If you have ever held a flash sale – or if you are still recovering from Black Friday/Cyber Monday, you are probably well aware of the pitfalls that can accompany those high sales volumes.
“I got the wrong item, I ordered blue – why is this black??
“I traced my package and it has said “out for delivery” for 3 days!! What is going on???
Having a rock-solid shipping and fulfillment plan is important year-round, but it takes on new magnitude during the holidays as online shoppers order gifts. To ensure orders arrive on time, you need to properly plan for any spikes in order volume.
If you are a new Shopify merchant or have just begun working with a 3PL to handle the fulfillment of your orders, here are three way to help ease the stress of all those sales!
Ensure adequate stock
We can’t fulfill an order if we don’t have stock. Ensure that you have adequate inventory on hand at your fulfillment company. If you are gift wrapping, bundling or adding any special components with your orders, ensure that you understand that this will add time to the pick, pack and shipping standards.
Honour the cut-off times
Your fulfillment company will provide you with daily order cut-off times. These times coincide with carrier pick-ups and are in place to ensure that orders get shipped out in a timely manner.
Almost all fulfillment companies work on a FIFO schedule (first in/first out) so orders submitted late in the day can be held over to the next.
We know that rush orders happen and we will always do our best to get every order out for you but it is important to note that if our carrier picks up at 4:00 pm and you send in a rush order at 3:45 – we may not be able to accommodate.
Be honest about shipping timelines
When it comes to shipping, don’t make promises you can’t keep. A product ordered from Toronto on December 24th isn’t going to make it to Vancouver for Christmas morning, no matter how you ship it.
Courier companies are very transparent about delivery standards. It pays to communicate these to your customers on your page. If possible, display cut-off dates at checkout.