Shipwire Urges UK Businesses to Learn From the Royal Mail Postal Strikes and Implement an Order Delivery Crisis Plan

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Shipwire, the e-commerce order fulfillment company, is today advising small
businesses to learn a valuable lesson from the Royal Mail strikes. As reports of
Christmas disruptions and weeks of backlogs continue to populate the UK media
and the threat of additional strikes looming, the crisis is by no means over.
Shipwire believes that this will not be the last strike that small businesses
will encounter and that they should heed the warning to avoid impact in the
future.

"UK small businesses have been, in the most part, slow to act in the face of the
crisis. Royal Mail is well known for a history of industrial action and it`s
surprising that many more businesses have not planned ahead. The direct impact
has been severe, from sliding consumer confidence to the huge increase in
customer service costs," says Damon Schechter, founder and CEO of Shipwire, and
author of Delivering the Goods: The Art of Managing Your Supply Chain (Wiley,
2002).

John Ellen, CEO of NetDirectDeals.co.uk, comments, "The industrial action from
Royal Mail no doubt has caused major inconveniences to the day to day running of
our business. We have a greater amount of support tickets from concerned
customers we have to deal with, as well as the threat of negative feedback for
delays in deliveries being posted to our Amazon or eBay selling profiles. We are
starting to use other independent couriers for larger items and no doubt we will
use these more frequently in the future if more industrial action follows. As a
mail order business, we cannot be at the mercy of Royal Mail; we need to use
alternative carriers where possible to avoid delayed deliveries."

In an already difficult market, Shipwire believes that businesses need to limit
the damage of postal strikes and implement a delivery crisis plan that should
safeguard them in the future. While businesses should look at all options
available, Shipwire recommends considering the following tips:

1 Seek alternative carriers. The strike should see the emergence
of more companies looking to target dissatisfied Royal Mail customers.
Look for smaller and local carriers that are providing an alternative
to Royal Mail. Work with your existing fulfillment and drop
shipping vendors to ensure you have reasonable alternate carriers
available as needed.
2 Be location smart. Businesses should place goods close to their
customers. This will save shipping costs and ensure that the business
is not reliant on any one region. This is especially important for
merchants that sell overseas. Placing product in the local market can
insulate against future Royal Mail strikes and significantly cut your
shipping costs by eliminating cross-border international shipments.
Global payment services like PayPal® allow you to take credit cards
internationally and can be automated with your local distribution
center.
3 Speak to your customers. Businesses should clearly communicate
alternative available options to customers and make them aware of any
additional measures that they are taking to protect them. This is
especially important for orders acquired through marketplaces with
active buyer feedback such as eBay or Amazon.
4 Avoid mispriced shipping rates. Businesses that don’t have
alternate delivery methods built into their shopping cart checkout may
be mispricing delivery rates, leading to costs that their businesses
will have to absorb.
5 Outsource
product fulfillment. By outsourcing
product distribution you will gain the expertise of a company who
can manage and advise you throughout a crisis and provide
alternatives, allowing you to focus on building your business, instead
of watching the news page.

Shipwire handles the storage, packing and shipping of products on behalf of
manufacturers and retailers from a global network of warehouses in the U.S.,
Canada and Europe. See the Shipwire response to the Royal Mail strike at
http://www.shipwire.com/blog

About Shipwire (http://www.shipwire.com)

Shipwire provides growing merchants with e-commerce order fulfillment services,
powered by a global warehouse network, and its Store-Sell-Ship platform.
Shipwire eliminates the hassle of storage and shipping, so merchants can focus
on growth. Convenient facility locations: Warehouse Los Angeles, warehouse Reno,
warehouse Chicago, warehouse Toronto, warehouse Vancouver, warehouse London.
Shipwire allows merchants to drastically reduce shipping costs by locating
inventory closer to buyers. Usage-based plans start at just $29/month, and
enable merchants to locate inventory in all warehouses, with no contract
commitments. Shipwire is the only warehouse logistics service that instantly
integrates with shopping carts and inventory management systems. Shipwire is
developer and partner friendly; learn more about our shipping affiliate partner
program or get our how to outsource order fulfillment guide at
http://www.shipwire.com/partner. Stay up to date with our shipping fulfillment
distribution blog. Print online USPS postage. For a free trial or more
information, contact 1-888-SHIPWIRE or visit http://www.shipwire.com/trial.
Shipwire press resource center

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Babel PR
Jo Marlow, 0207 434 5550
Jo@babelpr.com
press@shipwire.com

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