How To Prevent Slow Delivery In Your Retail Business?

Due to the increasing venture of e-commerce, it has been challenging to deliver items on time. A customer is more satisfied when the product delivery arrives on time. If there have been some slow delivery issues, it could be the last purchase from the customer.

Flow’s Global Research Report found that 50% of international eCommerce shoppers expressed that the delivery time is too slow. Another study found that 69% of shoppers are much less likely to shop with the retailer in the future if any item was not delivered within two days of the date promised.

What Can Be The Causes of Delivery Delays?

There are a number of reasons for slow delivery, which may include:

Misunderstanding With Documentation

This includes misspelled, incomplete and insufficient addresses, which may be from either client or retailer. When the delivery company is supplied with such mistaken and misunderstood information, it’s highly likely that the package will not reach the customer.

System Failure

If your company relies on a bad hosting company, you will not be able to respond to your orders when you experience constant system failures. This process may be a reason that leads to slow delivery.

Delivery Services Issues

Delivery services provided by third-party logistics companies are one of the reasons for slow delivery. When experienced with such an issue, it becomes imperative for an online business to outsource a delivery system.

Bad Weather

Slow delivery can be caused by nature, such as snow, hailstorms, foggy conditions, sandstorms, heavy rain, landslides and many more. This is not a delivery agents’ fault, still, it cannot be an excuse for slow delivery complaints.

Impacts of Slow Delivery on Your Business

• Delays in delivery can greatly decrease customers’ satisfaction and shopping experience
• Your business might experience a drop in sales and reputation will be at stake
• Your loyal customers will lose trust in your business if slow delivery has occurred several times

How To Avoid And Cope With Slow Delivery

There are several ways for delivery optimization, where you can still increase your sales and maintain customer satisfaction:

Integrate Inventory Management System

Update your inventory from time to time for popular products that can easily go out of stock. It can be very frustrating to the customer when they cannot purchase on time for their needs. Therefore, integrating your inventory management system to replace products that have already been delivered can be a good start to prevent delivery delays.

Prepare for High Demand Period

Always process your orders before the commencement of public holidays. Business often witnesses huge orders and sales during holidays, so make sure to make an alternative arrangement to deliver orders on time. This time is often when you have a lot of slow delivery complaints.

Set a Minimum/Maximum Threshold

When customers place orders, they hope to receive their products on time. Setting the soonest and latest delivery time will help you to prevent delivery delays. Shipping time should not be discouraging to the customer, so you’d better surprise them early.  

Use A Fulfillment Service

A fulfillment service is a third-party company that handles warehousing, packaging, and delivery services for your company. These delivery services operate at low costs, which can improve inventory and more significantly eliminate slow delivery.

Choose Reliable Delivery Services

Delivery service is an important part of the business. Your company standards rely heavily on delivery companies, who assure your goods will be safe, and delivered on time. 

All in all, we hope that these suggestions for delivery optimization can keep your operation moving in a positive direction. ConnectPOS offers retail businesses technological solutions to their problems, including delivery and inventory management. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.