Every business that sells products online needs a way to transport those products to their customers, and this alone can involve more management time and cost than the manufacture of the product in the first place!
Small online retailers often do not appreciate this part of their operation when developing business plans, and it often can be a cause of them missing their profit targets. For start-ups especially, it is difficult to forecast parcel courier & postal costs. There are many suppliers to choose from and choosing incorrectly can have many implications. How can you be sure that you’re partnering with the right one when so many providers offer the same services?
In order to determine what you need from a parcel courier and postal provider, you need to gather information from the following areas of your business:
Management
The auditing of current performance and costs of delivery is vital: Ensure that every element of cost is recorded and analysed, and make time to compare a range of suppliers. Time spent upfront will ensure profitability later.
Understanding the supplier’s strengths and weaknesses

You know your company’s requirements, and those of your clients Understanding how your relationship with the courier or postal supplier will benefit your business is also very important: How flexible are they, can they scale up and down dependent on sales cycles, will they commit to a fixed costs based on volume of items to be delivered?
One key question is: What is their delivery ethos? After all it is their staff who maybe meeting your clients face to face, and to many clients that aspect is part of the overall buying experience so a poor delivery encounter can reflect badly on the product being delivered.
Which of these and similar questions are of the most importance to your business? Prioritise them and then go to the market to get quotes. It may be that you need the assistance of someone outside your organisation to help you understand the implications of these questions so choose someone with lots of logistics knowledge across a wide range of providers: Local business groups and agencies should be your first port of call.
Fiscal stability

It's imperative to ensure that the courier or postal provider you've chosen has proven their financial stability. Doing this will keep your business running as you and your customers expect. Stability also includes payment history, which can be confirmed by requesting their list of partners and contacting them. The demise of CityLink a few years ago is a case in point though it is true to say that the small online businesses caught up in their closure could do little to foresee it coming.
Track record, references and sales impact

A list of reliable and long-term clients will reveal a provider's continued reliability and efficiency, and the more of these they have, the better. A list of referees with nothing but good things to say is a good indicator of a provider that's well-suited to your business, but make sure that the references are from business similar to yours.
Can they offer scalability?

The ability of your provider to offer scalability will have a direct impact on your efficiency. Their ability to quickly scale up or down when demand for your products increases or decreases will speak volumes about their scalability. The best provider for you will be one who has already experienced these business ups and downs with their other clients.
When all of the above points have been addressed and your new provider relationship begins to gather momentum, the most important thing will be to communicate frequently. Once everyone has settled in with the new partnership, your communications may not need to occur as frequently.
www.ukisl.com/en/

The post The Right Courier And Postal Partner For Your Online Business appeared first on Integrated Skills.

Some of the highest quality data about households is available from parcel & postal operators. This data can include anything from geocoded physical addresses through building-specific delivery information to customer marketing information. Such information can assist parcel & postal operators, plus other sectors, in identifying purchasing and service patterns as well as aid the logistics of delivery and, equally important, the potential for the generation of new revenue streams through the sales of this data to third parties.
The road to digital strategy creation isn’t always an easy one for postal facilities, however. The good news is that there are several elements that can ensure successful strategy formation (the bad news is there are also several which can hinder progress)!
The “Digital Innovation Group” Concept

A key element of success is the development of a digital strategy is the “digital innovation group” that each organisation should form. The group should be comprised of stakeholders from all departments, and the group’s sole focus to be the development of digital products and services - for customers, for the organisation and the sale of digital data to third parties. Its task is multifarious and one includes identifying digitally-savvy markets that consume data. In addition, the digital innovation group’s focus should also be on quality of the customer data collated, and that other companies may want to buy: It must be confirmed that this data was collected with a focus on integrity and ‘cleanliness’ before any sales are made.
Flexibility is another key to the success of the digital innovation group. It must be willing and able to test ideas, as well as be able to validate the feasibility of ideas via the quick prototyping and deployment of pilot activities.
Digital Strategy Development

On the collation and selling of digital data there are several considerations to be aware of. Firstly, companies mustn’t fall foul of the Data Protection Act, adhering to the core principles and guidance provide by the Information Commissioners Office. All you need to know from a legal basis can be found here at their website - https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection.
As for the IT department of a parcel & postal organisation, this team should not be in charge of the digital strategy. Rather, their focus should be on the implementation of the vision set forth by the digital innovation group. This includes the planning and validation of any IT required, such as GIS (Geographical Information System).
In order to avoid competition for the same resources from within the organisation, the funding for the digital strategy development should be cross-departmental, and led from the corporate centre or CEO office. Every department should be included in the discussions to ensure their ‘buy in’.
Selling of Data

In terms of sales, digital data is ‘spliced & diced’ in various ways dependent on the proposition for each market. For example, a utility company might want to buy data relating to the geocoded address and physical attributes of the property (such as is there a long garden path or drive) whereas a double glazing company might want to the geocoded address and whether the front door is UvPC or not.
Key to optimal revenue generation is to produce an array of databases, each priced according to the sector it is aimed at.

The post Collating & Selling Digital Data – Strategies for Parcel and Postal Operators appeared first on Integrated Skills.