Small Business Shipping Tips During COVID-19

The impact of COVID-19 has been undeniably felt throughout the economy and communities, but for small businesses even more so. From retailers temporarily closing their doors to people staying indoors to self-isolate, the rate of online purchases has increased astronomically.

With an increase in online sales comes an increase in package deliveries during COVID-19. Though shipping couriers remain an essential service during this time, some services are experiencing delays or changes to their procedures to maximize safety. Our main goal is to help you deliver your services to your customers safely so that your business can run mainly unaffected during these difficult times.

We've put together some strategies you can use right now to help small business shipping for eCommerce stores running efficiently and how to maintain good customer service.

Optimise your shipping approach

As borders tighten restrictions and air transportation works at reduced rates, delivery times are experiencing some delays. In order to offset this inconvenience, you can offer your customers the cheapest shipping rates or even free shipping by using our Economy services. Our low-cost small business shipping rates can already be a huge help and if you already use us, packaging your products efficiently can cut these costs down even further.

We already have a guide for packaging certain items, but if, during this time, you're unable to go out and get a measuring tape and a weighing scale for your products, these household comparisons can be useful in calculating dimensions accurately.

If you have any more doubts about the dimensions of your package, make sure you air on the side of generosity. It's better to overestimate than underestimate!

If you ship with us at Interparcel, we can help you cut costs even further by offering free shipping labels. Lots of other shipping solutions have fees that come with shipping labels, but with us we can give you all the labels you'll need.

Be it customs invoices for international deliveries and or standard labels for domestic shipments.

Aside from our low-cost small business shipping, we offer full tracking services so your customers can be assured of the whereabouts of their parcels, every step of the way.

Cheapest local shipping solutions

If your small business usually operates as a physical store but you do have an online ordering platform, you can offer local customers home delivery options.

Set a radius of the areas that you want to cover in terms of cost and time. We offer services that can collect straight from your door, so delivering a bulk shipment to your local community takes the weight off your shoulders.

Make sure to use your online platform to make local customers aware that your services are running with this service and let potential customers further afield know when they'll be able to order!

Communicate effectively with customers

During this uncertain time the population is engaging with media of all kinds at a significantly higher rate. Be it social media, news or emails, knowing what services are and aren't available is a vital resource to those self-isolating.

Now is the time when your customer service is at its most important. Anticipating your customers' questions will enable your business to seem functional and cooperative, allowing customers to trust your services or products are worth purchasing.

Being honest and upfront about delays also needn't be a detriment to this as most people will empathise with the situation that many small businesses have been facing.

Take time to advertise your small business

In this period of reduced movement and increased online activity, take advantage of this audience to advertise your small business effectively.

Pay some attention to social media

Let customers know how they can support your business and offer them promotional codes or offers to encourage them to do so. Building an organic following on social media can be hard, but with 73% of businesses marketing their products on social media and 54% of customers using it to research products, its worth a try.

Try setting up an Instagram account for your online store and have a look at similar merchants to see how they've approached this. Plus, you can always follow their followers' list as you know they're already interested in your niche!

Utilise email marketing

If you have a list of previous customers' email addresses but don't quite know what to do with them, now is the time to come up with a plan. Try to create email sequences that can market your most popular items to your customers. Or advertise your reduced shipping costs now that you use our services! Test out different templates and versions to see which one gets the best response and continue to trial and error your marketing strategy.

Create a blog with SEO in mind

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and works so that when people search for a certain product on google your business will come up for these keywords. Starting a blog can be very useful for this as you can write about your products and services as well as increase the visibility of your online shop.

It's a good idea to also SEO optimise your website and its immediate pages so that they each have the essential information customers need to know.

We know this period of upheaval takes time to adjust to but keeping busy with improving your small business can be a useful distraction. If you feel like you need more information or extra help navigating this time, the Government has put in place financial relief measures and programs to support small businesses impacted by COVID-19.

At Interparcel we want you to feel supported and informed, so take this time to do as much as you can while staying safe and well. If you have any questions about our services or want updates on any COVID-19 related changes, you can contact us from 8 am – 5 pm Monday to Friday via live chat, email or telephone.