Shipping perishables presents a unique set of challenges to merchants. Unlike non-perishable goods, perishables require careful coordination of cold chain logistics. They also require innovative packaging and precise delivery schedules to ensure products reach customers in peak condition.
Discover how Clean Eatz solved their challenges by having more predictability with shipping.
Top Challenges While Shipping Perishables
Shipping perishables and other time-sensitive items online is not just about speed. It’s also about maintaining the integrity of the products throughout their journey. Factors such as temperature control, packaging durability, and delivery precision come into play. Key challenges include:
Maintaining Cold Chain Integrity: Ensuring temperature-controlled shipping for eCommerce requires sophisticated logistics solutions that maintain specific conditions from warehouse to customer’s doorstep.
Packaging Innovations: The need for packaging solutions for perishables that can withstand varying temperatures and also handle rough conditions without compromising product quality.
Customized Delivery Options: Offering delivery date selection for perishables is crucial. It empowers customers to choose when they receive sensitive products, enhancing satisfaction and reducing waste.
6 Ways A Shipping Management Platform Helps
Understanding perishable shipping challenges is the first step. A proven platform like ShipperHQ equips merchants with the right tools at the right time to streamline shipping for customers who purchase perishable items. This helps ensure their order arrives fresh.
Maintaining Product Quality and Freshness: Create shipping rules tailored to your online store needs and ensure perishable goods are shipped within maximum transit times and arrive in peak quality.
Special Packing Requirements and Shipping Costs: Utilize dimensional packing and shipping rules, to get more accurate shipping rates and optimized package sizes leading to higher shipping efficiency.
Transparent and Accurate Delivery Timelines: Display accurate delivery dates on checkout which eliminates confusion and increases conversions and customer satisfaction.
Streamlining Fulfillment Operations: Offer flexible shipping and pickup choices to provide shoppers greater control. In addition, gain comprehensive details about every order to streamline fulfillment operations, making them smoother and faster.
Protect Margins With Error-Free Delivery: Deploy address validation capabilities to ensure that shipments arrive at the right place and time by verifying address types.
Efficient Multi-Origin Shipping: Automate the rating and shipping process to ensure orders come from the most efficient location when using multiple warehouses or dropship locations.
Case Study Spotlight: Clean Eatz
Clean Eatz’s journey with ShipperHQ exemplifies our ability to address the nuances of perishables shipping. Faced with the dual challenge of maintaining product freshness and meeting customer expectations for rapid delivery, they turned to us for a solution.
By integrating ShipperHQ’s robust platform, Clean Eatz unlocked the power of precise delivery date predictions and streamlined multi-origin shipping. This partnership was further enhanced by leveraging the UPS® Digital Connections Program, ensuring a seamless and efficient fulfillment process.
The results were immediate and impactful:
Reduced Shipping Costs: By optimizing packaging and carrier selection, Clean Eatz saved $200K in Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) by avoiding resends.
Superior Customer Experience: The introduction of flexible delivery options led to a 25% increase in customer retention. In addition, they also observed a 100% reduction in customer service tickets regarding delivery dates.
Higher On-Time Deliveries: By optimizing shipping from multiple locations they increased on-time delivery to a high 90% range.
Ready to transform your perishables shipping operations just like Clean Eatz did?
