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When was the last time you stepped into a gift store, shopped for your loved ones and then took the efforts to go and give it to them? Seems like eons ago, right? Just like you, everyone else is facing a huge time problem. In this fast-paced life, there is hardly any time to wish and greet our friends and relatives in person. Be it birthdays, anniversaries or any other occasion, few clicks on the internet and an e-commerce courier service guy is on its way with your  gift package!  

So, if you have built an online gift and flower store, then that’s some good  business decision! In the long haul, your business is going to thrive. Wonder why? Well, let’s think it through. Even before you started this business you must have pondered over this fact: Won’t people find it expensive to send gifts and flowers online? Of course not! By now, you probably know that customers’ purchase powers have gone higher. Nowadays, for most people, time is money. Customers value their time above anything else. Besides this, online retail stores and good logistics have made it so convenient to send goodies anywhere and everywhere across the world.

So what does this tell you? Voila! You are in one of the most lucrative businesses that come with a promise of a never-ending season! People will buy gifts and flowers round the year, right? You will not have to worry about slag times and slow-paced orders, unlike other retail ventures. However, with a never-ending season comes the endless worries of a decent logistics plan. If you want any success with your online business, one way to do this is to manage your supply chain well.

Most customers look for an e-commerce store that offers affordable options and very importantly, timely deliveries. There is no point in sending flowers to someone once the said occasion is over. Also, people do not want to experiment with a lot of online stores. Once they are happy with your services, they tend to become your loyal customers. Hence, giving them an unforgettable experience should be your top priority.

So what are those checkpoints that you shouldn’t miss when it comes to managing your logistics?  Let’s look at them without further ado! 

1. Please your customers with consistent shipping quality

What does consistent shipping quality mean? 

 In a layman’s language, it means to serve your consumers with a promise of excellence. This includes

• Delivering the product on time
• Delivering the correct product
• Delivering the product with proper packaging

As an owner of a gift and flower store, you are dealing with products that have a limited shelf life. Hence, your e-commerce courier service provider should be able to handle deliveries within an assorted time frame. Your customers will expect that when the flowers reach their loved ones, they are fresh and in good condition. If you do not meet this basic requirement, it is needless to say that you have lost them. 

Most of these deliveries need to happen on the same day as the order is placed. Occasionally, some customers will book gifts or flowers in advance. Moreover, certain customers might also be ready to pay extra to get faster deliveries. You need to provide them with that facility as well. 

So how do you ensure that you give your customers consistent shipping quality that promises timely delivery? 

Well, one of the best ways to do this is to tie up with a superior e-commerce courier service partner. A reliable shipping partner will ensure that delivery time is maintained for every single order. Besides this,  a superior carrier comes with other sets of benefits. Beautiful, appropriate packaging and reaching out to greater demography could be few of them. 

2. Satisfy your customer’s needs with multiple fulfilment partners

Well, most of the time, majority of the online retail stores tie-up with one good shipping partner, without realising that this is a huge mistake. In reality, your business needs the benefit of multiple logistics partners because every individual carrier specializes in something. This provides you with a competitive advantage. 

So how do multiple carriers help in customer satisfaction?

Consider instances when you want to send a package to someplace where your current courier does not serve? In that case, you need to go looking for another courier provider. Similarly, sometimes customers split their orders to give surprises to their loved ones. You might need to send the flowers around midnight and the gift on the next day. In this scenario, you need a carrier that can help you with partial fulfilments. A single carrier can hardly cover all your logistics needs from the customer’s point of view. 

Now, how do multiple carriers help you expand your business?

In terms of online business, expanding it means expanding your reach and serving more and more customers. It means expanding your business demographically. If you have one single carrier, then it may not be able to deliver everywhere across the country or outside if you ship internationally. But with multiple courier partners, this is easily achievable. When you have specific carriers for certain locations, you get the benefit of cost, warehouse availability, added advantage on the transportation cost and so on. All this helps you to expand your business in a big way. 

Saying so, you must cater to the masses by reaching them out through a planned logistics strategy. With increased usage of the internet, the online purchase of gifts and flowers is becoming increasingly common in Tier II and Tier III cities as well. With multiple carriers, you get to reach out to that audience too. 

Other than this, when there are multiple fulfilment partners, you can easily compare the prices and choose the one that best fits your needs. ShipKaro, a shipping aggregator platform integrates you with multiple carriers early on. This gives you the benefit of finding carriers in your budget and as per your business needs. 

Make your packaging more flowery

If you have an online apparel or eyewear store, we would insist that your e-commerce courier service provider offer you a packaging that is beautiful as well as sturdy. But now since you are into the gifting business, we would stress that the beauty of the package means everything. 

The category of products you are dealing with demands beautiful packaging. Yet, at the same time, it should be able to deliver the gifts unbroken and undamaged. Remember, customers are not ordering something from your store directly for themselves. A large number of times, they are gifting something to their loved one. In this case, they would want a package that leaves their loved ones with a wow factor. So make sure your logistics strategy incorporates these needs. 

So what are the things that you need to consider to package the gifts and flowers right?

• Your packaging should be downright beautiful
• Your packaging should incorporate various materials and sizes to customize the product and the cost
• Your packaging cost should not outweigh the product cost

When you pick-up a superior carrier, you get all the above perks that make your product packaging right. Moreover, if you have multiple logistics carriers, one of those might be excelling in packaging good quality products at a rate that your business can sustain. 

You need to gear up with automation

We are living in a faced-paced life. With digital advancements, everything is happening in the blink of an eye, be it bill payments or online shopping. Therefore, your supplier management should also cope up with this trend. Your customers cannot wait for their orders, forever. They may want you to send them quicker deliveries and provide swift responses. 

To do so, your e-commerce courier service processes should be automated, which means you should rely less on manual labour and more on digital advancements. Imagine one of your staff members uploading every single order and assigning it to the third-party carrier. Won’t that take too much time? In comparison to this, how if there are bulk order upload processes that can help you upload all orders together! Wouldn’t that save you a lot of time? Likewise, how if you can schedule pick-ups and manage all orders from a single dashboard? Your logistics will become self-sufficient with minimal errors. 

Moreover, customers who have ordered gifts or flowers for their loved ones would want to know the status of their order. They would want to know if the package has left your warehouse and where exactly it has reached. With automation, you can provide them with that facility too! You can provide your customers, real-time logistics facility that enables them to track their orders. At the same time, you can also check how the shipment delivery is happening and prevent incorrect deliveries, damaged deliveries and more. 

ShipKaro helps you integrate with multiple reliable carriers while letting you compare their rates. Using its unique tools and features, you can also automate your supply chain and avoid mistakes. Rely on this shipping aggregator platform is one step closer to streamlining your logistics chain for customer satisfaction and business expansion. 

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