How To Ship Your First Product
It’s time. Your website is up and running, you’ve worked hard on a good marketing strategy, and you’ve been rewarded with your first order. It’s a very happy moment, but this is where the fun begins. Until now, all your focus is on getting orders in. Now, you have to figure out how to ship them. So, here’s some advice on how to ship your first-ever product to your first-ever customer:
Use the right packaging materials
You should purchase packaging depending on what products you sell. If you sell items that could break, they need to be encased in some protective packaging with padding. For soft items, consider packaging them in bags rather than boxes.
The size of the product is also important – try to make the packaging fit the product as best as you can. Otherwise, you pay more for shipping because you’ve shipped a small item in a massive box.
Moreover, your choice of packaging can impact the customer’s response to the product. They may like what they ordered, but they’re put off by how annoying the packaging is. Keep this in mind as it’s an easy way to lose customers or retain them.
Print out an address label
Never write an address out using a pen on some paper. It looks really unprofessional and can make a customer think twice about returning to your online store. Also, it could lead to shipping issues – what if the delivery person can’t read your handwriting?
Instead, the smarter idea is to print out a professional address label. You can do this with a thermal label printer and some sticky paper. As a result, you just print it out and stick it to the packaging. It’s a subtle thing, but it really makes your product look more classy.
Choose a courier
Next, you have the trickiest decision. How will you ship your product to your customer? Unless you are dealing with an extremely local delivery, you won’t be able to deliver it yourself. As such, you will need to find a courier service to do this for you.
Thankfully, since the boom in eCommerce, you have endless companies to choose from. Your best bet is to go online and look for the best courier companies in your area. Compare the options, see what shipping rates they offer, and select whichever one you think is the best. Ideally, you want to get the product from A to B as quickly as possible, yet for the lowest price. Obviously, reliability should also be a big factor – you need to trust that the courier takes care of your package so it doesn’t arrive damaged.
After this has been sorted, all you have to do is take the packaging to the courier. Sometimes, they will come to you – it depends on who you have chosen. Now, be sure to notify your customer when the order is shipping. Tell them exactly when you shipped it and how long it should take. Also, provide them with tracking details – the courier will give you this information – so they can monitor their order.
Just like that, you’ve sent your first-ever product!
