Improving Shipping Procedures

A few months ago, I started thinking carefully about why our business wasn't making more money. It just seemed like no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn't turn a profit. Fortunately, a friend of mine suggested evaluating our shipping procedures. It didn't seem like the logical decision at the time, but since he was a successful business owner, I decided to listen to his advice. After carefully evaluating things, I realized that we really did have a few lags in our system. We went through and carefully reconfigured a few things, and it was amazing to see how much of a difference our changes made. Within a few weeks, we were able to speed things up and reduce lost packages. Read this blog to learn more.

Packaging: Four Useful Ideas

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After shipping out multiple packages to all your customers, you might finally have time to re-evaluate the packaging you use for your products. While you may have started with simple labels, you may now want to revamp the bottle or box packaging. What must be thought about to create great packaging?

Considering Customer Preferences

Your customers are the people who have to like and accept whatever packaging you'll use. When choosing colors, shapes, letter fonts, and other style issues, ask yourself whether such details are appropriate for your ideal customer. For example, if you're about to change your packaging to bright, neon pink but have customers who are retirement age, a color change could be wise.

Selecting Proper Materials

Packaging materials should be purchased with your budget, your customer and product protection in mind. You wouldn't want something fragile in thin cardboard box with no protection, for instance. Of course, you don't want to put your packaging in something so protective that it's difficult to open and unpack. If you're selling products to senior citizens, for example, you probably don't want to use hard plastic that is difficult to cut and open. 

While you're likely to put product packages in some kind of shipping container when you send them out, you should always consider how packages will fare. Think about whether plastic, cardboard, paper, or other materials will protect your products from breaking inside shipping boxes. Consider how well packaging will hold up after being jostled in a truck or being left out on a wet doorstep. 

Keeping Labels Clear and Brief

Labels might be something you're using for branding purposes or to detail contents of a bottle or a box. Knowing your label goals is important—what do you most want to relay to the customer about this package? Also, it's important is the need to keep your label landscape as specific and clear as possible. If you have ingredient information, for instance, ensure that there's a lot of white space and that text isn't bunched together and hard to read. Only include must-have details on labels; if customers need to know more, use paper inserts.

Asking Customers for Thoughts

Existing customers might have feelings and thoughts about the packages you've used before and how they might be improved. They may have ideas for shapes, colors, and other components. Asking them is sure to not only build loyalty but provide you with a ton of ideas as well. You might entice them into sharing their thoughts with a coupon code.

For more information, reach out to companies that offer custom packaging.

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5 June 2019