Top Challenges in Courier Management and How to Overcome Them?

Introduction

Today’s technology has made starting an eCommerce business easier than ever! 

With just a few clicks and minimal setup, you can launch your store and start selling. While starting is easy, managing it smoothly has become the real challenge—especially when it comes to courier management.

The real struggle lies in ensuring timely deliveries of each shipment to the right customer. Unfortunately, most businesses fail at this stage. As per a recent study, around 15 million online shoppers face issues with courier services. 

In this guide, we'll walk you through some of the common challenges businesses often face with the delivery process. Alongside this, we'll be providing you with some solutions to tackle those issues. 

Let's get started!

What Is Courier Management?

Courier management is a systematic approach to managing and optimizing the operations involved in parcel delivery. It encompasses various aspects, like order processing, route optimization, shipment tracking, failed delivery management, and more.

Top 6 Challenges in Courier Management and Their Strategic Solutions

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve just started an eCommerce business or have already been in this industry for quite some time; you’re likely to face these issues. Let’s get into them one by one: 

1. Customer demands for superfast delivery

As life became busier, customer expectations for superfast delivery surged at the same time. The ‘instant gratification’ mindset has taken over consumer behavior. Studies show that around 96% of e-commerce shoppers expect same-day delivery and 25% of customers will leave their carts in case this shipping option isn’t available. 

This demand for ultra-fast shipping puts immense pressure on merchants to adapt their daily operations. In fact, it hampers customer satisfaction if not addressed properly. Also, operational costs exceed the initially planned budget, which shakes the company’s profit margin. 

Solutions:

Adopt the micro-warehousing approach so you can utilize more efficient routes. Micro-warehousing is a strategic solution where businesses store their inventory in small facility centers near the locations where most orders come from. Doing so will help you fulfill an order on time. If this approach doesn’t suit your business plan, you can tie up with a 3PL provider that has mastered expedited shipping and has opted for micro-warehousing. 

Route optimisation software goes a long way in ensuring delivery agents choose the most efficient routes, even routes that may appeal to your more environmentally conscious consumers. Alongside this, implement AI to predict stock levels and eliminate delivery delays caused by inventory shortages. This increases operational efficiency and reduces poor visibility of stock levels, enabling you to provide customers with on demand deliveries.

2. Last-mile delivery challenges

Since last-mile delivery is the stage where the order finally reaches its destination, it’s considered the most critical part of the entire shipping journey. Even a subtle inconvenience at this stage can negatively impact customer experience. Yet, businesses face significant challenges in this final leg of the delivery process.

These mostly include unpredictable traffic conditions, failed deliveries due to customer unavailability, order cancellations, delivery slot changes, and so on. While many of these various challenges are due to external factors like weather disruptions, flat tires, or unavoidable human error, operational inefficiencies still play a big role and can be mitigated.

Without a strategic infrastructure for last-mile delivery optimization, these challenges lead to poor customer experience, higher return rates, and increased operational costs. And in a situation where 1 in 3 shoppers tend to leave a brand after a poor experience, businesses can’t afford to overlook these challenges. 

Solutions: 

Implement advanced route optimization software to find the most optimal route with limited traffic congestion. With automated route planning, you’ll be able to achieve speedy deliveries. Plus, offer on-time updates to customers and inform them of the time slot for the delivery, so they can stay prepared to take the parcel. 

If possible, offer them the flexibility to change the time slot, delivery dates, and contact information as per their choice. You can also tie up with a courier service provider efficient in optimizing last-mile delivery. Take the example of Nykaa. This beauty retail marketplace offers shoppers a dedicated “out for delivery” message on the day of delivery and allows them to update mobile numbers and locations for a smooth handover.

Many courier companies also utilise GPS technology to provide regular on-the-go updates of the delivery vehicle. Offering customers maximum real time visibility lets them make informed decisions about their orders. You can also track the cost efficiency of your courier delivery partners and take steps to avoid delayed deliveries in the future.

3. Managing peak seasons

In peak seasons like Black Friday, Christmas, and Diwali, e-commerce businesses face a massive surge in order volume. This sudden order influx can cause delays in order processing, which, in turn, extends the delivery time. Plus, many courier partners lack the workforce to scale their logistics operations in time. This further results in delayed shipments and increased customer dissatisfaction. Also, during the holiday season, the chances of failed deliveries are relatively higher because of the absence of customers. 

