The Challenges we solve for E-commerce Businesses

E-commerce is everywhere; a rapid and intense business. But do you know what else it can be? Stressful to manage.

If you’re successful, there are:

• Notifications from all angles
• Constant liaison with multiple links in your supply chain
• Customer queries
• Manufacturer issues arising
• Packaging questions
• Delivery deadlines

And that’s all before you’ve invested time into any sort of marketing.

Many aspects of your supply chain are out of your control; you can’t micromanage the manufacturer, nor can you ask your delivery driver to take a shortcut. So, what can you do to relinquish some control but alleviate second-hand stress at the same time? Choose partners you can trust.

Being able to outsource your deliveries to a logistics company you know will take good care of your items, communicate clearly with your customers, as well as yourselves, and make any returns simple is the only way to run an e-commerce business without heart palpitations.

As an established third-party delivery and logistics company in the UK, Concorde Transport Services helps e-commerce businesses with reliable, flexible and scalable solutions. That’s us in a nutshell.

Here are just some of the ways we do it!

How do I reduce our number of late or failed deliveries?

A late or missed delivery might seem like a problem you can fix immediately, but the lasting impression it leaves on your brand is where the real issue lies. It’s more than just a logistical annoyance; it can affect customer satisfaction, and therefore reviews, your reputation, and repeat custom.

Customers expect their orders to arrive when you’ve said they would; they’ve selected the delivery option that suited their needs, and you gave them that option, so why would you not deliver on that? When something goes wrong, do you know who the customer is most likely to complain to? You, the retailer. Even though the issue most commonly lies somewhere else along the chain.

At Concorde, we help e-commerce businesses reduce late, missed and failed deliveries by providing a structured, transparent and dependable delivery process. We ensure the ‘last mile’ of your customer journey is predictable for both them and you, giving flexibility where possible and communicating throughout. With us, you can trust that the service you offer, from purchase to doorstep delivery, is a positive one.

How can I manage peaks and seasonal demand without chaos?

Busy periods are fantastic for the books, but not so great for stress levels, unless you’re prepared and supported. With e-commerce, demand is rarely consistent throughout the year; there will be slower periods and jumps in sales. Sometimes it’s for logical reasons such as with seasonal products or on the run-up to Christmas; other times, however, there’s no rhyme or reason. Black Friday, product launches and marketing campaigns can all (hopefully) increase sales, brilliant! But for businesses managing their own logistics, these surges also put considerable pressure on staff, warehouse operations and delivery capacity.

Maintaining service quality is the tricky bit. You can ramp up deliveries and extend working hours, but if your customer service is dwindling as a result, you may well have a problem. Working with a flexible delivery partner makes a real difference to everyone involved.

With Concorde, your live inventory information integrates with our warehousing and delivery software seamlessly. We provide you with additional operational support as and when your business needs it. No need to build permanent infrastructure for brief periods; our scalable logistics are there when you need them.

How do I make our returns logistics simpler?

Returns. They’re inevitable.

• Damaged on arrival
• Wrong size
• Doubled up the order by accident
• Just a changed mind

They’re all valid reasons to return an item. It’s never ideal for the business, but nor is it for the customer. The business will have lost profits, the customer will have lost time, and perhaps patience.

Unfortunately, you can’t avoid returns altogether, but you can make good business decisions and choose a logistics partner that handles the situation properly. The journey back from the customer’s property can be more challenging than getting the original order delivered, as it needs to be convenient for the customer and then processed correctly.

Collected, transported, processed and checked, then either returned as inventory, repaired, replaced and/or redelivered. That’s a lot of extra work that can soon become a drain on resources unless managed efficiently and prepared for in advance.

With Concorde, returns logistics are just part of the package. As with ‘straightforward’ A to B orders, your inventory and sales pipelines are integrated with ours, so collections become part of our journeys already taking place. Our warehousing facility is fully equipped and ready to process returns, then redeliver right away.

Did you know we have an on-site electronic repairs service? Our sister company, Sontec Electronics, will repair, update, provide spare parts and/or redistribute your products to both you and directly to your customers. We remove the need for items to come back to you, handling everything on-site here, including utilising our warehousing, storage, fulfilment and delivery services. Concorde Transport Services is a one-stop shop for electronic companies.

How do I know when it’s time to outsource?

A growing business is exactly what you want, until you get so busy you’re overwhelmed, overworked, under-prepared and understaffed.

Being able to outsource elements of your business (the ones that don’t need your attention specifically) gives you back the time and space to focus on areas where you have the most positive impact. Product development, sales, client liaison, and recruitment are all examples of where your time could be better spent.

Outsourcing your deliveries, warehousing and/or logistics to Concorde means not only are you freed up to concentrate on what’s most important, but these tasks are in reliable, consistent, safe hands too. You can give your business the chance to grow, without having to invest heavily in infrastructure or in-house resources. You’ll have access to our larger capabilities, being able to tap into extra capacity as and when you need it, easily and conveniently.

How do I improve customer experience?

If you think about it, a logistics challenge, a delay in delivery, for instance, is also a customer service challenge. Customers don’t get to see the manufacturing, warehousing or administration systems, or indeed humans behind the action. The only information they can build their opinion from is their delivery experience.

What’s important to the customer is that their parcel arrives unharmed, when it was supposed to, and that they can return it easily, if necessary. This puts significant importance on the fulfilment-customer-brand relationship.

The ‘last-mile’, from a customer experience perspective, is the most important for any business. How this last element of the purchase journey pans out could mean the difference between a satisfied, and therefore repeat, customer and an unimpressed one that leaves a poor review online and negatively influences others.

Ensuring you work with a trusted, reliable and proactive delivery partner is vital for end-of-line performance and peace of mind. With Concorde, you can rest easy that your products and customers are in safe hands; hands that take care when loading products and on the road, communicate effectively, and pre-empt issues before they become a problem. We haven’t built our business just to deliver from A to B and ‘job done’. We want to be the logistics partner that supports our e-commerce clients with their wider network, customer fan base and fulfilment stress levels.

How could a third-party logistics company help my specific business?

Each business is unique in its values, customer promises, logistics criteria and budget. We understand that one size does not fit all; therefore, our client contracts differ to suit them properly. With the many services Concorde Transport Services has on offer (storage, warehousing, fulfilment, delivery, returns and electronic amendments), we’re able to tailor what we provide to what the client truly needs. We’re also able to add to or pull back our service level as and when required.

Our personable approach means we’re only ever at the end of the phone, whilst your live inventory updates automatically sync with our own, removing the need for additional, constant communication touch points.

We have over 20 years of experience in the logistics industry, delivering nationwide for most industries, including those providing bulky, fragile and high-ticket items. You can read more about our bespoke delivery service on our website.

“We have been using Concorde Transport for a number of years now to deliver our furniture to our customers. They are very efficient and a joy to do business with.”

If you’re an e-commerce business wanting to add more structure, professionalism and support to your company, speak to our team to see how we’ll do just that. Reliable logistics is more than A-to-B deliveries; it’s assisting e-commerce businesses in delivering on their promises. Deliveries, storage, warehousing, fulfilment, and not forgetting our 360 offering for electronics, are all at your fingertips. Give us a call to find out how we could help you specifically.

Call us on: 01603 408143

Email us: info@concordetransport.co.uk