Growth for brands in the competitive ecommerce landscape is a journey, they learn from their mistakes to provide seamless and more profitable order fulfilment.

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Some mistakes may not be realised until it's too late. For instance, shipping the wrong products to a customer. Such mistakes can affect the customer experience negatively and ruin loyalty. They can also lead to a high number of returns which is an absolute no-no for any ecommerce brand.

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It is critical for ecommerce brands to prevent any mistakes in the picking and packing process to deliver the right products and boost ecommerce sales as well as revenue in the long run. Are you wondering how to optimise the pick and pack process to prevent mistakes and errors?

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In this blog, you will learn what misshipments are, how they affect ecommerce brands and how misshipments can be prevented for maximum profitability.

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What is misshipment?

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A misshipment refers to a situation where an order is not shipped correctly. There are multiple mistakes that can lead to misshipments, these are:

• An order is shipped with the wrong products to the customer. For example, a customer orders a t-shirt but receives a pair of jeans.
• An order is sent to the wrong customer. Here the customer doesn’t receive the package as it is shipped to someone else. For example, an order was placed by someone named Ajay but is mistakenly shipped to Ashish.

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How do misshipments affect ecommerce brands?

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Misshipments are can prove to be very expensive as ecommerce brands have to reship orders to replace the products if the wrong ones are delivered. Additionally, brands have to refund the amount if the order is shipped to someone else and isn’t received by the correct recipient. Thus misshipments carry with them the menace of unprofitability.

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Misshipments can also tarnish a brand’s reputation due to low order accuracy, prevent repurchases and ruin loyalty. If customers leave dissatisfied reviews about your brand and shopping experience, it can also increase the shopping cart abandonment rate among prospective customers.

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How can ecommerce brands prevent misshipments?

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Misshipments can be disastrous for ecommerce brands but there are ways in which you can prevent them, let’s understand them together:

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Tip #1: Do regular inventory checks

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Inventory management is a common cause behind misshipments. For instance, warehousing staff may pick the wrong product because it was not kept on the designated shelf. Carrying out routine inventory checks can help ecommerce brands ensure that inventory records are accurate and match physical inventory count. It will also ensure that all Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) are kept in their designated places to prevent picking mistakes.

For example, Eshopbox conducts regular inventory checks to prevent discrepancies in inventory levels and picking mistakes.

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Tip #2: Use barcode scanners

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Improving picking accuracy is crucial for preventing misshipments. Warehouse staff should check that they are picking the right products from the shelves. Barcode scanners are machines that read labels on products. They can be used by the picking team to check if the right products are picked by matching their labels with the order details to ensure that the right ones are picked. Using barcode scanners will improve order accuracy rate and prevent picking mistakes.

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For example, Eshopbox uses barcode scanners while picking products to ensure a 99.95% order accuracy rate.

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Tip #3: Utilise an OMS

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An Order Management System (OMS) is a tool that automates the entire order management process by tracking and managing data on customers, sales channels, product information, inventory levels, picking, packing, returns, refunds and more.

Investing in an OMS can be beneficial for ecommerce brands as it captures customer information, warehouse data and more to reduce chances of human errors which may cause misshipments.

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For example, Eshopbox uses an OMS to automate the entire workflow of order processing and prevent the chances of human errors by eradicating human intervention.

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Tip #4: Conduct quality checks before packaging

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A simple yet effective way to prevent misshipments is to conduct a quality check of products before packing them. Quality checks will make sure that the right product are packed and also that no damaged products are shipped.

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Eshopbox, for instance, conducts quality checks before packing any order to ensure that they are correct, not damaged and functioning well. This is done to make sure that orders are delivered in pristine condition and without any mistakes.

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Bonus Tip: Have a seamless returns process

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Customers will be disgruntled when they receive the wrong products or if their order doesn’t reach them on time. In such a scenario having a seamless returns process can act as a salve on their wound. You can develop confidence in your brand by allowing customers to easily initiate returns and exchanges. A returns management process can help ecommerce brands overcome expensive return shipping by aligning return pick-ups with deliveries in the same area.

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For example, Eshopbox has a seamless and profitable returns management system to help ecommerce brands escape their menace.

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Summing up

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Misshipments can be unprofitable for ecommerce brands as they lead to disappointed customers and low conversion rates. Ecommerce brands should strive to improve picking accuracy to deliver a memorable customer experience which will help them boost ecommerce sales. 3PLs like Eshopbox can help ecommerce brands ensure seamless order fulfilment and low levels of misshipments.