This Forbes report here says that apart from exorbitant shipping costs, businesses also bear the additional expenses in the form of warehouse costs.

So, businesses are trying their best to bring their dimensions down to their bare minimum. 

Identifying cost intensive areas of shipping

How to save on your shipping costs

Proven cost optimization tricks in operations and logistics

Read more on Sriram's tips and tricks here.

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The greatest advantage of making use of LateShipment.com is that apart from signing up, which takes minutes; you need not bother doing anything else. You continue with your operations just as you were, earlier.

LateShipment reads your daily shipments directly from UPS or FedEx. It requires no software that is to be installed in your server. So, that also means that you need not worry about integrating all other systems with this new component. Your Fedex Refunds and UPS Refunds will apear on your invoice directly.

Needless to say, these reports are very secure and cannot be read by anyone and everyone. Account holders can view these reports. They can be viewed online, saved for later use and shared.

Why are shipping reports useful?

A post-mortem analysis of shipping reports can tell organizations what kind of shipments cost them a lot. It gives a detailed record of promised time, estimated time and actual delivery time. The client organization can make use of this to mention delivery time to their clients. More importantly, the organization can make use of this data to study what kind of a deal they can strike with their shipping carrier.

Business houses get to see where they can save money, what kind of services can be made better at the shipping carrier’s end. They get a clear idea on late shipments. They can calculate the amount of money they are eligible to get, as refunds from the shipping carrier, for the shipments that are delivered later than the promised time. This data gives them a clear picture on budgeting for the years to come, with regard to shipping expenditure.

The LateShipment customer is free of paperwork and record maintenance. They don't need to have records of a shipment’s transit from source to destination, absolutely no paperwork hassle to the shipper. In case of any issue later on, there is a record of what happened that’s readily available.

An organization has consolidated reports of every shipment it has sent and received through its shipping carrier partner. It needn’t have personnel dedicated to watch every parcel sent out. It requires one account to track all shipping history.

Logistics solutions can be tailored after reading these reports. It tells you what time of booking the shipment takes the shipment to the destination in the fastest time. One can also view how exactly these shipments are carried- name of the vessel, voyage, route etc. tailored searches are also enabled in these systems.

Shipping issues

On top of the customer woes list is shipping. Quite a few shoppers find that the site delivers products later than the promised time. When a site says it will deliver in a day, the customer has every right to expect it within the stipulated time. The next shipping related issue is faulty or damaged goods. The customer opens his shipment expecting to find his purchase in the promised condition but finds that the product is damaged. Or, it is something else and not what he ordered. The last shipping related issue is that of lost shipment. Typically, shipping issues go up during the holiday season when shopping sites and shipping carriers handle extra pressure.

Late deliveries cause a huge damage to the brand reputation that your customers' hold. Measures that ensure that your shipments reach on time include keeping a constant check on shipment tracking, regular shipping audit processes and claiming your refunds from your carrier regularly.

Shipping cost

Statistics claim that people are drawn to websites that offer free shipping. Anything else is a turn off for online shoppers. Even a nominal shipping cost tends to divert the customer to other sites that promise free shipping for the same product. An exorbitant shipping cost is unthinkable from the customer’s perspective.

Customer Service issues

When a customer tries to contact the website to understand why his purchase is yet to reach him, sometimes he gets unsatisfactory answers. Common problems here are: he is unable to find someone who’d take his call. His email does not get acknowledged. After having had enough with procrastination, he asks for a refund and that is denied. These are sure shot ways of losing customers.

Inventory issues

It is annoying to find that a website lists an out of stock product and then, 2 days after the date of purchase the customer gets a call saying the product is not available. This is especially problematic with drop shipping sites because the website does not know the real scenario of a wholesaler’s inventory. The shopping site suffers a dent to its reputation for the wholesaler’s inventory issues.

Complicated checkout process

A basic lesson in online shopping site building is to keep the process simple. No one likes to buy from a website that calls for filling a dozen forms. Today, even the not-so-net-savvy people want to buy online. To cater to the larger audience, make the shopping experience easy. And people don’t like it if a site forces them to register with the site in order to collect client details. They hate it even more if the website sends annoying mails to these people periodically.

Lack of Payment Options

Motor carriers and shipment laws

Generally, motor carriers are subject to a regulatory framework comprised of Federal Statutes and Federal Regulations. This has been in effect in one form or another in the USA. The crux of this framework is that, the motor carrier is fully liable for damage to freight unless there is a valid limit of liability that is mentioned in the carrier's tariff or in an individual contract. A very important piece of information here is that, a shipper has a nine month period in which he can file a damage claim against a motor carrier, and this nine month period cannot be shortened by the carrier by "rule, contract, or otherwise."

Domestic air carriage and shipment laws

Domestic air carriage has been essentially deregulated in the USA. Carriers who ferry shipments by air have liability for loss or damage to cargo based upon the principles of common law. There is no Federal Statute or Regulation governing their liability. So, air carriers can limit their liability within their tariffs or contracts and they can also establish extremely short limits for the filing of damage claims, e.g. 30 days, 15 days or even less. This is very different from the law related to ground carriage freight. Lawyers would hence advise you to press charges as soon as possible when it concerns air carriage.

UPS and FedEx

Lawyers do not ask whether it is UPS or FedEx that transports a shipment, but in which capacity UPS or FedEx is acting. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website states that one member of the UPS corporate family, UPS Ground Freight, holds operating authority as a motor common carrier and one member of the FedEx corporate family, FedEx Freight holds operating authority as a motor common carrier. So, if a package were moved by FedEx Freight as a motor carrier, a shipper would have nine months to file a claim. That is not the case with other options that FedEx or UPS offer.

If UPS or FedEx moves a package pursuant to its motor common carrier authority, then any loss or damage claim should be filed against UPS or FedEx. In case UPS or FedEx uses its motor transportation broker authority to have another carrier move a package (which is not uncommon), then the claim should be filed against the carrier actually transporting the package. This is the case unless there is a tariff or contract provision whereby UPS or FedEx assumes responsibility.

Air carriage is exempt from a lot of charges and certain laws and regulations apply only when an air carrier is providing domestic services, and others apply when providing international services. Apart from air and ground transportation, UPS and FedEx also offer ocean transportation. The laws there are entirely different from those related to air/ground carriage.