E-Commerce Shipping for Beginners

When starting or running a small business, you're probably not focused on packaging initially. It is completely understandable to sort of put this off until your business is a little further down on "Development Drive". 

72% of Americans agree that packaging significantly influences their purchasing choices. Beyond that however, an additional 49% self report that they are willing to spend more money on products with packaging that appeals to them.

But how to compete with big business? Well, we've got some advice on that.

Brand Design

Brand design and, by extension, brand recognition play as an absolutely massive role in whether a business succeeds or drowns. Hiring a professional designer to help with creating an eye catching logo is a good first step. 

After you've worked out the color schemes and the actual design of the logo, you have to move on to packaging. What kind of materials do you want to use to ship your goods? How do you want the packaging to look? Why do you want it to look that way? For this, you have to consider things like the climate of where you're likely to ship. All the branding in the world won't save your reputation if your goods show up with wear and tear from the elements for instance. 

Social Media Presence

One way businesses can expand their reach is through "unboxing" videos posted to social media. Eye catching unboxing videos help people see first hand what their package will look like, and on a deeper level, shows them exactly what you want them to see. 

Ease of opening will come in to play here. If the unboxing video is 45 minutes long because the packaging was so tough, that won't be very enticing. But if it's easy to open, pleasing to the eye, and hosted by a likeable personality, then you've got a winning combination.

Shipping Efficiency

Now that you've got your design plotted out, we can move on to the actual logistics of getting the product out in the world. 

Inventory management is key in small E-Commerce based businesses. The best thing an owner/operator could do is stay organized. The more organized your shipping center is, the smoother the process of getting the product to the customer's hands. This includes keeping track of your stock levels, knowing which shipments have arrived and which are still en route, and tracking incoming shipments as well. Juggling all these different things at once is difficult, but well worth it.

Standardized and Uniform Shipping

One shortcut you can take is to set uniform shipping standards for all your products. This means having each package or product be relatively uniform in their appearance. By creating an outline of your shipping process, you help to create an uniform standard that you can then apply to any and all products shipped. That uniformity and consistency allows for greater streamlining of your services. Consistency is king when it comes to online shipping.