Delivery from an online store: how to organize it correctly. Free shipping for online stores - pros and cons

The volume of purchases via the Internet shows stable growth. More than 30% of the working population of our country regularly makes orders in online stores. Over the past three years, the number of online shoppers has grown 2.5 times. Moreover, this growth occurs mainly due to residents of the regions and young people, who are among the most active users.
e-commerce. Among the most popular categories of goods purchased via the Internet are household appliances and electronics (over 40%), clothing and footwear (15%), auto parts and household goods (10% each).

How does the product reach the delivery service?

After the customer has made all the required clicks, information about the order is entered into the database of the online store. The account manager necessarily contacts the buyer, confirms the purchase and sends a request for order picking and delivery to the logistics company.

Large stores often outsource logistics functions - with a large flow of orders, this is much more profitable than keeping even small warehouses in the regions.

How not to bring a chair instead of shoes

After the application has been received by the logistics company, it is processed by managers and transferred to the warehouse. Its employees select packaging depending on the method of delivery and the nature of the attachment, complete the shipment, pack, draw up accompanying documents, stick labels and transfer the order for delivery. This is a very important stage, since it depends on it whether the buyer will receive what he ordered.

The girl refused to swim in a vest, called the store, which had to fix
mistake at your own expense

Once, for example, a girl ordered a sports swimsuit in a well-known and very expensive Moscow store. The manager called, checked the price, the customer confirmed everything. We agreed on the date of arrival of the courier. At the appointed time, the courier arrived and brought her a vest. The girl refused to swim in a vest, called the store, which had to correct the mistake at its own expense. In the end, the client was satisfied, but where the first copy of the swimsuit was “lost” remained a mystery.

The reason for such cases, as a rule, is a store manager's mistake in the nomenclature when transferring an order for picking. A stock error is also possible. Therefore, the control of the conformity of the articles on the goods and in the accompanying documents is a very important component when completing an order. If, due to an error, the buyer receives something completely different from what he ordered, the store has to incur significant expenses. In addition to the cost of shipping a confused product, you have to pay for re-packaging, packaging, processing and re-delivery of the order. And to maintain the loyalty of the buyer, it is worth putting an additional small gift in the package.

How the order is sent

The online store, in the case of independent picking of orders, transfers the packaged shipment to the transport company. The transport company, if necessary, repacks it and draws up accompanying documents. After that, the order finally goes on the road.

At this stage, many errors can occur - from a failure in the IT system of one of the parties, as a result of which there is a confusion in addresses, to errors in the data provided by the online store, which make delivery difficult.

It is very important for buyers to be careful when filling in address data when placing an order: an error in even one digit can lead to the fact that your order will be sent to a completely different location. For example, there are two cities of Blagoveshchensk - in the Amur region and in Bashkiria. And if the buyer did not indicate the index, and the online store did not check it, the parcel may end up in a completely different region of Russia.

What are the parcels

The choice of the type of transport that the order will use depends on the target cost and target delivery time (moreover, logistics is aimed at minimizing the cost, and the commercial service is aimed at reducing the time). Most often, a distance of up to 500 kilometers is carried by cars, over 500 kilometers it is more expedient to carry by rail or air.

By the way, land transport also has its own restrictions on the duration of movement, on average it is no more than 500 kilometers per day for each type of transport. Plus, two days at least should be laid down for additional processing of the shipment.

At the same time, the distance almost does not affect the condition of the goods at the end of the journey. It is important here how many overloads and intermediaries will be, as well as what their competence is. It is possible to deliver a damaged shipment in the Moscow region, or it is possible to bring the order to Vladivostok intact.

Who pays for shipping

As a rule, online stores are divided into two camps: those who take all the costs of order delivery on themselves and shift these functions to the recipient. In the first case, the store guarantees free delivery of the order (as a rule, if the order amount exceeds a certain minimum) and chooses the delivery channel itself. In the second case, the online store offers the recipient to choose a courier company from several options, depending on the expected delivery time and cost.

However, there are also companies that offer a single rate for delivery, which is paid by the recipient, and the difference between this rate and the rate of the courier company, if any, is reimbursed at their own expense.

What happens in the mail

After passing the highway and sorting, the shipment arrives at the post office and waits for the recipient to redeem it. However, it happens that it can lie for a very long time, since, for example, the recipient did not receive a notification.

And it happens that the customer, while waiting for the parcel, changed his mind and simply did not go to the post office to redeem it. No one will judge him for this, and this happens often. Online shopping is often emotional and momentary. And after a few days there is already a risk that a person will “burn out”.

