What Are the Most Common Shipping Challenges eCommerce Businesses Face and How Can They Overcome Them?

"What are the most common shipping challenges eCommerce businesses face, and how can they overcome them?"

Here is what 6 thought leaders had to say.

Tailor Global Logistics to Boost Conversions

One of the most significant shipping challenges in eCommerce is managing international expansion, where customer expectations for delivery times and tax transparency vary greatly by market. When expanding Tudos.co.uk and Penro.com internationally, we found that systems designed for one market often don't translate well to others, particularly around duty-paid pricing and checkout flows. To overcome this, we formed strategic partnerships with carriers like DHL and completely tailored our messaging and pricing for each market. These changes significantly increased both conversion rates and customer trust.

Trond Nyland, CEO & Owner, Penro.co.uk AS

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Regional Specialists and Clear Updates Reduce Calls

Our company's most occurring shipment challenge is customer delivery expectations with the moving of large, heavy products like a HomePro standing desk across the UK. Desktronic promises free shipping, so we must be very careful to keep costs down, but we cannot compromise on delivery speed and service quality. This means that we are constantly trying to balance our customer-friendly policies with the logistical difficulty of getting furniture to over 500,000 customers who expect quick service.

For that reason, we changed our approach to carrier strategy to focus on regional delivery specialists rather than national carriers. These smaller companies have more of a focus on handling large furniture and therefore have less damaged furniture and better communication with the end customer. Second, we invested in better customer communications, so as to set a realistic delivery picture. We have automated messaging that provides the customer with a confirmed three-hour delivery window the day before delivery, so we have seen a 40% reduction in "where is my desk" customer service calls. We needed to eliminate the middleman in the communication and shipping process to manage the quality of the end customer experience.

Šarūnas Bružas, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Desktronic

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Tight Controls and Supplier Buffers Improve Reliability

I run two very different e-commerce businesses. I sell lightweight collectibles for one and bulky heating components for the other. My pain points often involve accuracy and unpredictability.

Running a high-volume store means that even a 1% mislabel rate can turn into a real operational leak. The way I solved this is by separating high-risk SKUs and using a touch once rule where whoever pulls the product is also the one who packs and verifies it.

I've imported thousands of shipments from overseas the most common disruption is inconsistency. There's changes in packaging, factory holidays, port congestions, and timing of supplier production that can all turn into shipping delays. A fix for this is to diversify your packaging sources and negotiate a pre-build inventory with suppliers so they can ship quickly even when their factories slow down.

Brandon Hartman, Founder, Entrepreneur, BeyWarehouse

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Custom Crates and Expert Carriers Cut Damage

A major problem for many e-commerce businesses is ensuring products arrive at their destination undamaged during shipment, especially with large, heavy, or breakable items like cabinetry. If products are inadequately packed to protect them from impacts and movement during transit, the risk of damage increases exponentially, negatively affecting both return costs and the customer's experience. To mitigate this challenge, e-commerce businesses must invest in high-quality packaging materials that protect the products they ship. Examples of this type of packaging could include custom boxes or crates made to fit the dimensions of the cabinetry, thereby protecting it from impacts and movements during transport, and climate-controlled packaging, which protects items from extreme temperatures and humidity levels, particularly important when shipping wood products.

Partnering with a reliable third-party logistics company, such as FedEx or a specialized logistics provider, will also help streamline the shipping process. Many times, these companies have the experience, knowledge, and resources to handle products that may require special handling properly. They offer real-time tracking for e-commerce businesses and their customers, keeping all parties informed of shipment status. By partnering with logistics companies with experience shipping fragile products, e-commerce businesses can reduce damage claims on delivered products, increasing customer satisfaction and trust through efficient, secure shipping practices.

Josh Qian, COO and Co-Founder, LINQ Kitchen formerly BestOnlineCabinets

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Pay More for Faster Reliable Delivery

One of the most common shipping challenges for eCommerce businesses is balancing cost efficiency with reliable delivery. Many businesses face customs delays and unpredictable shipping times when using low-cost overseas suppliers. At Cafely, we addressed this by switching from overseas packaging in Vietnam to a U.S. supplier, accepting a 15% cost increase in exchange for better shipping reliability and reduced customs delays. This decision helped us maintain customer trust and ensure more consistent delivery times.

Mimi Nguyen, Founder, Cafely

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Reduce Costs and Delays With Trusted Carriers

Shipping is one of the challenges that most eCommerce businesses struggle with - high shipping costs, slow delivery, incorrect orders, international shipping problems and handling returns. To manage high costs, businesses can try to negotiate better rates with carriers or explore shipping options that stay local. Unfortunately, getting delayed shipments to ship on time, and efficiently handling returns is difficult. However, working with reputable carriers and a tracking system can help you minimize these instances.

Evan Tunis, President, Florida Healthcare Insurance