Nowadays,​‍​‌‍​‍‌ most people live their lives in front of a screen: computers, tablets, and smartphones, which help to embrace the world really fast. Nowadays, online consumers expect an impeccable service level and quick delivery of their orders. One- or two-day delays will suffice for their frustration to accumulate since they already made their payments and eagerly await their purchases. For eCommerce companies, the problem of the shipping delay goes far beyond being a mere logistics issue since it can directly lead to a loss of customer trust, damage the image of the brand, and result in a reduction of the number of sales.

Delays in the shipping process are a fact known to many. However, they are not fatal for your business if you know how to identify the causes of their occurrence and are able to handle the problem effectively. That extra knowledge can be extremely useful for your eCommerce business in the long run.

By now, you probably understand that, through the help of eCommerce Web Developers India, the main reasons why the shipping process is delayed were explained and more importantly, ways and means of how to help yourself in such situations were pointed out, along with some tips for keeping your customers satisfied when you are not able to keep your promises.

A shipping delay is a situation where an order is delivered later than the date/time that has been promised or expected. In fact, such lateness can occur at any point of the order fulfillment process, which includes even the preparations of the order for shipment.

Customers who experience a delay in receiving the merchandise ordered from a certain company tend to feel disappointed and cheated by that company. The negative consequences of shipping delays for businesses are that they may get bad customer reviews, the need for the customer support department to be doubly staffed, more requests for refunds, and, in the worst case, even the loss of customers. Such a scenario is even more dangerous in the case of eCommerce, where there is a huge variety of choices available for consumers; hence, the loyalty to a brand is very low. Businesses cannot rely only on the good quality of their products to keep their customers; managing their shipping expectations is equally important.

The lack of accuracy in the inventory records is the thing that mostly leads to shipment delays. Sometimes, the products in question may "seem" available or even "in stock" on the website, but actually, it is not the case. Due to this situation, the go-ahead of the fulfillment stage gets delayed.

Stock forecasting being faulty, inventories being updated slowly, and selling on several platforms without a unified control over each are the typical problems that can lead to the above situation.

Items in a warehouse don’t ship themselves. Therefore, orders go through several stages before they actually leave the warehouses; these steps include order verification, order picking, packing, and labelling. If any of these stages is slow and/or understaffed, the delay is already at the source. Manual handling, the use of old equipment, and sudden order volume bursts are all things that can slow down the fulfillment of orders.

A shipping partner is the person who brings your package to the customer's doorstep. It is possible for the rest of your warehouse activities to be optimized, but your shipping partner still to be the reason behind the delays. Issues like insufficient staff, rerouting problems, technological breakdown, and a lack of coordination between hubs may cause delays.

Your gear is more likely to get stuck if you choose an unreliable courier and/or rely only on one logistics provider.

Weather conditions accompany the entire delivery process and especially the last mile, and bad ones will certainly muck up the delivery schedules and the routes that were originally planned. In such cases, customers are naturally disappointed, although it is beyond your control.

Monsoons and winters are the seasons when the weather contributes remarkably to the delays in delivering goods.

Inquiries at the Times of Peak Seasons

It is during the festive seasons, sales events, and special promotions that the cities' streets become busier and the traffic gets heavier - a surge in the number of orders is a must in such cases. While generating revenue is always a good thing, it can become a nightmare for warehouses, courier partners, and customer support teams when they're unprepared for it.

Planning is a must if one wants to avoid the consequences of high demand, that is, shipping delays.

Errors in Customer Information

Although it is a basic and trivial reason behind delays, mistakes in addresses or contact details cannot be overlooked. Delivery attempts that are unsuccessful and, as a consequence, the increase of the delivery timelines occur due to the incorrect/incomplete customer information.

Shipping delays are not only a problem for the one scheduled order but they can also create a series of difficulties for your whole business.

Customers who have to experience waiting for their products due to delays become more prone to:

Eventually, too many postponements lead to hurting brand trust; even if your products are of high quality, the consumers may entirely overlook your offer because of their negative delivery experience.

Inventory management in a way that is connected to sales and customer-ordering systems in real-time can avoid situations when the customer places an order for something that got sold out a moment before.

Keeping your inventories updated and synchronized through all your sales collections will prevent you from overselling and getting your order fulfillment department in a mix-up.

Precise amounts of stock give the premises for an optimum level of production and stockpiling during the period of increased demand.

With the help of automation, a lot of human mistakes can be avoided and the whole process of order fulfillment can be made much faster than before.

By dividing your delivery among several logistics companies, you can still proceed with the delivery of the goods if one of the providers suddenly comes with the information about a delay in production passing your packaging facility, warehouse or delivery hub or if it is region-specific (example: local courier).

Basically, it means that you are still able to make the delivery as per the schedule in half of the cases.

Shipping delays are one of the aspects of eCommerce that is hard to avoid but the negative impact of the delays can be diminished by knowing the defects and implementing the kind of procedure that will work efficiently in the situation.

Customer communication after that is the key to making shipping delays less painful and less damaging to your business.

Ultimately, the rule of eCommerce success is to provide, which is much more than just a great product; it’s about ensuring reliability and trust. Customers who get properly looked after and are always in the loop will stay loyal, bring you their friends and choose your brand over and over again.

Therefore, with a proper plan and approach, shipping delays can be regarded more as relatively easy hurdles rather than as the causes of ​‍​‌‍​‍‌closure.