Online shopping is often emotional and momentary. After a few days, there is already a risk that the person "burns out"

When we deliver orders, we try to competently build a dialogue with the client of the online store, and the number of shipments that refused to redeem is reduced. In 2014, the percentage of returns for all shipments passing through us did not exceed 6.78%.

In the case when the goods are delivered by courier service, difficulties may also occur. Starting from the complex process of agreeing on the time and address of delivery and ending with privacy issues. For example, when shopping in sex shops, many buyers are not ready to accept a courier in their office and prefer to pick up the goods “on the street”. With one of our clients, we have developed a whole order delivery system that guarantees the confidentiality of the purchase and minimizes possible embarrassing situations - from special packaging to instructions for call center operators and couriers.

How to return an order

If you refuse to purchase, the story for the online store and the transport company that carried out the delivery does not end. You need to take the goods back, return it to the online store. And the online store needs to dismantle it, place it in storage and pay double the shipping rate, without earning a penny on it.

Some online stores even use the possibility of returning unsuitable goods as one of the ways to attract a customer. But each return is an additional processing cost. Depending on the category of goods, both the buyer himself and the online store can pay for this.

In the case of unredeemed items, most often the costs are borne by the store. He will have to pay for delivery to the place of residence of the intended buyer (100% of the delivery rate), return delivery of goods - (from 50 to 100% of the rate, depending on the operator), disassembly of the shipment and placement of goods for storage (the cost depends on the fulfillment operator or on the cost of maintaining your own warehouse). In addition to delivery, the online store has already paid for the advertising that brought the buyer to it. It may pay fines to the supplier if the goods are returned to him. Sometimes, after long transportation, it is required to evaluate the goods for their suitability for further sale, and these are the costs of an expert, lawyer and other specialists who will deal with complaints with the transport company and the supplier.

Returning goods to an online store is one of the biggest problems of Russian e-commerce, since for most online stores these costs eat up up to 80% of profits. According to our data, reducing the number of return shipments by 3-5% increases revenue by 20-30%. If online stores work effectively with buyers and logistics operators at the last stage of delivery, then many of those who are now on the verge of survival will be able to save their business.

“Russia is the largest country in the world with the most underdeveloped delivery structure,” laments Oskar Hartmann, co-owner of the KupiVip store. Large online stores - Holodilnik.ru, Ozon.ru - in addition to their own couriers and warehouses have distribution centers in large cities. Ozon.ru customers, for example, receive books, phones and laptops at 12 pickup points in Samara, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, Rostov, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok. So far, Holodilnik.ru has distribution centers only in Moscow and St. Petersburg. As with payments, delivery should be as convenient, affordable and fast as possible.

Own delivery service

Natalya Kulakova, who recently opened an online store www.onovamnadom.ru , choosing the delivery methods for her goods, decided to acquire her own couriers. “Grocery delivery is a very delicate thing. Only your own couriers can be forced, for example, not to put packages on the ground, to ensure that household chemicals and products in the bag are separate. It is impossible to guarantee this in an outsourced courier service,” she explains her choice.

Pros: Control and constant polishing of the quality of service. The operator from the delivery service in Kulakova's store, after the order is completed, necessarily calls the client back with clarifications: whether the order was delivered on time, whether the courier handed over the entire change, and what did not like about his service.

Minuses: High staff turnover. “Sane people, not thieves, are very difficult to find for the post of courier. Eight hours of wandering around the city, sometimes in crowded public transport, in the cold - it scares normal people, ”says Alena Salber, author of the book“ How to open an online store.

outsourced couriers

Delivery of goods can be entrusted to a company specializing in express delivery. The couriers themselves punch the check from the buyer, after which the money goes to the accounts of the logistics company, and from there to online stores. The commission is 1.5–3% of the cost of the delivered goods, Ivan Matveev, CEO of IM Logistics, a company specializing in this kind of services for online sellers, told Forbes.

Pros: No need to mess around with accounting and staffing. “In theory, it is believed that outsourcing removes all problems from you and you can do business directly,” says Lyubov Kozyreva, owner of the children's goods online store www.101slon.ru.

Minuses: At times of peak load, the outsourcing company cannot always fulfill its obligations. “We had a case when couriers led the client by the nose for a whole week, constantly postponing delivery. And we didn't know about it. As a result, the person, of course, refused the order, ”recalls Kozyreva.

