You could order the most expensive mattress online from a company that
has 24/7 customer service, but it’s unlikely that you’ll “sleep
well” till it actually arrives. It’s almost as if the
manufacturers have confined with the delivery folks to ensure the
experience is a nightmare, so that once the mattress arrives, you’re
so glad it arrived that it actually seems more comfortable than it
actually is. on a serious note – shipping mattresses is tough task
and everything from packaging, loading and unloading is a torturous
deal.
1. Shipping
Dead weight:
The average cost of shipping mattress through major shipping
carriers like FedEx or UPS is anywhere between $300 and $1000
depending on the size and the packaging while the average price of a
mattress is between $930 and $2000. So basically, the cost of
shipping a mattress is only a little more than half of the actual
price. Most of the mattress companies resort to the last mile
delivery service offered by regional trucking agencies because
they’re cheaper than the established delivery services.
However, these affordable trucking services are technologically
challenged and provide very less insight into
the order fulfilment.
2. Free
same day delivery:
Free and fast shipping of items is the bane of any online retail
operation . It is exponentially tougher for mattress retailers.
Succumbing to the strategies promoted by big guns like “Casper
Sleep”,
all online mattresses are forced to offer free shipping or at least
shipping at a sunk cost. This strategy goes on to burden their
swelling shipping expenses. Check out Fast vs Free shipping what do online buyers prefer.
3. In
home trials and easy returns:
Mattress buying is still a touch and feel purchase. To overcome this
challenge, online mattresses offer in-home
trial. So what happens when the customer decides to return it? Can
the customer be charged for the return? Or should the mattress
retailer cover return charges? It is a constant battle between
optimizing shipping cost and delivering exceptional customer
experience.
Here
are a few smart ways to fix these commonly faced mattress delivery
issues are:
1. Get
a reliable shipping partner:
To
deliver a superior customer delivery experience, It is crucial to
partner with a reputed and a reliable shipping partner. Despite
charging a higher fee, global carriers such as FedEx and UPS offer
superior service quality. Moreover, they have guaranteed service
refund agreementin place that can cover the cost incurred due to
service failures.
2. Partner with the right
delivery partner:
The
easiest way to cut shipping cost is probably charging your customers
for shipping. Unfortunately, this only results in spiking the
customers drop off rate. Instead, negotiate a better shipping quote
and zero in on a service type that works out cheaper for your
business.
3. Get
innovative with packaging:
Adopting
innovative packaging solutions for mattresses would not only aid in
swifter deliveries but also paves the way to capturing the global
market share.
Read on other similar blogs:
How to choose the right shipping partner?
5 easy steps to manage shipping carrier money back guarantee