Statista expects eCommerce sales to hit $7.4 trillion worldwide by 2025, and it looks like it will. At the same time, most eCommerce business owners find themselves overwhelmed, especially while managing the logistics.

We live in an era where Amazon delivers within 48 hours of order placement. And many brands are trying hard to standardise the two-day delivery model. It’s simply because the brands that fail to keep up with the logistics trends risk losing sales.

Ensure you do not repeat these common logistics mistakes.

1. Poor Stock Management

Proper stock management is a critical success factor for eCommerce stakeholders. Inventory represents 30-40% of the total assets for eCommerce brands. Studies state that stock management errors account for about €255 billion in losses in revenue for eCommerce. It is around 12% of their total sales.

Efficient inventory management can help you avoid:

Overstocking

Overstocking refers to keeping too many products that might lead to immobilisation costs and returns to the suppliers.

Understocking

There's no other thing that is more disturbing for buyers than not being able to buy something they want because the item is out of stock.

You must find the right balance between customer acquisition efforts and sales volume, and stock your products accordingly.

Pro Tip 

Identify your best-selling products and procure more inventory to avoid running out of stock. And keep minimum stock of the underperforming items.

2. Not Separating Pickup Area and Bulk Storage

You might think that having a common area for pickup and bulk storage would be efficient as it eradicates the waste of motion. But it is not! Why?

In such cases, the stock takes up the space for storing fast-moving products. It creates clutter and makes it hard for your agents to locate urgent merchandise.

How to Avoid This?

Make sure you create different spots for fast-moving goods and primary stock storage. Keep both of them afar and in separate parts of the warehouse.

3. Not Keeping up With the Delivery Timeline

Many eCommerce businesses promise attractive (but impossible to fulfil) delivery times to trigger sales. Besides, online consumers in 2022 are also more demanding on delivery times, and different marketplaces offer different competitive offers. 

Naturally, many brands fall into this trap of over-promising and under-delivering. There are two ways to go about this:

I. You can increase the quality of your service rather than quickly sending a poorly packaged parcel. Make sure you communicate your delivery times transparently. Customers will have no expectations and will therefore not be disappointed.

II. To deliver your products at lightning speed, you must have an efficient eCommerce micro-fulfilment process. It is a concept of an extensive network of small fulfilment centres located in accessible locations to ensure your parcels reach the customers as quickly as possible.

4. Not Offering Custom Packaging

Not offering custom packaging is a terrible mistake an eCommerce brand can make. All of your products won't be of the same size. Each parcel will need a different type of packaging.

Many eCommerce companies buy only one or two kinds of universal cardboard (or box) sizes. It is problematic for multiple reasons:

• A poorly wrapped parcel is more prone to damage and breakage.
• Delivery is your last POC with a customer. You don't want to lose a customer at this point.
• Damaged products trigger reverse logistics processes that are not very cost-effective.
• Putting too much protection or leaving too much space inside the packaging can leave a wrong impression on the customer and look unprofessional.

What Can You Do?

• Buy multiple-sized boxes and pick the size closest to the product dimensions.
• Offer custom packaging solutions or partner with experts who can help you offer custom packing.

5. Not Tracking Shipments

After making the purchase, your customers will want to track their orders. Order tracking is an integral part of logistics. Providing transparency about the order status is crucial. 

Besides, tracking has multiple benefits such as:

• You can quickly become aware of a problem (if any) and take quick action if something goes wrong.
• It enables you to handle incidents proactively with carriers which usually take time.
• You can inform your customers ASAP if their order is going to get delayed.
• It allows you to anticipate a refund or return of goods to avoid your customer's frustration.

Lack of Tracking Tools

Tracking tools help customers figure out the progress of their shipments and plan their time to receive them accordingly. Tracking tools help with the follow-ups and notifications throughout the shipping process. Therefore, ensure that your eCommerce business offers accurate tracking tools to provide maximum transparency to your customers.

6. Lack of Communication at the Time of Incident

Customers like brands that are accountable in their pursuit. Say something unexpected happens during the delivery process. What is the first thing you do?

You inform the customer! Studies state that 2 out of 3 buyers wish that brands would alert them in case of a delivery problem. It is where you shouldn't wait for the carrier's response or until you meet a resolution. Let your customers know immediately. Customers will always appreciate the transparency in communication!

7. A Slow Reverse Logistics or Return Process

Most eCommerce brands offer a relatively slower reverse logistics process. On the customer's side, they expect it to be quick. A slow reverse logistics process leads to customer frustration and is not good for brand loyalty.

What Should You Do?

• Communicate your return policy transparently.
• Make sure you fulfil the returns as per the said timeline
• Use advanced CMS to facilitate returns and restocking.

Conclusion

Supply chain and logistics are crucial to the success of eCommerce businesses. Efficient logistic strategies are vital to:

• Optimise warehousing costs
• Reduce warehouse bulk
• Ensure the customers receive their products in time

Make sure you have efficient implementation processes to pump up your supply-chain performance. Ensure you do not repeat these seven common but deadly mistakes in your fulfilment process.