Mail

The Russian Post remains the logistics service with the most developed network of branches in the country. With its help, you can send cash on delivery to anywhere in Russia and the world. Terms and cost can be quickly calculated on the website. The Russian Post has its own analogue of DHL - the EMS Russian Post service, a courier company that, using the parent company's branch network, delivers goods "from hand to hand". EMS Russian Post is faster than Russian Post, but its services are much more expensive.

Pros: Russian Post has 86 branches, about 42,000 postal facilities providing postal services throughout the Russian Federation, including all cities and rural areas.

Minuses: Despite many years of reform, queues are still not uncommon in post offices. In addition, the mail has a list of goods prohibited for shipment. These include, for example, "items which, by their nature or packaging, may endanger postal workers, soil or damage other mail and postal equipment." In addition, when using cash on delivery, the customer may simply not pick up the goods from the post office. Then the sender bears the costs not only for sending the goods to the client (with a working scheme, they are added to the cost of the order), but also for its return delivery. “We've made the decision to send cash on delivery only to verified customers,” says Lyubov Kozyreva, owner of www.101slon.ru.

Collecting information on this topic, I realized that not the purchase (production) - the sale of goods and the organization of the call center are the most difficult stages. Delivery of goods to the buyer - this is what novice sellers of online stores most often “stuff their bumps” on.

After all, not everyone immediately goes to the level of such “monsters” of online commerce, such as, for example, Ozon.ru, Holodilnik.ru. These companies, in addition to their own courier service, have a very developed network of distribution centers. Ozon has covered literally all the largest cities in the country, while Holodilnik can boast of such achievements only in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

As for the bulk of representatives of trade via the Internet, Oskar Hartmann, co-owner of KupiVip, spoke very accurately about their work. “Russia is the largest country in which the delivery structure is so poorly developed” ... Not exactly flattering, but quite fair remark, isn't it?

On the Internet, I found several stories, or rather, advice "from life." Natalya Kulakova, the owner of the onovamnadom.ru store, which deals mainly in food and household goods, is sure that you need to organize your own delivery service, and resort to outsourcing services as little as possible.

For those who are not familiar with this issue, I will clarify that the word "outsourcing" means a company specializing in the provision of courier delivery services.

So, Kulakova believes that the hired couriers do not treat the work with the proper level of responsibility. Given the specifics of the goods in her store, this position becomes quite understandable. It is not uncommon for products to end up in the same bag with household chemicals or placed on the ground.

It is clear that in the first place, it is not the courier who suffers from this, but the image of the store. Therefore, all employees of the onovamnadom.ru delivery service are full-time employees who are interested in working in good faith, because. their work is closely monitored.

Of course, from a cost standpoint, having your own couriers is not a particularly profitable undertaking, because no matter how well things are going, people have to pay salaries from month to month. It is this fact that makes the owners of online stores (especially beginners) turn to the services of outsourcing companies.

For the work of their couriers, they charge, as a rule, 2-3% of the cost of the delivered goods. Moreover, the money received from the buyer does not immediately go to the account of the online store, but is first transferred to the logistics company, which "takes" the percentage due.

Ivan Matveev, director of one of these companies - IM Logistics encourages sellers to actively use his services, because. theoretically, they are a great support to the seller, who can deal not with unnecessary accounting, but directly with the development of his business.

But not everything is so simple. Lyubov Kozyreva, the owner of the children's store 101slon.ru, also names some disadvantages of cooperation with outsourcing companies. I have already spoken about the unscrupulous approach (although, probably, this mostly depends on the company's policy), but it primarily comes from the human qualities of the courier. And how many intelligent and decent people are there who are ready to run all over the city in any weather?

In addition, with a large volume of orders, workers in such firms are often not enough. 101slon.ru has repeatedly encountered situations when, after a weekly delay with delivery, the buyer simply refused his order.

Courier delivery, of course, makes sense only within the locality in which the store is located. There are quite a few logistics services for delivery to other cities, but Russian Post remains the most developed. In addition, she has an official analogue - "EMS Russian Post", which deals directly with courier delivery. You can easily calculate the cost of Russian Post services on the company's website. But even here sellers have their own risks.

The fact is that "Post ..." works exclusively with the help of cash on delivery, and this is fraught with the fact that the buyer may simply not pick up the order, and then all the services for sending "back and forth" fall on the shoulders of the seller.

Therefore, the aforementioned Lyubov Kozyreva, taught by a certain bitter experience, tries to send goods by mail only to verified customers.

