Atlantic crossing for businesses #2

(Picture Unspash @CHUTTERSNAP)

If the word “Shipping” showed up in your mind, then you’re absolutely right! Any client wants their order to come as fast as possible and at a low price of delivery. Delivery times and costs have improved very much over the recent decades. Businesses nowadays compete with one another by offering to their shoppers fast, unproblematic deliveries. 

Continuing the series of transatlantic business crossing, in this article, you will have a look at the shipping procedure itself – how to make the delivery faster and to prevent the failure to get to the final destination. 

To begin with, can you guess one of the most common reasons the delivery fails, resulting in the loss of money and time? An incorrect address. Don’t be confused – this is so simple, yet a crucial element of the shipping procedure that may ruin the experience of a customer. You, as an entrepreneur, really want to make sure the address of a customer is correct. Hard to imagine what a pity it would be if the parcel did not reach the shopper in time (or even at all) just because the mailing services could not comprehend the given address. Even though some couriers allow you to change the address in certain cases (mostly when the parcel didn’t get sent yet), you still want to follow the rules below while writing the address down and sending a package:

• Check if the zip code is used and it’s correct. Use the address guidelines that are in use in the country the parcel goes to. For instance, in the UK, the address always starts with the property number and street, ending with the country’s name (the UK). This format is totally opposite in Russia – the country goes first, ending with the street and the house number. 

Miss S Pollard, 1 Chapel Hill, London A11 B12, THE UK

Rossiya, Chelyabinskaya Oblast, Zlatoust, ul.Lenina, d.25, kv.150, 454000

• You might have paid attention to the Russian address above – as you can see, although it is written in the Latin alphabet, it’s in the Russian language. So here comes the next piece of advice from us personally – Write the address lines in the language spoken in the country of delivery. Of course, English is the most spoken tongue worldwide and everybody is supposed to speak it. However, it may not be applicable in some scenarios – when sending a parcel (especially to an eastern-European, post-soviet country), try to use the language that will 100% be understood there. Even such basic words as “street” or “zip-code” may confuse the mail workers in such states as Russia, Poland, or Ukraine, which may lead to a delayed or unsuccessful delivery.  

Apart from checking the correctness of the address, you still might want to shorten the shipping of a commodity. Especially if you plan on working within two or more economical regions or countries, you are highly advised to arrange a network of fulfillment centers. Cooperating with wholesalers and suppliers in different European states significantly decreases the shipping time and the cost of delivering. Now you realize that delivery times play a key part in eCommerce. Accordingly, you need to work with a reputed eCommerce and logistics companies, so that you can rest ensured your orders will keep flowing from your shop to your clients overseas without delays. Make your systems aware how they should arrange the information given from the customer so it suits couriers ways of working. Being able to master the data and make systems speak to each other drives up efficiency.   

We are blessed to have functions like autofill for applications and programs nowadays to save us time when online shopping. Our details to make an order or register are often pre-made due to similar actions. The customer journey is made faster and smoother by smart functions. It may also be possible to use e.g. social media accounts to unlock the profile details such as address. One thing is to fill in the information needed for completing a purchase, however, it is important that the system recognize the details and are able to utilize them. We could use the opportunity to check if the information is correct by a friendly reminder, give delivery time estimates based on earlier statistical data for that address/courier, or give the opportunity to send/share the cost with someone else. 

If you have reached this exact paragraph and have read and grasped everything above, then you are interested, or maybe already made a strong decision on developing your business in “the old continent”. Either way, you’re captivated by this idea, but may still have some insecurities and hesitations on planning and growing online entrepreneurship in Europe. Don’t you worry – there is still a lot of room for growing eCommerce businesses on the European markets. Make your European eCommerce strategy clever by incorporating smart elements to make it more profitable than the competition.

Keeping it “short and sweet” – European eCommerce is booming in unbelievable terms. People do most of their purchases from the Internet these days. The reasons for it may be… 

• the ongoing pandemic 
• improved shipping times and costs 
• convenience to shop without leaving one’s house. 

For you to see, the three strongest European economies (the UK, Germany, and France) alone make annual online sales worth $251 billion and are estimated to grow rapidly in the following years, let alone tens of other developed European states. As you could already understand, now is just the “peachy” time to start doing the international online business. It, by the way, will be outstandingly successful if you sell goods from the following categories, that are the most viewed and purchased by Europeans:

• clothing and footwear 
• home electronics
• cosmetics, skincare, and haircare

Being an entrepreneur and working globally is never easy. The eCommerce business does require a wide range of knowledge and skills from you – from advertising to and interacting with the potential customers, to organizing the shipping process thoroughly. Then again, as they say in America, “fortune favors the brave” – you will never know what fascinating opportunities, profits, or even stardom you get if you don’t give it a try. As long as you want your “try” of growing business in Europe successful and beneficial, you need to consider the assistance of proficient individuals, who would help you in entering the European market and finding the optimal solution for your needs and wishes. 

We from Viking Consulting can support you in entering the European market and find the optimal solution for your needs & wishes. This complies with our culture to build long-lasting beneficial relationships. 

We welcome you to book your free meeting now to discuss further. Hit the “Let’s talk” button so we can start our journey together. As well stay up-to-date and connect with us on LinkedIn. Glory and honour await us!

Friendly regards

The Viking Consulting team

Who we are 

We are Viking Consulting. The specialists within the fields of 3rd party integration and eCommerce software solutions. With 20+ years of experience in eCommerce, 15+ years of experience in development and integration, and 5+ years as a 3PL provider. We are the only contact needed for implementing integration, development and consulting. 

The company is based in Scandinavia and the team extends to even embracing more countries. We serve companies worldwide. Our foundation is based on the values: Be Brave, Be Prepared, Be A Good Merchant, and, Keep The Camp In Order. Therefore we see ourselves as business partners and friends of the clients, employees, companies, networks and the industry.