Online shopping has become more of a way of life for people all over the world.

With millions of people shopping for products, those people all need someone that can get their online orders to them. This is where delivery services come in.

These companies can handle the shipping for almost all of your online orders. However, there is something called a delivery exception that can create a roadblock for some of those orders.

If deliveries end up being late, 13% of people will not shop with that brand again. So, the key here is minimizing delivery exceptions.

What is a delivery exception? What are the biggest causes of delivery exceptions? How do you increase your chances of preventing this?

This is your guide.

What Is a Delivery Exception?

Before we can dive into the causes and ways to prevent delivery exceptions, you need to understand what this is. Essentially, delivery exceptions are when packages get delayed during the shipping process for unforeseen reasons.

Now, no system is perfect, and there will be things that come up that you just cannot prepare for right away.

There are 268 million online shoppers in the United States alone. That number is only expected to go up over the next few years.

Given enough time, these issues may be able to have more foresight in the future. In the meantime, you need to find a way to give all of these shoppers proper delivery service. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest causes of delivery exceptions.

Weather

When it comes to unforeseen events, weather has to be at the top of the list as to why delivery exceptions happen. Depending on the storm that you are facing, this can be nearly impossible to anticipate with enough foresight.

For example, let’s say that your order is on a truck that is driving through the middle of Missouri. All of a sudden, the sky gets dark, the wind picks up, and there is a big tornado in your vicinity.

That may force a truck driver to get off of the road and find shelter. After that, it could be several hours before it is safe to get back on the road again. In severe storms like that, there could even be damage to the truck and the items that are in it.

Things like that can result in delays of at least a day. While storms like tornadoes are more difficult to anticipate too far ahead of time, there are things that you can do.

Your company can know what time of year is the peak time for certain storms to cause a threat. Also, you can use weather radar tools and sources to try to anticipate what is coming in the next day or so.

Customs

Another potential issue for shipments that go abroad is customs. If you are a company that is new to dealing with international shipping regulations, there are likely going to be rules that you are not familiar with.

What is worse is that if you are dealing with specific countries, they could have their own import and export regulations that are vastly different from your own.

The advice here is to know the inventory you are shipping inside and out. Then, know exactly what countries you are dealing with if you have to ship items beyond the border. After that, the goal is to know as many regulations as possible to avoid your shipments being held up.

Holidays

Another thing that you need to consider is how impactful holidays can be. This does not just apply to holidays in your own country. If you are regularly dealing with other countries, you should be familiar with what working holidays they abide by too.

The reason for this is that someone from America can order a product that is made in Thailand. However, for a holiday like Songkran, Thailand may shut down for days. Since the United States does not celebrate that holiday, people that ordered items from there may wonder what is taking their package so long.

These are the types of things you have to account for if you are going to enter the international business world. To avoid a delivery exception, you should note down every holiday a country has that could delay regular shipping.

Bad Labels

One of the most important things when it comes to delivery is having a label with the right personal information. More specifically, a package needs to have an address so that the delivery person knows where to take the package.

Sometimes, these labels get damaged or fall off during the shipment process. When that happens, the delivery has to get delayed to try to determine the final destination.

A solution to this could be to have a tracking system that processes every step of the delivery process. Or, you could have stronger labels that are more resistant to damage or falling off.

If these do not get resolved during the process, packages sometimes have to get returned to the sender to start the process all over again.

Get Help With Your Deliveries

These are some of the top causes of a delivery exception. You could end up having bad weather during the shipment, you could be dealing with more difficult customs than you expected, a holiday that you did not know about, or you could just have a bad label on your box.

If you follow the solutions presented with each cause above, you should see a diminish in delivery exceptions.

Do you want to know more? Message us here with your questions.