Business Ideas for Beginners UK
You control your customer's experience for the most part. You write the ads, you approve the images, you tweak your website and you write the emails. However once your product leaves your hands to be shipped to your customer you have now handed over your brand to the hands of a stranger.
Shipping can make or break your business in multiple ways. Choose the wrong shipping partner and your customers may suffer a poor experience. Don’t plan out your shipping strategy and you could end up unprofitable.
Many new ecommerce entrepreneurs either don’t give much thought to shipping their products, or rightfully so, don’t understand the confusing and complex world of shipping and fulfillment.
In this post we will go over some of the basics to shipping your products and help demystify this complicated topic. We will talk about packaging, provide resources and links to popular couriers, look at tracking & insurance, shipping profitably and apps to help make it all easier.
Let’s dive in.
Packaging & Marketing
As the world of ecommerce develops so do the expectations of customers buying online. Years ago packaging and shipping was simply a way to receive a product purchased online, however, more and more, people are looking for shipping, packaging and presentation to all be part of the shopping experience.
This expectation means that for many businesses, outside of selling commodities, competing effectively means going above and beyond to impress customers and exceed their expectations by delivering more than just a product, but also an experience.
Your packaging and presentation can be an effective way to set yourself apart. Consider Trunk Club. Trunk Club is a monthly subscription service that sends men a custom curated selection of men’s clothes and accessories each month. You can see from their packaging below that their customer unboxing experience is very central to their overall brand experience.
Trunk Club does an such exceptional job, that customers even make unboxing videos on YouTube which furthers amplifies Trunk Club's reach through word of mouth marketing.
Everlane is another great example of someone that uses their packaging as a marketing channel. Items from Everlane arrive wrapped in craft paper with an Everlane sticker and a thank you note that encourages people to share a photo of their purchase on social media.
In a world where sealed factory bags and a black and white order receipt are considered standard, it’s the small details like this that go a long way in making an exceptional impression on customers.