Solutions:

First things first, collaborate with a logistics provider that has a proven track record of handling a higher volume of orders. Use a clear scale of performance metrics to make this determination. Second, invest in courier management software like ClickPost to streamline operations by automating tasks like order processing, tracking across carriers, sending order updates to shoppers, and failed delivery management. This will take a significant amount of work off your plate and speed up the entire process. 

In addition, adopt the hub-and-spoke delivery model during peak times. Amazon does the same. It establishes regional hubs near customer locations for product sorting and distribution to facilitate faster delivery. 

4. Lack of real-time tracking updates

When you deal with multiple carriers, it gets difficult to monitor orders and get real-time tracking updates. That’s because each logistics provider has its own tracking system, data format, and tracking frequency. Centralizing them into an integrated dashboard and sending the updates to other stakeholders is a task on its own. 

Moreover, in such a scenario, if any adverse situations like stuck and missed shipments occur, you’ll have no insights into them. This further will negatively impact customer expectations. Consequently, you may face a major drop in customer satisfaction rate. You may also encounter lost shipments that can erode customer loyalty and hamper your profit margin. 

Solutions:

Go for an advanced delivery tracking software that comes pre-integrated with numerous carriers. These real-time tracking systems fetch accurate tracking updates from carriers’ portals and display them on an integrated dashboard. This helps you keep an eye on every movement of the shipments and take action beforehand in case of adverse situations.  

5. Fragmented customer interactions

Every customer prefers different channels to get shipping information from brands. While some of them prefer SMS to receive delivery updates, some of them prefer email notifications. This diversity in preferences makes it hard for merchants to build consistent communication with their customers.

Unfortunately, this inconsistency weakens customers’s trust in a brand, which is especially concerning when 90% of consumers actively track their packages. Plus, it increases the number of daily WISMO (Where-Is-My-Order) calls. 

Solutions:

Invest in courier management software to handle customer communications during delivery. These platforms automatically send delivery alerts to shoppers via multiple channels (SMS, WhatsApp, email) at every checkpoint. In addition, they also provide a tracking portal, so customers can monitor the parcels on their own. 

In case of unfavorable circumstances, most delivery management tools send alerts to customers way before they arise, so they can stay free from anxiety. 

6. Higher operational costs

Logistics is one of the most expensive parts of the entire eCommerce operation. As per a study, shipping constitutes nearly 90% of the total order fulfillment costs. Furthermore, numerous variables influence this cost. These mostly include fuel expenses, fees incurred for delivery services, wages for courier drivers, customs & duties (for cross-border shipping), and more. 

Moreover, failed deliveries and returns incur another layer of costs to the company’s overall shipping expenses. If not managed the right way, these expenses can hamper a company’s profit margin. 

Solutions:

If you want to lower operational costs and maintain profitability, the easiest solution is to implement an advanced shipping management system. It helps you optimize delivery routes, so you can save on fuel costs. Plus, it offers dedicated systems to manage failed deliveries. As a result, you can eliminate costs related to reverse logistics. The best part is these platforms offer pre-negotiated shipping rates across carriers to help you improve your bottom line in this competitive market. 

Achieve Smarter & Efficient Courier Management with ClickPost

In most solutions we have listed above, one strategy is common—opting for a delivery management platform. However, when there is an abundance of delivery management tools, which one will suit your business? 

Take a look at ClickPost. ClickPost is a logistics intelligence platform that is connected with over 500+ logistics providers worldwide. It also comes pre-integrated with OMS, WMS, CRM systems, and communication gateways. This means you can centralize your operations through this platform. 

ClickPost offers a bunch of APIs to automate tasks like order processing, tracking, customer communications, fake & failed delivery management, and returns management. With ClickPost, you’ll get to customize the tracking portal and customer updates to improve your brand awareness. Brands like Lenskart, Puma, Sugar, and CaratLane rely on ClickPost for efficient courier management. 

Conclusion

Sure, courier management is the most critical part of the entire e-commerce ecosystem. It comes with numerous challenges that can severely affect your business growth and customer loyalty. However, with the right solutions and technology in place, you can tackle these issues in an efficient way and make shipping a breeze. 

If you’re already struggling with these hurdles, we hope the solutions mentioned here will support you to overcome them. If you are not facing these challenges yet, it’s the right time to adopt these strategies because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.