Order fulfilment

Benchmark with other businesses when choosing a carrier for orders. If you are outsourcing fulfilment, be very careful in your choice of carrier. Check out delivery performance in all regions. Some have patchy service in some depots and, in general, service levels can fluctuate wildly over time. Daniel Mitchell, Chairman of The Source, a company which supplies replacement computer equipment for insurance claims, says that he generally changes courier once a year. "I find that sooner or later the service goes off the boil. I would always recommend benchmarking with other home delivery companies before choosing a new carrier." Major players include DHL, FedEx, Parcelforce and (the choice of an awful lot of etailers) Parceline.

Don't go for the cheapest option. The cost of fire-fighting poor service levels and dealing with unhappy customers just isn't worth it. Small, local carriers boasting "national distribution" might offer very competitive, cut-rate prices - but these can sometimes badly rebound. Some smaller, local operations can suffer from a shortage of drivers or vehicles at peak times.

Make communication with your customers a 'no-brainer'. Keep all lines of communication open with your customers. Email, phones, fax etc. Provide email alerts when the goods are despatched, and communicate quickly if there is a problem. It seems to be a British custom to hide under the bed if things go wrong- in fact, your customer will be far happier to receive an email or a phone call outlining the problem and what you intend to do about it. Factor in refunds and returns in your budgeting. Have a clearly stated returns procedure on your web site to minimise time consuming calls.

Don't make order fulfilment promises you can't keep. The shorter the time-frame to fulfil the order, the harder it is to guarantee delivery. Offer keen price incentives for flexible home delivery slots. At Christmas and other peak periods, be ready for the fact that Murphy's Law will come into effect with a vengeance. If you have any volume worth speaking about, there will almost certainly be late deliveries, damaged deliveries or no deliveries at all. Probably all three. Daniel Mitchell of The Source says that non-deliveries are a weekly occurrence. Take extra precautions at peak periods. For instance, remove perishables from Christmas gift hampers and dispatch parcels in sufficient time to give the carrier a generous margin for error. Put simply, expect the worst and aim for the best. Set expectations you can realistically keep.

Offer alternative collection points. You can solve the fulfilment and delivery problem of unattended deliveries by using alternative drop-off schemes at post offices, garages, pubs and convenience stores. Typically, Collectpoint has struck agreements with over 70 online shops enabling them to offer their customers alternative drop-off options, for a small fee. The company currently has some 3,200 retail drop off points in the UK which, claims Chief Executive, Jim Doyle, "puts most of the population within one mile of a Collectpoint." Daniel Mitchell from The Source says: "It's a godsend for us. It addresses a really big headache. We deal with over 1,000 claims a month and have to pick up faulty equipment as well as drop off replacements. People usually have to take time off work to wait in for the delivery from the courier but this system means they can pick up our deliveries in their own time.". New auction bidding service AuctionAssist has struck a deal with the Post Office to allow its customers to drop off goods for auctioning in their local high street. This sort of convenience is growing, and if you're planning an ecommerce website, you should consider offering these flexible delivery alternatives.

Don't rely on technology, such as order tracking, to solve delivery problems. All this does is confirm that there is a fulfilment problem - most people will get on the 'phone and shout at you - not at the carrier - if delivery is late. Build a relationship with your local delivery drivers and regional depot managers. Schmooze them and thank them when they exceed expectations. I know it shouldn't be necessary, but it is and it's more productive than working yourself into a lather.

Check the compensation clauses. Most carriers give themselves a let-out if products are perishable or breakable. Compensation is usually limited to refunding the delivery charge. Insure against breakages and loss.

Keep your eye on services you can outsource. Lots of companies are expanding their offerings to eCommerce companies. For instance, Parceline now offers (through partners) warehousing, order receiving and inventory management. In addition, the company's dedicated home delivery service offers evening (up to 9pm) and Saturday am home delivery. But caveat emptor. The more you outsource, the less control you have over the whole process. In my experience (as a publisher and eCommerce manager) whenever there is a crisis, small firms often get the elbow and contractors concentrate their efforts on the big gravy makers.