How small business owners can ship more parcels in less time

If you find you’re only just managing to get orders to your customers, it may be time to look at the different ways you can increase your capacity to send more parcels to more people, in less time.

It could be that you and your team (perhaps you’re the team!) are still having to log into different courier systems or perhaps you’re using labour-intensive picking and packing processes.

From the moment your customer hits “checkout” to the moment they receive their parcel, there are a number of wrong turns or missteps that could happen. However, the good news is that you can avoid a large portion of these time-wasting stressors.

We like to keep things as simple as possible, so we’ve put together an actionable list that will increase your ability to get more orders to customers, a whole lot faster.

4 quick wins to speed up the fulfilment process

1. Automate and streamline

Many of our online retailers used to (before using Starshipit!) hire extra staff to help out during busy times. Instead of paying for extra hands to help out, you could consider using shipping automation software to automate labour-intensive tasks.

Shipping automation software also enables you to print shipping labels at high speeds (for when your products are flying off the shelf!). You can also easily set automation dispatch rules (more on that in this article).

We've found that our retailers average time savings are between 50-80%, so this means they can refocus their energies on managing and growing their business.

2. Choose multi-courier automation

Another important factor is making sure you have more than one courier option. It’s always a good idea to get to know the various courier options for both local and international shipping.

Using a multi-courier automation platform like Starshipit allows for this level of courier flexibility. There are two good reasons for this.

Firstly, when orders increase during seasonal holiday sales or during a lockdown, your single-minded priority is to get orders delivered to keep your customers happy. If you have always relied on one go-to courier and they are too busy on the day you get your biggest order (this happens!) you won’t have time to shop around for another courier.

Secondly, some shipping platforms offer cheaper shipping rates for the couriers they have direct relationships with. If you at some point find a different courier that you have negotiated cheaper rates with, you may be charged a penalty for each parcel.

To make sure you are able to use the couriers you choose, it’s a good idea to maintain courier flexibility and keep your options open. We find you can never have enough courier friends.

3. Customers love real-time tracking – 74% to be exact!

According to Australia Post’s first-ever Parcel Receiver Survey of February 2021, 74% of Australian customers value tracking as this manages expectations. By using a multi-courier automation platform, Starshipit, can send tracking notifications at 5 stages along the delivery journey.

You can also brand these notifications, which can upsell or cross-sell, or link to engaging content.

As the online economy matures, customer experience is fast becoming a differentiator for brands, sending branded tracking pages resets delivery expectations when needed and enables you to manage deliveries with a professional touch.

Learn more about how to enable and configure branded tracking.

Looking for a smarter way to ship?

Using multi-courier automation will speed up the process of getting orders to customers.

Starshipit gives you one dashboard to manage all the couriers you choose and easily integrates with your existing eCommerce and inventory software. You can print shipping labels, manage returns and use automation rules to save up to 80% in handling time.

Try our 30-day trial for free, no credit card required