7 Most Common Reasons for Shipment Delivery Delays

One of the biggest challenges in ecommerce shipping is that business owners must be ready to provide delivery services to their customers on time. How to avoid shipping delays is an important question.

Operating an e-commerce store is not as easy as it sounds. No matter how many goods you ship in a day, any small obstacle in the fulfillment process can put your business on the toss.

Customers are always anxious to know about the whereabouts of the products which they ordered. Any variation in the delivery date will lead to frustrating customers writing a bad review on your website and social media, which can ruin your business eminence. It is imperative for any e-seller to avoid delivery setbacks as it may inhibit the growth of the company.

However, here are the most common reasons you need to know which causes the delay.

What are the causes of delay in shipment delivery?

1. Customs Delay:

Some of the sellers undervalue their product while declaring in the customs to avoid heavy customs duties while shipping internationally. But when customs officers investigate the product and recognize it as an undervalued product, they re-evaluate it and fix the fine amount and confiscate the parcel. The shipper has to pay the fine only after which the parcel will be delivered to the customer which in turn consumes a lot of time. If you’re going to ship orders internationally, it’s vital that you understand the requirements and what paperwork is needed to avoid these delays.

     2. ODA Locations:

Certain geographical areas are considered as out-of-delivery areas where the courier companies do not directly provide their service, in turn, use a third party to deliver it. If your receiver is located in an ODA location, the package will be given to another vendor who may not have the provision of scanning the parcel, hence you will not know the precise status of your parcel and its time of delivery. This might take time in delivery and updating in the tracking status.

     3. Documentation Errors:

Before sending any parcel, the label has to be appended on top of the parcel which consists of details. Such as 

• Source

• Destination address

•  Phone number

If the destination address is incomplete, misspelt, wrong or missing phone number or sometimes if the label gets torn due to mishandling, likelihood of delay in shipment delivery is high.

     4. Weather Conditions:

Even though if you have sent the shipment immediately after the order was placed, it may not reach the customer on time due to bad weather conditions such as heavy Rain, Flood, Heavy snow and natural calamities etc.

    5.  Missing Shipment:

Due to the enormous orders, on rare occasions, parcels might go missing in the warehouse and it will definitely take ample of time to search for the missing product in the huge warehouse amongst thousands of parcels.

Apart from this, if the delivery person makes a maximum of three attempts of delivery and if the consignee is not available to receive it all the time, the parcel will be returned to the shipper. We cannot shun certain reasons which are out of our hands but can definitely avoid some of them to an extent.

     6. Traffic Issues:

Finding a city without any traffic is impossible. People are experiencing delays during their transit due to traffic issues like construction, road blocks, detours.

In this case delivery agents can take advantage of route optimization software that can pinpoint the fastest route possible and update it in real-time to avoid shipments delay.

     7.  Package Redirection Delay:

Customers are often held for change in address. A change in the information entered into the system will lead to a different delivery time and may cause delay. Make sure that you enter the right address in the first attempt to avoid Package Redirection delay.

Some of the common measures to avoid delivery delays are:

1. Inventory Planning:

Festive seasons are the time when a majority of the customers shop online.

Preparing for the top-selling products in advance during this season will save you from the delivery delay to some extent.

      2. Proper paperwork:

Shipments get held in the customs when there are inappropriate or mismatched documents submitted in the customs which may result in confiscation of your shipment which will not be moved until the penalty is fulfilled by the shipper. Hence make sure you don't manipulate the documents which may result in delayed delivery.

      3. Get in touch with the service provider:

If you find that your shipment is on hold due to customs or if the delivery date has been extended in the tracking status, then contact your courier service provider and get to know the status of your parcel so that you can keep your customers updated on it.

     4. Avoid Manual Errors:

Writing correctly spelled address with complete information of the destination location will avoid complication during delivery of the shipment. Clearly, the printed label will help the delivery person to deliver it to the exact address and avoid missing the courier.

The delivery delay may seem like a trivial issue but this can have a striking influence on your business. Notifying your customers beforehand of the delay that may occur is a good way of keeping your customers prepared for the delay so that they don't panic or does not lose trust in your brand.

       5. Prepare for holidays:

Most of the courier companies do not work during public holidays.

To avoid delivery delays, dispatch your orders before the public holidays commence.

       6. Enlist a Fulfillment Service:

The Most viable way of avoiding delivery delays is to Enlisting the services of a fulfillment company.

A fulfillment service is a third-party company who specialize in order processing and delivery of your order.

On behalf of your ecommerce businesses, they handle

• Warehousing

• Packaging

•  Delivery of orders

Final Words: Upscale your business with eCourierz multi-carrier shipping platform to deliver your ecommerce orders. We offer you a simple yet comprehensive solution to streamline your shipping activities all at one place. Signup and start shipping.