Picking, packing, and shipping products are essential when you sell on e-commerce marketplaces like Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop and so on. The pick, pack, and ship processes can make or break a business, no matter the size. Too many errors in your shipping will destroy the customer experience, leave lasting negative effects, and cause economic loss. Conversely, keeping your shipping on track will create WOW moments for your customers and drive additional sales.

In this blog article, we will take at some of the most common shipping mistakes and how to avoid them.

6 Common Shipping Errors to Be Aware Of:

Shipping errors may occur in every business, regardless of size. Knowing exactly what the specific problems are and keeping them in mind will help stop them from getting worse.

1. Wrong items sent

The issue of sending incorrect products happens almost in every business and usually occurs at the picking stage. For instance, two items are very similar, so the wrong item is picked. It could also be because the item is in the wrong warehouse location. Either way, it’s a costly error as you need to retrieve the incorrect item and send out the correct one. And in most cases, the incorrect item will not be returned to you.

2. Wrong quantity sent

This happens a lot with sellers that sell bundles or packs of products. Multi-pack products often cause issues like this, especially if they need to be broken down before being sent out. Bundles of multiple single products can cause problems too. The direct cost to your business of sending an incorrect number of items may not be as great as sending the wrong product, but it will still need you to send out the missing items to the customer and manage and adjust your stock levels for accuracy, which is another shipping error to be aware of.

3. Damaged items arrived

You can imagine how annoyed your customers will be when they receive a damaged product. This could be caused by improper packing. It could also be down to the shipping providers’ violence during shipping. But many shipping logistics companies have started denying damage claims related to faulty packing.

4. Inaccurate stock levels

While inaccurate stock level may not cause picking issues directly, it can cause problems with missed or late deliveries. Product returns are one of the leading causes of inaccurate inventory and can lead you to selling products that you don’t have stock in your warehouse. Stock quantity can also be made inaccurate if you have the same product in multiple warehouse locations.    

5. Items not arrive on time

Delivering your items within your customers’ expected delivery date is a must in online business. Their loved items being handed over to them as soon as possible will, of course, bring lots of Aha moments for your customers. If you don’t, buyers will be unhappy and might cancel their order and seek alternatives and shop elsewhere. Always remember to state order processing time as well as shipping time when you take an order. It’s also a good idea to provide your customers with a source of information should they experience a problem that is beyond your control.

6. Items sent to the wrong address

Some customers may fill in an incomplete address or an address that is not normally used. For example, products bought as a gift will have a different delivery address. Remember to always double check and confirm the shipping information before processing an order.
 

How to Prevent Picking, Packing and Shipping Errors

There are the top 6 tips for avoiding picking, packing and shipping errors. Read on to ensure your business retains customers and an excellent reputation.

1. Double check order information

When it comes to shipping errors, inaccurate order information is the seed of all bad things. Double check the order information and confirm with customers, especially address and phone number in case you will send shipments to a non-existent or incorrect address. Or the parcel will be returned as the rider can not reach the customer due to an incorrect number.

2. State “Shipping is out of selle’s control”

Remember to state in the obvious part of your product description or image that the delivery time can not be controlled by the seller. Seller will pick, pack and hand over the parcel to the courier as soon as possible. And when the customer asks about the shipping progress or complains that the parcel has not arrived for so long, comfort their mood and offer them the logistics info. You can now track the logistics info of your orders from your Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop in one platform. Login to your BigSeller account and go to Orders > Logistics Tracking, enter the order number and check the latest logistics information.

3. Conduct regular product & inventory checks

To avoid selling products you do not have and cancel orders due to seller fault, count quantities in your warehouses regularly and update the stocks of your product listings accordingly. If you sell the same product in multiple stores or marketplaces, you can utilize BigSeller to help you manage and sync the Inventory more efficiently. So when your Shopee store sells one item, the quantity in your Lazada and TikTok Shop can also decrease by one. And when you count the stock in BigSeller, the inventory in all your online stores will be updated, with no need to update store by store, listing by listing.

4. Be careful about packaging

It will likely cost you more to re-ship an item than spending an extra 10~20 cents on a sturdier box or bubble wrap filler. Not only do you run the risk of having to re-ship the item, you can’t sell a broken product at its full margin. If you want to reduce returns, choose to use the most appropriate packing that helps your parcel arrive undamaged.

5. Double check before shipping

You should incorporate a double-check mechanism in your pick, pack and ship process.  For example, you can employ one person to do picking, engage someone else further down the line in packing, and they all need to check if the items and quantity picked are correct. The extra effort will prevent the majority of picking errors.

If you want to make things easier, you can use Scan to Inspect or Scan to Ship in the BigSeller system. BigSeller allows sellers to scan the waybill barcode and then scan the item label. The system will mark a wrong sound and pop-up a window if the item or quantity is wrong or the parcel is repeated or it is a canceled order. Otherwise, this order will be marked as shipped successfully. This feature will greatly avoid the shipping errors such as shipping wrong items or wrong quantity.

6. Take images & videos when packing

Sometimes you pack and send out the correct items and quantity, but customers may still request for returns or refunds due to incomplete, replaced, stolen or damaged items. It could be because they are bogus buyers. It could also be caused by shipping couriers. It would be better if you take pictures or record videos when picking, packing, and handing over parcels to logistics providers. You can not only send the images or videos to customers via the platform's Chat function, but also submit them as evidence when filing for claims.

It’s easy for you to do so when you get 30 or 50 orders per day. However, it will be pretty challenging when your business grows and gets more than 100 orders a day. To improve the efficiency, open the BigSeller Mobile App and hit Scan to Send Image. Sellers can scan the waybill barcode, take a photo of the parcel, and edit the TEXT info. After this, the images and messages will be sent to the corresponding customer via the platform’s Chat function. The images will be auto-saved in the BigSeller system for 30 days.

Conclusion

Better shipping processes mean better business. Building and maintaining an accurate picking, packing, and shipping process is vital. Although shipping errors may still occur, knowing the root causes that allow them to happen and mastering the practical solutions to avoid them go a long way towards improving your business.