From the author: delivery of goods is one of the most important links in the work of any online store. According to a study by PwC, 65% of online shoppers see home delivery as a huge benefit. The remaining 35% complain about the long delivery, which completely discourages shopping online. Let's figure out how to arrange delivery in an online store.

The main rule is the delivery of the order in guaranteed terms.

If you, then you must remember how two and two: the delivery of goods to the buyer must be carried out within a strictly specified time frame. If a person ordered, for example, a gift for a very important celebration that did not arrive on time, guess if he will become your regular customer?

If you are still far from the level of such a “monster” of online trading as Ozon.ru and the like, which have an established logistics system with their own distribution centers, then you will have to organize the delivery of goods from the online store yourself, or use postal and courier services.

Delivery types

Consider the main types of transportation, from which you can choose one or more, depending on the specifics of your business and the goods delivered, as well as the geography of coverage.

"Post office".

It has the largest area coverage. If you plan to deliver goods from an online store throughout the Russian Federation, and not just in megacities, then you cannot do without the good old Post Office. After all, not every courier service can cover every village with a population of 1000 people.

Minus "Mail of Russia": unpredictable delivery times. There are no additional services - the recipient will not be able to pre-examine the goods and, in which case, refuse. But it’s easy not to come to the post office and generally “freeze yourself” from receiving an order.

How to build work with Russian Post: conclude an agreement with it or send parcels on behalf of an individual. There are also special companies that pack and send goods through the mail, of course, for an additional fee.

Delivery service.

This method ensures prompt delivery right to the customer's door. You can agree on additional services with the courier service - the recipient will be able to try on and partially redeem the order. The rejection rate is significantly lower than in the case of Russian Post. For the most demanding customers, you can arrange urgent courier delivery.

How to choose the right courier service for your online store? Make a preference matrix for yourself - what do you prioritize: the needs of customers, the cost of transportation, or some of your personal requirements? If you decide on the cheapest service, be prepared for all sorts of surprises in the form of disrupted delivery times.

Cons: often the client associates the courier company with the transport service of the online store itself. Therefore, if the courier is delayed or rude to the recipient, you will be to blame.

Outsourced couriers.

The organization of delivery from your online store can be completely entrusted to an outsourcing company. The couriers of this company will break the check from the buyer themselves, after which the money for the goods will go to the account of the logistics company, and then to you, minus a commission of 1.5-3% of the cost of the delivered goods.

The advantages of this method are obvious: there is no need to bother with full-time staff and think about how to carry out all this in accounting. You will be able to directly engage in business.

But the disadvantages are not so obvious: at times of heavy load, for example, on New Year's holidays, the outsourcing service may not be able to cope with its obligations, which, again, can ruin your reputation.

Own transport service.

You can ship from an online store using your own couriers, especially if you are selling delicate (such as food), expensive (jewellery) or fragile (crystal or glass) goods that you are worried about.

Here you already have a place to roam. You can personally monitor how your couriers work and handle products, which cannot be done in an outsourced courier service. After the execution of the order, it is advisable to contact the client and get feedback: whether the goods were delivered on time, whether he liked everything in the service, product quality, etc.

Cons: high staff turnover. You have no idea how difficult it is to find honest, decent people for the role of a courier. Normal people are usually scared away by the working conditions associated with the prospect of wandering around the city in frost, rain and heat, by public transport or on foot. Therefore, if you decide to organize your own delivery service in your online store, take care of normal working conditions for your employees.

Features of the organization of delivery

This process depends on two criteria, they have already been mentioned above:

the type of item being sold. If you sell perishable goods (flowers, food, etc.), then it is better to hire your own couriers (if your store operates in a small area) or work with a courier service. Such products must be delivered within a few hours after order confirmation, or self-pickup.

Clothes can be sent by regular parcels or by courier so that the buyer can try them on and, if anything, refuse. Most buyers try to order goods from places where they do not need to pay an advance payment, and will gladly give cash to the courier after they are satisfied with the quality.

If you specialize in the sale of bulky items, then you should connect some transport company that transports goods by rail or road;

region of the online store. If your coverage area is one city, then the “courier + self-delivery” scheme will be the best solution. If you plan to work in different regions, then involve a delivery service. If you are thinking about entering the international market - consider whether you can compete with local sellers, especially when you consider how much it will cost to ship abroad (it may even exceed the cost of goods). Therefore, the expediency of such transportation depends on what you are selling.

So, we have discussed with you various ways to organize the delivery of goods from an online store. If you are just thinking about creating your own web resource, I can advise, which tells you clearly and understandably how to do it quickly and inexpensively.

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