whatever the cause for those greater levels of consumer fervour, it’s essential that businesses can respond to intensified activity and reliably come up with the goods so that customers go away happy rather than losing faith in your ability to deliver. Reliable shipping is a must.

Here are 3 simple things you can do to help your business cope with increased demand:

1. Anticipate and communicate

If you know that you’re entering a period of seasonally high demand, notify your customers so that they too can plan ahead by placing their orders in good time. Where necessary bring forward your cut-off times for taking those orders so that none of your valued customers are left disappointed.

Similarly, be aware that a special promotion or offer could arouse more interest than you might have imagined it would. So be sensitive to that possibility and, where feasible, inform customers – and partners and staff – with a friendly bulletin so that together everybody is given the opportunity to be fully prepared.

2. Know your stock

You might not be the only one feeling the pressure at certain times of the year, so if your stock is subject to delays for external reasons, keeping on top of what you have available is paramount.

So, once again, keep your customers informed. Plenty of sites out there fail to let their customers know about where they may be low in stock for fear of losing business, yet they earn a bad reputation for their service as a result, which could be far more damaging.

3. Find a courier service you trust

A reliable, efficient, established courier service provider with whom you can build a strong relationship is invaluable to any business, large or small, for whom regular pallet and freight distribution is an essential.

National Pallets provide same-day collection for requests made before 11am, so you can always expect to keep up with customer demand.